When trying to challenge students' ideas of their own identity, or even one's own, there are 3 parts to this easily applied psychological method to make your efforts flow much more easily.  
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Absolutely ; find what the student believes is absolutely true for them. For example ‘I’m tone deaf’ or ‘I have no rhythm’.
Always ; find something the student believes they are good at, but haven’t always been good at.  Use this to identify change and improvement. For example ‘I used to be bad at guitar playing, but I’m much better now.’ 
Sometimes ; find one moment where they have been good at what they think they are bad at, and remove the absolute nature of their belief. 
BEST MOMENTS‘Today a mature student told me that they used to sing all the time when they were little, but stopped when they were seven after the school music teacher told them that their voice was awful’ ‘Those beliefs are actually temporary over the long term. They’re changeable. I think our job as teachers is to change the buggers.’  ‘I have taken their identity of being capable and able from one context and grafted it into the guitar lesson.’
VALUABLE RESOURCESThe Tutor Podcastwww.Neilcowmeadow.com
ABOUT THE HOSTNeil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!
CONTACT [email protected] 

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