«Heaven on earth» of course, is a way of defining a very general secondary outcome: the positive intention that suicide will achieve. You are essentially relabeling «suicide» as «trying to achieve heaven on earth.» Any time your relabeling can include an idiom like «heaven on earth," it will have an extra force to it, because it appeals to both brain hemispheres simultaneously. It is one of the few language forms computed in both hemispheres, so it has an extra power to it. Her complex equivalence for «heaven on earth» will be essentially the goals which you can now work toward in other ways than having her commit suicide. That's a really nice way to lead into a situation which is appropriate for the six–step model of reframing.

Man: When your client talks about committing suicide, how about saying «Wonderful!»?

Again, that's fine as a first step, particularly if all your nonverbal analogues support what you say. One way to interrupt a client's pattern is to do something totally unexpected. One of the least expected responses to suicide in this culture is to compliment him and agree and approve of such a statement. Agreeing will interrupt him, and it will also get immediate rapport with the part of him that made the statement. This is not a complete maneuver, but it's a good way to change the focus of what's going on. You don't want to stop there, especially when you are dealing with life and death matters. You need to go on immediately to utilize this opening to explore outcomes. «Who would you like to find your body?» «Have you composed your suicide note? Would you like to have me edit it for you?» These are ways of specifying the outcome that this part of him is trying to gain for him by suicide.

So these are only first steps in a complete therapeutic intervention. They are simply ways of interrupting and changing the frame in which the person understands his behavior, giving you a lot more freedom to maneuver.