Neuro Linguistics Programming

What's does NLP stand for?

The actual definition of NLP is:

• Neuro - Nervous systems through which experience is received and processed through the five senses.

• Linguistic - Language and non-verbal communication systems through which neural representations are coded, ordered and given meaning.

• Programming - The ability to organise our communication and neurological systems to achieve desired goals and results.

In summary, it is the ability to understand how we create and implement behaviours. This gives you the ability to copy and apply behaviours that will bring you success and rewards instead of negative reactions.

What is NLP?

Let’s start with what NLP isn’t. NLP isn’t a thing.  It isn’t something you can touch, something you can see or something you can feel.

NLP helps you understand how limiting beliefs and behaviours are created. It allows you to understand the variety of communication styles we use. Using NLP you learn how to avoid miss-communication, because what someone thinks they heard is not necessarily what was meant. 

Most of the times you unconsciously do most of the skills that are learnt in NLP. By becoming aware of what you are doing and how you are doing it, you can purposefully make seemingly small changes which can create amazing results.

NLP is used internationally by millions of people in a variety of professions including sales, marketing, education, therapy, sport and personal development. It enables people to have a better understanding of themselves and how they can make positive changes.

Is NLP difficult to learn?

We do NLP all the time, most of the time unconsciously and at best, badly. So, you do not have to learn any complex skills.  When learning NLP with a good trainer, they will use NLP to enable you to learn with ease.

The main advantage of NLP is, because you are being made aware of what you do all the time, these skills can be put into action immediately.  We are not saying that you will remember, use every detail you have learnt immediately and always use it perfectly.  Practitioner means, you start to practice and that takes time. You will have enough conscious awareness to recognise when something is amiss and you will then be able to find the relevant resources to change it for the better.  Also, by attending practice groups you get to polish your skills to perfection.

Is NLP unethical – can it make me do something I don’t want to?

This is a common concern about NLP.  This comes from the belief that once you have learnt NLP you will be able to manipulate people into doing what you want them to do.

No-one can be made to do something that they don’t want to do. This type of mind control has not been invented yet. We all have a line that we are not willing to cross. No matter what state you are in, if that belief is not within your core make up, you cannot be persuaded to do otherwise.

All knowledge is power, and at the end of the day if the person welding the power is unethical, then yes, NLP could be used unethically, but NLP itself is not unethical.  Power is misused by many people in all walks of life, from bankers to dentist, accountants and doctors.  The thing about NLP, is that it gives you a conscious awareness, in most people this conscious awareness empowers them to help, motivate, inspire those around them and to lead by example.

Isn’t NLP just the same as a lot of other therapies out there?

The main difference is that NLP is focused on the process of the behaviour, rather than the reason why you do the behaviour.  As a result of that, you tend to focus on what is not working now, rather than old wounds from the past.  NLP Practitioners are not concerned with why you are doing what you do. So unlike a lot of therapies that will get you to talk over past events, until you understand what you need to from them, an NLP practitioner will focus on the behaviour or belief and what processes you do to create that behaviour.

What this means is that a good practitioner should be able to help you re-programme the desired belief/behaviour in only a couple of sessions. That is, providing you genuinely want to change, and are prepared to do the recommendations the practitioner has given you.  The aim of any good practitioner is to enable you to help yourself, and not to become reliant on the practitioner to do the job for you.

Something we need to point out is that we are all complex beings and often a behaviour can be a result of two or three underlying programmes that need to be addressed. So on occasions, what you believe to be the cause of your behaviour can actually be just a small part of it.   It is also very possible to work content free, as you are not concerned with the details or origins of that particular behaviour.

Has NLP just taken some famous therapist and copied them?

This is something that we hear quite a lot. NLP has never made a claim to be something completely new; it openly gives credit to the brilliant therapists who inspired its development, namely Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, and Milton H Erickson.

All that the founders of NLP did in the beginning, was to take the time to model how those therapists did what they did and why it was so successful. This was so that other people could replicate it and use that information so that they can help themselves and others. 

That is what NLP is all about – helping you, to help yourself reach your true potential.

What is the History of NLP?

Neuro Linguistic Programming was developed in the early 1970’s when John Grinder and Dr Richard Bandler started working together. Dr Richard Bandler is a mathematician, therapist and computer expert, John Grinder is a world renowned linguist. Together they began to study the field of human change.

They studied experts in this field and noticed some interesting patterns. Virginia Satir, a very successful family therapist, affected and changed behaviour in her clients by being very specific. Whilst Milton H. Erickson, commonly known as the Father of Hypnotherapy, achieved behavioural change by being extremely ambiguous with his use of language

This led Bandler and Grinder to develop the Meta and Milton Models - The start of Neuro Linguistic Programming.  Through the application of their discoveries, they created processes of learning the ‘how to'.

NLP has been expanded throughout the years - in addition to being used therapeutically in its own right, NLP has been used successfully in sales, business, education, the arts, and many other vocations.