Neuro-Linguistic Programming

NLP Brings Person Power

Emerging very dynamically in the mid 70s came Neuro-Linguistic Programming, commonly known as NLP. This dynamic technique changed people dramatically on all levels of awareness. The co-founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder, observed three therapists, Fritz Perls, a person centred therapist, Virginia Satir a family therapist and Milton Erickson MD, and also a hypnotherapist.

Bandler and Grinder combined these three therapists’ work to produce this modern technique, which proved to be dynamic, rapid and extremely useful in all areas of life. From commerce and industry to the therapeutic world NLP is used and well known, even to the layperson.

The Six Logical Levels of NLP

NLP is considered by the founders to be an empowering belief-changing system, which concentrates on sensory experiences and internal representations. NLP works through six levels, from environment to purpose, progressing and charting all the sensory experiences to a higher level of self-empowerment. The six logical levels in NLP are the:

·           Environment

·           Behaviour

·           Capabilities

·           Beliefs and Values

·           Identity

·           Purpose

Sensory Perceptions in NLP

NLP is built around the sensory perceptions of human beings, recognising and addressing the instinct human beings have to survive. NLP identifies states and preferences a person may use in everyday life. The preferences may be visual (seeing), kinesthetic (feeling), or auditory (hearing). A person’s state and preference has a huge bearing on whether any communication is successful or not and so makes a useful tool for anyone who communicates with others, especially therapists, the medical profession and the business world.

Six Easy Steps to Awareness in NLP

NLP shows people how to follow successful models of thought patterns and behavior in all areas of life. The practitioner starts in the environment, with whatever the client’s problem is. Then the practitioner accesses the clients’ senses, increases positive aspirations or past successful achievements’ and walks the client through each level to purpose, increasing his or her resources until the client has reached a sense of personal awareness and achievement.

The client is then walked back through each logical level to environment again, bringing back any insights he or she has experienced at the sixth level (purpose). This technique can be quick and often enlightening and appears to change a clients attitudes, behaviour and thinking quite dramatically. Considered one of the more dynamic tools in psychology, however most NLP practitioners prefer to call this technique more of a deprogramming system rather than a psychological therapy.

The Meaning of NLP

Neuro relates to the brain and nervous system. Your thinking effects your actions and vice verse. Linguistic refers to language and how language is used and perceived. Programming is a computing term, but an ideal explanation of how the mind operates. The human mind is a collector of habits, thoughts, beliefs and values. Like any computer any information is stored whether negative or positive in files. The trouble is that most people hold onto the negative, as well as the useful habits. NLP rewrites the negative and hot wires positively to achieve better results.

Empathy Through to Spirituality in NLP

When a practitioner lacks empathy and awareness and believes NLP is the panacea to all conditions they may also be coming from a totally logical and intellectual point of view, and therefore may fail spirituality. NLP may then feel, to some people who are seeking spiritual enlightenment, ‘dry’ and then the concepts of NLP will invariably fail to go far enough. However a well-rounded NLP practitioner takes risks and is creative and flexible, therefore enabling clients to use their preferred sensory perception to connect with the world in terms of the six logical levels, but will also explore much further into the realms of the unknown.