What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming ( NLP)?

NLP is rapidly becoming recognised as the most effective technology for human achievement in every field - personal development, the arts, business, education, communication, sport...

In short, NLP gives us an instruction manual of how to use our own brain.

Neuro – The nervous system through which experience is received and processed through the five senses – Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic (feeling), Olfactory (smell) & Gustatory (taste).

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 specific desired goals and results.

NLP began as a model of how we communicate to ourselves and others and was developed by Dr Richard Bandler and John Grinder. NLP is based on the principle that all behaviour has structure which can be modelled, learned, taught and changed (re-programmed). Practitioners can organise information and perceptions in ways that allow them to achieve results that were once inconceivable.

This knowledge has helped us so much, personally and professionally, that we want to make it available to everyone. We know that people learn best when they feel secure and enjoy themselves, so we design our courses using the principles of accelerated learning to create an environment in which everyone finds it easy to learn.

You'll be surprised how easy it is to understand and use NLP, and the powerful difference it can make to your life and to the lives of people around you.

A history of NLP

The concept of NLP was by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. These two men studied the working processes of noted therapists such as Fritz Perlz (Gestalt), Virginia Satir (family therapy), and Milton H. Erickson, M.D. (medical hypnosis). They also combined their own skills from three disciplines – linguistics, computers, and Gestalt Psychology. As a result they came up with a behavioural model and a set of operational procedures. As NLP expanded it has incorporated material from several additional disciplines including cybernetics, philosophy, and neurology. It is also applied in numerous fields, such as law, business, and education.

The purpose of NLP is to help people, groups, and organisations by working directly with the perceptual maps they have for organising their experience – particularly those involving decision-making, creativity, learning, and motivation.

The name, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, refers to the common process all human beings use for encoding, transferring, and modifying behaviour.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a discipline that was developed to answer the question, “How, specifically, do individuals at the top of their professions consistently and elegantly achieve their desired outcomes?”

Through this process, the question has evolved into a even more fundamental query, “What is the structure of subjective experience in humans?” The answers to those questions have resulted in the development of a set of powerful, effective, and systematic techniques of communication and change, designed to help anyone in a profession achieve desired outcomes, more efficiently and effectively.

NLP focuses on identifying and using patterns in the thought processes that influence people's verbal and non-verbal behaviour as a means of improving the quality and effectiveness of their lives.

Why subjective experience?

As human beings we receive information about the world through our senses (see, hear, feel, smell and taste). We then make maps of our environment on the inside. These maps can only be made of five components – our senses! These mental maps are stored in that vast human filing cabinet that we call the unconscious mind.

Our entire history of experiences are housed within this library and each memory has a record of what was seen, heard, felt, smelt, and tasted at that time. These perceptual maps affect our behaviour in each situation that we encounter.

NLP states that the map is not the territory, or, the menu is not the meal. Like any good map maker, we tend to leave things out. Until NLP came along, no-one had a simple way changing these maps at will. NLP teaches you how to change these mental maps both in yourself and others. Read the following examples:

Case Studies

Example #1: Personal Change

Consider a successful business man that is single and still feels shy at approaching an attractive woman. When he sees a woman he becomes conscious of an uncomfortable feeling that stops him from saying hello. He feels that his life is misery.

With an NLP toolbox, that man can unfold the rest of his map for being uncomfortable around attractive women. He asks himself specific NLP questions to recover the other representations. He discovers that attached to the negative feeling is an image. The image is of himself being rejected by the top girl when he was in high school. He also hears the sounds of his classmates ridicule. He realises that this map is impoverished and decides to do something about it.

Using specific NLP techniques, he changes the image to something more appropriate. He installs a powerful voice that motivates him. He checks these alterations in his perceptual map by thinking of meeting an attractive woman and saying hello. An unusual feeling of excitement engulfs him. Later that day he notices an attractive woman. The feeling of uneasiness is gone. Replaced by excitement. He smiles at the woman and says hello.

Note: NLP focuses on structure and not content. Therefore, you could replace the above details with those of someone wanting to speak in public without fear, fly in an airplane without nervousness and so on and so fourth.

Example #2: Changing Others.

Consider a person that feels stuck and has difficulty motivating themselves to do the things that they need to improve their live. With your NLP toolbox you greet that person and quickly establish rapport via subtle changes in your body position, breathing pattern etc. Asking specific NLP questions, you unpack their impoverished mental map.

You notice several key limiting beliefs that that person has about their worth. You unpack the structure of those maps and assist them in changing each. Within moments the beliefs that underpinned their restricted behaviour are gone. Replaced with powerful new ones that highlight their ability to do well.

You ask them to think about the difficulty the had in motivating themselves. Instead they feel only motivation. They thank you and go off to get things done.

Note: Again we emphasises that NLP focuses on structure and not content. Therefore, you could use these techniques to influence selling, to help one overcome emotional difficulty, or to be better at their golf game etc.