This often used term sounds much more complicated than it really is.
Your mind and your body have a way of communicating with each other. The
neurology of your body (neuro) uses a language (linguistic) and creates
an observable pattern (program) for you to follow. So, it’s a kind of
way that you see the world and, likewise, how you experience it.
NLP was developed in the early 1970's by Richard Bandler, Ph.D., an
information scientist, and John Grinder, Ph.D., a linguist. Bandler and
Grinder were interested in how people influence one another, in the
possibility of being able to duplicate the behavior, and therefore
effectiveness of highly influential people. Their early research was
conducted at the University of California at Santa Cruz. What made their
search special was their use of technology from linguistics and information
science, combined with insights from behavioral psychology and general
systems theory, to unlock the secrets of highly effective communication.
Overview
The actual technology or methodology that Bandler and Grinder used is
known as human modeling: actually, the building of models of how people
perform or accomplish something. This modeling process actually means
finding and describing the important elements and processes that people
go through, beginning with finding and studying a human model. This
is a person who does something in a particular and usually highly skillful
way. For example, if you want to know how to teach a particular skill or
concept, you'd first find someone who does it extremely well. Then ask
him or her lots of questions about what they do, why they do it, what
works and doesn't work, and so on.
At the same time, observing this person in action will often lead to new
and better questions to ask in the process. Most of us do this already,
though perhaps not systematically. The addition of specific NLP technology
makes it possible to discover much of what this human model does that he or
she is not aware of. To do this well means to actually study the structure of
people's thought processes and internal experience, as well as their observable behavior.
During their early studies, Bandler and Grinder developed a unique system of
asking questions and gathering information that was based on the fields of
transformational grammar and general semantics. Later, they and their colleagues
discovered certain minimal cues people give that indicate very specific kinds
of thought processes. These include eye movements, certain gestures, breathing
patterns, voice tone changes, and even very subtle cues such as pupil dilation
and skin color changes. Training of Practitioners of NLP includes the skills
and knowledge to use these information gathering techniques and to notice and
interpret the subtle cues.
NLP is this gathering of information to make models, based on the internal
experience and information processing of the people being studied and modeled,
including the part that is outside of their conscious awareness.
The mind interprets the world through a variety of senses (sight, taste, sound…)
or a combination of them, and these impressions are recorded in a
way that each person finds easiest to understand. Some people are "visual," so they see
pictures and images in their mind when thoughts are served up to them. Other
people are more "auditory," so they may hear things in their mind, while others
are more "kinesthetic," meaning they feel things easier. When you hear someone
say "I don’t see it that way," it is a clue that they may be a more visual person.
Someone that says, "it just does not feel right," is more kinesthetic. These are
called modalities. When you learn someone’s modality, then you can help them alter
impressions which might be depleting their energy.
Phobia Cures
An example of how NLP is used relates to the cure of phobias. First, in order to
understand the process, one must first understand how a phobia is created. It is
usually "event driven", meaning something happened to create a footprint in the mind
of the individual. For example: a little boy is in a chair feeling a little
sleepy, and he dozes off. He awakes, and a black widow spider is on his crotch. Petrified
and stricken with fear (since he was told all his life they can be deadly), he
cannot move. For 10 seconds, frozen in fear, the little boy is speechless, and finally
dad comes to his aid and kills the spider. The result: Arachnophobia (fear of spiders).
From that event forward, the little boy grows up with a neurological imprint on his
subconscious mind of what spiders can do. They terrorize his body, and his fear is
reconfirmed day after day and year after year. Later, he is 30 years old and sees
another spider (big, little, it does not matter) and is reminded of that fear. He
relives the feeling he had as a little boy.
What we do in NLP is to first relive the experience; however, we rewrite the
script. We interrupt the pattern so he does not see spiders quite the same
way. It is surprisingly simple and quite fast. Using deep relaxed states and
a series of visuals, we can "un-link" the old pattern and create a brand new experience
which no longer associates the old experience in the same way.
Other Uses
NLP has a wide variety of uses. We often will use it in cases where someone
has been traumatized. Changing the imprint on the subconscious mind can help
people get over the experience of death, rape, molestation, accidents and other
life-changing events. Images or impressions held in the subconscious mind can
be forever making themselves known, giving someone a feeling of weakness or fear,
and never arise to the conscious mind for clear viewing. When we combine Hypnosis and
NLP, we can get to the root of the feeling, match it with the event, then make
modifications so that it is not relived the way it has been repeatedly, year after year.
This very effective technique can bring immediate results for anyone who
seeks rapid change. For more information concerning how NLP might solve some
of your issues, be sure to visit our counseling & therapy section.
Note: NLP is the only work that we will conduct via telephone.
change \ ‘chanj \ verb
changed; chang-ing \
1. To make different, to
transform or alter
2. To give a different
position, course, or
direction
3. To undergo
substantive modification.
for good \ fór - ´gùd \
prep-adj \
1. forever, permanently,
will endure the test of
time
2. for the best, in the
position of net gain,
bountiful
3. real, actualized, of the
highest worth or
reliability.
