NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming

What is NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

To answer that question, it helps to break NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming down into its constituent parts.

Neuro – Every second your brain is processing millions of pieces of information flowing in through your senses, and to make sense of this mass of data, your brain navigates its way through various tiers of filtering. The first tier, where this information is initially assessed, is often referred to as your first mental map of the world.

Linguistic – As you filter this information via your first mental map, you assign personal meaning to it. From this process, you form a second mental map by assigning language to these thoughts. This second map is often called the Linguistic Map.

Programming – As a result of these two processes of filtering, you next develop a behavioural response. This, effectively, becomes your programmed response.

NLP therapy, therefore, is a methodology for understanding how, through information provided via all five senses, people organise their thinking, their language, and their feelings in response to events and experiences. It also provides a framework within which you can make changes to the choices you make that result in your behaviour.

How does NLP work?

NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming utilises hypnosis to access your unconscious mind. During a session, an NLP practitioner will guide you into a hypnotic trance with the aim of ‘tapping into’ hidden and repressed memories, beliefs, and perceptions that influence your behaviour patterns. The foundation stone of NLP thinking is that every individual actually has the resources required to make positive changes, they just need the tools to do it.

One of the key aspects of NLP, though, is that a therapist can work without necessarily knowing in detail the specific problems a client faces. So for those uncomfortable with sharing certain information, it can be a very useful therapy. Instead, they focus on hierarchies of learning, communication, and change.

There are six levels, and NLP considers that changes made at a lower level then start to have impact on levels higher up, and vice versa. These levels are:

•       Purpose and spirituality
•       Identity
•       Beliefs and values
•       Capabilities and skills
•       Behaviours
•       Environment

Put simply, NLP helps a client to investigate their sensory sensitivities and use the knowledge they gain to make changes to how they respond to a situation. In effect, it helps you change your thoughts and actions in a situation.

How does it achieve this? NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming does this by working with your awareness via your language processing. So by facilitating a client’s acute awareness of their senses and feelings as a situation unfolds, through the language they use to describe it in their minds, an NLP therapist can help them change their perception, plus how this is then communicated within, and then finally their resulting response.

Often, people favour a particular sensory system over the others and a good therapist will be able to pick this up. For example, some people say, “I see…” when they are listening to someone explain something, whereas others may say, “I hear what mean…”. That information can then help a therapist establish which sensory system to focus on with their client.