Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is the science of how the brain codes learning and experience. This coding affects all communication and behavior. It affects how you learn and how you experience the world around you. It is a key to reaching goals and achieving excellence.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) began as a model of how we communicate to ourselves and others. This model explains how we process the information that comes into us from the outside. The belief is that "The map is not the territory." And so the internal representations that we make about an outside event are not necessarily the event itself. Typically, what happens is that there is an external event and we run that event through our internal processing. We make an Internal Representation (I/R) of that event. That I/R of the event combines with a physiology and creates a state. "State" refers to the internal emotional state of the individual - a happy state, a sad state, a motivated state, and so on. Our I/R includes our internal pictures, sounds and dialogue, and our feelings (for example, whether we feel motivated, challenged, pleased, excited, and so on). A given state is the result of the combination of an internal representation and a physiology.

NLP explores the relationship between how we think (neuro), how we communicate both verbally and non-verbally (linguistic) and our patterns of behaviour and emotion (programmes).

Who discovered NLP - Neuro-Lingusitic Programming?

NLP was begun in the mid-seventies by a linguist (Grinder) and a mathematician (Bandler) who had strong interests in successful people, psychology, language and computer programming.

Dr Richard Bandler, a Gestalt therapist, and John Grinder (Bandler and Grindler), a respected linguist, jointly developed the techniques in the 1970s. These two innovative researchers studied highly successful therapists such as Dr Milton Erikson, the gifted hypnotherapist, and Virginia Satir, an exceptional family therapist, and their findings led them to develop a set of strategies which became known as NLP.

NLP, consciously or unconsciously, relies heavily upon

(1) the notion of the unconscious mind as constantly influencing conscious thought and action,

(2) metaphorical behavior and speech, especially building upon the methods used in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, and

(3) hypnotherapy as developed by Milton Erickson. NLP is also heavily influenced by the work of Gregory Bateson and Noam Chomsky.

What will NLP- Neuro-Linguistic Programming do for me?

NLP is the most well defined and reliable approach to 'running your own mind' for greater satisfaction and ease with far more rapid results.

As NLP offers a window (through modelling) into the way we function (our neuro-linguistic programmes), it offers (as an application of NLP methodology) a technology for creating change. If you want to have more choices about your behaviour and emotions, to enhance your communication and relationships and develop new abilities in your thinking, then NLP can provide you with the technology for accomplishing that. It generates lasting life skills (one of the consequences of quality NLP training).

NLP will also enable you to understand you partner's and children's needs and communication styles more fully. Enhance rapport and communication with others. Recognize how others are using language to influence you.You'll find it easier to achieve your personal and professional goals, because you'll gain greater access to your internal resources.

Today NLP training strategies are used around the world by therapists, business executives and leading sports people to cope with pressure and to perform at their best when they need to. Neuro-linguistic Programming is all about producing results and often very quickly. If the technology has an attitude then that attitude is all about producing measurable results that enhance the quality of peoples lives without a lengthy and painful journey into the past. The application of NLP is directed towards quickly attaining a desired outcome, i.e. what do you want and how soon can you have it?

NLP is said to be the study of the structure of subjective experience, but a great deal of attention seems to be paid to observing behavior and teaching people how to read "body language." But there is no common structure to non-verbal communication, any more than there is a common structure to dream symbolism.

Finally, NLP claims that each of us has a Primary Representational System (PRS), a tendency to think in specific modes: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory or gustatory. A person's PRS can be determined by words the person tends to use or by the direction of one's eye movements.