Neurolinguistic Programming

 

“If you go through the world looking for excellence, you will find excellence. If you go through the world looking for problems, you will find problems."

- Joseph O'Connor, NLP Trainer & Author​

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Have you ever noticed that simply talking about your problems doesn't seem to fix them? 

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We talk about them, write blogs about them, complain, worry, listen to sad songs, and fret. 

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But things don't change. 

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Maybe you're already getting the vibe that friends and family are getting tired of hearing you repeat the same story over and over. 

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In neurolinguistic programming (NLP) the story is not the problem, but the symptom. 

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So if your story about the problem isn't the problem, what is? 

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Well, you're brain is the problem. 

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In NLP we are less interested in analyzing problems, and more interested in finding outcomes.

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What are you saying in your mind about the problem? Where are the emotions? How do you know when it's time to feel the emotion? How do you know when it's a problem and not an opportunity?

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These are very NLP-type questions. 

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Every problem, including stress and anxiety, have been coded into your brain in a specific way. An NLP practitioner is trained to understand, and reprogramme that coding.

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NLP is a way of increasing choice and influencing positive behaviour (neuro) by using language (linguistic) to help people "recode" their brain and their behavioural responses (programming). 

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With NLP now increasingly being used in traditional psychotherapy and counselling environments, it is sometimes now called Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy (NLPt).

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David Gill is a qualified NLP Master Practitioner & Instructor, and loves to share the underlying ideas of NLP (called The Presuppositions): 

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• The mind and body are a single connected unit

• There is no failure, only feedback

• If one person can do it, then it is possible for everyone. 

• Accept yourself completely, while improving your behaviours & outcomes.

• All behaviour has a positive intention in the unconscious mind

• People are responding to their subjective experiences, not to objective reality. 

• All change should increase choice & wholeness.

• The mind is capable of one-trial (instant) learning & behavioural change. 

• Everyone already has everything they need to be happy now, they just don't know it.

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According to Dr Richard Bandler, the co-founder of NLP, his definition of NLP is: "a model of interpersonal communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them"

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EXAMPLES of what NLP might be useful for:

 

• anxiety, fear, and worry

• work-related stress

• depression 

• phobias 

• obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

• trauma & PTSD

• self empowerment

• business & communication skills

• goal setting

• relationship problems

• pain management

 

RESEARCH:

 

• A 2015 meta-analysis review of 12 clinical studies on NLP found that it is a psychotherapeutic treatment that may be as effective as traditional psychotherapy

• For a full list of scientific studies on NLP, see our extensive scientific research page.