About NLP

Society of NLP

What is NLP?

Neuro Linguistic Programming is like a user's manual for your mind. Most people do not understand how their mind works, and so are not aware of the power they have to control their emotions, thought patterns, habits, and so on. NLP gives you that power to control how your mind works.

Neuro means related to the physical mind and thoughs, linguistic is about communication both internally (thoughts) and externally (language), and programming refers to the habitual way we go through both pyhsical and mental tasks. Putting this all together Neuro-linguistic Programming is about using the language of your mind to change the way you think and speak, and therefore the results you get out of life.

History of NLP

NLP was developed in the 1970's by observing many therapists in different psychological modalities, and analysing them to find out what works and why, and also to find common threads. The two gentlemen who started it were Richard Bandler and John Grinder, who working at the University of California, observed several therapists, namely Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls and later Milton Erickson. They developed linguistic patterns that these therapists were not even aware that they used, refining their techniques down to repeatable patterns that anyone could use to replicate their work.

This process of observation and refinement because known as Modeling, which is core to NLP. By modelling people who had overcome various mental and emotional issues, NLP became known for being able to do in minutes what other modalities can take weeks, months or even years to accomplish. Also by modelling, many other NLPers such as Robert Dilts, Michael Hall, Connirae Andreas, etc developed many NLP processes for a variey of issues. Indeed many modern NLP practitioners have used modeling to do the same even for a issues such as weight-loss, improving your golf swing, even to treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and slow degenerative brain disorders.

NLP and Hypnotherapy

Milton Erickson has been hailed as the father of modern hypnotherapy. He worked for many years as a clinical hypnotherapist who achieved such great results that his patients were often not even consciously aware of what he had said that had caused such dramatic change in them.

Much of the hypnotherapy in NLP differs vastly from traditional hypnotherapy in that is is non-direct and conversational. The hypnotic language used by Erickson was modeled and refined to a set of language patterns that both caused confusion to the conscious mind, therefore opening the sub-conscious mind to suggestion, and were generic enough to allow the subject to find their own meaning in what has been said. Traditional (also called clinical) hypnotherapy was very much the opposite, very direct and telling the patient what to think/feel etc.

The hypnotic language patterns developed into what is called conversational hypnosis which in turn was incorporated into most NLP tools and techniques, allowing patients to achieve their desired results faster and easier than before.