WHAT IS NEUROLINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP)?

NLP is a systematic way of communicating with people, understanding different ways of mapping the world and individual experience and using this knowledge to adapt to others and communicate in more effective ways. 

We often experience other people as being in conflict with us when in actual fact we don't understand their way of mapping the world and communicate in a way that creates tension and misunderstanding. Understanding this system and being able to identify an individual's preferred world/life map enables us to communicate clearly and precisely the message we want to send in their own language system. 

The system is defined by:

Neuro: The nervous system (the mind), through which our experience is processed via five senses:

Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory, Gustatory

Linguistic: Language and other nonverbal communication systems through which our neural representations are coded, ordered and given meaning. Includes:

Pictures, Sounds, Feelings, Tastes, Smells, Words (Self Talk)

Programming: The ability to discover and utilize the programs that we run (our communication to ourselves and others) in our neurological systems to achieve our specific and desired outcomes.

In other words, NLP is how to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve our specific and desired outcomes.

When was NLP created?

NLP was initially created in the 1970’s by Richard Bandler a student of mathematics and gestalt therapy and John Grindler a Professor of Linguistics at The University of California Santa Cruz. They began modeling and duplicating the "magical results" of a few top communicators and therapists.

Some of the first people they studied included Hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, gestalt therapist Fritz Perls and family therapist Virginia Satir. Since then, many others have contributed to the growth and development of the field.

Today, NLP is widely used in business to improve management, sales and achievement/performance, inter-personal skills; in education to better understand learning styles, develop rapport with students and parents and to aid in motivation; and of course, NLP is a profound set of tools for personal development.

HOW DO I USE NLP WITH CLIENTS?

Understanding NLP contributes to my communication with clients in two main ways; being able to use a language map that they share helps me build a sense of rapport with clients so they feel entirely comfortable and understood in their own world experience, and secondly I use a particular technique within NLP called " Anchoring" which enables me to build accessible emotional and confidence resources into their system so that they are supported in an on-going way in their development of skills and confidence in their day-to-day life.