What is NLP
or What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?
It’s a collective approach to coaching and therapy that’s designed to help a person achieve lasting change. It works by exploring thought, language and behaviour at deeper unconscious levels. Neuro-Linguistic Programming broken down literally means this …
- Neuro
The Neuro Pathways in your brain
- Linguistic
The Language that we speak that represents the deep reference experience
- Programming
The unconscious programs we collect at a deep level
Therapy for the Conscious and Unconscious Mind
Where did NLP therapy come from?
The concept was created in the 1970s by philosopher and psychologist Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder at the University of California in Santa Cruz. They were modelling the best of the best in terms of performance and results in the field of psychology and communication.
From that, they put together a set of practices designed to address a whole range of issues psychiatrists and therapists would encounter. These practices would be developed into Neuro-Linguistic Programming therapy over the decades.
NLP can be exceptional and extremely fast compared to traditional therapies, which could take several weeks or even months. The difference is that NLP works with both the conscious and the unconscious mind.
Today, Neuro-Linguistic Programming therapy practitioners like myself offer online therapy sessions using these techniques to help people like you address problematic thoughts and behaviours.
What is NLP therapy?
It’s therapy designed to help you identify and restructure negative thought and behaviour patterns with the overall goals of improving your mood, confidence, mental health, and wellbeing.
NLP is now widely used in counselling, education, coaching, self-confidence therapy, and business for more effective communication, personal development and accelerated learning.
When using NLP, it’s common to have positive change within one or two sessions, often with exceptional results.
In short, NLP is the art and science of personal excellence.
How is NLP Different From CBT?
Cognitive behavioural therapy also works by identifying and restructuring negative thoughts and behaviours. Neuro-linguistic programming therapy focuses more on the deeper unconscious patterns that govern all that.
My NLP therapy sessions work with both the conscious and the unconscious mind, while CBT works solely with the conscious mind.
The Presuppositions of NLP
A presupposition is what you suppose or assume to be true beforehand about a certain topic or statement.
There are the specific foundation principles or presuppositions behind Neuro-Linguistic Programming therapy that underpin the entire structure of what I do as a practitioner.
- The Map is not the Territory
What you notice is not all that there is.
- We all have the resources we need
We can all muster any internal resource we may require in any given situation.
- The mind and body are a linked system
Our bodies code everything that the mind experiences.
- There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.
We learn all the time from every situation.