Neuro-linguistic Programming or NLP

NLP began as a study of successful strategies for psychotherapy, and focused on three very effective therapists who could bring about rapid change and healing in patients, but seemingly had no idea of how they accomplished that outcome. In studying the methods of these therapists, Richard Bandler and John Grinder began to see common language patterns used by them to get inside their patient’s cognitive processes and make change for the better. That led to exploring the nature of cognitive or thought processes to answer the question – what is the nature of thought, both conscious and unconscious?

They rapidly came to understand that thought is a construct of our sensory inputs and that language is a primary component of our experience. The words we use internally to represent a situation or circumstance elicit our behavior in that event. In fact, words are abstract symbols we use to represent very large patterns of images, sounds, sensations – both touch and internal, smells and tastes and the gut feelings that make up much of what we experience as emotions. An example of that would be to imagine that you are swimming in the warm Australian waters over a beautiful reef, and you hear the word “Shark!” By now you have already undergone a cascade of images, sounds and emotions just from reading this line – you may be nearly unaware of it or you may have felt a huge shudder of dread, depending on your experience. The point is that it was completely internal – you were not there in reality – yet a single word elicited a vast pattern of internal experience and perhaps strong emotion.

As they shared this understanding of language and thought with others of similar interests, methods of therapy began unfolding rapidly. NLP began expanding in many directions, but all related to the concrete understanding of how the brain catalogs and interprets our sensory experience. Many Psychiatrist and Psychologists became practitioners of these developing therapeutic strategies and certification programs developed to train practitioners. The NLP community produced a vast catalog of rapid phobia cures, mental/visual patterns to effect rapid emotional change, word/language patterns to ‘reframe’ an experience to make it less powerful, strategies to create rapport with others very quickly and ever so much more. There are even techniques for change based on ‘timelines’ – the methods we humans use to distinguish events of the past from those of the present or imagined events in the future.

Neuro-linguistic Programming or NLP is a powerful collection of tools to rapidly and permanently change the way our brain works, if we want such a change. If you have ever wished that with a wave of your hand you could change your experience to better serve you, you should embark on the NLP journey – it will change your life in any way you choose. Start with these web links:

https://www.nlp.com/what-is-nlp/; http://www.nlpu.com/NLPU_WhatIsNLP.html; https://inlpcenter.org/what-is-neuro-linguistic-programming-nlp/; https://www.nlptimes.com/