About NLP

NLP stands for Neuro-linguistic Programming. Here is a very brief overview of what it's about.

Neuro - refers to the mind and the way we externally experience and internally represent the world through our senses

Linguistic - about language and how we use it with ourselves and others

Programming - about our sequences or patterns of behaviour and our ability to change these like re-programming a computer

Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed NLP in the 1970s. Richard was a psychology student at the University of California and John was Assistant Professor of Linguistics. They studied three exceptional communicators: the family therapist, Virginia Satir; the originator of gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls; and the hypnotherapist, Milton Erikson. These people were achieving outstanding results with their clients. Bandler and Grinder discovered that these communicators had a number of things in common in the way they related with their clients, the language they used and the beliefs which guided their behaviours. Bandler and Grindler also drew on the work of others to develop a set of beliefs and various techniques which allow us to change our own experience of the world and to influence others.

Bandler and Grinder's work has been continuously developed since then and is now used in a variety of fields such as education, sports and business. A core of underlying beliefs has been generated which in NLP are known as presuppositions. The most commonly quoted are: -

The map is not the territory

- people respond to their map of the world or their own reality rather than to reality itself. NLP can help expand those maps.

The mind and body are one system

- the mind and body are inextricably linked - change one and the other must change.

Having choice is better than not having choice

- the person with the greatest number of choices in any interaction will have the most influence over it.

Excellence can be modelled

- if one person can do something anyone can learn to do it.

All human behaviour has a positive intention

- our behaviour is always trying to achieve something positive for us. What may appear as negative behaviour only appears so because we don't know what the positive intention is.

The other-than-conscious mind is benevolent

The meaning of communication is the response you get

- the response may not be the one you intended. If you don't get the result you want then try something different.

We all have the resources within us to achieve what we want to achieve

- No-one is wrong or broken.

Presuppose the above beliefs by acting as if they are true and notice the difference it makes.

Whether we are engaged in consultancy, facilitation, training courses, one-to-one coaching or group coaching we draw extensively on our NLP expertise.