NLP & TimeLine Therapy

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What Is NLP?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) studies the way in which we perceive the world around us, how we think, feel and act, and how our thoughts, emotions and behaviours are organised. 

NLP originated in the USA and was founded in the early 1970’s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. NLP incorporates insights from behavioural and Gestalt psychology, family therapy, hypnotherapy, linguistics and information processing technology. 

NLP looks at how (rather than why) people get the results they do. NLP started from studying people who are exceptionally good at what they do, and finding out how they do it so that others can obtain similar results by doing the same things. NLP aims to achieve ‘generative’ change, which empowers you to achieve more in every area of your life. Most people find that when they learn a new skill or make a breakthrough in one area of their life, the problems they had in other areas seem to disappear or become less important.

The Neuro part of NLP comes from the idea that all behaviour stems from our neurological processes of sight, hearing, feeling, smell, and taste; our world is experienced through these five senses. We make sense out of the information received from these senses and act on it. 

The Linguistic part of NLP indicates that we use language to order our thoughts and behaviour and communicate with others. 

Programming refers to the ways in which we can choose to organize our ideas and actions to produce results. In relation to NLP, timeline therapy can also be integrated, allowing individuals to address past experiences and reshape their perceptions to foster positive change. 

So in a nutshell, NLP deals with the structure of our experiences, how we organise what we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, and how we delete, distort, and filter the information that comes in to us through our senses. It also looks at how we describe experiences through language and how we act intentionally or unintentionally to produce results. 

If we think of the human neurological system of mind and body as an information system that can be programmed, then we can understand that by developing specific patterns, things such as limiting or sabotaging beliefs can be reprogrammed. With NLP we are able to effect deep changes from the inside out. A phobic response that has lasted for decades can be altered in as little as 1 session!

NLP is “Content Free”

NLP concentrates on the structure of an experience, rather than the content. It focuses on how you think about something rather than what you are thinking about. 

This means that an NLP practitioner can usually help you with a problem without you having to reveal every detail of where it came from. The advantage of this is that it takes away the embarrassment which some people may associate with getting help. 

One of the things that often surprises people about NLP is the speed with which many problems can be resolved. Solving problems is all about learning – at the unconscious level, and this learning can happen very quickly with NLP processes, including timeline therapy, allowing change and transition to take place in a gentle, easy, and effective way.

Some principles of NLP

People have their own model of the world, and everything they do makes sense within that model. 

The mind and the body are united as one system. 

People have all the inner resources they need to succeed (There are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states). 

People are in charge of their own mind and therefore of their own results. 

The meaning of communication is not simply what you intend but also the response you get.