What Is Nlp And How Can It Be Used

The most common answer, and perhaps the most frustrating to the question, what is NLP? Is the reply " well, it's neuro-linguistic programming!"

It absolutely baffles me why people who supposedly know what NLP is, still give this as the answer, neuro-linguistic programming!

My aim in this post is to demystify NLP and allow you to understand how it was created and developed, and more importantly how it can be used.

NLP was created and developed in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Together, they modelled and deconstructed excellence in the top therapists at that time. The main three were Virginia Satir who was a unique family therapist, Fritz Perls who was known for psychoanalysis, and also Milton H Eriksson, the clinical hypnotherapist who used hypnotherapy in clinical settings.

Bandler and Grinder modelled excellence in people and extracted and created processes from their excellence. Modelling was a structure created to allow excellence to be learnt and passed on. Even though their modelling had a very scientific edge, they also noticed that it was the way in which the structures and patterns were delivered to how the results came out. Therefore, they also concluded that NLP was also an artform. An art form in which the artist/therapist etc would need absolute 100% commitment and belief in, in order to pass that belief on.

NLP is able to create rapid change in people and alter people's neurology to allow transformations to happen. Unlike typical psychotherapies and CBT for example. NLP is extremely quick at creating change as it is goal focused as opposed to problem focused. Again, this was a discovery made by assessing how rapid change was created. In all cases the most profound changes were found when the therapist was solution focused and underemphasis the problem. " To put in a nutshell, NLP is an attitude and methodology which has left behind a series of techniques to allow people to transform their lives and model excellence. "

NLP is now used not only in therapeutic settings for rapid dramatic change, but also used in the business world and amongst athletes and sports personalities regularly. The business world uses some of the NLP tools and understandings to allow communication between co-workers and clients to become more fluid. NLP unpacks language that people use, and allows a practitioner of NLP to speak in somebody else's language. A person who is trained in NLP is able to communicate to others in a way that they understand best. To eliminate the old problem with communication " speaking in another person's language". NLP has really broken down the parts required to enable clear communication to take place.

Athletes and sports personalities use NLP on a regular basis also. Not only is it to create a positive outcome and positive goal that they wish to achieve, but also to create a powerful state. A state is usually required in order to win or certainly do your best. Perhaps a golfer would like to set aside any anxiety or any nerves. Perhaps a 100 m sprinter would like to reduce the adrenaline so that things move more slowly so they're able to react to the gun as promptly as possible.

It has also been said a number of times that the NLP models should be in fact an operation manual for the human mind. It's something that no one is ever given when they're born, and we assume that the elements and issues that we have picked up along the way, are ours! and we are stuck with them. NLP has now allowed us to create changes in ourselves at any given time, changes that allow you to be you, only much much better.

So, what is NLP? Probably too much to cover in one simple article. There will be plenty more NLP related articles explaining tools techniques and some of the methodologies that have developed coming regularly.

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