What is Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy?

If you’re wondering “What is Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy exactly?” allow me to explain it in layman’s terms and use an analogy to make it less technical and wordy like some other sources do…

Imagine your brain is a computer with some faulty programs that just keep re-running time and again.

An example could be when you get into an elevator and suddenly you feel trapped and start sweating.

This is a reaction which is not productive or beneficial to you yet we seemingly can’t help it.

NLP teaches us that we can actually rewrite this program and it’s a lot quicker than spending years and years and thousands of dollars on therapy to do so.

HOW DID IT START?

The creators of NLP, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, were psychology students who didn’t agree with the fact they were taught to study the problems related to the mind when it made a lot more sense to study the solutions!

So they found people who had actually cured themselves of these problems and by studying their methods and replicating them they created what is now known as Neuro Lingustic Programming, or just NLP for short.

WHAT IS “NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING THERAPY” USED FOR?

Many things and most of them related to psychological issues.

NLP can be used to overcome fears and phobias.

It can combat anxiety and poor self-esteem.

It can greatly reduce stress (including post-traumatic stress disorder)

In a nutshell, if someone is suffering an overall reduced quality of life due to their mental state then NLP can help immensely.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NLP THERAPY & “TRADITIONAL” THERAPY?

There are various differences between Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy and Traditional Therapy but the main one that sticks out is that NLP therapy doesn’t diagnose a persons mental health or labels any “illness“.

Instead the philosophy of NLP is that we are all working perfectly to create the results we are experiencing, regardless of whether we like those results or not!

In Traditional Therapy people get labels put on them and are in some ways thought to be “broken” and in need of fixing. The problem and the root of that problem is normally then explored in depth until some deep seeded issue can be brought to light and the healing can take place.

NLP instead is a purely results focused therapy which puts the attention firmly on the patients desired outcome.

Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy is about reprogramming a persons thought patterns to associate with more positive and productive ones whilst replacing any negative ones if necessary.

In a few words, NLP gets straight to the point and focuses all the attention on the positive, desired result and doesn’t dwell on exploring and delving deep into the negative issue like traditional therapy has been known to do.

For more in-depth information on the differences between NLP and other types of therapy check out this great article HERE from the guys over at nlpls.com.

WHAT HAPPENS EXACTLY?

If you go to see an NLP therapist then the techniques used will be mainly visualisation exercises such as forming a mental image of the desired state or outcome you would like and setting that in your mind as the new default, sometimes replacing a previous non-beneficial one which was causing you to self-sabotage for example.

In Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy you might also be led by the therapist to “disassociate” from yourself in the image (kind of like having an out of body experience) in order to overcome fears or phobias which may otherwise have been too scary to face from the first person perspective.

A big focus for an NLP Therapist is also what kind of language the client uses.

Any negative self talk which is holding the client back will be changed by techniques such as “Reversing Presuppositions” which basically inclines the client to consider the opposite of the phrase being true.

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?

Through NLP techniques such as Matching, Anchoring and Swish-Patterns you can actually help improve an individuals…

• Self-awareness
• Confidence
• Communication skills
• Social abilities

As well as overcoming the various fears and phobias I mentioned earlier.

ISN’T THIS JUST POSITIVE THINKING?

So maybe you’re thinking “Ok, this is all sounding a bit like some hippy mantra of think good thoughts and good things will happen, how is this more effective than just plain old positive thinking?”

Positive thinking is all well and good but if you have a fear of snakes than just thinking happy thoughts when you see one will have very little effect, try it out for yourself if you don’t believe me!

Something a lot more powerful needs to be installed into your brain in order not to revert to your automatic scared to death mode.

What NLP can do through repetitive mental visualisation (like in the swish pattern technique), strong triggers (like in the anchor technique), disassociation (like in the fast phobia cure technique) and matching modalities (audio, visual and kinaesthetic) is create a new automated response from you which directly activates that positive mental imagery instead of you having to try and force it consciously which can be almost impossible at times.

IN SUMMARY

To sum it up, Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy consists of a series of techniques (mostly visualisation) that focuses on the way we see, hear and feel things (above all internally) in order to produce the results we desire.

It focuses primarily on the desired outcome we are looking for and spends the time using techniques designed to reprogram your thought pattern in order to achieve that. It doesn’t get bogged down on exploring the origins of the problem a client may have.

As the late great spiritual mentor Wayne Dyer once said… “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” and this quote is a great way to understand the philosophy of NLP.

Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy is all about employing techniques which allow you to have a positive mindset towards a given situation and, as a result, help change the conditions of your life for the better.

NEXT STEP

If Neuro Linguistic Programming Therapy sounds like something you’d be interested in then I’ve made a list of steps below which you can take in order to experience it for yourself…

If you would like to receive NLP Therapy in person then:

• Google either “NLP Therapist” or “NLP Coach” followed by the name of your city.

If you would like to receive NLP Therapy Online by video call then:

• You can Google search the same as above, just replace the “name of your city” with the words “Online session”
  OR
• You can use this link HERE to Contact me directly and make an appointment for a 1 on 1 NLP Therapy Session!
  (If you’d like to know a bit more about me and my story before deciding just click the link HERE)

If you would like to learn these things for yourself and become an Internationally Certified NLP Master then click the link HERE to learn more about what I can honestly say is the BEST course I’ve ever done not just in terms of helping others but also helping myself!

Please feel free to leave a comment below and if you’d like to contact me directly then just click HERE

Enjoy the journey that NLP takes you on guys, it can teach you so much about the way you’re thoughts make your reality.

I’d like to leave you with a quote from the late, great Mahatma Ghandi which sums this up perfectly…

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”