What is NLP?
"...I eventually attended an NLP Practitioner course and then an NLP Master Practitioner course...NLP is applicable everywhere and once you enter into its world you can apply it everywhere...Many other concepts - learning styles, multiple intelligences, Brain Gym - also have a neurological aspect that links them with NLP. However, NLP is so much more than that."
Kate Spohrer, Author
Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, is a collection of techniques that enable you to understand how your mind works, achieve greater success in life and change for the better. NLP training is rooted in Psychology, based upon the works of eminent experts in human behaviour such as:
Virginia Satir, Gregory Bateson, Fritz Perls and Milton Erickson,
and provides processes that produce excellent performance so you can achieve excellent results. Look up these names and you'll see just how influential these experts were and are in human behaviour.
William James: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their life by altering their attitude."
History of NLP
NLP was founded by John Grinder and Richard Bandler back in the 1970's. These two University Professors discovered a way to turn Excellent Behaviour into a process. By doing that, anyone who wants to can learn the process and therefore become excellent at that thing. Bandler and Grinder initially studied eminent Therapists as they were excellent communicators - they initiated tremendous changes with their clients purely through talking. The result was that individuals were able to resolve any internal issues and begin to take control of their own lives, focus on their aspirations and take action towards achieving them, leaving their emotional baggage behind. What Bandler and Grinder realised is that language has a great effect on the mind and body, hence the definition Neuro Linguistic Programming:
- Neuro - How we use ou nervous system to experience the world around us. All the information that enters into our brain using:
Sight - visual
Sound - auditory
Kinaesthetic - touch
Olfactory - smell
Gustatory - taste.
- Linguistic - How we use language to interpret this information - pictures, clear, foggy,
sounds, loud, dull, touch, feel, grate, tough, smell the coffee, smelling like roses, taste, bitter, sweet, sour. Language and other non-verbal communication systems through which our neural representations are coded, ordered and given meaning by our current knowledge.
- Programming - We run strategies in our minds to get things done. We have no
awareness of them, they are often habit. Such as driving, cycling, brushing teeth. Using all the information in our mind we can find out what is in the strategy. If there's something that needs changing, we can do so. For example, can get ideas down on paper really well but gets nervous on presentations, or can get in lifts but can't get on planes without falling apart, or can play sports excellently for fun but always loses in competitions.
NLP teaches you tools to change your actions into performance of the highest standards. Present yourself feeling confident, communicate with clarity and elegance in any situation, at home, in business or socially. The basis of NLP is that all behaviour is rooted in the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the bit of the brain that is still awake and fully functioning when we are sleeping. The unconscious mind stores all our memories, processes all our experiences, filters everything we feel, hear, see, taste and smell, and it attaches emotion to everything we do. NLP training allows us to access the unconscious mind easily and make changes there. That way, change is easy and learning is simple.
To find out more about learning NLP Practitioners Call 0800 542 2439
How is NLP linked to Psychology?
Psychology was born in the late 1800's and early 1900's through the work of Wilhem Wundt and John Watson. They worked on different continents but their passion was the structure of mental processes and behaviour. Wundt proposed that we could only investigate the mind by observing behaviour, then asking the person their thought processes to find out how they did it. Watson disagreed, claiming that our subjective opinions contaminate pure mental processes and were therefore not scientific enough for Psychology. These two approaches are often still in conflict in modern Psychology, but NLP has been able to bridge the gap between the two philosophies.
By recognising that the mind works in a structured fashion, a bit like a computer - Input-> Processing-> Output (Feedback), Cognitive Psychologists were able to piece together that steps in behaviour can be changed through conscious thought processes. This is the basis of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. NLP uses many of these processes and more, so that individuals can understand how their own mind works. There is a debate within Psychology that we are all Psychologists within our own right and perhaps NLP is proof of that!
How NLP works
You may ask "Yes, but how specifically do the changes occur?" The answer is through learning. Everytime we learn something we make new neural connections in our brain. Instantly. Too good to be true you might say? Well, think about it. If someone gets bitten by dog, they might well get a phobia instantly about dogs - and you would probably think it's reasonable. So a phobia can be created instantly. A phobia is a learnt behaviour. The brain cannot differentiate between a wanted or unwanted behaviour. It just does things to get results. So, similarly, you can learn positive behaviours instantly too. For example, if you wear a new perfume or aftershave and everyone comments how great it is, you automatically start using it every day.
Every time you have an "Aha" moment, a moment of realisation, your brain makes a new connection - you are learning. Remember those pictures, stereograms, you had to defocus your eyes to see the image and when you did you said "YES I see it now"? That's the "Aha" moment when your brain creates new patterns for learning. We can have many 1000,s of those a day - perpetual learning and perpetual change. That's what our brains are made for - start using it!
MS, Harrow, NLP Course
If you would like to find out more, come along to an Introduction to NLP Evening
Tuesday 7th February or Wednesday 7th March 2012 from 6.30 to 8.30pm.
£10+VAT (£12) per person
For more information or to Register your place on the NLP courses click here or call 07956 419 324 or 01895 472 675 now
Course Dates
NLP Courses
NLP in Coaching
Intro to NLP
Get your copy of the Introduction to NLP Audio, 70 mins in total, along with a full colour workbook to browse through. Listen at your leisure and find out more about what NLP is and how you can use it. Just fill in the form below and then download the files, it’s that easy. We will also send you some information over the next couple of days that I’m sure you will find useful.