Essential NLP

An introduction to neurolinguistic programming

Amanda Vickers, Steve Bavister

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781444102970
• eBook ISBN: 9781444129250
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This new edition of a popular guide to Neuro-Linguistic Programming draws on the latest neuroscience findings to give you a better understanding of NLP, and what it can do for you both professionally and personally. It introduces the foundations of NLP and the key principles of the technique, explaining the theory behind submodalities, the power of beliefs and values, and the importance of well-formed outcomes. Written in a jargon-free and accessible style, it will help you to use rapport, modelling and other effective strategies to achieve your goals at work - and to bring the principles of NLP to other areas in your life, making you an effective leader, partner and negotiator.

1

What is NLP?

In this chapter you will learn:

• different definitions of NLP

• what the N, L and P stand for

• how NLP originated and how you can apply it

• what you’ll gain from learning NLP

• how to get the most from this book.

Defining NLP

‘It makes a strange, loud sound, like a trumpet crossed with a factory siren.’

‘It’s enormous – about the size of a truck!’

‘It can suck in water through its long, flexible nose – and even pick things up with it.’

‘It can run at up to 15 miles an hour.’

‘It’s got thick white sticks coming out of its face.’

‘It must weigh at least four tons.’

‘It’s grey and wrinkly.’

Describing an elephant so that someone who has never seen one can understand what it looks, sounds and acts like can be a challenge. All the descriptions above are true, but none on its own begins to give a sense of what a magnificent creature the elephant really is.

And it’s the same with NLP. It has so many different facets that the best we can do at this stage is to give you a glimpse of it from some of the ways it has been defined or described over the years:

• ‘The science of how the brain codes learning and experience.’

• ‘A process that analyses excellence in human behaviour in such a way that the results created by that behaviour can be duplicated by almost anyone.’

• ‘The study of the structure of subjective experience.’

• ‘A model of communication that focuses on identifying and using patterns of thought that influence a person’s behaviour as a means of improving the quality and effectiveness of their lives.’

• ‘An attitude and a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques.’

• ‘A model of how we receive information, store information and retrieve it.’

• ‘A revolutionary approach to human communication and development.’

• ‘The difference that makes the difference.’

• ‘A modelling technology whose specific subject matter is the set of differences that make the difference between the performance of geniuses and that of average performers in the same field of activity.’

• ‘A system for describing, restructuring and transforming a person’s meaning and cognitive understanding of the world they live in.’

• ‘A set of procedures whose usefulness not truthfulness is the measure of its worth.’

• ‘An accelerated learning strategy for the detection and utilization of patterns in the world.’

• ‘A user’s manual for the brain.’

Understanding NLP

NLP may be described as a science, a process, a study, a model, a set of procedures, a manual, a system, an attitude, a strategy, a technology…no wonder some people initially struggle to get a perspective on what NLP is or grasp its essence. The absence of any agreed definition or description means that everyone comes up with their own – and, as you’ve seen, they’re very different.

As you ‘walked around the elephant’ by reading the descriptions above, you will have started to get a sense of what NLP is all about. And it’s our intention that by the time you’ve finished reading this book you will have a clear understanding of the key principles, models and patterns, along with the ability to put them into practice.

UNPACKING THE N, THE L AND THE P

Perhaps the easiest way of explaining NLP is to say it is a form of applied psychology. That’s not the whole story, but it’s how many people use it – as a means of achieving more for themselves and being more fulfilled in their personal and professional lives.

Another problem for NLP is the technical nature of the name. Happily, these days it is better known, but the reaction when you mention neuro-linguistic programming from people who have never heard of it is still to ask, ‘What on earth is that?’ Although many of us wish the founders had come up with a name that was snappier, clearer and – for those of us who earn a living from NLP – sexier, in fact ‘neuro-linguistic programming’ is simply an accurate description of what it is. Let’s take a look at why each of the terms came to be used.

• Neuro

The ‘neuro’ part relates to neurology, to the ways in which we process information from our five senses through our brain and nervous system.

• Linguistic

‘Linguistic’ relates to the use of language systems – not just words but all symbol systems including gestures and postures – to code, organize and attribute meanings to our internal representations of the world, and to communicate internally and externally.

• Programming

The idea of ‘programming’ comes from information processing and computing science, on the premise that the way in which experience is stored, coded and transformed is similar to how software runs on a PC. By deleting, upgrading or installing our mental software, we can change how we think and, as a result, how we act.

When you link all the words up you have neuro-linguistic programming, which is essentially concerned with the processes by which we create an internal representation – our experience – of the external world of ‘reality’ through language and our neurology.

The NLP model

We experience the world through our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Because there is so much continuous information coming in our direction, we consciously and unconsciously delete what we don’t want to pay attention to. We filter the remaining data based on our past experiences, values and beliefs. What we end up with is incomplete and inaccurate because some of the original input has been deleted altogether and the rest has been generalized or distorted. The filtered information forms our internal map, which influences our physiology and ‘state of being’. This in turn affects our behaviour.

The NLP model

THE STORY OF NLP

At the heart of NLP, though, is the ‘modelling’ of human excellence – and that is where the story of NLP begins in the early 1970s, with the collaboration of Richard Bandler and John Grinder at the University of California.

Bandler, a student of mathematics with a particular interest in computer science, got involved in transcribing some audio and video seminar tapes of Fritz Perls, the father of Gestalt therapy, and Virginia Satir, the founder of family therapy. He found that by copying certain aspects of their behaviour and language he could achieve similar results, and began running a Gestalt therapy group on the campus.

John Grinder, an associate professor of linguistics at the university, was intrigued by Bandler’s abilities, and reputedly said to him: ‘If you teach me how to do what you do, I’ll tell you what you do.’

It wasn’t long before Grinder, too, could get the same kind of therapeu...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Contents 
• About the authors
• 1 What is NLP?
• 2 The foundations of NLP
• 3 Representational systems
• 4 Submodalities
• 5 Meta programs
• 6 Values and beliefs
• 7 Well-formed outcomes
• 8 States and emotions
• 9 Anchoring
• 10 Sensory acuity and calibration
• 11 Rapport
• 12 Perceptual positions
• 13 The Meta Model
• 14 Frames, framing, reframing and parts
• 15 Other key NLP techniques
• 16 Modelling
• 17 Timelines
• 18 Strategies
• 19 The Milton Model
• 20 NLP and neuroscience
• 21 NLP in action
• Taking it further
• Glossary
• Copyright