NLP Factsheet

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Fact Sheet (version 2.0)

WHAT IS NLP? NLP is an interdisciplinary subject, which embraces, among other things, brain/mind research (Neuro), the study of language (Linguistic), and psychotherapy ([re-]Programming). Richard Bandler, co-developer of NLP, in his book Using Your Brain - For A Change, says: "Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a name that I made up to avoid having to be specialized in one field or another." Therefore, NLP, by its very nature, is difficult to define succinctly. It is often described as the “study of the structure of subject experience” and is an attitude of curiosity, experimentation and flexibility, leading to a methodology of modeling that leaves behind it a trail of techniques.

BRIEF HISTORY NLP was initially created in 1975 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, in Santa Cruz, California, when mathematician Richard Bandler and associate linguistics professor John Grinder discovered that you can study or "model" human behaviour, and then, using this model, duplicate the results in someone else. They began modeling and duplicating the "magical results" of a few top communicators and therapists and using what they learned to improve other peoples skills and abilities. Some of the first people to be studied included Hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, gestalt therapist Fritz Perls and family therapist Virginia Satir.

Because these models are formal they also allow for prediction and calculation. Patterns that may not have been available in any of these people's work could be calculated from the formal representations they had created. New techniques and models were (and still are being) developed.

Some of the early developers included Judith DeLozier, Robert Dilts, Steve Andreas and Leslie Cameron-Bandler. Most of these have continued to develop NLP in their own way to this day.

Since its early days the field has grown and NLP has continued to develop and evolve, this is largely because trainees tend to quickly individualise and develop and enrich their learning and end up having their own 'type' of NLP, with many famous or infamous names being attached to it: Anthony Robbins, the American Lifestyle Guru; Paul McKenna, the TV hypnotist; and Derren Brown, the “psychological illusionist”, to name a few.

MAJOR INFLUENCES Influences include: • The psychotherapeutic approaches of Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. • The brief therapy methods of Paul Watzlawick and others. • Cybernetics (systems theory), including W Ross Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety. • Gregory Bateson's cybernetic epistemology and, in particular, his learning levels work. • Bertrand Russell and Alfred N Whitehead's Theory of Logical Types. • Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics. • Noam Chomsky's Transformational Grammar. • The TOTE (Test Operate Test Exit) model developed by George Miller, E Galanter and Karl Pribram. • George Miller's theory, "The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two". • The Discordian Movement. • Robert Anton Wilson. • Frank Farrelly’s Provocative Therapy methods.

PRESUPPOSITIONS NLP Practitioners are guided by a set of assumptions or operating principles called presuppositions. You do not need to actually believe these statements, but you will probably find it helpful to act as though they are true.

The presuppositions of NLP are:

• The ability to change the process by which we experience reality is often more valuable than changing the content of our experience of reality.

• The meaning of the communication is the response you get.

• All distinctions human beings are able to make concerning our environment and our behavior can be usefully represented through the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory senses.

• The resources an individual needs in order to effect a change are already within them.

• The map is not the territory.

• The positive worth of the individual is held constant, while the value and appropriateness of internal and/or external behavior is questioned.

• There is a positive intention motivating every behavior, and a context in which every behavior has value.

• Feedback vs. Failure - All results and behaviors are achievements, whether they are desired outcomes for a given task/context, or not.

KEY CONCEPTS The FOUR CORNERSTONES of NLP are: 1) OUTCOME ORIENTATION: Results focus. WELL-FORMED OUTCOMES helps you define goals in such a way that the likelihood of their achievement is substantially improved. 2) SENSORY ACUITY: Tuning up your senses to gather as much available information about your environment as possible. 3) BEHAVIOURAL FLEXIBILITY: Creating choices about how to act and being able to move between those chosen behaviours as and when the environment dictate. 4) RAPPORT: Being on the same ‘wavelength’ as the person you are interacting with. MATCHING and PACING can be employed to create and maintain rapport.

MODELING: NLP was originally developed as a modeling tool, the first 2 models that were developed were:

The META MODEL: Enriches your understanding through the use of specific questions that clarify verbal DISTORTIONS, DELETIONS AND GENERALISATIONS.

The MILTON MODEL: a model of hypnotic language as used by the famous hypnotist Milton Erickson. This was specific use of LANGUAGE and METAPHOR used to communicate with the unconscious mind.

REPRESENTATION SYSTEMS and are labelled V A K O G: VISUAL (sight), AUDITORY (hearing), KINAESTHETIC (feelings/touch), OLFACTORY (smell), and GUSTATORY (taste).

SUBMODALITIES: These are fine distinctions of representational systems, for example, Visual submodalities include size, brightness, colour/black and white, spatial location, and DISSOCIATED/ASSOCIATED STATE (do you see yourself in the picture or not?). You can adjust your submodalities to eliminate unpleasant feelings and generate more effective behaviour.

CALIBRATION helps you read another's state more accurately. Verbal clues called PREDICATES indicate whether that person is in visual, auditory or kinaesthetic mode.

EYE ACCESSING CUES let you know whether images and sounds are being constructed or remembered, and if internal dialogue is occurring.

ANCHORING are physiologic triggers to a mental or emotion response. Resourceful states can be evoked through stimulus-response.

STRATEGIES: Patterns of thinking and behaviour can be elicited, recorded and modified to improve performance.

REFRAMING: You can change the meaning of events by redefining them.

Later developments in the field are:

LOGICAL LEVELS: This model helps you make the most effective intervention by addressing, as appropriate, your client's environment (where? when? with whom?), behaviour (what?), capabilities (how?), values and beliefs (why?), identity (who?), or transpersonal awareness (who else?).

PERCEPTUAL POSITIONS: You can adopt these to gain information, they are: first position (standing in your own shoes), second position (putting yourself in the other person's shoes) and third position (imagining you are a fly on the wall).

TIMELINES are the way you spatially code time, working with time lines enables you to understand the way you process your past, present and future and allows you your think differently about your personal history and invent your ideal future. You can use FUTURE PACING to mentally rehearse the successful accomplishment of goals.

META PROGRAMS are your internal filtering and external operating styles. CRITERIAL EQUIVALENCE is how you act out your values or CRITERIA (what's important to you). Moving from the specific to the general is called CHUNKING UP; moving in the opposite direction, or dividing something into smaller pieces, is CHUNKING DOWN.

APPLICATIONS Because NLP is about studying and improving human behavior it is truly interdisciplinary and has applications in almost any field.

It has been integrated and utilized very successfully in: • Therapy and Counseling. • Personal Development: changing unwanted habits, developing new behaviors and skills. • Sales and negotiation. • Organizational Management: Organizations embarking on small or large scale change programs would do well to study NLP, as would those adopting Total Quality Management initiatives, business process re-engineering, or competence-based schemes such as National Vocational Qualifications and the Management Charter Initiative. • Sports Performance. • Teaching and training: Specific applications include training (process and content), dyslexia resolution, accelerated learning • It has also been used in acting, entertainment, magic, mediation, advocacy, martial arts, and medical diagnosis to name a few.

COMMON CRITICISMS • "NLP is manipulative." This is a shortcoming of certain practitioners, rather than a truth about the practice itself. As Richard Bandler has said “all behavior is manipulative, at least with NLP you are AWARE of it!” • "NLP practitioners just copy your postures and gestures, while noting every movement of your eyes." This is evidence of a very low level of skill. If you are aware of such behaviours then it is unlikely that the person concerned has studied with a recognised training organisation. • “There is no evidence that NLP works” There is in fact a large and growing body of research that supports NLP. One place to learn more is the Association of NLP’s Acuity journal. • “Changes with NLP do not last”, again this is a comment on particular NLP Practitioners not the field as a whole.

MAJOR MERITS • NLP is based on an interactive, holistic view of the world, rather than a linear, reductionist one. • NLP leads to generative, rather than remedial, change. • NLP is not concerned with theories (although there is a conceptual base to NLP), only with what works. • NLP develops behavioral flexibility. • NLP is not a field, but a model of human behavior and communication, it has been used in fields such as education, coaching, sales, sports and management to name a few.

WHAT THEY'VE SAID ABOUT IT

“NLP could be the most important synthesis of knowledge about human communications to emerge since the sixties.” SCIENCE DIGEST

“NLP is the most powerful vehicle for change in existence, whether it is applied to business, law, medicine or therapy” PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

'NLP has untapped potentials for treating individual problems.' TIME MAGAZINE

“NLP offers the potential for making changes without the usual agony that accompanies these phenomena' and that it 'allows for increasing options, flexibility, creativity and therefore greater freedom of action than most of us know.” TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL

“NLP is an incredibly effective and enjoyable way to access more of the true potential of your brain.” ANTHONY ROBBINS - Best-selling author and motivational speaker

SUGGESTED RESOURCES*

BOOKS There are many books written about NLP, sadly, very few really capture the feel. It is always best to begin at the source and read any book by Richard Bandler or John Grinder. Recommended books are: • “The Ultimate Introduction to NLP” by Richard Bandler, Alessio Roberti and Owen Fitzpatrick • “Get the Life You Want” by Richard Bandler • The seminal “Frogs into Princes” is an excellent introduction, but very dated, missing many of the more recent changes in the field. • “Introducing NLP” by Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour is a very good “academic” introduction.

CD • Richard Bandler’s “Personal Enhancement Series” • “Your Own Personal Genius” – Richard Bandler

DVD • “Introduction to NLP” – Richard Bandler • “Class of a Master” – Richard Bandler

WEBSITES • www.purenlp.com John La Valle, the president of the Society of NLP • www.richardbandler.com Co-creator Dr Richard Bandler’s website • www.johngrinder.com Co-creator John Grinder’s website

* DISCLAIMER: Please be aware – some of these links are “affiliate links”, which means I will get a small amount of commission if you purchase through these links. These are suggested resources only; I do not endorse any product. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION There are several organisations world-wide claiming they can certify people in NLP, however the best and most widely recognised certification is granted by licence from the Society of NLP, formed in 1979 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. It is the first and largest NLP certification, training validation and quality control organisation in the world.

CONTACT DETAILS If you require any further information about NLP, or personal and professional training courses please contact me via:

Web: www.mattcaulfield.co.uk Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/mattcaulfield Tel: 08453 626277