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. © Copyright 2004 Matt Caulfield Training and Consultancy. This version © 2013 www.nlpdemystified.com 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. © Copyright 2004 Matt Caulfield Training and Consultancy. This version © 2013 www.nlpdemystified.com 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