Neuro Linguistic What?
Nick Evans, Active Personal Developments

Someone once said that Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) has many strengths, however a clear and helpful name isn't one of them! Very true, but even with a name like that, NLP has kept growing in recognition and popularity over the years, so much so that Psychology Today Magazine labelled it “The most powerful vehicle for change in existence".
This article is my attempt, as a long standing NLP practitioner and trainer to explain the main techniques and principles that make NLP work so well. A brief overview as it were, for those of us fascinated with how the mind works and how people make changes in their lives, intentionally and unintentionally.

The Early Days
First a bit of background. NLP was developed in the mid seventies by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. They studied the behaviours and thought processes of people who were considered to have achieved excellence in their chosen field; namely, Fritz Perls the founder of gestalt psychology, Virginia Satir the foremost practitioner of family therapy and Milton Erickson, often called 'the father of clinical hypnosis'.
They analysed how these people thought and behaved and found they could systematise this 'expert behaviour' in a way that their extraordinary skills could be passed on to others. From these studies a whole host of techniques arose and have evolved into what we know today as the NLP model.

Core Principles
At the heart of NLP are three very simple questions. How are things now? How do you want them to be? And, What do you need to do to make that happen? In NLP terms we call this the 'Present State to Desired State Model'.

Present state ---(Action)---> Desired state

For example, if you were a self employed complimentary therapist your present state could be seeing 15 clients a week and your desired state could be seeing 20 clients a week. You then figure out what you have to do to make your desired state happen. Sounds simple, and it is, the problem is that sometimes it's pretty hard to defi ne where you are and what you want, never mind come up with the right way of achieving it. That's where talking to an NLP Practitioner, or learning NLP yourself, makes the difference. Your present state, desired state and options are analyzed, then a workable action plan is devised which enables you to achieve your goal. At this point someone usually raises the question “But can everyone have what they want”, and my reply is “Yes they can” as long as what they want takes into account certain things, like the effects of their actions on others. In NLP terms this is called Ecology and again an experienced practitioner, or a good course will give you models and templates so that your goals are realistic and achievable.
Up to this point, NLP doesn't seem that much different from the dozens of other personal and professional development systems out there. Go into most libraries or bookshops and you'll find shelves of material telling you what you need to do in order to be a better parent, a better public speaker, have more confidence, be slimmer, be healthier, be richer and so on. Unfortunately, as you probably know, just knowing what to do isn't really enough, we also have to know how to do it.
And in order to know how to change effectively we need to know how we, and others 'tick'. Change can then happen quickly and effectively because it is tailored to the specific person instead of a 'one size fits all' approach.
One of the models used to define how we and others 'tick' is called the Mercedes Model. The Mercedes Model elegantly defines the relationship between our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and these relationships are shown below.

Mercedes Model
• Thinking: The quality of our internal dialogue and the type of pictures and movies we run in our mind. Our beliefs and values are also defined here because we use language to express them.

• Feeling: The quality of our emotions, for example, anxiety or confidence, and how do we tell the difference between a feeling of anxiety and a feeling of confidence.

• Doing, The quality of what we do and what we say. This includes our physiology, for example, how we stand, how we walk, our gestures and the kind of facial expressions we use.

The quality of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours all depend on each other. If you have positive thoughts, you get positive feelings which should produce positive behaviours. With a detailed analysis of your current thoughts, feelings and behaviours and a description of how you would like your thoughts, feelings and behaviours to be in the future (your desired state), you can then work out the best ways of making these changes happen. Ways that draw on your strengths and change any un-supportive thoughts.
A further refinement of the present state to desired state model is to describe it in terms of Neurological Levels.

Neurological Levels

BEYOND IDENTITY (Community, Spiritual)
IDENTITY
VALUES & BELIEFS
CAPABILITIES
BEHAVIOURS
ENVIRONMENT

The Neurological levels tell us in much more detail about the present and desired state. We ask ourselves, who do I spend time with? Where do I spend my time? What kind of habits do I have? What kind of skills? What are my beliefs and values, about myself, other people and the world in general? Who am I? And how do I fit into my wider community, the world at large, what effect do I have on my family, my colleagues, my community, etc. Deep stuff and a million miles away from the me, me, me approach which some people take NLP to be. By defining these things we are better able to alter any thoughts or behaviours that are not allowing us to be who we want to be or live the life we want. The techniques used to alter any negative thoughts and behaviours are outside the scope of the article but are all easily grasped and understood by everyone who comes into contact with NLP, as one former student put it “ NLP makes 'common sense' into an art form for real sustainable change”. Nicely put, and also encapsulates the idea that NLP is an art as well as a science.
To summarise then, NLP is a system of personal and professional development which uses a variety of techniques that define where we are now and where we want to be. It's beauty is in the wide range of issues it can be applied to, sports, coaching, therapy, business, relationships and more. NLP techniques are nowadays presented in workshops and extended trainings which, in effect, provide short cuts to more successful living - you learn in hours what may have taken experts years to discover by trial and error.
Whether you choose a professionally accredited course or go along and see a professionally accredited practitioner, I hope you will be impressed by the simplicity of the NLP model and it's powerful techniques to help you achieve your goals and dreams. NLP certainly does have many strengths, and for all that I can forgive the awful name!
Active Personal Development runs a wide range of NLP courses, from Breakthrough to Personal and Professional success programs up to Master Practitioner level. We also have many qualified practitioners on our books available to help you with personal coaching and therapy. Please contact Nick Evans at Active Personal Development on 01752 245 570, email: nick@nlp-southwest.co.uk or visit www.nlp-southwest.co.uk for more details.