What is NLP?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a powerful body of information about how the

human mind works built up since the 1970`s and continuing to evolve through new
research. You are likely to find many different descriptions of NLP.

At the heart of NLP is a wide range of methods and models it offers for
understanding how people think, behave and change. It offers a flexible approach
which brings about positive, fast change in individuals and organisations and
empowers them to adapt to an ever-shifting world.

NLP training provides the skills to define and achieve your outcomes or goals and a
heightened awareness of your five senses, allowing you to remain flexible, on track
and maintain rapport with those around you.

"NLP is an attitude which is an insatiable curiosity about human beings with a

methodology that leaves behind it a trail of techniques." Richard Bandler (co-
creator of NLP)

"The strategies, tools and techniques of NLP represent an opportunity unlike any
other for the exploration of human functioning, or more precisely, that rare and
valuable subset of human functioning known as genius." John Grinder (co-creator
of NLP)

Some principles of NLP:

• People have their own model of the world, and what they do
makes sense within that model
• Mind and body are one system
• People have all the inner resources they need to succeed
(there are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states)
• There is no failure, only results
• I am in charge of my mind, and therefore my results

NLP - that name!

The name Neuro-Linguistic Programming was an attempt to describe in a succinct manner the
scope of this extensive body of insights and skills:

Neuro refers to how the mind and body interact

Linguistic refers to the insights into a person’s thinking that can be obtained by careful
attention to their use of language
 Programming refers, not to the activity of programming, but to the study of the thinking and
behavioural patterns or ‘programmes’ which people use in their daily lives.

The name is a bit of a mouthful and is certainly not NLP's strongest asset. By trying to be too
comprehensive it has ended up being somewhat off-putting, either because it sounds complicated
or, worse, that it sounds sinister (many people initially think the 'programming' part of the name
suggests that NLP has something to do with 'being programmed'!).

But the name Neuro-Linguistic Programming has been around for over 30 years so it looks like
we are stuck with it. Which is why it is generally abbreviated to the initials NLP.

You could say that NLP has become successful not because of the title but in spite of it. And, let's
face it - if something with such a weird name can become this popular it must be good - because
the title does it no favours at all!

What they've said about it

Science Digest said that NLP 'could be the most important synthesis of knowledge about human
communications to emerge since the sixties.'

Time Magazine announced that 'NLP has untapped potentials for treating individual problems.'

Training & Development Journal reported that 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.'

Best-selling author and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins said that NLP is 'an incredibly
effective and enjoyable way to access more of the true potential of your brain.'

What is Neuro Linguistic Programming?

NLP is the practice of understanding how people organise their thinking, feeling,
language and behaviour to produce the results they do. NLP provides people with a
methodology to model outstanding performances achieved by geniuses and leaders in
their field.

A key element of NLP is that we form our unique internal mental maps of the world as a
product of the way we filter and perceive information absorbed through our five senses
from the world around us.

Neuro: Each individual has established their own unique mental filtering system for
processing the millions of bits of data being absorbed through the senses. Our first
mental map of the world is constituted of internal images, sounds, tactile awareness,
internal sensations, tastes and smells that form as result of the neurological filtering
process. The first mental map is called ‘First Access’ in NLP.

Linguistic: We then assign personal meaning to the information being received from the
world outside. We form our second mental map by assigning language to the internal
images, sounds and feelings, tastes and smells, thus forming everyday conscious
awareness. The second mental map is called the Linguistic Map (sometimes known as
Linguistic Representation)

Programming: The behavioural response that occurs as a result of neurological

filtering processes and the subsequent linguistic map.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming™ (NLP™) is defined as the study of the structure of subjective

experience and what can be calculated from that and is predicated upon the belief that all
behaviour has structure. People such as Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls had
amazing results with their clients. They were some of the people who's linguistic and
behavioural patterns Richard Bandler built formal models of. He then applied these models to
his work.

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 he had created. New techniques and models were (and still are being)
developed.

Since the models that constitute NLP™ describe how the human brain functions they are used
in order to teach them. NLP™is not a diagnostic tool. It can only be applied and can therefore
 only be taught experientially.

Well trained Neuro-Linguistic Programmers™ will always teach by installation, not by teaching
technique after technique. Techniques outdate themselves too quickly to base the field of
NLP™ on a set of techniques. It is based upon the attitude, the models and the skills which
allow for constant generation of new techniques which are more effective and work faster.

Although many providers make certain courses prerequisite to the attendance of other
courses, Dr. Bandler has no such prerequisites for any of his seminars. Learning does not
come in levels. Once the underlying pattern, by which something can be learned has been
taught, the material becomes not only easily accessible but a logical extension. For example,
once somebody has learned how to read it no longer matters whether a book is five pages or
two-hundred pages long. Similarly, once someone has been taught the spelling strategy it does
not matter whether the word is two or five letters long, you just have to look at the picture. Each
seminar is based upon different sets of knowledge. Therefore, it is not necessary to do them in
any specific order.

Each seminar that Dr. Bandler teaches is different. Once someone has attended one
practitioner course it does not mean that the practitioner material has been learned and that
person should therefore go to a different course. You have to remember that the names and
certificates are only names and certificates not the material nor the knowledge!

Neuro-Linguistic Programming™ was specifically created in order to allow us to do magic by

creating new ways of understanding how verbal and non-verbal communication affect the
human brain. As such it presents us all with the opportunity to not only communicate better
with others, but also learn how to gain more control over what we considered to be automatic
functions of our own neurology.

NLP can help you to:

• Be more successful by learning to influence your emotional and psychological states.

• Replace negative behaviors and habits with positive ones.

• Transform the way you go about everyday tasks.

• Be more aware of your impact on others and how to manage your behaviour for optimal results.

• Better understand your own motivations, needs and behaviors and use these positively to have the

greatest impact.
• Better understand your staff’s and customer’s needs, motivations and behaviors.

• Improve and enhance your interpersonal communication at the office and at home.