NLP

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is concerned with the deep patterns of human behaviour, especially the patterns underlying excellence, regardless of the field in which the excellence is manifested. It emerged in the 1970s as Richard Bandler and Dr. John Grinder began to model and experiment with the behavioural patterns of exceptionally skilful psychotherapists, namely Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, and Fritz Perls.

Milton EricksonGrinder and Bandler learned to to what these therapists did, and then, from this basis of practical competence, elucidated the underlying patterns in language, movement, and sensory processing that formed the basis of these competencies. These became the first models of NLP.

Virginia SatirNLP expanded rapidly as the original models were applied in a range of fields, from business and marketing to therapy and education. Over the years a range of innovators have continued to model exemplary performers in a variety of fields, as well as designing new models without precedent, based on established principles of human behaviour and learning.

Unlike many fields of human research, NLP is not concerned with average behaviour and statistical norms. NLP takes the extremes of high performance, whether by individuals or teams, as it's starting point. It asks such questions as:

Fritz Perls

• What distinguishes a superb performance from average competence?
• What are the underlying patterns in the behaviour of the superb performer?
• Which of these patterns are essential and which are coincidental?
• How can these patterns be most effectively learned and taught?
• How can elements of known patterns of excellence be recombined to generate new ones?

Important Distinctions and Categories

There are several formal distinctions that inform and structure the field of NLP. These distinctions account for the speed and depth of change that can be facilitated by a skilled NLP practitioner.

Process and Content

Good NLP practitioners work at the level of the process, rather than the content, of the clients ways of thinking, learning and changing. This has ethical and strategic advantages: the client need not reveal sensitive details; and the practitioner is free to use his or her expertise in the field of process and needn't be an expert in the client's specific field of concern in order to facilitate deep change.

Conscious and Unconscious

NLP makes maximal use of an individual or groups resources for learning and changing by establishing appropriate relationships and responsibilities between conscious and unconscious processes. The shifting boundary between conscious and unconscious aspects of behaviour and experience is often the edge where new possibilities arise.

Verbal and Non-Verbal

Skilled NLP practitioners can help you develop the clarity and congruence of your verbal and non-verbal communication. The world of non-verbal interaction holds vast potential for increasingly effective and satisfying communication, especially when combined with constructive linguistic patterning. 

Sensory and Linguistic

The taste of a mango, the feel of a cool breeze, the sound of a wailing trumpet, the sight of a rainbow are all beyond the full description of language. Yet in a world dominated by an information explosion, there is increasing pressure to codify experience linguistically. NLP can help you separate your sensory experience from linguistic descriptions of it. Then the primary richness of sensory domains can be better enjoyed and utilised. The other side of that coin is that by recognising the relationships between words and senses, you can use language more precisely and evocatively.

My Qualifications

I am certified by Dr. John Grinder (co-originator of NLP) as an Advanced New-Code NLP Coach. I work in executive coaching, general life-coaching and peak-performance coaching roles. My independent practical and scholarly research contributes to the ongoing development of the epistemological discussions in the NLP community.