In this section…
Neuro Linguistic Programming
What is NLP?
NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. It is an amazingly effective technique which can be used alongside or separately from hypnosis to bring about change.
Everybody thinks in different ways. For example, some people think in pictures, some in words, and some people feel things through. Therefore, if asked to think about their front door, some people will see the door, some will describe it with words in their mind, and some people will feel the sensation of being at their front door. Most of us will use two of these systems but will find the third more difficult. NLP works by accessing those particular systems that the client uses to think.
Desirable changes are then encouraged by using the resources which are drawn from the client’s way of thinking about the world; their past experiences will have created pictures, words, feelings, sounds, smells and taste. It does not matter if the client isn’t aware of these resources – it is the therapist’s job to identify the skills the client has. Then, using those resources, the therapist gets the client to transfer the skills and successes from their past to enable them to use those same skills to succeed in the area where the client has a problem.
NLP is extremely effective because the client is drawing upon their own undiscovered or unused abilities – they are not trying to draw on the therapist’s idea of how they could be more effective. Nor are they trying to see the world the way the therapist sees it – rather the therapist makes sure that language is used that matches the way the client sees the world.
One method used by NLP practitioners is to ‘borrow’ resources from the client’s past experience and to put them to use in solving present problems. An example where it could work very effectively (without the need for hypnosis) could be with a small child who is frightened of wasps. Amanda would first get to know the child, and built up a relationship where they could talk and play together comfortably. Amanda might ask the girl if she could think of anyone who was terribly brave – and the child names a cartoon character. The girl would then be asked how the character would deal with wasps, and  Amanda would then get the girl to imagine that she had the all the attributes of her chosen character. Drawing on the child’s thinking system Amanda would then give her a trick to help her to switch on these magical wasp-resistant resources.
In just one very similar session to the one described above, a child who had difficulty going outside overcame her phobia of wasps with the use of NLP. And it works on grown-ups too!