NLP is the study of how you process information in your mind (not the information itself). Your memories are stored in the form of images, sounds, feelings, etc. in your mental filing cabinets and you experience positive or negative feelings depending on whether you have those memories stored with attached feelings that are positive or negative.

A person who has a phobia acts and reacts very differently to the event itself (because of the negative emotional trigger attached to that event) than a person who is non phobic, e.g. someone who has a fear of dogs does not react to the actual dog itself but to the thoughts sounds and feelings attached to their memory of what that dog represents to them. Someone who is phobic of dogs will have a negative feeling attached to dogs whereas a dog lover will experience positive feelings.

Using NLP we can change the feeling attached to a negative memory (without changing the actual memory itself) so that it is recalled in a different way. The memory then has a different emotional content and the next time it is recalled it has a different effect on the person.

NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. ‘Neuro’ is of the mind. ‘Linguistic’ refers to the science of communication that we use to see, hear, feel and talk internally with ourselves. ‘Programming’ refers to the fact that we are programming the way we communicate internally.

NLP was invented by Dr John Grinder, a well known professor of linguistics, together with Richard Bandler. Together they produced a linguistic model that identified the language patterns of a few gifted individuals such as Hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, Fritz Perls of Gestalt therapy, anthropologist Gregory Bateson and Virginia Satir, well known for her work in family systems therapy. The synthesis of their findings, a blend of cognitive and behavioural science, resulted in the technology known as NLP. In the decades since its initial development, NLP has grown, changed and expanded, and it continues to do so today. NLP is often used as a vehicle for ‘fast’ or accelerated change. The technology of NLP means that the same changes can happen very quickly.

NLP is often used as a vehicle for ‘fast’ or accelerated change. The technology of NLP means that the same changes can happen very quickly.