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Questions and Answers about NLP

Q. What is NLP ?
A. It's a state-of-the-art set of communications methods for enhancing personal
and professional development and for creating personal change gracefully.
NLP is also described as "software for your brain"- allowing you to automatically
rap into the kind of experiences you want to have.

Q. Where is NLP useful?
A. NLP is valuable wherever human communication skills can enhance results -
in business consultation, management, negotiation, education, counseling, therapy,
relationships, parenting, nursing, public speaking, sports performance and
many other areas.

Q. What kind of results can I get with NLP?
A. NLP can allow a therapist to change the impact of the past on a client, a teacher
to change a poor speller into a good speller, a business person to gain rapport
non-verbally and to run meetings efficiently, for an athlete to improve concentration,
and more.

Q. Is NLP a therapy?
A. Although NLP can be used as a method of therapy, the applications are much
broader. Even when used as a therapy, it is basically a process of teaching people
how to use their brains. Most therapy is remedial, that is, directed towards
solving problems from the past. NLP goes much further to study excellence
and teach the skills that promote positive, change that generates new
possibilities and opportunities.

Q. Will NLP change the way I think?
A. Probably. NLP is a model of how the brain works. When you understand what
yours can do, you'll probably want to use it to greater advantage

Q. Does NLP deal with the emotions?
A. Yes! This is one of the things NLP does best. NLP helps people transform
debilitating emotions into empowering, resourceful feelings. Since many
therapies are very slow, based on catharsis or "venting your feelings," many
people associate personal change with the expression of a lot of un pleasant
feelings. NLP offers a much more pleasant, effective way of dealing with
emotions. We assist people in going through old memories in new ways,
quickly transforming unpleasant experiences into positive resources.

Q. Can you use NLP on yourself?
A. Yes. You can use some NLP patterns with yourself immediately. This includes:
changing your feelings, learning a new thinking strategy, changing habits,
motivating yourself, and more. Other patterns and techniques are primarily useful
in working with others
.

NLP explanation.
from an article in "Alternative Therapies"

Neuro-linguistic Programming focuses on how people learn, communicate,
change, grow, and heal. "Neuro" refers to the way the brain works and
how human thinking demonstrates consistent and detectable patterns.
"Linguistic" refers to the verbal and nonverbal expressions of the brain's
thinking patterns. "Programming" refers to how these patterns are
recognized and understood by the mind and how they can be altered,
allowing a person to make better choices in behavior and health.

How NLP Works
People who have difficulty recovering from physical illness have often adopted
negative beliefs about their recovery. They perceive themselves as helpless,
hopeless, worthless, and express statements like "I can't get healthy,"
"There is no hope," " and "I am not worth the effort." The primary goal of
the NLP practitioner is to move a person from his or her present state of
discomfort to a desired state of health and well-being by helping to reprogram
beliefs about healing. NLP practitioners ask questions to discover how a
client relates to issues of identity, personal beliefs, and life goals.

By reading autonomic body changes-skin color changes, moisture changes on
the lips or eyes-as well as other physiological responses, NLP practitioners
show people how to tap into their way of healing, as individuals, based on how
they process information and how they view their health conditions. According
to Janet Konefal, Ph.D.,of Miami, Florida, identity canbe a major component
of the way a person deals with his or her health condition, particularly someone
suffering from chronic disease.
Dr. Konefal states, "Too often people tend to identify directly with their illnesses.
A person doesn't usually say, 'I'm John, who has this condition of diabetes,'
he says, 'I'm a diabetic.' A person doesn't usually say, 'I'm Mary, a carrier of this
virus,' she says, 'I'm an AIDS patient.' The disease moves in and actually shifts
a person's identity."
One of the first priorities of an NLP practitioner is to separate a person's negative
or false identifications and then to have that person recapture or regain his or her
identity. NLP practitioners are trained to ensure that any changes will ultimately
benefit all the various aspects of the individual, not just the particular problem that
is being addressed. Special care is taken to keep not only a client's family, social,
and work relationships in balance, but also his or her internal systems: thoughts,
strategies, behaviors, capabilities, values, and beliefs.
This is known as an ecology check, and is used to ascertain if NLP will be
compatible with a person's specific needs. It is accomplished through the
careful questioning of the individual client both before and after a session.
As a next step, the practitioner will ask a client to see him or herself in a
state of health. By doing so, an outcome is set that will facilitate the healing
process. The brain's natural response is to duplicate whatever images or beliefs
are created about getting better.' The brain then triggers the necessary
immunological responses to guide the body toward its goal of health and
well-being.

When a client is asked questions about life and his or her condition, the
NLP practitioner observes the language patterns, eye movements, postures,
muscle tension, and gestures. These relay information and report internal
sensations about how the client relates to his or her present condition in
both conscious and unconscious ways, revealing what limiting beliefs may
exist. These belief structures can then be altered using NLP.
Yet changing a person's belief structures is not the only issue for NLP
practitioners, warns Dr. Konefal. "I think what people need to achieve
in order to become healthy - to actually make some changes in their
health state - is not only a shift in their beliefs, but a shift in their behavior,"
she says. "They need to have alignment or congruency at all levels, not
just a shift in beliefs. If they change their beliefs, but in fact don't change
any of their behavior, then there's an incongruency. It's much more impactful
if people tell themselves that they need to eat better, than if a doctor or health
counselor tells them. They're much more likely to listen to themselves."

Engaging the Body's Natural Ability to Heal
From childhood, Sarah had been severely allergic to dairy products. Whenever
they were ingested, she would almost immediately experience sinus blockage,
a sore throat, and stomach pain, followed a day or two later by an outbreak
of boils.
As an adult, Sarah had learned to carefully avoid all dairy products.
NLP practitioner Tim Hallbom asked Sarah to think of something similar to a
dairy product, yet something to which she was not allergic. She chose tofu,
a soybean product she ate as a substitute for cheese. As Sarah thought of tofu,
Hallbom carefully observed her eye movements, skin color, muscle tones,
and breathing. Sarah was then asked to think of a food that would cause an
allergic reaction, and she thought of cheese. Hallbom observed the changes:
her skin color became mottled, her muscle tension changed, her eyes looked
down and to the left (compared to looking up and to the right when she
thought about tofu).
Hallbom explains, "When she thinks of cheese, her immune system reacts as
though1 the cheese is a foreign invader such as a virus. The killer cells are called
out, but as there is nothing to fight, they attack healthy cells. If this occurs on
a large scale, problems such as those Sarah experienced may occur. Essentially
what is happening, however, is a mistake- an overreaction of the immune system.
On the other hand, when Sarah thinks of tofu, her body enters a different
(healthy) state, responds appropriately, and she feels fine."

Hallbom uses touch to create a positive association to that healthy state. NLP
practitioners call this an anchor because it holds the positive state stable
through a client's nervous system. (Anchors can also be created using visual
and auditory methods, depending on the client's. needs.) As Hallbom
anchored Sarah's positive state (associated with eating tofu), he asked her to
imagine herself in an audience watching a movie of herself eating tofu,
enjoying it, and seeing herself fully healthy. Hallbom then asked Sarah to
imagine that the "Sarah" on the movie screen was eating cheese. In order
for her to have the full experience, he had her feel its texture, taste, and smell.
By using the anchor of touch to hold the tofu state constant, it sent a message
to Sarah: when she visualizes herself eating the cheese, it's pleasing to her. In
order to create a bridge from this point into some future real-life experience,
Hallbom then had Sarah imagine a future time when she will eat cheese.

When Sarah was able to hold the healthy state while imagining seeing herself
eating cheese on the movie screen, the path was clear for the real change to
occur. The "Sarah" in the movie and the "Sarah" in the room were reassociated.
In other words, Sarah no longer imagined watching herself eating the cheese,
but rather imagined herself actually doing it. When Sarah was able to hold the
healthy "tofu" state while imagining that she was actually eating the cheese,
Hallbom knew the change had occurred.
Sarah has since been able to eat at least one dairy product every day with
no allergic response.

Conditions Benefited by NLP
By identifying and removing an individual's limiting belief about his or her
condition, NLP has been shown to benefit a variety of health conditions and
illnesses. Once these beliefs are redirected, the body is better able to utilize
the immune system.
David Paul, M.D., Medical Director of Vail Valley Medical Center in Vail,
Colorado, uses NLP frequently in his medical practice. One specific
application is as a drugless technique for placing dislocated shoulders back
into their sockets. Standard medical practice involves a significant amount
of medication to induce pain relief and muscle relaxation, followed by
manipulation of the shoulder to put it back in place.

Dr. Paul and his group have developed a technique that uses language
patterns based on NLP to help the patient achieve relaxation and not pay
any attention to the discomfort involved in the actual physical manipulation.
"We use phrases like 'allow your arm to relax,'" explains Dr. Paul, "'and
allow your muscles to relax; notice as your arm goes up the discomfort
becomes more bearable'- all positive, no negative commands, and also
very specific. Ninety-five percent of the time the shoulder can be put back
in its socket in one minute or less without the use of morphine, valium, or
similar products." According to Dr. Paul, prior to using this technique, his
average success rate was between 40 and 50 percent.

Over the past five years Dr. Paul and his group have used this technique to
treat more than one thousand patients, and feels that NLP is an essential
adjunct to his physical practice. Dr. Paul has also found NLP techniques
helpful in the treatment of traumatic injury cases such as car accidents.
"A lot of times a person involved in a car accident feels much worse afte
r four or five days," says Dr. Paul. "He or she replays the accident over
and over in his or her head, sometimes even going through it in slow- motion.
However, this causes the muscles to tense, and this creates a lot of
discomfort. If the practitioner can get involved quickly enough-in the
emergency room, for instance-and change the internal representations of
that experience, the accident victim will be less prone to a lot of the
'whiplash,' muscle spasms, or prolonged pain usually associated with
major trauma.

NLP techniques help to remove blocks that stand in the
way of the body's natural healing process." NLP has also been found to
be helpful in cases of chronic disease. NLP trainer Robert Dilts recalls
how his mother, after having earlier under- gone chemotherapy,
experienced a recurrence of breast cancer that metastasized to her skull,
spine, ribs, and pelvis. He worked with his mother to uncover her conscious
and unconscious beliefs about herself and her illness. Her cancer had
reappeared during a transition period in her life. Numerous changes in her
family life had caused her to feel frustrated upset, to question her place in
the family system, and to question her whole identity. She also worked long
hours as a nurse, commenting that she was literally "dying' to take a vacation.

When her cancer recurred in the midst of these changes, her prognosis was
poor, with her doctor saying all he could do was "make her comfortable."
Dilts assisted his mother in changing her limiting beliefs and unconscious
conflicts. She also made life- style changes that included diet and exercise.
As a result, her health improved dramatically and she elected not to receive
any further chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Eventually she fully
recovered and a normal lifestyle.

Submodalities

According to NLP, information in the brain is coded by the five senses of
sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Each of these senses, also called
modalities in NLP, has a subset of qualities called submodalities, which are
similar to the controls on a television set. As information is, retrieved from
the brain through memory, the submodalities determine the memory's shape
in terms of contrast, color, and volume.
For example, when remembering a person from the past, the
submodalities would determine whether in your mind's eye the person
appeared near or far to you, if you saw him or her distinctly and in color
or black and white, and so forth. The way that the submodalities arrange
the memory plays a significant role in how the memory itself affects people.
NLP can be used to adjust internal memories and feelings by adjusting the
submodalities of the experience. Pleasant memories can be reinforced by
increasing their proximity to you in your inner vision, while upsetting
memories can be diminished by making them dimmer and placing them
further away from you. NLP trainers Steve and Connierae Andreas
studied how the mind codes healing, and discovered a technique to
engage the body's natural ability to heal. Their discovery was prompted
by a personal experience. Shortly after the birth of her first child, Connierae
developed a sore lump in her breast. A bright red patch of skin and a high
fever soon followed. She was diagnosed with a breast infection, put on
antibiotics, and within twenty-four hours the fever was gone and eventually
the lump vanished.

When the symptoms returned after the birth of her second
child, Connierae incorporated her NLP experience and began to experiment
. She thought of influenza as something her body was capable of healing.
Connierae explains, "When I saw myself healing from influenza I was lying
in bed and the image started out in grayish tones. In a split second I went
from that position, like a fast action clip, to standing up - healthy, well, in full
color." But when she compared the submodalities of this image to the
submodalities of the image she had of herself trying to heal the breast infection,
she noticed a difference. "The image I had for the breast infection was a
grayish, still image of myself lying in bed. There was no movement to it."

Connierae identified how her brain coded healing influenza in terms of the
subodalities of her healing pictures, sounds, and feelings. She analyzed this
pattern and then coded her image of healing her breast infection with the same
submodalities. At first her image of healing from the breast infection was
grayish, inactive, and distant. To adjust the image she changed the location,
color, and size of herself in the picture by imagining herself moving up off the
bed and seeing the image become colorful as she became larger, until she
was standing healthy and well. This encoded her brain with the new imprint
for healing and her brain then triggered the necessary immunological
responses to heal the breast infection.

Memory Imprints
Another way of changing a limiting belief is by a technique called
reimprinting. An imprint is a memory formed at an earlier age. Whereas
positive imprints are empowering, negative imprints often result from trauma
or confusion that is forgotten, but which can serve as a root for limiting
beliefs. Tim Hallbom says, "A negative imprint laced with unhealthy beliefs
can create serious problems when the brain duplicates these messages and
sends them out to the immune system where they can serve as a catalyst
for undesirable health conditions. Many unhealthy immunological responses
result from limiting beliefs created through trauma or confusion." The NLP
practitioner can help to identify a limiting belief formed during the imprinting
event, and assist in its reimprinting or replacement.

The Future of NLP
According to standard medical literature, 50 percent of all medical complaints
are recognized today as having a strong psychological component," states
Dr. Paul. "If a practitioner has the tools and technology to deal with this
psychological component, patients will receive better care, be in better health,
and utilize fewer health-related services. The organizations that consistently
apply these principles and integrate them into the practice of medicine are going
to be the successful medical models for how we take care of people in a
cost-efficient and caring manner. I think it's going to become an economic
necessity." John Sward, Ph.D., of the Center for the Improvement of Human
Functioning International, in Wichita, Kansas, notes that these economic necessities,
along with greater medical openness, have moved NLP out of the "fad"
phenomena and into acceptability and respectability. "NLP is starting to be
accepted in academically credible ways, bringing it into the awareness of business
people, and people who strongly influence the economy. "Economics drives a lot
of things in our culture, including our health care system," admits Dr. Sward, "and
NLP is certainly efficient. So I think one of the good things that will come out of
this trend is that NLP will become increasingly more acceptable and understood
as an adjunctive modality, and as a separate methodology all its own."

The History of NLP

In the early 1970's, John Grinder, a professor of linguistics at the University of
California at Santa Cruz, and Richard Bandler, a student of psychology and
mathematics at Santa Cruz, collaborated in an effort to define the qualities of
excellence in several accomplished individuals. They studied the thinking processes,
language patterns, and behavioral patterns of Fritz Perls, father of Gestalt therapy:
Virginia Satir, an exceptional family psychotherapist: Milton Erickson MD an
innovative hypnotherapist and Gregory Bateson, a well known British anthropologist
and writer on communication theories. As a result they discovered that many of the
behavioral and psychological elements that allowed these individuals to achieve
excellence were unconscious and intuitive and that the participants could not
describe their own exceptional qualities. By analyzing speaking patterns, voice
tones, and the selection of words, as well as the gesticulations, postures, and
eye movements of these individuals, Grinder and Bandler were able to make strong
connections between body language and speaking patterns. They then related this
information to the internal thinking process of each participant. Based on their
findings, Grinder and Bandler then trained themselves to assist people experiencing
emotional difficulties. Clients were asked questions about their problems and their
body cues were observed as they responded. According to Grinder and Bandler,
eye movements, posture, voice, tone, and breathing patterns reveal unconscious
patterns affecting a person's emotional state. Once these unconscious patterns are
distinguished, the client can be assisted in adopting new patterns. From their work
they devised a method to teach others how to analyze a person's language, thoughts,
and behavior.

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