Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a form of psychotherapy that seeks to help patients have a better understanding of themselves and change negative thought patterns that lead to negative behaviors. Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, operates around the core principal that every person has subconscious programming in their mind that causes the person to react to certain stimulus in certain ways. By changing this programming, NLP practitioners believe they are able to turn negative reactions to positive ones. All it takes is a change in perspective.
NLP practitioners don\’t try to treat the symptoms of the surface of negative behaviors or mental disorders, but rather find the root cause of the problem and remedy that. NLP practitioners listen carefully to what patients say to identify any subconscious clues the patient is giving as to the true nature of the problem. NLP practitioners ask targeted questions so not to allow the patient to use deletion or omission when answering questions. By doing this, NLP practitioners are better able to explore the patient\’s subconscious and identify problems.
The major focus of NLP is to help people have a greater self-awareness and understand that most of the limitations they see as being part of their life are in actuality only a matter of perception. By eliminating self-defeating, self-limiting and negative thoughts, NLP can open the mind to see the bigger picture. By promoting healthy inner dialogue NLP can help you realize that the biggest problem with trying to reach a goal is telling yourself that you can\’t.
NLP also arms you with the tools you need to more effectively communicate. This is a great asset to anyone in a field that requires they deal with the public on a regular basis. By learning how to read people – one of the fundamental teachings of NLP – you are better able to judge whether or not the person you are speaking to is not just hearing your words, but understands the meaning behind them. NLP also teaches you how to adjust your posture, body language and tone of voice to better fit the situation you\’re in. By adjusting these things to match the person you\’re conversing with, you create a sort of connection that helps them not only understand you better but also helps make them feel you are understanding them as well.
NLP can also be used to help a wide variety of mental disorders such as habit disorders, learning disabilities, phobias and even depression. Teachers are employing the methodology behind NLP to help their students feel more confident and overcome learning disabilities.
Over NLP teaches several effective ways to prove just about every aspect of your life and help you live your life to the fullest.
Interested in knowing more about NLP? Well, NLP Courses can make the difference for you…
#1 by Michael on February 10, 2010 - 2:02 pm
Quote
Having worked with people with learning disabilities for over 20 years, I find it worrying that you believe NLP can be of benefit to these people. Learning disabilities are not ‘mental disorders’ The term ‘learning disability’ (actually we use the term ’special need’s these days) covers a bewildering number of conditions, a large number of which are not yet fully understood by medical science, but none of them could be or should be labelled as Mental Disorders.
To suggest that NLP would be able to help these people is, quite frankly, total nonsense. some would go even further and express serious concerns that NLP practises could even be considered dangerous to some of these sufferers. Someone suffering from Autism, for example, could easily drive themselves into a frenzy if asked to practise inner dialogue. As for attempts to teach them to change perspectives and change negatives to positives, this is not going to help at all. In most cases it would just confuse and frustrate, and in some it might cause and amplify the very anxieties and issues that professionals spend many years helping these people to manage.
As for the claims about Depression, again total nonsense! NLP seems to actively promote the idea that you ‘choose how you feel’ and depends very heavily on the idea that you can turn a negative experience into a positive one by merely changing ones perspective. This may or may not work when working with someone who has no symptoms of depression. However, any psychiatric professional would approach the theory with contempt, especially when applied to clinical depression. Depression can not simply be snapped out of. Clinical Depression is very often pinned down to a chemical imbalance in the sufferers brain. Moderate and severe sufferers have little choice but to accept treatments that not only include cognitive and anxiety therapies but also a large number of very powerful medicines.
The NLP approach to depression would seem to stand a very good chance of making things much much worse for the sufferer
When articles make such references and claims it is not surprising that the vast majority of Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals in the British Medical Profession become angry and dismissive of NLP and its techniques. Many Dismiss it as an attempt to delude and avoid dealing with the issues that have caused the Depression in the first instance. What NLP practitioners need to understand is that it is one thing to coach Executives and the ‘Self Improvers’ out there, but the theories behind NLP are a long long way from being sound enough to hold water with more then a tiny fraction of the medical professionals out there.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR CLAIMS!!
And finally … If you have (now or in the future) any clients whom you believe maybe suffering from Depression or any other Mental Health Issues….
Don’t try to be clever by using NLP on them. BE CLEVER AND SEND THEM TO THEIR G.P