Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy
Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy is the agreed name of psychotherapy which is practiced by individuals trained in both psychotherapy and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). The relevant professional body is the NLPtCA; the Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy and Counselling Association. This group is currently a member of the Experiential Constructivist Section of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), and individuals who meet the rigorous standards for accreditation become UKCP-Accredited Neurolinguistic Psychotherapists.
As such, the NLPtCA has agreed policies concerning professional ethics, training standards, accreditation procedures, and dealing with complaints.
Neurolinguistic programming (NLP)has become a very controversial topic, judging by the Wikipedia entries under that heading.
Briefly, that area of study arose during the 1970s from a seminar at the University of California at Santa Cruz, which included Professor John Grinder, Richard Bandler (The Two individuals credited with originating this field), Gregory Baitson, the originator of the 'double bind' theory of schizophrenia, and Noam Chomsky, who originated the study of the 'deep structure' of language.
They became interested in 'modelling' the work of very effective psychotherapists, to see if they could discover the elements of their practice which facilitated behaviour change. The individual studied were Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and the medical hypnotist, Milton Erickson.
The first two books which arose from this work were based on Richard Bandler's doctoral thesis. Authored by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, they were titled 'The Structure of Magic', Volumes I and II. Subsequent books included Reframing, TranceFormations, and Change Your Brain and Keep the Change. For people interested in learning AbOUT NLP, other authors of interest include Robert Dilts, Ian McDermott, Tad James, John Seymour.
The philosophical basis of NLP derives from pragmatism - judging an idea or a process by its effectiveness in achieving the desired goals.
Students of NLP went on to model effectiveness in business, training, education, MusicAL and sports performance and other situations in which individuals are facilitating behavioural change, whether to change the patterns of thought which lead to mental health problems, or to achieve a higher level of capability in any field of activity. Once one has understood the elements of behaviour (including our mental behaviour), we can find the tools for effective change.
For anyone interested, some of the basic subject areas within NLP are representational systems, submodalities, Perceptual positions, timeline, and the earliest work on linguistic patterns, the meta-model, and these can be found in the books mentioned above, or any basic introduction to NLP.
It May Be possible to expand on these on this page, in time.
Here are a couple of examples to demonstrate how NLP may be used in the context of psychotherapy:
We have, GeneRally speaking, five senses: seeing, hearing, feeling. smelling and tasting. The process of thinking involves creating mental representations in these five senses. If I ask you about your last holiday, you will probably begin to remember the scenery, or conversations, or the sensations of whatever sport you may have engaged in. If I ask you to imagine your next holiday, if it is in a place you haven't been before, you will probably begin to create some images of what it may be like.
The more vividly you remember scenes or activities from your holiday, the more you begin to re-live those experiences, the more you will begin to feel the way you felt at that time. This is what in NLP we would call an 'associated memory'.
If, on the other hand, you have some old, faded photographs of a distant holiday, and see your younger self in them, you are likely to find that the feelings have faded, as well. When working with a person who has had a traumatic experience, a neurolinguistic psychotherapist is likely to invite their client to remember it in this way, a 'dissociated' memory. The idea is that with this kind of perspective on a past event, a person can begin to think about it in a less emotional, more realistic way. The understanding of the adult can be applied to events which have happened in the past, and they can be re-evaluated, helping RESOLVE negative effects in the present.
This differs from the approach of most traditional psychotherapies, which encourage clients to re-live past traumas, with the idea that this will help them 'work through' the negative emotions. This difference may make the neurolinguistic approach somewhat controversial.
Most of us are aware of having a background of internal talk going on in our minds, and most often it is self-critical. Neurolinguistic psychotherapists call this our 'internal dialogue'. We are often encouraged to think positively, or try saying positive affirmations to ourselves, to counteract the negative effects of our self-criticism, but often this contradicts what we believe about ourselves.
NLP offers us the suggestion that we might try moving it around, turning the volume down, changing it to a funny voice. One can begin to listen consciously to this stream of words, then imagine speeding it up, like an old-fashioned record played at the wrong speed - it begins to sound like Mickey Mouse, then a squeak, then goes right out of range. Without weeks or months of going into ones past, or the reasons for what we say to ourselves, or the dynamics of our relationships with our parents, we can make this one change, train our minds to do it automatically, and become released from what can be a major contributor to 'low self-esteem' or even depression. Richard Bandler suggests changing the tonality to that of SomeOne who loves us, saying our name. This can often give the words a completely different meaning, or even change them.
Most of us who use NLP in our work with clients do so because it offers the possibility for very immediate, but also profound change, which is lasting. It is respectful of our clients in that we are involved in teaching them some processes which they can use or not, as they choose, doing what works for them. We do not need to make judgements or try to influence their decisions or the ways they choose to lead their lives - we are simply offering them options which will help them free themselves from limiting effects of past events, and have more choices in the future.
One of the most EXCITING things about neurolinguistic psychotherapy is that it doesn't have to stop at repairing damage from the past - it can quickly move into ways in which our clients can develop their strengths and capabilities onto new levels of success, both in their personal lives and in their work.