About NLP

NLP = Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Neuro refers to the brain and neural pathways of the human organism through which our experience is processed via our five senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory).

Linguistic is about the content that moves across and along these pathways. It is about the language and nonverbal communication systems through which our neural representations are coded, ordered, and given meaning. These include: pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, and words.

Programming is the way the content is directed, sequenced, and connected by each of us to produce the thinking patterns and behaviors that are our experience of life. Training in NLP provides the ability to discover, utilize, and change these programs to assist us to have new experiences in life that are more satisfying, fulfilling, and enjoyable.

Think of it as being like a railroad system. The Neuro part of NLP is like the tracks. Linguistic is the engines and cars. Programming is how the switches are set. How the switches are set determines where the engines and cars go. With the switches set a particular way, the train can only follow a particular path that is determined by how those switches are set. In this analogy, then, the objective of NLP is to assist you to change how your switches are set.

A little about our internal programming:

Our brains program themselves from birth; in the world we call this learning. The brain must generalize, delete and distort the incoming information in order to pare it down enough to assimilate it. For instance, when you look at a variety of different dogs, you are able to generalize them all into the category of “dog”. When you think of a large variety of sizes, shape and color that dogs come in, it is amazing that most children can identify a dog as a dog before the age of two. This is an example of deletion, distortion and generalization working well. This process works well most of the time. There are, however, small gaps in the programming, places where something important has been deleted, or where information is distorted (by the cognitive handicap of being young and not having much experience in the world) or over generalized. These gaps tend to cause us pain or difficulty as adults. For example, if a child speaks his mind as a three year old and is reprimanded, the child may make the generalization that it isn’t ok to speak one’s mind. The programming now has a line in it about not speaking up. As an adult, this person is likely to not feel heard or to be accused of being withdrawn. When this person gets into an intimate relationship, they may have trouble with communication. A simple shift in that line of programming can change their experience in many different areas of their lives. When we understand the programming, and how it got set, our behavior makes complete sense. Often, clients are just as relieved to realize that how they have been behaving makes sense, as they are able to shift the programming. It is always important to appreciate how we got where we are.

• When our brains learn, neural pathways are formed.
• A human organizes reality by deleting, distorting, and generalizing information. This organization is useful for continued survival.
• Occasionally a person may feel that their “buttons are pushed” when a neural pathway (once necessary for survival) is activated in a different context.
• Appreciating these pathways as elegant solutions allows new neural pathways to be added and gives us access to our desires.