Neuro-linguistic Programming in Psychotherapy

Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP is a set of pragmatic principles and techniques designed to help people change how they think, feel and behave.

NLP recognises that much of our experience is made up of relatively habitual and predictable patterns and routines (this is the 'programming' part of NLP). Experience is also constrained by language patterns ('linguistic') and by the brain's ways of seeing, hearing and perceiving (the 'neuro' part).

At the heart of NLP is modelling. NLP studies the internal strategies of people who do things extremely well, or of people who have overcome problems, so that others can learn. For example, even something as mundane as how we choose from a menu, can be analysed as a sequence of internal steps involving sensory components of experience.

Modelling is an important aspect of psychotherapy. In the first place we need to discern specific internal patterns that lead to difficult emotions and problem behaviours, and then begin to disrupt them. Secondly the client needs to learn new patterns that lead to more beneficial results. In this way NLP can further one of the principle objectives of psychotherapy which is to develop greater psychological flexibility.

NLP Links

ANLP - an international NLP organisation promoting professional standards