Is NLP weird?

NLP means neurolinguistic programming. Neurolinguistic Programming means transformational change. It consists of an array of powerful perspectives, tools, and processes developed over four marvelously creative and fertile decades. However, when the subject of NLP comes up with some of my friends who are not involved in the field, they often express misgivings.

• A friend in Los Angeles told me today, "I met someone who does NLP. They were really weird. They kept looking at me in a way that was really intense and off-putting."

• Other people tell me that NLP feels like a cult. Apparently they have encountered newly-certified practitioners of NLP who were so excited about the tools they had learned that they couldn't curb their enthusiasm.

• Some people have experienced NLP as inappropriately applied sales techniques, used by unscrupulous sales people, to persuade customers to buy things they didn't need, or want.

No doubt there's truth in all of this. Anything that works well is going to have a downside.

For many of us, life is almost unthinkable without the convenience of cars and airplanes; yet both cause incalculable damage as pollutants, and kill people whenever they crash. Name anything you like, and you can discover ways in which it is misused, or causes harm – language, love, religion, food. At one time or another, everything has been used to gain power over others.

As for NLP, one of the misunderstanding common among beginning practitioners and clients alike, is that it consists of a series of techniques or patterns. There are certainly a lot of them. There are even books available with compilations of hundreds of such patterns. But this misses the main point. NLP is not primarily about techniques or patterns. If you imagine that this is what it consists of, then it's certainly going to be weird, and somewhat unsatisfying, a never-ending accumulation of strange exercises. So what is NLP?

More than anything else, NLP is – the mindset that recognizes that any behavior or internal mental state can be changed.

To be effective, an NLP practitioner must believe this in their bones, and they must then communicate it to their client, by whatever means are available to them. Only then can the tools and patterns be used effectively to cement the transformation that has already begun.

Are those patterns and tools necessary? Absolutely! But the initial acceptance of the possibility of unprecedented transformational is a prerequisite. Otherwise the tools are mere tricks; and the client will end up with yet another reason to believe that nothing can help them overcome the problems for which they came to see you.

As a hypnotherapist, my practice changed completely as soon as I recognized the vital importance of my explanation, and demonstration, of the power of the mind to effect previously unimaginable transformation.

Once the client has truly absorbed this, then the work begins. Once the reality of the possibility for almost unlimited transformation is understood by the client, then they can imagine a new destination for themselves. The rest of the work has to do with planning the journey, removing the roadblocks, negotiating the inevitable diversions, and undertaking the journey itself. Is it always as simple of that? Actually, yes.

There are, of course,  many different sorts of roadblocks, and many ways of approaching the journey, many possible roads to take; as many roads, in fact, as there are individuals taking that journey towards congruence and fulfillment.

And yes, it is that simple!

In the presence of an experienced hypnotherapist, or practitioner of NLP, you will not experience the weird feeling of being scrutinized. Instead, you will feel like you are having a conversation with a good friend who has your best interest at heart, and who also happens to have the skills to help you to embody those changes you are seeking. You will experience a feeling of being seen, and heard, and understood, and appreciated, and supported.

If not, look elsewhere.

It's as simple as that

. April 2010 NLP certification program