NLP and Hypnosis Therapy

Hi, welcome to the therapy bit – really, you could say that this site is the ministry of change, incorporating the inner circle school – except that the one has kind of grown faster than the other [although with luck, thats about to change!].

I use the term therapy – even though I don’t like it, because it is easily recognizable – It is a word people use when they are looking for help.

What I use, and what I teach is mainly Neuro Linguistic programming and Hypnotherapy – I use these as a synergistic whole.  I then incorporate with this core, various forms of psychotherapy, counseling etc. as appropriate to the individual, should this prove useful.

WHAT IS NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING?

Lots of people explain NLP in different ways.  To me, I think nearly all of htem get it wrong.  It is not an easy subject to define simply.

First, NLP is a [fairly] new science of the mind, begun in the 70's by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.  Second, because it is intimately connected with language, to use nlp eleganty is as much an art form as literature or poetry, because the nature of language is such that in order to consistently and effectively evoke thoughts, feelings and emotions accurately and powerfully takes a degree of intuitive creativity with language that – to me, can only be described as art - I should say at this point, that the same is also true of hypnotherapy.

Because of this duality of nature,and because evry human bing, and evry situatonione might aproach in terms of nlp is diffrent and unique, attitude of mind along with the imaginationand creativity it brings, are in many ways as important as technical skill, which, I believe, is why when Richard Bandler, the co creator of NLP explains the subject to his students, he does so first in terms of attitude.

This is what he says:

“NLP is an attitude....Characterised by the sense of curiosity and adventure and a desire to learn skills to be able to find out what kinds of communication influences somebody and the kinds of things worth knowing; to look at life as a rare and unprecedented opportunity to learn.

NLP Is a methodology.....based the on overall operational presupposition that all behaviour has a structure.....and that structure can be modelled, learned, taught, and changed (re programmed). The way to know what will be useful and effective are the perceptual skills.

NLP has evolved into an INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY...enabling the practitioner to organise information and perceptions in ways that allow them to achieve results that were once inconceivable."

I like this explanation, and really don’t think its possible to get much better than that.  As for describing the technology itself, I have my own way, which is as follows:

Our only access to the “real world” – the only way in which we can ever experience it is through our senses, and it makes sense therefore that the way in which we express that world to ourselves is internally is also through those senses – seeing, hearing, feeling etc.

Now way back in the dawn of time, perhaps before we even crawled out of he oceans, It became necessary or one human being to communicate with another –perhaps only in terms of  “Arrgh! – the big thing with the pointy teeth is coming, wriggle for your lives!” Or “Bog off, this Is MY nest!” Now, as we evolved, I think the need for more complex communication internally[thought] and externally [communication/language], also evolved.

In fact, I think they became inextricably woven into who and what we are – into the very bricks and mortar of everything we are, so that we can neither think nor communicate with others without having an effect on our own neuro-chemistry and that of others.

If you think of human beings as computers, than you could say that Richard Bandler and his associate John Grinder, took the essence of human communication , both internal and external, and used it to identify and access the central operating system.  You could say that they discovered the keys to the human version of windows - the operating system.

What does this mean? It means that with NLP, you have direct access to the entire system;  to long and short term memory, to all the sub routines that govern body chemistry, reflexes, hormones, behaviors, beliefs, etc. and can help people to re write them.

All the things that are “inflicted” on us as we grow up by those around us – thoughts, beliefs, values behaviors, the things that limit us and prevent us from being all that we can be can now be re written.

From another point of view, it means that anything that someone does well, can be studied, the program copied and “installed” in another person, so if you find someone who has had a phobia an got over it by themselves, you can fin out exactly how they got over that phobia, and teach others to do the same.  If you have someone who is a creative genius like Einstein, you can find out exactly how Einstein’s creative process works and teach someone else to use it – you cant make them into a genius, like Einstein, but you can give them a program for Einstein’s particular form of creativity, or an Olympic marksmen’s program for accuracy, in the same way that you would install a new program in a computer.

Indeed, the most crucial [ and frequently most overloked] part of NLP - the real core of what makesit so powerfiull - is the abilit yto "model" processes and strategies of hte human mind, and utilise thos models.

Bandler and his team wrote a book called "NLP - the study of the structure of subjective experience", whichis a pretty good dscription but i would expand on that a little for the purpose of expanaton and say, in addion tha titi is the study of the structure of subjetive experience and human processing.

You can put all kinds of information in, but it’s the PROGRAM that tells the computer what to do with it. In a human, we all have lots of different feelings, experience etc. but its the PROCESS the mind uses that tells us what to do with them and how to react to them.

Of course, most of human society is strucured in ways that reflect the human mind, its attudes nd processes, so what ou can apply to th human mid, you can also aply to businesses, societies and all human made structures.

The potential is staggering, and Its a new science and still developing.

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is by far the oldest form of therapy on earth. most explanations will tell you everything except what it is, because until mankind really understands human consciousness, that is a bit hard to answer.

Hypnosis and NLP are two sides for the same coin – they are both sciences of language and communication; they both include an element of art and they can both be used to help someone re program their minds.

The two areas in which they differ most, are that: A] Hypnosis does not include any real tools for modeling.  B] Hypnosis is a great deal more subtle. You could say that NLP is predicated more on Specific language, and hypnosis is predicated more on Ambiguous language, although this does depend quite a lot on which school of hypnosis you follow – there are many.  In our courses, we provide a comprehensive understanding of all the major forms, with an emphasis on Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and Hypnosis as modelled and developed form Erickson and ohers thorugh NLP.

The easiest answer is that hypnosis is a process that allows you to focus your attention - to really focus it, so that your whole awareness is brought to one single point, like the sun through a magnifying glass, and then that incredibly focused attention is turned inwards – not just the usual 7 to 9 percent of your mind that most people use, but anything up to 100 percent of your mind.

This allows you or the person working with you, to bring all the power of your mind to bear in some very unusual ways-you could say that in a very short time hypnosis can achieve what 50 years sitting on a mountain meditating can achieve.

What NLP does through programming, hypnosis does by helping you to generate the experience you want in your mind and if you like it, merge it with your day to day reality.

So when you have the two together…..

In other cases, we use it so that we can work with your unconscious mind while keeping the conscious mind out of the way. People tend to be their own worst enemies - If you think about it, you will realise that when you have a cavity in a tooth, it is your conscious mind that cant resist probing it with your tongue, even though its a painful thing to do; it is your conscious mind that makes you look when something is flying towards your face,. or your eye; it's your conscious mind that reminds you of the chocolate in the next room, when you are trying to cut down.

In fact, the one thing you can guarantee form people as a whole, is if there is a button to push, a switch to throw or a cavity to stick their tongue in, no matter what you do – no matter how many dire warnings you put up in red, saying things like “end of he world switch –absolutely do not touch under any circumstances ever – we really mean it!”

They will push, pull, turn or otherwise jiggle it until it goes bang. SO if you want to make useful change, it is often a lot easier if the conscious mind enjoys an hour or two sun bating on a Caribbean beach while you get on doing the serious work with the unconscious mind.

Because of this, sometimes it is useful to work directly with the unconscious part of the mind, because it doesn't behave like that.

So, hypnosis is the use of the art and science of communication to focus the mind in an incredibly powerful way. If you think about that, it becomes obvious that all this stuff you see in the films is a load of rhubarb. If you focus your mind, all you get is more of you – do you REALLY think that more of you is more likely to do something that you wouldn’t do? No one can make you kill the president of the U.S.A., however tempting it may be. Or tell a secret, or lie, or even cluck like a chicken unless you want to for the sheer fun of it – for the experience..

Another way that hypnosis works is by helping you to uncover resources you didn’t know you had and apply them where you need to; also, where necessary which is not often, by uncovering repressed memories in a very gentle way and freeing people from the problems they cause.

Hypnosis also allows you to learn a great deal very quickly, at both conscious and unconscious level - this can be academic stuff, or it can be new behaviors, attitudes, more useful beliefs about yourself.

It is a great tool for breaking free of your limitations.

For further information on NLP and Hypnosis, have a look around the rest of the site, read the detailed explanations under Collected papers, or contact us.