Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) is a controversial psychotherapy practice that we can find in every corner of the internet. Here we examine its definition and the NLP techniques most used.
NLP is based on the perpetual interconnection between words, neural connections that support thought and behavior programmed by habit.
What is neuro-linguistic programming?
Neurolinguistic programming can be defined as a method of psychotherapy oriented towards self-knowledge and personal improvement. Developed in the 1970s by the linguist John Grinder and the psychologist Richard Bandler, it brings together in the same point communication theories with theories on the psychological development of the individual, to guide the individual towards the full achievement of his life goals.
Basically, NLP affirms that there is a personal behavior created and fossilized by experience that has its correlate in certain linguistic uses and complex neurological processes. The gradual modification of the behavior and the language used will eventually change the way of thinking, increase skills and lead the person towards success.
In a way, there is in these NLP techniques, an understanding of the human brain as a computer with immense possibilities, but one that we operate according to limiting mental programs. The true growth of the individual being treated would then lie in changing the programming of their brain machine through deep self-analysis, which will lead to shaping our communication with other people.
NLP argues that this reprogramming process could greatly improve or even root out many cases of depression, phobias created by trauma, psychosomatic illnesses, and other disorders, in addition to helping the individual achieve a high level of assertiveness in their personal lives. and professional.
Although it has been considered over time that scientifically NLP has a much smaller scope than promised in all these areas, it is still a widely used method in multiple fields, such as sports, business or certain branches of psychology. therapy.
In the following video, all the relevant information for an effective introduction to neuro-linguistic programming is concisely summarized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-lYzO3zijI&ab_channel=Lectura%C3%81gil
Proposed benefits of NLP techniques
This level of penetration of NLP in various scenarios is due to the important exercises of emotional management, psychic opening and motivation that it proposes to its practitioners. Although a traditional psychologist would probably try more evidence-based methods, it is true that NLP offers a certain dynamic channel for desires for personal balance and relational progress.
Emotional control
The first benefit associated with neurolinguistic programming according to its practitioners is the establishment of simple methods to manage emotions. Many crucial moments in our lives are negatively determined by visceral reactions to stimuli that we have not been able to identify. NLP would offer techniques to analyze the deep meaning of these impulses and neutralize the disorderly result they generate.
Irrational fears could be weakened thanks to this management, lightening the weight of our anxiety in relational areas of great intensity or highly demanding work circles.
Self-Knowledge
Know yourself, prayed the advice of the god Apollo in the ancient Oracle of Delphi. NLP is a kind of millennial simplification of this notion, recommending an honest immersion in one's own complexes, to understand the root of many of them and to be able to redirect the mind to more productive areas.
This process of self-analysis involves a pragmatic examination of the suffocating thought patterns that have been unconsciously incorporated through years of erroneous learning. Reprogramming practices aim to break these cycles and face life in a new way, with greater creativity and decision-making.
Motivation
Once the path of eliminating entrenched excuses in our lives has begun, motivation will increase, since we will trust more in our own ability to persist and meet the proposed objectives. No big fearful postponements disguised as caution or daily procrastinations. The enthusiasm will take the form of an experiential plan.
This plan will gradually include, given the open mind provided by continuous self-reflection, a great capacity for adaptability, talent that is always healthy for the mind and extremely useful to be functional in the contemporary labor system.
Most used NLP techniques
Having exposed the benefits that the creators of NLP ensure for its practice, we will delve into some of the NLP techniques fundamental. As we will see, these are resources aimed at personal well-being, the acceptance of inevitable change and the most cunning way to deal with the obstacles that come our way.
Needs all common to the human condition. The results will be theoretically enhanced according to the constancy that is applied to the technique over time.
Neurolinguistic programming techniques can be considered tools for analysis, development and persuasion, both of one's own psyche and of the psyche of others.
conscious physiology
NLP recommends for the physiological section a series of conscious decisions regarding breathing, posture and salivation, for example. This is done due to the belief that certain physical positions contain a psychological meaning that has a lasting impact on the unconscious and on the totality of our daily lives.
Depression or low self-esteem are associated with stooped and head down postures, therefore, we should adopt a straight and haughty posture to start our ascent of the melancholic well. Short breath is associated with stress. Widening it from the diaphragm leads to a relaxed state of mind.
Basically, it is a reversal of our habitual perception: instead of understanding a given physical configuration as a consequence of an emotional state, we seek to create a new emotional state by directly modifying the physical configuration.
On the other hand, NLP also insists on classifying human behavior according to eye movement (ocular accesses) and the preferred sensory channel to receive information (visual, auditory or kinesthetic). This would be useful for reading other people's body language or for adapting one's own body and message to the other's preferences. This establishes a deeper and faster communicative connection.
Report
Speaking of deep connection, NLP gives the process of achieving it the name of rapport, an Anglo-Saxon term that denotes harmony between several people. This attunement is created at the neurolinguistic level by paying close attention, in the first instance, to the similarities with the people in the environment to work with. Creating links from the similarities of character or thematic interests is the most recommended.
The resemblance can be manufactured to a certain extent, in a circumstantial way, becoming a reflection of the person to be connected. Being a mirror of your posture, your tone, lexicon or rhythm of speech, even your breathing rate, can be very functional in the exercise of rapport. Of course, with good sense and subtlety.
Rapport would offer the advantages of human learning through the highest degree of empathy, the creation of an atmosphere of acceptance in a given context, and a great tool for leadership. But there is also always the risk of getting lost in the reflection with the other, losing one's own identity and being irreversibly influenced by powerful personalities. Great care.
Referentiality
Another way of understanding human behaviour, our own or that of others, is to analyze the type of essential reference that predominates in thought and adapt, in the case of a communication, our message to this pattern.
For example, the internal reference system tells us about people who tend to unconsciously impose their criteria, vision and sensations on the external world. Then the conversation with a person governed by this format must be structured by convincing him at every step that the idea has come from him or is always subject to his approval.
On the contrary, the external reference people give the greatest weight to the opinion and approval of the environment, with which the NLP expert will speak always addressing the opinion of the family, the managers or the expert himself. This type of person would be easier to convince.
As the saying goes, each head is a world. And NLP deals with this notion trying to give simple classifications and assumable communications to the immense complexity of our mental universe.
Necessity or Possibility Modal Operators
After leaving behind the internal reference/external reference duality, we now find ourselves with another duality of NLP, this time referring to the metaprograms of necessity or possibility. According to one of these two factors a person usually organizes his thinking: according to the need of what must be done, above his wishes, or according to his wishes, parking what is necessary.
It is important for the NLP expert to know how to interact with these two operators. For it is not the same to communicate with a cautious, slow and predictable personality, governed by necessity, than to communicate with personified audacity, an explorer of the unknown, governed by desire.
illusion of alternative
Entering more manipulative terrain, the NLP techniques they offer the chance to steer a person toward the option we favor by strategically posing a false choice question. Are we going to go to the movies in the afternoon or night shift? It seems a respectful question of the other's decision, but the option of not going to the cinema has been left out. The options actually conceal only one.
This way of piping off a response can be much more effective than it seems at first glance, since the formula used creates a kind of logical and social obligation that is difficult to get rid of.
covert orders
Staying on persuasive grounds, NLP covert commands consist of disguising a command by using a structure other than the typical imperative and by using specific inflections of the voice.
For example, a question that tonally highlights the content to be obeyed and concludes with a downward inflection instead of an upward inflection ends up being a fairly powerful but elegant command. Such a procedure naturally requires training to get rid of the ballast of the forced.
Wall fixing
Anchoring is a technique based on the old notion of conditioning made popular by Pavlov at the beginning of the last century. Throughout our lives, we constantly associate fixed stimuli with emotional states experienced in the past.
These anchors can be positive, such as the sense of family belonging triggered by the smell of Christmas food, or negative, such as the sight of a child's toy that was used as a reward for submitting to abuse.
Positive anchors can be made consciously within NLP therapy, choosing unique stimuli to connect with a perfect memory. This stimulus, auditory, visual or kinesthetic, will be used to restore stability in difficult moments, returning us to a place of peace. The notion of the anchor may be quite similar to the ancient notion of a talisman.
Conclusion
Without being fully scientific, neurolinguistic programming has undoubtedly penetrated political, business and popular discourse, making certain psychoanalytic concepts that are difficult to spread popular and attractive.
His extremely simple, pocket-sized techniques have supported the formation of instant and fruitful connections between like-minded people, while offering personalities mired in stress or confusion some easy-to-apply resources for regaining balance.
Knowing how to separate the grain from the chaff within the theory and going to the original sources of the concepts gathered under its banner, NLP is certainly an interesting system to take into account in our studies of the contemporary mentality.
So far our review of the NLP techniques. If you have been interested in this article, you will probably want to visit this other one on our website dedicated to emotional psychology. Follow the link!
