NLP – The assumptions of NLP and its uses

NLP presuppositions are a set of expedient beliefs that NLP practitioners choose to adopt. They are the core values ​​or guiding philosophy of NLP, which, while controversial in part, offer a solid set of principles by which to live. An insight into these principles can help you improve your understanding of both your own communication and your interactions with others. They are useful to people from all walks of life, both for personal and professional benefit.

So what is NLP?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, has been around since the 1970s when it was first discovered, if that’s the correct term, during a study of successful therapists. John Grinder who was a professor of linguistics and Richard Bandler who was a mathematician were very interested in psychotherapy and began to study these successful therapists in the hope of finding useful insights for other therapists to use. Although the therapists they studied used very different methods and had very unique styles, Virginia Satir and Milton Erikson were two of them, they all had great talents for establishing trust with their patients on an unconscious level, for building and establishing rapport. . Using their own fields of expertise, mathematics and language, Bandler and Grinder were able to break down what the therapists were doing into logical, language-linked processes and thus NLP was born. Grinder described NLP as “An accelerated learning strategy for detecting and using patterns in the world” while Bandler said it was “An attitude and a methodology, leaving behind a trail of techniques.” The important thing was that, by breaking it down into manageable parts, they made it easier for others to learn. Since then, NLP has developed further and examines thought processes, language patterns, and human behavior. It helps us understand the connection between human behavior and emotions, mind, body, and actions. In the most basic terms, it helps us improve the effectiveness and impact of our communication and more easily understand the behavior of others. Some people have described NLP as a mind map: a guide to how our brains work and what you can tell about someone from the words they use or their behavior. In other words, understanding how people think, feel and react, including you. Let’s start by looking at the title, ‘Neuro-Linguistic Programming’ and what each element means.

Neuro – this relates to the brain and what goes on in your mind. You experience the world through your 5 senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell) and then, you use a set of filters in your mind to convert that information into processes (conscious and unconscious). Your neurological system is activated by thought processes that affect your emotions, your behavior, and your physiology (body language, facial expressions, and involuntary reactions like blushing, for example).

Linguistic – obviously this relates to language, more specifically how you use it to make sense of the world and how you communicate your experience to others through language. Have you ever tried to describe something for which you don’t have a word? It is about how we interpret what we perceive.

Programming – this is the key, since it is related to the behavior patterns that you learn and repeat; how you encode and mentally represent your experience. By understanding how your programming works, how it is coded, you can learn to change the parts that are not useful to you. The key is in the word ‘learn’. Anything you learn to do one way, you can easily learn to do another way, if you choose!

When we use NLP techniques, we adopt a set of what we call presuppositions. That’s 14 convenient assumptions that we use as a starting point; a set of frameworks that we use to help us get the best out of our interactions with other people. In some cases, they give the person we’re talking to the benefit of the doubt and allow us to believe the best of them, despite what may seem like an obvious contradiction on the surface. This gives us the best possible chance of successful communication with that person, because we are in effect starting from scratch. We are not putting up barriers, or projecting our own limiting beliefs onto them. In situations where we seek to help others, whether in coaching, therapy, training, or business, our interaction with them provides the best possible chance for success.

Embracing these assumptions in life can free you from unwanted negative emotions and limitations, allowing you to be in a more positive frame of mind and offering you a greater variety of possibilities. To help remember the presuppositions, we use the mnemonic device RESPECT YOUR WORLD. Here is the complete list.

R Respect for the other person’s model of the world

me Behavior and change must be assessed in terms of context, and Ecology

S Resistance in a client is a sign of lack of relationship (There are no resistant clients, only inflexible communicators. Effective communicators accept and use all communication that comes their way)

P People are not their behaviors. (Accept the person; change the behavior)

me Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources available to them (the behavior is adaptation oriented and the current behavior is the best available option. Each behavior is motivated by positive intent)

against Calibrate on behavior: the most important information about a person is that person’s behavior

you The map is not the Territory (The words we use are NOT the event or the element they represent)

your You (U) are in charge of your mind and therefore your results (and I am also in charge of my mind and therefore my results)

R People have all the resources they need to succeed and achieve their desired results (there are no people without resources, only states without resources)

W All procedures must increase Totality

EITHER There are only comments! (No fault, just feedback)

R. The meaning of communication is the Response you get

L The Law of Required Variety: (The system/person with the greatest behavioral flexibility will control the system)

D. All procedures should be designed to increase options.