Why NLP?
Or rather, why NLP for me? Relating to, why NLP from me?
I have a BA in psychology (2006), I have a Master’s degree in Dance/Movement Psychotherapy (2009) and yet, it is NLP that I became most passionate about. I was fascinated by the NLP method nearly two decades before I became an NLP Practitioner myself. I knew nothing of its founders. I knew nothing about flashy TV appearances. I knew nothing of the objections that some friends have mentioned to me since becoming a practitioner.
NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Some immediate reactions I’ve gotten go along the lines of – Neuro? They mess with your brain!!!?! Well, no, we’re helping you tidy up the mess that’s already there. Linguistic? Stop catching me on words, they’re just words, they don’t mean anything!!!?! Well, they do, to you too, which is why you’re catching NLP on the words that define it. Programming?! I’m no computer, I’m a human you can’t just write up some software to fix me!!!!?! I won’t write up anything, you will, and you won’t even have to actually write it down.
In any case, my experience of NLP was purely about perspective of life. I’ve had wonderful people in my life showering me with advice from their own life experience, good and bad. I’d be warned against doing something I was sure I would succeed in. I was criticised harshly for something I thought I did well. And I was complimented for things I did which I thought were an absolute disaster. And as much as I’d want to take the advice for what it is, just another perspective - what often happened was I’d reflect on my relationship with the person advising me and reconsider if this is a friend/ family member that I want involved in my decision making now and in future, missing out on the actual (sometimes useful) advice. In the end, I did whatever I wanted anyway.
But then, I learned a new way of seeing situations in my life. Using various techniques, I would be able to place myself as an observer of myself, and maaaaaan, did I have things to say to me! The initial experience was both mortifying and empowering. I was mortified to see a large chunk of my reality that I’ve had self-made blinders block all this time. And yet, I felt so empowered to see new things I could do, new angles I could approach things, and new ways I can communicate what I’m really passionate about. These “various techniques” were NLP techniques and they altered my way of thinking for the rest of my life… just another thing I love about NLP – once you’ve learned a technique, it’s for you to use for life, you’re not dependent on any professional to keep using it.
So, many years after my personal successful experience with NLP, I became an NLP Practitioner myself. And since words matter, here’s my own acronym: NLP, a method that enables you to gain a New Life Perspective. I use the NLP techniques to help people find confidence – confidence in seeing new perspectives of their reality, confidence in manoeuvring their new reality and confidence in being themselves in this expanded reality. We will do better when we are able to see ourselves from a different angle and say truthfully – wherever you’re going and however painful the necessary changes might be, you’re going to be OK because I gotcha!