What is Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP?

NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming is the study of human capabilities, excellence and success. It provides amazingly simple and powerful methods for consistently changing the way you want to think, feel and behave. The results are lasting and will positively impact on your life – be it at work, in your relationship or with regard to your mental or physical health.
NLP is a type of psycho-therapy, however I try to avoid that word as it implies that my clients are 'psycho' where in fact they are not. And psychotherapists don't like us NLP-practitioners to use that word either as it trespasses onto their field of expertise. There are some huge differences to conventional psychotherapy anyway.

Neuro refers to the nerves (neurological system) and the brain which regulate all body organs and the immune system. Neuro also refers to how we use our mind and body and how we use our 5 senses (see, hear, feel, smell, taste), and translate and store our experiences in our thought processes.
Linguistic refers to the way we use language to make sense of our experience and communicate it to ourselves and others. Through our 5 senses we take in information from the world, code and store it internally in our own unique way. These internal codes, or internal representations, shape our mental worlds – the way we react to others, the way we think and feel.
Programming refers to the pathways we use in our brain to code and store our experiences and our memories. Our individual thinking styles are like ‘software’ of the brain – and each person’s ‘software’ differs from another’s. This includes our thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviours, responses, skills, beliefs, and personality. Changing, or upgrading, this ‘mental software’ allows us to let go of behaviours and responses that no longer work for us, and install new ones to achieve the goals we want now.

Western medicine, psychotherapy and counselling try to eliminate what is wrong with a patient/client – a problem orientated therapy. NLP focuses on what can be achieved – a solution orientated therapy. Did you spot the difference?

As we learn to understand the language of the brain and the structure of our personal life, we acquire more flexibility and conscious choice in changing and designing happier and healthier lives. In this way NLP is a powerful and practical approach to positive personal change.
Most of our automatic behaviours and responses run at the unconscious level, outside our conscious awareness. Therefore, some of the most powerful changes need to take place at the level of the unconscious mind.