NLP: How it Helped me
You may well have seen me mention NLP in my story as it is by far one of the biggest positive influences in my life. Having been to “counselling” in the past without any real success, I then met Jill Cowley, a fully qualified NLP Master Practitioner and Master Life Coach, and that is when I realised the true importance of mindset and my potential.
We went through my emotional struggles mentally and of course the binge drinking and needless to say Jill is a true professional and has become a great friend of mine. Jill is the founder of Pozitve Minds and her website details can be found below but for now, who better than Jill herself (in her words) to explain about NLP and the benefits:
Neuro Linguistic Programming ( NLP ): The Benefits
NLP was created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in 1976, California, USA. They worked on the premise that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and behavioural patterns learned through experience. Further that these can then be changed to life goals. The thinking behind this is that the NLP methodology is able to ‘model’ the skills of exceptional people, or performers, allowing anybody to acquire those same skills.
NLP is used to treat phobias, depression, psychosomatic illnesses, allergies and others. It is used by some hypnotherapists and is successfully used in business and leadership skills and training, including government agencies. It is very difficult to scientifically evidence the value of NLP and it has been referred to as a pseudoscience but the amazing benefits of this methodology can be seen when working with clients.
Top tip: If you work with an NLP Practitioner make sure you have rapport with them.
Having rapport with clients is important, as there is an expectation of honesty and sharing in order to achieve the best outcome for the client. The practitioner requires information in order to ascertain the present state of the client and help the client define the specific desired goal or interaction. This also enables the practitioner to determine which resources, or techniques, may be required for an individual client and what the perceived consequences might be for the client if those outcomes are not achieved.
For example excessive drinking might potentially have a negative impact on a relationship. Having the client define specifically what that impact might be can support the practitioner in identifying the most useful approach for positive outcomes. The practitioner provides a bespoke service for individual clients, supporting them to achieve their identified outcomes by using carefully selected tools and methodologies. Experience suggests that change will not occur unless the client is at a state of readiness to move forward. This is determined on the initial meet, or Discovery Interview.
Top tip: NLP is not a medical or clinical intervention. It is used to consistently achieve specific and desired outcomes
Core principles of NLP can be useful in persuasion, sales, negotiation, management training, sports, teaching, coaching, team building and public speaking. These core principles can be very powerful in the right context, using the right languaging and working with clients to tune into their senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, together with non-verbal systems, where we experience the power of self-talk.
Using the NLP communication model a practitioner can better understand and work with clients as to how they might respond to an external event, something which is communicated to the client. How that is received, filtered and processed in the brain, how that creates a certain type of behaviour and what the results of that behaviour might be. When we feel good about ourselves this state enables us to achieve even better results. That can mean taking time to consider an event from the past that caused us to feel really good or manifest a state of excitement that helped us feel good about ourselves or a situation.
In summary the NLP Coach will:
- Develop rapport with you and a trusted therapeutic relationship
- Create an agreement/ contract for sessions, in order to work with your own particular style and ‘behaviours’
- Have the creativity and tools to empower you to uniquely move forward
- Know how to work with you as an individual, utilising NLP skills, experience and language
- Have the ability to structure your unique coaching sessions
- Give and receive, encouraging positive behaviours in you
- Develop realistic and timely goals with you
- Give you tasks/ home play between sessions in order to navigate those self-limiting decisions you might have
Jill Cowley,
Pozitive Minds
NLP Master Practitioner, Master Coach
If you would like to hear more about NLP or Jill, please feel free to contact her. You will find more information on her website.
