Introduction to NLP
I have studied NLP since the late 1970s, and actively incorporated it in my work since that time. It is frequently represented and misrepresented in the media and is often misunderstood. We have benefited from NLP in several ways:
- Criminal investigations-NLP techniques are used by the FBI and others in law enforcement to observe, detect dishonesty, influence suspects to tell the truth and for other goals. The Fox show Lie To Me has incredible, though somewhat dramatized, examples of calibrating truth versus lies.
- Education-NLP practitioners did not discover, but were the first to really publicize and utilize the concepts of Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory, and Gustatory processing. (Olfactory and Gustatory, are our senses of smell and taste). This has expanded into educational practices in which we attempt to discover and utilize the learning styles of students and match instruction to the methods each student needs to better learn.
- EMDR-The NLP Eye Movement Pattern was the precursor to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) a very effective treatment for trauma, and given an A rating as strongly recommended for trauma by the Veterans Administration.
- Therapy, Coaching and Human Services-NLP-based training has improved the skills of those working in therapy, child welfare, social work, and other areas in which people need to be more effective in coaching others to have better lives.
Unfortunately, NLP technologies, especially language have permeated our culture in ways that negatively impact our lives. The most egregious example for me has been the use of influential language patterns which evolved from hypnosis in political dialogue and debate.
In NLP, we learn that the meaning of anything is a combination of that thing and the frame, or context, within which we place that thing. For example, the original frame of health care last year was to solve a wide range of health issues by developing a system which covered everyone, was affordable, and reduced costs. If the debate had stayed within the frame of solving health care problems, progress would have been easier. At least, if we didn’t pass it, we would have been voting yes or no on an honest agenda.
Unfortunately, alternative frameworks were promoted, and health reform became framed in such contexts as “Socialized Medicine” and other misleading frames. The worst I saw was the frame of “something we were doing because 15% of people couldn’t afford health care.” That frame was blatantly dishonest.
We need to have some understanding of this area of NLP for self protection in a world where the truth has become devalued, and all that matters is manipulating meaning in such a way that people get to forward their agenda.
I will comment on framing here from time to time, and offer some other basic insights on NLP.
