About NLP

NLP is all about coming BACK TO BALANCE...

Using a vast set of mindset tools, you can remove the emotional obstacles that are blocking your path and transform relationships you have with oneself and others. By balancing our unconscious mind and our conscious mind, so they work together, creating new habits and patterns.

Kick those old habits to the curb that are no longer serving us, allowing our limitations to decrease and our goals to increase.

For example: Stand Up Paddle Boarding, you are aware of the balance it takes to stand up, where to kneel on the board, how to stand up, what it takes to stay up, it’s all about balance! On a conscious level, once the new skill is mastered we continue to enjoy it as we are on automatic pilot, we just do it, mind and body work together on an unconscious level. Sometimes we may go out during risky weather conditions and we tip. We struggle to remain balanced. We can have that same effect going on within ourselves with our unconscious and conscious mind.

“Allow yourself to see what you don’t allow yourself to see.”

Milton H. Erickson

NEURO

Refers to the neurological system, the mind or brain and how the states of mind and body affect communication and behaviour.

LINGUISTIC

Language and non-verbal communication, how we use it to experience our internal world. It is the tool used to gain access to the inner workings of the mind.

PROGRAMMING

Capacity to change our mind and body states, to be able to improve our emotions and behaviours to achieve the desired results required.

NLP Applications

Phobias & Trauma

NLP has become well known for its success in working with people with phobias and post traumatic responses. The process involves re-coding the way the memory has been stored in the nervous system.

The core Research and Recognition project by NLP Trainers Frank Bourke and Richard Gray has worked with hundreds of military veterans in the USA. They title the NLP-based Trauma and Phobia process “RTM” (Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories). Some of their activities in the last decade have been:

A Pilot Study published in the Journal of Military, Veteran, and Family Health, (JMVFH; NY $300,000 Pilot Grant). 25 of 26 (96%) no longer tested as having PTSD and their PTS intrusive symptoms were fully alleviated in under five sessions. (Gray & Bourke, 2015)
First Replication Study. Results were published in the JMVFH in 2017 (Tylee et al., 2017). Over 90% of the 30 male veterans were symptom and diagnosis free at the two- week, six-week, and twelve-month follow-ups.
Second Replication Study. Results are in preparation for submission to a peer-reviewed Journal. Over 96% of the 30 women veterans have scored below diagnostic threshold on the PCL-M and PSS-I at two weeks post and all subsequent measures to one year, follow-ups.
Third Replication Study. (NY $800 K Grant). 75 veteran study published in Psychotherapy Research (Gray, Budden-Potts, & Bourke, 2017). Over 90% of the male veterans completing treatment have scored below diagnostic threshold on the PCL-M and PSS-I. About half of those treated were followed to six months and retained freedom from PTSD intrusive symptoms and diagnosis.
Neurological Studies using EEG, pre- and post-treatment, were done at the Mind Research Network in New Mexico. The first pilot “Quantitative EEG Markers of PTSD and Impact of the (RTM) Treatment Protocol has been submitted for publication to the J. of Biological Psychiatry. The research is being conducted in Dr Jeff Lewine’s laboratory at New Mexico’s, Mind Research Network. for Neuro-diagnostic Discovery. Dr Lewine is one of the foremost neurological research scientists in the US working on PTSD and is currently conducting a randomized controlled comparison study of RTM vs Prolonged Exposure using neurological pre and post measurements.
On April 15, 2018 the RTM Protocol was presented at the Annual World Conference of the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics in Los Angeles, California. The presentation was titled “The Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories Protocol (RTM) for PTSD: a brief treatment in the neural context of reconsolidation blockade”.

Fear of Heights

In New Zealand Dr Bruce Arroll, Auckland Medical School studied a similar intervention used with Phobias of heights. “A brief treatment for fear of heights: A randomised controlled trial of a novel imaginal intervention” in The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, April 2017. Dr Arroll reviewed results from 98 participants. The participants were a convenience sample of the public with a score >29 on the Heights Interpretation Questionnaire (HIQ), a questionnaire validated against actual height exposure. Dr Arroll says “This is the first randomised trial of this novel imaginal intervention which is probably effective, brief, easily learnt, and safe. It may be worth considering doing this prior to some of the longer or more expensive exposure therapies. This study will be of interest to family doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists.”

Allergies & Asthma

A one year research study (May 1993-May 1994) into the treatment of asthmatics, using NLP, was done in Denmark. Results were presented at the Danish Society of Allergology Conference (August 1994), and the European Respiratory Society Conference (Nice, France, October 1994). The study was run by General Practitioner Jorgen Lund and NLP Master Practitioner Hanne Lund, from Herning, Denmark. Patients were selected from 8 general practices. 30 were included in the NLP Intervention group, and 16 in the control group. All received basic medical care including being supplied with medication. The intervention group had an initial day introduction to NLP and Time Line Therapy, and then 3-36 hours (average 13) of NLP intervention. The NLP focus was not mainly on the asthma; it was on how the people lived their daily lives. The results affected both the peoples general lives, and their asthma. Patients tended to describe their change subjectively as enabling them to be "more open", get "colossal strength and self confidence" "a new life" etc. The lung capacity of adult asthmatics tends to decrease by 50ml a year average. This occurred in the control group. Meanwhile the NLP group increased their lung capacity by an average of 200ml. Daily variations in peak flow (an indicator of unstable lung function) began at 30%-40%. In the control group they reduced to 25% but in the NLP group they fell to below 10%. Sleep disorders in the control group began at 70% and dropped to 30%. In the NLP group they began at 50% and dropped to ZERO. Use of asthma inhalers and acute medication in the NLP group fell to near ZERO. Hanne Lund points out that the implications of this project reach far beyond asthma management. She says "We consider the principles of this integrated work valuable in treatment of patients with any disease, and the next step will be to train medical staff in this model."

Allergies are like fearful, or phobic, reactions of the immune system to some stimuli. Some people will be able to produce the allergic response just by thinking about being in the presence of the substance they are allergic to. For example, someone allergic to the pollen may start sneezing when they see a plastic flower. The pollen is not there, but their body-mind thinks it is time to start sneezing. What happens is that the immune system makes a ‘mistake’ and marks out some harmless substance as being dangerous. From then on, whenever this substance is introduced to the immune system, it responds inappropriately, i.e. ‘overreacts’.

Meta Analysis

Meta-analysis of NLP interventions Catalin Zaharia completed a meta-analysis of 425 NLP studies, concluding that only twelve met methodological criteria for evidence based medicine. However he found that the remaining studies did indeed show a robust effect. In “Evidence-based Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy: a meta-analysis” in Psychiatria Danubina 27(4):355-363, November 2015 he reports “The overall meta-analysis found that the NLP therapy may add an overall standardised mean difference of 0.54 with a confidence interval of CI=[0.20; 0.88]. Conclusion: Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy as a psychotherapeutic modality grounded in theoretical frameworks, methodologies and interventions scientifically developed, including models developed by NLP, shows results that can hold its ground in comparison with other psychotherapeutic methods.”

Further NLP Research

Research on NLP by Dr Richard Bolstad

“Every person’s map of the world is as unique as their thumbprint. There are no two people alike. No two people who understand the same sentence the same way… So in dealing with people, you try not to fit them to your concept of what they should be.”