Therapy has all sorts of connotations – for many it has negative connotations, especially here in the UK whereas in America for example, it’s very common to have a therapist. In essence therapy is a ‘treatment intended to heal a disorder’. A ‘disorder’, in this context, for me is anything that disrupts
the way our mind functions – anything that causes us a problem. Therapy is just a way to help people clear those things that are blocking their progress or stopping happiness in their life. It’s not a negative thing, it’s a hugely positive process.
There are many ‘conventional’ therapies that are ‘talking therapies’ – and surprisingly enough they centre around and involve a lot of talking on the part of the client about their problems and traumas they have experienced in their life. This can often feel quite hard work and uncomfortable for the client who tries to relieve the issue in the past by talking about it – whilst some people get benefit from this and someone listening, my question is, who wants to relive all of that in huge detail? (I certainly wouldn’t want to unless I had to, and there was no other option – I would just want someone to fix my thinking so I could get on with my life without whatever it is that’s causing me a problem).
The NLP approach to therapy is somewhat different to conventional therapy. In fact it’s considerably different. We are not interested in what a client thinks (as in the content of the experience that is causing them the problem), we are interested in HOW they think. Why? If we understand how they think, we can help them make changes to how they think, in order to eliminate the problem and because we are not dealing with the content of the past, the whole process is so much more comfortable for the client AND much faster!
We know that all learning, behaviour and change happens at the unconscious level and that NLP Practitioners and NLP Master Practitioners have an array of tools in their toolkit to help their clients make changes at the unconscious level and rid themselves of problems they have created from their past. One of the tools that NLP professionals use is Time Line Therapy.
Time Line Therapy has been around for 30 years and essentially helps clients get rid of negative 
emotions that they have stored up in their neurology from past events. Getting rid of these is really helpful given negative emotions can play a huge part in any decisions you make day to day. With Time Line Therapy we don’t talk about the detail of the events in the past. It can also be used to get rid of limiting beliefs they have such as I’m not good enough – imagine what impact it would have on your life if you lived day to day with that belief – people wouldn’t apply for promotion, the career they dreamed of, go for that relationship, the business they want to start … the impact is huge! On our NLP Practitioner course students get to experience Time Line Therapy, and students learn the skills and processes of Time Line Therapy when they take the NLP Coach course.
Another tool often used by NLP Practitioners and Master Practitioners is strategies – the thought processes that we run that always lead to a specific outcome. We run strategies for everything – often they don’t cause you a problem, but sometimes they do. We can understand the ones that aren’t working so well for you and change them, so that you do thing differently in the future.
Maybe you’re aware that values are the unconscious filter that drives us – they determine what we focus on, what we spend time on and what motivates us. Sometimes a client’s values are not aligned with what they want in life leaving them consistently feeling they are not getting or achieving what they want. An NLP Master Practitioner knows how to elicit the clients’ values and help them change them if they’d wish.
Probably everyone experience internal conflict at some point – that inability to make a decision easily or perhaps you’re exhausted from the internal fighting that goes on in your head every day – having a to and fro battle – for example, one day you think you’re amazing and the next you’re not good enough – or perhaps there is a conflict where you think there are 2 things that you can’t have at the same time – e.g. risk and security. In NLP we use a process that gives you more time, energy and clarity by resolving the inner conflict.
I could go on with more and more techniques and ways that NLP can help in therapy. Overall the benefits of working with NLP & Time Line Therapy in a therapeutic context is that the process is fast, long lasting and comfortable for the client. If you’d like to know more about how you can use NLP in therapy or you’d like to discuss how NLP in therapy could work for you, get in touch
