NLP is about understanding and modeling the structure of personal success and excellence. It is based on how rather than why people think and behave in a particular way or pattern. Because modeling successful performance can lead to excellence, NLP has helped people achieve success in fields as diverse as health and wellbeing, education, sport and management.
NLP comes from the three areas it brings together:

• Neurology (‘Neuro’): the mind and how we think; we process and interpret all information through our senses; how we use this information has a significant impact on how we feel.
• Linguistics: is how we use language (positive or negative) to influence ourselves and others.
• Programming (or patterning): is how we sequence our actions in order to achieve the goals we set (often unconsciously).

NLP was born out of collaboration between Richard Bandler and John Grinder who studied the patterns used by three of the most outstanding and successful therapists practising in the early 70’s: Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. Their research eventually led to a greater understanding of how people achieved excellence in any field and how outstanding people used effective thinking and communicating. This modeling of successful people and what they did differently from those who were not successful provides a process that other people can replicate to achieve that excellence.

From these beginnings NLP practitioners have created many powerful psychotherapy techniques. These provide the practitioner with a set of tools to enable him or her to understand and incorporate or modify any sequence of behaviour they observe in their clients. The intention is to help a person understand they have more choices than they may have realised.
As experience and developments in NLP-based change work grew, and as new practitioners needed to have a framework which gathered these various techniques together, various NLP writers sought to design a structure to do this. A particular model described by Richard Bolstad¹ is called RESOLVE. This is an acronym for a series of steps which can be used when involved in NLP-based change work. This is summarised as follows:

• Resourceful state of the practitioner: given that changework is dependent on the interaction between practitioner and client, the practitioner needs to be knowledgeable, confident and clear about their role.
• Establish rapport: if changework is to be successful the practitioner needs to establish an attunement and shared understanding with their client.
• Specify outcome: as NLP is an outcome orientated system the client will be asked to identify their own personal goals. This is to create a ‘knowing’ of what the positive outcome will be like – specifically.
• Open up the clients model of the world; the set of internal thoughts, beliefs, images and feelings the person uses as a current model. This provides a starting point to help the practitioner and client to understand what other choices will be available to achieve change.
• Leading: this is an NLP term to describe what happens when a practitioner is using an intervention to assist the client to change their internal experience in order to achieve their outcome. The intervention includes any one or more of the powerful techniques which have been developed over the years.
• Verify change: this is to ensure that clients are able to prove to themselves that positive change has actually occurred by inviting them to test their success carefully.
• Ecological exit process: where ecology in this instance is the study of consequences (of change). Understanding what will happen as a result of achieving their outcome.

Examples of Modeling

For instance, have you ever done something so well and effortlessly that it amazed you? You might have imagined beforehand that you couldn’t have achieved that outcome. NLP shows you how to understand and model your own success so that you can have many more of those moments. It’s a way of bringing out the best in you, rather than accepting what might be second best.

Even if you have had no previous experience of doing something before, it is possible to model someone else’s skills. For example, if you wanted to learn how to drive a car, it would seem obvious that you need to learn what to do and practice these elements until you become proficient. Would you choose to model yourself on a driver who regularly displays behavioural patterns akin to road rage; or would you choose an outstanding driver who has not only learnt how to drive excellently, but is in complete control of his emotions whilst doing so? You might like to observe what the outstanding driver does and when, what his attitudes to and beliefs about driving are, what he says to himself as he is doing it and how he deals with potentially stressful situations.

NLP offers you a particular understanding of how you function mentally and behaviourally which means you can start to make easy, comfortable and lasting changes in your personal and professional life.

¹RESOLVE A New Model of Therapy, Richard Bolstad. 2002. Crown House Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1899836845