The aim is to get what you want by analysing how you think and behave when at your best, combined with the practical application of that knowledge to your every day life.

'Neuro' refers to the neurological system. That system shapes our experience of the world through our five senses. It translates sensory information into conscious and unconscious thought processes and experiences - such as your sense of time.

'Linguistic' refers to the verbal language we use to communicate with ourselves and which co-formulates how our thoughts are expressed.

'Programming' relates to the patterns of behaviour we all have. These are the things we tend to do as individuals; that mark us as individuals.

Just as a PC uses an operating system, the brain operates with a set of beliefs, values and thought processes. NLP helps re-programme an individual's belief and perception system to transform bad habits into beneficial habits. As a result you build a better relationship with yourself and everyone else.

Many NLP practitioners act as consultants to the business world, where NLP is nowadays a significantly accepted method of improvement.

NLP can free you from virtually any problem, crossing the divide between the physical, spiritual or emotional. Phobias, weight gain, stress, depression, emotional traumas, relationship issues, exam anxiety, even fetishes.

NLP evolved in California in the 1970s at the University of Santa Cruz when John Grinder, a professor of linguistics, and information sciences student Richard Brandler, began studying people who excelled in their field. They based their study in particular on three of the leading psychotherapists of the day: Fritz Perls, re-discoverer of Gestalt therapy; Virginia Satir, a family therapist; and Milton Erikson, a world-famous hypnotherapist. These practitioners defied the odds to get through to 'difficult' or very ill people where others had failed.

Grinder and Brandler identified many of the underlying patterns of behaviour that made the therapists so effective in helping others This process is commonly referred to in the field as 'modelling' - a kind of refinement of the aphorism `like breeds like'. With what they had found they developed a set of core personal development techniques and principles this is now known as NLP.

It works like this: if you have a skill you want to master, you 'model' that skill (maybe on someone else's skills). Basically you project your model fully fledged ahead of you, as if you possessed the skills already. That way you can learn to do what others do in a fraction of the time it took them.

a master footballer or athlete will be doing certain things with his mind, and others with his body to achieve that mastery of the game.

NLP also filters into mainstream primary education, which now generally accepts that children learn in one of three main styles.

Auditory learners respond most effectively to the spoken word - the types that make notes while listening to a lecture.

Now, we can 'model' someone, but what about the unknowns and the intangible aspects that can't be copied, like physique, genius or talent?

Obviously one has to take into account the genetic/physical component in any desired change. You cannot become a super athlete if you do not have the physique for it or the necessary training and application. But if you want to become better at your version of what you wish to emulate, NLP shows ways to do that.

NLP works best for open, curious people. AND it's not done to you. You are doing it. When you really want to learn something you go for it. You muster the necessary enthusiasm. That partly explains why NLP can work so fast. This, in particular, makes NLP stand out from other traditional forms of therapy and psychology.

It doesn't matter how or why the phobia starts. What is interesting is to see why a person would keep it going. Initial questions about your habits in NLP would be about secondary gains: “What use is it to you to persist in...?”

A phobia is a powerful and learnt response. The sub-conscious only has to learn it once and will repeat the response time after time. Experiencing a strong emotional response, for example, makes you powerless because emotion doesn't respond to reason.

With NLP, instead of reacting internally, you are invited to 'see' yourself experiencing a phobic response from the outside, as if on a cinema screen. You may then be asked to turn the colour of the `film' to black and white. The stronger the colour distinction, the more powerful the emotional response. By watching yourself in such an abstract, you distance yourself from fear.

By then running the picture backwards and forwards in your mind you effectively scramble the way your former fear had been coded in your mind. A technique called 'eye accessing' is then employed in an attempt to introduce the beneficial alternative as a positive, and enjoyable experience.

The practitioner watches the whole time that way he/she knows when the process is complete: the client's physiology changes. The ultimate check though comes when you apply your new habits.

NLP is not sufficient of a science to say that the above technique would work for everybody. Every practitioner does use and interpret techniques as they wish and how they suit their own capabilities with their clients. There is no right or wrong application. What matters is whether a particular technique works.

The one only thing that stops rapid results, even if you are committed, is your core belief system. For example: if you believe that change is (must be) slow and painful, then that is what may stop a rapid results from occurring. So the belief system about attaining rapid results must be changed first.

Phobias are not a medical problem. They're a learning problem. They are also an example of `one-trial learning' where it only takes one example, such as a bee stinging you, to trigger off the flight or fight response - a powerful pattern. Such a pattern may have its origin in events that took place in this or any other life (see Regression Therapy). It takes an even more powerful counter example to override fear; basically to learn a new response.

In other words, if it only takes a single traumatic experience to make you afraid, then logically it should only take one deeply positive counter-experience to remove that fear. NLP allows you to do that.

With phobia 'curing', you (the client) are giving a profound counter-example of how to experience the trigger (bees) without fear.

But note: NLP is not a cure - it is a method. Fear is not a medical condition. What you do when you fear, or take to something, is to reinforce that learning. Most people just need the one set of NLP run-throughs and the issue is taken care of.

Your brain/sub-conscious does and can remember the fear response. But it also has the counter example. You can do something different.

Can NLP be regarded as an academic subject? NLP is a scientific, procedural study of how the human mind and nervous system works. So when you, for example, say to somebody: you are doing this, such and the other, then/and this will happen. That is a scientific approach to the way we create emotion and behaviour. It programmes your outlook if you are open and receptive to what is being said. The opposite can also be true.

NLP is an art of a method. If it was a pure science there would be only one way of doing it. Whereas there are lots of ways of achieving the same result.

NLP helps personal development. By just guiding clients to release negative emotion from past, to rid themselves of self-limiting beliefs, then literally how to create the future exactly as they want it - all over a short period -creates the desired results. The NLP maxim is: beneficial results.

The majority of people who aren't getting what they want believe it's because of somebody else, some situation. If you think that way, you can't do anything about it. NLP invites you to look at any situation of your life in a different way - how are you creating the situation inside you? When you change that, changes start to happen on the outside. That is why changing the world starts with changing yourself first.

NLP is practical psychology - a communication, personal development and therapy tool. But it is not a complete therapy in itself, nor a profession.

NLP is there to solve problems. A good counsellor, therapist or coach should be trained in NLP. To understand the real power of NLP you need to experience it. Personal experience starts with you thinking 'I want this to be true' going onto 'this works, and I can make it work even better than I had hoped.'

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