NLP Frequently Asked Questions

What is hypnosis?

1. Who founded NLP?
2. What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?
3. What can NLP be used for?
4. Does NLP always get results?
5. I have heard there are various levels of qualifications in the field of NLP. How relevant is this to getting results?
6. What is your background?
7. What experience do you have with NLP?
8. How did you arrive at your fee structure?
9. Do you work with health problems and psychiatric disorders?
10. How many consultations will I need?
11. Do you give a money back guarantee?
12. How does the mind affect one's life?
13. How do emotions affect one's life?
14. How do you identify the specific issue that is at the root cause of a client's problem?
15. What is Quantum Healing?
16. How does the film: What the bleep do we know?™ relate to NLP?
17. Where can I get more information on NLP and mind-body healing?
18. Does not the client have to be ready to release a negative emotion or to make a change?
19. How do you make yourself ready to release a negative emotion?
20. How do you make the change last?
21. How does NLP differ from Psychology, Psychiatry and Life Coaching?

1. Who founded NLP?

NLP was conceived around 1974 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. If you wish to study NLP it is recommended that you read some of their books and training material in order to gain an understanding of the spirit in which NLP was created.

 

2. What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?

• General Semantics: Non Aristotelian Systems. Alfred Korzybski. The map is not the territory.
• Transformational Grammar: An evolution from General Semantics. A change in the structure of language affects behaviour. Linguistic analysis.
• Logical Levels: Steps to an ecology of mind. Gregory Bateson.
• Stimulus response conditioning: Ivan Pavlov.
• Family Therapy: Virginia Satir. The Meta Model.
• Hypnosis: Milton Erickson. The Milton Model.
• Gestalt therapy: Fritz Perls.
• Body work: Moshe Feldenkrais.
• Physics: Laser technology and foray patterns.
• Systems theory: Strategies. Galanter, Miller and Pribram.
• Quantum physics: The observer influences the subject and therefore the outcome.
• Psychology: William James. Principles of Psychology 1891.

3. What can NLP be used for?

NLP can be used to create peak performance in the areas of business, sales, health, sport, education and learning. NLP can be used to influence most things in a person's life. The NLP models can be applied to an organisation as well as an individual, and can be applied to the study of any discipline such as science and religion.

4. Does NLP always get results?

Yes and no. It is impossible not to get a result but the result may not match your internal representation of the outcome. NLP is most successful with those people who have an open mind. Results can also be achieved with someone who is skeptical but it may take longer if the Consultant has to build proof and credibility in the effectiveness of the NLP model.

5. I have heard there are various levels of qualifications in the field of NLP. How relevant is this to getting results?

The world of NLP is very competitive with Practitioners vying for advantage and prestige by making claims about who they trained with, the number of workshops they have attended, the number of books they have written and the speed with which they can get results. I have found no correlation between so called qualifications and results in NLP or in any of the fields of human performance and healing. Results speak for themselves.

6. What is your background?

I started out my academic life by studying Applied Science and applying it for over eleven years as a Laboratory Technician at the University of Western Australia, department of Botany. I completed half of first year towards a degree in Psychology before deferring due to ill health. After that I held a number of telemarketing positions and then explored a variety of self employment opportunities. For a short period I held a position as Honorary Probation and Parole Officer at Department of Corrective Services in Fremantle WA which involved interviewing offenders and writing personal history reports.

My first introduction to NLP was in 1984 from Jesse Green who currently specialises in the field of Addiction and Co-dependency. Before this time I had immersed myself in meditation and had traveled to communes in USA and India to explore leading edge personal growth techniques.

After India I promoted various Psychologists in the personal growth industry, the most relevant one being Terry McClendon who delivered the first NLP Practitioner Certification to be held in Perth.

After that I applied my NLP skills to modelling Clairvoyants, Channelers and Psychics, and proceeded to run courses in Psychic Skills on the Gold Coast. Over the years I have presented talks on NLP to industry bodies, associations and to any audience that would listen; and given personal consultations and delivered workshops on NLP and Hypnosis. For three years I consulted to guests at Hippocrates Health Centre on the Gold Coast Qld where I was able to observe the effect of the mind on the physical body.

Then I branched out a bit from personal development and offered the marketing skills that I had developed over the years to a number of small businesses on the Gold Coast.

Up until 1999 my sales experience had been restricted to direct sales, seminars and telemarketing so I took a job as a show room sales consultant with a Gold Coast retailer and sold furniture for six months before moving back into marketing.

From 2001 to 2003I have managed the business development arm for Bazdale Finance Brokers on the Gold Coast. I wrote their administration manual, designed recruitment procedures, compiled a training manual for Agents and Consultants, and continue to update their marketing strategies and generally build business.

Sometime around 2002 I focused my energies back into the application of NLP, hypnotherapy and meditation for stress management and mind-body healing.

7. What experience do you have with NLP?

I believe I have trained with some of the best NLP trainers and studied NLP in breadth and depth. Not being satisfied to just 'fix' a problem one way, I am always looking for other ways to solve a problem by trying a different procedure in an effort to find something that won't work. This might sound strange but if you set up a negative presupposition you invariably get a positive result, and you broaden your understanding of how to more thoroughly correct a problem and bring about robust change. I believe the success of my model is reflected in the testimonials from my clientele.

8. How did you arrive at your fee structure?

I believe the cost of a service should represent the true value of the result for the client. If your Accountant saves you $x off your tax bill do you mind paying him/her a percentage of the savings? If a Consultant improves the performance of your Business do you mind sharing the profits?

I'd like you to consider the true value of achieving an outcome. Let us use the example of a smoker. If a smoker ceases smoking how much have they saved on the purchase of cigarettes and possible future health bills? Research has also shown that smokers achieve less and cost their employers more. It follows, there is now a potential increase in this person's profitability.

Continuing our example on smoking, it seems that many smoking cessation programs only work at the level of behavioural strategies and the underlying problem remains. The smoker ceases smoking but they are still left with the underlying emotional cause, consequently they may substitute symptoms and take up eating peanuts or some other distracting behaviour. So for a behavioural change what would you consider to be a fair fee?

However, when an NLP master practitioner works with a client, every area of their life is impacted at a much deeper level. And it is highly improbable that our smoking client would substitute another behaviour such as peanuts for smoking. For this more profound change what would you be willing to pay?

From another perspective what does it cost in time and money to visit say a Psychologist? If you add up the lost time from work, the travelling expense, parking fees, their fee once a week over say two years, which is not an unusual time frame, and compare it with a handful of visits to an NLP master practitioner, then I think that you would agree my fee is in fact much less than it should be. At the risk of blowing my trumpet, I have worked with people who did visit their Psychologist once a week for two years with no results (their words) but they got the results they wanted from me in three sessions ( 4 1/2 hours).

9. Do you work with health problems and psychiatric disorders?

No. I don't have formal qualifications in those areas so I won't work with anyone who has a psychiatric disorder or a health problem. However I am prepared to address a health issue indirectly by reducing the client's stress levels.

10. How many consultations will I need?

My psychic skills are not that well developed yet as to determine your future. I can only work from past experience with someone who has had a similar problem to you. And even though two people may use the same words to describe a problem the structure of their underlying problems will be unique. In saying that however, I can confidently state that you should experience a significant change in the first sessions and subsequent sessions.

Generally 1-3 sessions are sufficient for most problems. A few people need ongoing work every few months. If the purpose of the NLP sessions are to influence the profitability of your business or increase your income then treat the NLP as you would any other business expense and cost it in accordingly. What does it cost to pay an IT technician to maintain your computer system? Your mind and body are immensely more complex than any computer and need ongoing care and support

11. Do you give a money back guarantee?

Yes. My guarantee is simple. Your satisfaction is my goal. You will be satisfied by the end of your personal consultation or I will refund your fee.

12. How does the mind affect one's life?

Our senses are impacted with 2,000,000 bits of information per second (bps) but our sense organs filter that information down to 134 bps and create in our mind/brain an internal representation of the world in pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and taste. We are much like an aircraft pilot flying at high attitude at night who must rely upon his instruments to build up a representation of the terrain. Because our 'instruments' filter the incoming information through the three universal modelling processes of generalisation, deletion and distortion we end up with a limited view of reality. This reality or model of the world as it is also known that we construct, may or may not be the one that is most useful for us to enjoy our life, and to be profitable in business. NLP gives us a set of tools and techniques to modify our model of the world and to get more out of life.

13. How do emotions affect one's life?

It is probably inherent for all living things to move away from negative states and to seek positive states. As a generalisation we could state that as long as we feel good then there is no problem. Many things can be conceptualised as an emotion. Health for example is a feeling of well being. Wealth is measured by how we feel about our bank balance and not by the figures in the account. However negative emotions tend to stack up over time and it is quite normal to find ourselves reacting out of our past memories and the associated emotion rather than the present situation.

But negative emotions tend to block the experience of positive emotions. Take for example the case of a door-to-door salesperson who, after a number of painful rejections by potential customers, burns out and finds it difficult to get motivated, hence his/her income is affected. If the negative state experienced by the salesperson spills over into his/her personal life then, which invariably it would, then it is going to affect the quality of his love life and family life. Relationships invariably fail when the negative emotions exceed the positive emotions, or the when the positive emotions are no longer elicited by the partner.

Negative emotions are stored in the body and may block nerve supply and blood supply thus leading to ill health. Negative emotions also depress the immune system. NLP gives us a precise set of tools and techniques to help us clear negative emotions from our past and future memories. NLP is very effective and once an emotion has been cleared from a gestalt of memories then the gestalt should remain permanently cleared.

14. How do you identify the specific issue that is at the root cause of a client's problem?

NLP has a number of linguistic tools to help us analyse the structure of a client's communication. With these tools, our sensory awareness, and a bit of intuition generally we can hone in quite quickly on the underlying causes.NLP and hypnotherapy also provide some simple, efficient and accurate methods to regress a client to the root cause of a problem.

15. What is Quantum Healing?

Quantum healing is quantum physics applied to healing the mind and body. There have been some very intriguing experiments carried out under the banner of quantum physics. In one study two groups of kittens were raised in an environment in which they were either exposed to only horizontal or vertical bars. The adults cats which had been exposed to only horizontal stripes were unable to recognise vertical stripes and vice versa for the other cats. This study raises two important issues: One being that if we don't experience something as a baby then we may never get to experience it as an adult. The other is that we learn to construct our reality, and that we each have our own separate reality which we create in our mind/brain, and that my world is very different to yours even though we may be able to relate to each others experience.

In another study scientists were able to demonstrate that light can be seen to be a particle or to travel in waves, depending upon the instrumentation that the scientists were using to make the observation. This brings the intriguing thought that the filters in our mind (model of the world) determine what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste. In other words the intention of the observer affects the outcome.

And in a third study a single photon was photographed as being in two places at exactly the same time. Which may be a scientific proof that past present and future occurs simultaneously, as the mystics have told us.

And a fourth study showed that the solidity of matter is an illusion and in actual fact the amount of solid matter in our bodies is infinitesimally small, and even more intriguing that the electrons that travel around the nucleus continually disappear and reappear. That is electrons go out of existence and 'new' electrons come into existence. So not only is the physical part of our body infinitesimally small but we are constantly going out of existence, to who knows where and coming back into existence, once again from who knows where.

Quantum physicists now talk in terms of the body/mind as being information, and that it is our thoughts that create our reality. An interesting topic for reflection is that mystics (religion) and quantum physicists (science) have found a forum for agreement.

16. How does the film: What the bleep do we know?™ relate to NLP?

The graphical representation of neural network pathways in the film illustrates very clearly the scientific basis behind some of the NLP techniques. And if you have ever wondered what it means to be open to something (love, success, life,etc) then have a look at the visual representations of the neuropeptide receptor sites on a cell. The neuropeptides can clearly be conceptualised as yang, male, outgoing and penetrating while the receptor sites can be conceptualised as yin, female, receptive and open. Also pay attention in the film to the concept of emotional addiction. Consider that we spend most of our life doing a behaviour to either generate a negative or positive emotion.

17. Where can I get more information on NLP and mind-body healing?

Visit the home page to find a list of links to articles on mind body healing. Then try a keyword search of the Internet or check your local library or bookstore for books, DVD's and CD's on NLP. To get you started look for some of the following authors: Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Robert Dilts, Earnest Rossi, Anthony Robbins, Tad James, Connirae and Steve Andreas, Connirae and Tamara Andreas, David Gordon, John Richardson, Judith DeLozier, Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Milton H. Erickson, Dan Bagley & Edward Reese, etc.

18. Does not the client have to be ready to release a negative emotion or to make a change?

It is the role of the NLP Master Practitioner to help bring the client to that space where they can make the desired change. All that the client needs to know before a session is that they wish to make a change. Too many people don't make sufficient advances in life because they are trying to work out how the 'expert' is going to fix their problem. This is like not taking the car to the mechanic until you have completed a training program in motor mechanics. For reassurance that NLP may be able to help you please read what others say.

It is true, however, that a cognitive understanding of how NLP works is very useful in bringing the client to that point where they are able to decide on seeking help with NLP but it is only through the experience of NLP that you will discover how it will actually work for you.

19. How do you make yourself ready to release a negative emotion?

First you have to have some awareness that a negative emotion is causing a problem for you. Then you have to acknowledge that you have had that problem long enough and that you want a better life. Then you make a booking with a Master NLP Practitioner who will take care of the rest.

20. How do you make the change last?

NLP is noted for its ability to bring about lasting change. How do we do that? Let me try and explain this in simple terms.

The concept of past, present and future is an illusion. The only real time is here and now. What we think of as the past and the future is just an experience of the mind. Knowledge and memories with their associated emotional component make up the past part of the mind. Our imaginings, anxieties and desires make up the future part of the mind. We should live a blissful existence in the eternal present but the mind pulls us back into the past memories or into future memories.

The organism that we are, seeks wholeness, so at every opportunity the unconscious mind will present to the conscious mind 'stuff' to be healed. But generally people will try and suppress anything 'negative' that comes into their mind, or act out the drama in their mind as if it is real.

The number one criterion for something being healed is that you no longer think about it. So by example if you have attended Alcoholics Anonymous for ten years as a way to stay dry then in NLP terms the alcoholism is not healed. However once the alcoholism has healed then you will lose interest in alcohol and most likely in AA.

Once the client has come to a point of understanding at the level of the unconscious mind then the unconscious mind will naturally release the negative emotion and update the past and future. By helping the client clear out negative emotions from the past, and directing their mind and brain to focus on the desired outcome, problems disappear and desired outcomes are achieved.

It is also the belief system of the NLP master practitioner that helps the client to make lasting change. If the NLP master practitioner does not believe that the client can make lasting change then they won't, but if he/she does then the client has a better chance of achieving their desired outcomes.

21. How does NLP differ from Psychology, Psychiatry and Life Coaching?

Both psychiatry and psychology tend to focus on the content of what happened. Hence psychiatrists and psychologist will spend considerable time having you describe your problem, which may also involve a reliving of the events. Both psychiatry and psychology ask 'why' the client has a problem. They analyse the client until they decide upon a diagnosis which invariably means the client wears a label. Both psychiatry and psychology are closely related to the medical model and they aim to be scientific in their approach.

Life Coaching seems to be an updated version of Counselling. From the view point of NLP, Life Coaching is no more effective than psychiatry and psychology. Some NLP'ers may use the term NLP Life Coaching as a means to attract more business. If you want to get rapid gentle change then you need to employ the services of a Master NLP Practitioner who also has training in Hypnotherapy.

NLP is solution oriented. NLP is process oriented. NLP is not interested in why you have a problem. NLP is interested in how to get a result as quickly as possible. NLP is probably not considered to be scientific but NLP is practical and methodical in its approach. Most importantly NLP consistently gets results.