What Is NLP?

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I had a worrying e-mail this week from somebody that had contacted me through my website to inquire about hiring me to be their Life Coach.

In the e-mail the correspondent said he was concerned because he had read that NLP was similar to Scientology. Now I have to admit I cannot really dispute that because I haven’t got much of an idea of what Scientology is all about but I suspect it is inaccurate as NLP most definitely does not purport to be a religion or anything similar.

This is not the first misunderstanding that I have come across since I have been living in the US and I am grateful to the person for bringing it to my attention. I was always confused why NLP’s most famous face, Tony Robbins, rarely referred to NLP until it became obvious to me that people would have been distracted from his message by the label attached.

I don’t really want to go down the road of explaining what NLP is in detail as there are thousands of websites out there that can do that even if some are somewhat misleading and working to some self-serving agenda.

What I would say like to say though is that it is used by thousands of companies nationwide (a great number in the Fortune 500) to help with training, sales, communication, HR etc.

Advertising executives and marketers as well as speechwriters, politicians, business executives and athletes also use it. In fact I would say that at least 95% of top athletes use NLP in some way shape or form.

I think that its core is about respect of the individual, that we are all unique and that we all see the world differently depending on our upbringing, environment and those people around us that we have modeled such as parents, teachers, peers etc. That belief is wrapped up in the presupposition that ‘The Map Is Not The Territory’

The reason why that is so useful in personal and business coaching is that to be successful you have to align with your client. It is not possible (in my opinion) to be a successful coach by telling people that they are wrong and that they need to do what you are telling them. We have beliefs and values that have been formed over many years and deserve respect.

The fact is that everybody’s views and opinions are equally as worthy. If you are considering coaching and have no knowledge of NLP I would encourage you to leave at it that until you speak to an NLP Coach. I have had many clients both here and in the UK that where unsure when they first came to me but I can honestly say not one of them had any doubts when they finished.

In fact, three have gone on to train to become NLP Practitioners themselves because they could see the huge benefits it had to offer them and those around them.