The bird’s eye view of NLP Formats

NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming is often associated with hypnosis. At a glance, the two actually coincides. But there is more to NLP than the hypnosis process. NLP, which is officially termed in the late 70s, has gone a long way and has developed several strategies and helpful tools. These tools and strategies have some common steps that are better associated with NLP as a whole and in general than specific. However, the specific methods or techniques also share some of these general formats.

There are several techniques and tools that have developed over time. To mention some more popular ones; there is the Swish technique, the reframing method, the emprint method, ecology and congruency method, preferred representational system and the eye accessing cues. At the same time, these techniques and tools are made from an NLP model that has four considerable steps.

One, goal setting. Goal setting is done when the person decides what they want apart from what they are at the current state. This is also done using different techniques and some with the aid of the tools. For example, in swish technique, the goal is pictured out in the mind of the person, while in the emprint method, the goal is anticipated or hoped. Goal setting is an essential step for NLP because it provides the purpose of entering in the process.

Two, take action. The action is then put into play. Now, in the techniques, say in the swish method, the current state or the stimulus (depending on the case) and the goal are switched mentally until the person is conditioned to think of the goal as a response to the current state or stimulus. Furthermore, in the emprint method, the actions are anticipated or hoped which would leads to the third general step of the NLP model.

Three, the outcome is then ‘assessed’. This is where the outcome is verified. Were the actions able to achieve the goal? In an emprint method, the possible outcome is when the person anticipates the event or the future that he or she is hoping or hopes positively on an anticipated failure. This is also evident on the ecology and congruency method, wherein the actions taken are assessed according to its fit to the person’s environment.

Four, the action is then changed until it is fitted according to how the person wants. Thus, this is evident in the swish technique. Strong association of the mental picture needs to be reinforced in order to form an automatic response to the current state. If there is no strong correlation between the pictures, then the swish method has a tendency to fail. Furthermore, on ecology and congruency method, if the action is not appropriate to the environment, it is then re-processed until they arrive at the best option.

On a bird’s eye view, Neuro-linguistic programming developed techniques that work on different scales to cater to different circumstances of the persons as well as their required change. Nevertheless, these four steps is a general format of NLP.