NLP 4 Health

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) was founded by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder and was promoted during the 1970’s as an effective and speedy form of psychological therapy.

NLP is a popular movement in psychotherapy and is based on a model of interpersonal communication. Its main focus is the relationship between the successful patterns of behaviour and the thought patterns underlying those behaviours.

Essentially, NLP explores the relationships between how we think – neuro – how we communicate – linguistic – and our patterns of behaviour and emotions – programmes.

NLP is considered to be an alternative therapy as despite its popularity, it has been mostly ignored by conventional social science due to issues of credibility and empirical evidence.* However, the key feature which distinguishes it from psychology, is modelling.

As students learn about successful models of human interaction – and the relationship between how we think and communicate - they are able to adopt new and more effective models of human excellence.

Despite its limited impact on mainstream psychotherapy and counselling, NLP has had some influence among private psychotherapists – and hypnotherapists – to the extent that some claim to be trained in NLP and apply it in their practice. Exponents claim NLP to be one of the most powerful skills used in business management, psychology, sales, sports coaching and all forms of personal development.

Subliminal Messages

Give a group of people some salted candy and then show them some subliminal messages about a specific brand of ice tea, and 8 times out of 10 they will choose that brand. This was shown in a recent study by Johan Karremans of the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, and his colleagues, as they decided to once again test the effectiveness of subliminal messages. In the control group who were also given salted candy, but who weren’t shown subliminal messages, only 2 out 10 chose the specific ice tea brand. The next study is going to look at the long-lasting influence of these messages. That is, will I then become a life-long advocate of this specific brand of ice-tea because of this ‘conditioning’, or might I choose other brands in the future?

The outcome of the study indicated that subliminal messages can have an effect, but only when it’s relevant. In essence, this would suggest that unless you’re hungry, then showing you ‘flashes’ of Mac burger images or messages will have limited influence.

There has been quite a lot of controversy about whether subliminal messages can influence us positively and negatively. There have been some cases of people harming themselves after they have listened to ‘anti-life’ subliminal messages in some forms of music. Equally, positive subliminal messages in music are claimed to help us in many areas of our lives.

The jury on this type of influence appears to be still out. It would however indicate that if we want to for example, be more decisive in our thinking, or a better public speaker, then listening to subliminal messages designed to encourage this behavior, may have a positive effect.

Like any past-time we engage in, success can ultimately be only determined by ourselves. If for example we want our creativity to increase, and we listen to some music with subliminal messages designed to enhance our creativity, and we observe our creative output increasing, then this would be a strong case for claiming the approach to be successful in changing your programming. Of course it doesn’t mean that all people will have this same outcome and therein lies the subjectivity of the approach.

I have just uploaded a 6-Pack Subliminal Self-Improvement Audio set to my site. These are 6, 1 hour MP3’s, which can be burnt to CD’s or loaded onto i-Pods etc. The 6 self-improvement areas are: ‘Amazing Speed Reading’, ‘Be More Decisive’, ‘Better Creative Thinking’, ‘Improved Memory’, ‘Improved Public Speaking’, and ‘Love Your Physical Self’.

There is an audible warning at the beginning of each track, stating that you should not drive a car, or operate machinery – or do anything that might require concentration – while listening to it.

If you have identified an area of your ‘programming’ that you want to improve, then I would think any positive reinforcement will assist you in this endeavor. This includes, positive affirmations, goal writing, support groups, a determined effort, profession help if necessary and yes, even subliminal ‘positive’ messages.

* NLP was a component of study in my Post Graduate in Social Science (Counselling) diploma.