On this site, we answer the key questions: What is Neuro Linguistic Programming? What are the best techniques? What is NLP Training? We cover some of the critical questions that we’ve been asked about each topic.
This site is a free resource for anyone interested in knowing more about the subject and its essential techniques. It was initially a resource for our students but is now available for everybody. You can access the full details of 85+ techniques from this site. For further details, see our techniques index.
See NLP Training courses if you’re interested in our unique Richard Bandler and SNLP-certified 1:1 training. Our programmes are designed for ambitious professionals and are available worldwide. We’re currently offering three free discovery sessions to suitable programme applicants.
What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?
Neuro-linguistic programming is a modelling approach that offers a toolkit of ways to deal with life’s opportunities and challenges. It is a very practical discipline concerned with bringing results into the real world. It is also about the study of subjective experience: what we see, hear and feel, and how we create our individual realities. This is key to learning how to communicate, both with both ourselves and with others.
Techniques are the results of modelling individuals who have achieved outstanding results in a variety of situations and then continue testing and refining these models to enable others to achieve similar and better results.
Answers to frequently asked questions
What is Neuro Linguistic Programming in simple words?
Neuro-linguistic programming gives you models and approaches to help you achieve what you want by increasing how influential you can be – to yourself as well as to others.
What is it Used for? What does it do? Applications.
To help you achieve what you want and overcome any obstacles that are getting in your way. It’s beneficial for people in leadership, project management, sales, relationships, coaching, and many creative disciplines.
Is it fake?
No. it is a modelling skill, and the results are derived from the results of that modelling.
Will it always work? No. However, we’ve always found that we can use its approaches to help us move forward towards any outcome or direction.
NLP Therapy. Does it work for anxiety?
It works for many blocks that may get in your way, including anxiety and related challenges. Being clear about your direction and purpose, focusing more on what you want rather than what you don’t want, and learning how you represent anxiety and how to change that representation, are three approaches to reducing anxiety.
How does it work?
In a sense, it doesn’t work – we do! It is modelled on how successful people get results in various situations, and you can use the models developed to increase your success and effectiveness.
What is an example? What is it suitable for? Typical NLP Models
Typical examples include connecting to your purpose or direction, setting outcomes, asking better questions, establishing rapport and trust, managing your emotional state, and communicating and influencing more effectively.
What is the relationship between NLP and hypnosis?
One of the initial models was using elements of hypnosis for communication, influence and connection with resources that are already within us.
How to become certified?
To become certified, you must attend a series of certified training programmes. The critical certification levels are Practitioner, Master Practitioner and Trainer, although there are a number of additional variations. See more about certification.
Is it easy to become really good?
In our opinion, mastering anything useful requires ambition, courage, discipline, honesty, time (and love?) This is no different.
However, while a touch of these characteristics is still required, learning is both fun and exceptionally useful, which is excellent compensation for the work we need to do to become really good.
Why is Neuro Linguistic Programming so helpful?
You significantly improve your communication and influence skills.
Not only that, but practising techniques will increase your creativity, your resilience and your ability to master change – just as working out in a gym will build your physical strength, flexibility, and endurance.
In business, NLP can improve your results by helping you improve your leadership, sales, project management, coaching, and relationships skills. In your personal life, it can help you connect to your purpose, overcome blocks, and help you navigate your own hero’s or heroine’s journey.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming Techniques
What are Neuro Linguistic Programming Techniques? Answers to frequently asked questions.
Do these techniques really work?
In many situations, they work exceptionally well. NLP is based on modelling people who have succeeded in various situations and can dramatically improve your chances of achieving the results you want. The actual results will depend on the situation, the practitioner and the client.
What are Neuro Linguistic Programming studies?
Practitioners have studied and modelled excellent performance in many forms of human endeavour. We specialise in leadership, coaching, sales, project management, relationships and managing stakeholders.
How many techniques are there?
There are almost an infinite number of techniques. It’s like an artist creating many different paintings from a limited number of paints. When we understand the fundamentals, we can create techniques and models that meet the majority of our client’s opportunities and challenges.
What are the top techniques?
The best techniques vary according to the practitioner’s personal preference, the client, and the particular issue at hand. The techniques we find most valuable are: anchors, framing, hypnosis, mental rehearsal, modelling, outcomes, rapport, storytelling, state management and timeline,
What is Dark NLP? Is Neuro-Linguistic Programming good or bad?
Like many powerful approaches for change, NLP has a mixed reputation, mainly due to some practitioners over-promising and some critics letting their imaginations get the better of them and simply making stuff up!
In our experience, enough people significantly benefit from the approach that it’s worth testing it out for yourself and making up your own mind. If you really want to improve what you do, have the right attitude, are prepared to find exemplary practitioners or trainers, and put in the appropriate amount of work, you will achieve a high investment return. Simply take your time and do your own due diligence.
We’re careful only to take on clients that we believe will benefit from what we do and give them plenty of time to select themselves out of any program if they don’t think they will benefit significantly.
Dark NLP is about using the skills and capabilities to manipulate people to do what is not in their interest. While this can be done, you’ll get a higher return by genuinely helping people achieve what’s important to them!
Can you use it on yourself?
When starting, it’s much easier to have an experienced practitioner to help guide you through any technique. You can then entirely focus on your experience, and the practitioner can focus on the process. The more experienced you become, the easier it is to do NLP techniques on yourself. However, there will still be times when you’ll prefer to work with someone else. It’s also worth practising with a friend or colleague; you’ll both improve your skills.
Coaching?
While NLP has many applications, it is beneficial for coaching in helping our clients get from A to B, turning theory into real-world results, and amplifying performance. See NLP in coaching.
What is a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioner?
The practitioner is usually the first level of certification; to become a certified trainer, you must complete NLP practitioner, master practitioner and trainer certifications.
See our index of 85+ techniques of NLP.
What is NLP Training? How to learn NLP?
What is the very best NLP Training? Answers to frequently asked questions
What is NLP good for, and what are key NLP applications?
NLP is exceptionally effective at clarifying and achieving what you want and overcoming blocks in getting there—amplifying your skills and performance. We work with clients to significantly improve their leadership, sales, coaching, project management and relationship skills.
Are courses worth it?
Yes, very much so, but do your own due diligence. See more: Are NLP courses worth it?
What are the very best courses?
There are a variety of course formats: online live, online recorded, group face-to-face, and 1:1 training. All have advantages and disadvantages. However, we’ve found that our 1:1 training is the best for those that have the budget, understand the value of the format and want to produce the most substantial real-world results.
This is because:
- we spend more time exploring what you want as an individual,
- we’re there when things don’t work and can help you put them right, and
- success is about establishing good habits. It’s much easier to establish good habits over the six months of our programmes than it is over a much shorter course.
As 1:1 training is different from other training, we offer a 3 free session discovery phase for serious potential delegates to find out it’s right for them. If you have a touch of ambition, courage, discipline and honesty, you’ll get significant benefits from our training.
Also, If you want the most authoritative and best NLP training, choose those certified by either co-creators – Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Richard countersigns the certificates on all our fully certified programmes.
Interested?
Are you curious about our unique 1:1 Richard Bandler and SNLP-certified Training designed for professional and business people? See our complete training offer: NLP Programs Courses Index.
If you’re genuinely interested in training and/or coaching, please contact us for a free 30-minute video/phone session.
What are the key pillars or principles?
When we’re able to apply these pillars or principles, we’re able to create our own techniques to meet our, or our clients, needs:
Acuity – We have the ability to ‘shut up and focus on what we see, hear and feel. The more accurate the information we take in – the more effective we are. Meta-model questions are helpful for this.
Association/disassociation – Sometimes, it’s really useful to see (hear and feel) things from our perspective, from another perspective, or from a neutral observer’s perspective. This approach is a crucial part of a number of NLP techniques.
Beliefs – What do we believe about ourselves, the people we work with, and our environment? Are our beliefs helpful to ourselves and others? There is more to this than most people realise. NLP’s presuppositions are a great start with this. If we believe we can’t, we probably won’t – whether we can or cannot.
Direction and outcomes – We can help our clients clarify where they want to get to and the value they’ll get from doing so.
Framing – What we say and do at the beginning and end of any session can significantly amplify the positive impact of what we do. The beginning frame will affect what the client focuses on and therefore change their experience; the end frame will change the story they tell themselves about the session and change both the conscious and unconscious impact we have.
Hypnosis – Hypnotic approaches can help align our client’s conscious and unconscious thinking, which will make them more effective at whatever they are doing.
Mental maps – Our brains are delightfully tiny compared to the size of the universe, so the chances of us consciously understanding how the universe works is very small; however, we create mental maps to guide us. The better our mental maps, the more fulfilled our lives will be. We improve our maps by having new experiences and learning from them – which is not always a comfortable experience! Many NLP techniques, particularly the meta-model, and really good at helping us improve our mental maps.
Modelling – Modelling is a crucial NLP skill. We can model both good and bad performance, which helps help our clients know both what to do and what not to do!
Rapport and Trust – Rapport and trust can help us create an environment where transformational change can spontaneously occur. Curiously, there are also times when we want to break rapport as well as create it!
States and anchoring – The state we’re in impacts both how we come over to others and the internal resources we can access at any time, and significantly impacts how well we perform. Anchoring is a way to access great states consciously.
Timeline – While there is great merit in being able to stay in the present (being present), it’s also beneficial to plan a great future and to fully benefit from all our past experiences (including taking the learning and reducing the emotional impact of bad memories – Sometimes bad experiences are compelling opportunities to learn.)
Storytelling – The stories we tell ourselves can significantly impact our lives, and the stories we tell others can significantly influence them. It’s good to ensure that the stories we tell take us and others in a helpful direction.
Values – What’s important to us? The more we understand and are connected to our values, the more effective and fulfilled we’ll be. The more we’re able to connect to others’ values, the better and more satisfying relationships we’ll have.
Where we are now – Ideally, we want to fully connect to, appreciate and be grateful for where we are now (and create an empowering direction for the future.)
This may take some curiosity, ambition, courage, discipline and honesty. Again, the meta-model, in conjunction with KPIs, daily questions, feedback and feed-forward routines, can help us.
What is the top content on this site?
What is NLP – 10 posts on basic principles, including What is it? Mental maps and world view, confirmation bias, what does the topic offer?
Questions answered – More short answers to commonly asked questions
Success. – What leads to success? See our top success systems and models.
Plan. – While plans often collide with reality (and we have to change them), the actual planning process is fundamental. Essential ideas to help you plan your life and success, Includes: Why plan? Self-sabotage, success quiz, feed-forward.
Remember the Dwight D. Eisenhower quote, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
NLP Coaching. – adds significant value to coaching; what’s important? Frames, states and anchoring, rapport, end goals and direction, future pacing.
Top techniques – The essential change techniques. The most valuable approaches that haven’t been included in the coaching section. Includes: Affirmations, belief change, perceptual positions, hypnosis, storytelling and more.
Business. – Techniques used in business: leadership, career, sales, going solo – starting and growing a business.
Books. – Our recommended NLP, coaching, sales and seduction books.
Training. – Links to our unique international training programmes.
See our complete index of the 85+ techniques on this site.
About Us
This resource is run by Michael Beale.
Michael is a Richard Bandler trainer, coach trainer and a Marshal Goldsmith certified leadership and team coach. He has 30 years of business experience and 15 years of experience running his training and coaching practice. He embraces the business ideas of Marshall Goldsmith and Ray Dalio.
He also runs coaching masterclasses at The Henley Business School.
Michael Beale, Director, Business NLP Ltd, is based at 120 Porthcawl Green, Milton Keynes MK4 3AL, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.