NLP Hypnotherapy Learning

Even if you are relatively new to the technologies of hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), you have probably already heard or read how NLP, hypnotherapy and learning are coming together in many different ways across many different fields.

Ironically, NLP has been around now for over 30 years and yet in many different parts of the world, and even in the U.S. where it originated, NLP is still either unheard of, or very poorly understood. Hypnosis has been around even longer, of course, and it also has suffered a similar fate. Nonetheless, these technologies are having a huge impact on our society in subtle, and sometime not-so-subtle, ways. More and more, people are realizing the amazing potential these technologies can unlock. Now, to fully understand the NLP hypnotherapy learning connection, we first need to have a better understanding of what they are.

Starting with NLP, it is, more than anything, a set of solution-oriented attitudes and beliefs (the ‘NLP Presuppositions’) which then naturally give rise to resultant techniques. The basic list of NLP Presuppositions are as follows:

* The meaning of any communication is the response it elicits.

* There are no failures in communication, only outcomes and feedback.

* The map (set of beliefs) is not the territory (reality).

* Every person lives in accordance with their own unique model of the world.

* People always make the best choices available to them, given their unique model of the world and of the situation.

* People have all the resources necessary to make any desired change.

* There is no substitute for clean, open sensory channels.

* The ‘resistance’ a person gets is a comment about their inflexibility as a communicator; if what you are doing is not working, do something different.

* In group interactions, the person with the most flexibility and behavioral options will control the outcome of the interaction.

* An individual’s worth is held as positive and constant, whereas the value and appropriateness of their internal and/or external behavior is open to question.

In sum, NLP starts with the premise, “No matter what has been done before, or what people might say, there is a way to achieve X (insert any goal). It can be done, and the best way to do it consistently is to model or emulate the mental processes and behaviors of someone who has already done it!” From that modeling process a whole host of interesting and useful techniques has evolved. An example that relates to learning specifically is that of the ‘discovery’ that different individuals tend to have ‘favored’ cognitive modalities.

Specifically, some people tend to process information more visually, while others tend to think more auditory, and still others lean heavily toward a kinesthetic or feeling way of thinking. Educators have taken this notion and have begun to develop methods to teach children in different ways, according to what is most ‘natural’ for the child.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, utilizes trance states in order to over-ride the critical faculty of the conscious mind and then embed positive suggestions in the unconscious mind where they are then acted upon automatically. Hypnosis is perhaps best envisioned as a “noise free” learning state where the process of change is accelerated due to a much heightened level of focus. Milton Erickson, who was arguably the world’s greatest hypnotherapist (Dave Elman is often considered a contender as well), promoted the idea that trance states were a basic component of mental processing, and that the average person went into and out of a variety of such ‘every day hypnotic states’ many, many times over the course of any 24 hour period.

Both NLP and hypnosis overlap in that they are really geared toward the creation of new neural pathways imprinted for the purpose of helping individuals move past their current challenges. Not all ‘therapies’ begin from these same starting points; many focus on merely helping individuals to ‘cope’ with circumstances that are often regarded as unchangeable. The goal in NLP and therapeutic hypnosis is authentic learning—in other words, not merely the absorption of new information, but also a consequent alteration in behaviors, feelings, and responses. This, more than anything, is the “secret” behind the incredible transformations they both so often produce.

We hope this article has helped you understand the NLP hypnotherapy learning connection.

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