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NLP was created by Dr Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1960's. Initially, they used their skill to model the behaviours of some of the most effective therapists of the time (such as Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, Fritz Perls, etc). By identifying the essential elements of their work, Bandler & Grinder were able to reduce therapy time and improve effectiveness of the treatments. Their position is that any skill can be modelled, essentialised and taught to others.
Over the course of several decades Dr Bandler made a host of other important discoveries. One of the cornerstones to NLP was the discovery of how individuals represented (encode) their behaviours, responses and patterns mentally. All mental representation has to be in the form of images (or movies), voices, sounds, physical sensations, tastes and smells. When helping a client with a problem, by establishing how they represent or generate the undesired mental behaviours, Bandler & Grinder discovered they had the key to changing it, painlessly and permanently by deliberately recalling the triggers in a form which didn't elicit an overwhelming emotion.
Over the years Dr Bandler has made the techniques more elegant and complete. Hypnosis is often included with NLP when the client's conscious mind gets in the way of the necessary repatterning work of the subconscious mind.
Latterly NLP work has moved away from purely clinical work to include corporate and coaching work which focuses on building more exciting futures for clients. This move was a natural development since the clinical therapy rarely took more than 1 or 2 sessions and NLP's ability to demolish self-restricting beliefs and conjure up compelling futures makes it very suitable for coaching and general self-improvement work.
Hypnosis combines well with some of our NLP work. Our hypnosis usually leaves people very refreshed. You'll remember the process and if you become uncomfortable for any reason you'll be able to leave the trance immediately and safely. If you prefer not to be treated by hypnosis please discuss this with us and we'll happily use alternative measures. We usually find that skeptics soon look forward to trance sessions after just one or two treatments.
By combining NLP, TFT, Hypnosis and some other techniques, we believe that no emotional or cognitive problem is insoluble. Our approach is that there is no such thing as a resistant client or problem, just unresourceful therapists and if for any reason we can't help you we will find someone who can.
For many thousands of years the Chinese have been manipulating specific points on the body to affect mental states (including pain). Acupuncture is a case in point. TFT was developed by Dr Roger Callahan in the 1960's in response to frustrations in treating clients with the methods available at the time. Aware of some successes in acupuncture and similar pressure-point work fundamental to eastern 'New Age' healing, Dr Callahan decided to see if there was anything he could use.
The Chinese explanation is one of changing the body's natural (mental) energy flows. Dr Callahan found that by asking a patient to focus on the problem at hand, thereby aligning the 'thought field', (a field that surrounds the body and when focusing on a problem we are connecting a negative thought field or perturbation), tapping on the meridian points in the correct order could effect a fast and effective reduction in symptoms. Fear, anger, anxiety, guilt and cravings are just some of the typical symptoms addressed with TFT techniques.
A western perspective on the work might be that by pressing or tapping these points, the peripheral nervous system sends signals or waves of signals to the central nervous system (the Brain) which disrupt the old learned sequence of neuronal activity that encoded the unwanted brain activity. Another explanation might be that the constant tapping induces habituation. Habituation refers to the fact that the conscious mind will begin to ignore or filter-out stimulus from the affective part of the nervous system when it is presented over and over (for example, we habituate to the noise of traffic, fans, etc. and just stop noticing them). If habituating to the tapping occurs at the same time you focus on the problem, is could explain why the symptoms diminish or disappear.
Your choice of explanation is irrelevant to the application of the treatment. It makes no difference if you believe in it or not. Just try it and see. Tapping the meridian points is a quick and effective and painless and the client can undertake the tapping themselves. An 80% success rate is to be expected with this work. A higher rate can be achieved with additional techniques and toxin reduction.
As in NLP it isn't necessary for the practitioner to know all of the details of an underlying problem especially a trauma this means there is no need to relive painful experiences over and over again. One treatment should result in a absence of the symptoms however, these symptoms can return and this is usually because the client has been exposed to a toxin. Through eliminating the toxins before retreatment the client shouldn't experience a further recurrence.
For further details try the Association for Thought Field Therapy (ATFT), or Progress Therapy at www.kevinlaye.co.uk.
