Sunday, February 20, 2011

NLP and treating addictions


NLP has become almost impossible not to notice in todays culture. NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Some believe that NLP is a new kind of weapon for army and secret services. Others would think of it as a way to “program” a person to do certain things which is to manipulate the Subconscious. However, most people understand NLP in a different way. Others blame all their illogical behavior on illicit ways of NLP use in daily life (talk about conspiracy theory!).

What is NLP?

NLP is a new popular approach in psychotherapy. It is a tool used by a therapist in the process of his or her work. If this tool is used by a true master it can create masterpieces. One can successfully treat allergies, phobias, and different kind of addictions with the help of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. This technique integrates methods of verbal and non-verbal communication. As a result, the understanding of the world’s concept changes; known limitations of human capacity can be overcome; a human is taught to use his or her own inner resources and reserves.

How It Started

NLP as a science goes back to the 1970s when Richard Bandler and John Grinder summed up and organized their knowledge and experience in linguistics and in psychology. They presented their ideas in the book “The Structure of Magic” (2 volumes). NLP has been developing as a separate discipline ever since, though some of the critics deny the existence of its scientific ground.

NLP Use

Scientific or not, this approach has been widely used in many fields starting with patients’ treatment and ending with sales, management coaching, sports, and business communication.
Still, the main field of NLP application remains psychotherapy. NLP techniques have it as their aim to reveal hidden resources of the person and direct them towards solving the problem.

NLP Concept

NLP method can be defined as a simple yet a very clear statement: we are the message we send. The therapist’s aim is to use the way a person thinks and the way a person speaks to provide him or her with a new mindset. There are a number of positive statements that are used in the process.
Some of them are:

  • the Universe has a lot of resources that can be used to solve your problems;
  • whatever we perceive is highly subjective;
  • there are no failures or winnings, only positive and negative feedback;
  • from all the behavior patterns a person will most probably use the most appropriate one;
  • etc.
The idea is that our reactions are defined by an individual “program”, a number of actions that we use as a pattern for a particular situation. Sometimes, as a result of a shock, a tragic incident, or some unusual experience, this connection of reaction and pattern is changing. The good and the usual turns into the bad and the unpredictable. In this case NLP can be the method to re-establish this connection. It can be a creation of a new pattern, or getting back to the old one. The “new” negative reaction should be changed into a positive one.

This is the way to treat different issues, including drug, alcohol, and other types of addictions. For example, the reaction of euphoria after the drug use can be changed into the reaction of disgust; the wish to take drugs can be replaced with the wish to throw it away.

Of course, it is a long process to go through; weeks (sometimes months) to create a bond between the therapist and the patient; to earn the patient’s trust, and then reach out to the subconscious resources of the patient to help him heal himself.

While some people remain incredulous when it comes to the NLP, many thank this approach because it changed their life. It does not really matter how controversial NLP is claimed to be. As long as it helps people they would not care about the scientific ground. Help is help wherever it comes from.

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