Category: NLP

One thing is certain, we will all take the same journey one day, and today I had news that another great friend and NLP‘er has passed away.

Many people will have been helped by this great man, who assisted for many years at the Society of NLP trainings held in London with Paul McKenna, Michael Breen and Richard Bandler.

John Brown had been ill for some time, and sadly he passed away on Monday.

John helped me overcome my phobia of heights, as I wrote about just over a week ago in my blog about riding on the London Eye, and where my phobia had come from on a holiday with my family in the Welsh seaside town of Saundersford.

John was also known as a safe breaker, he was an engineer of note, and became an expert at being able to get into locked safes.

He was also an artist, and I treasure a painting he did of Dartmoor for me, it hangs in my bedroom, and will always be a reminder of him.

Dartmoor by John Brown

John, may you rest in peace.

So I do not really do the tourist thing (click to read), but it was good to have a free morning on a weekends training. I can always make a metaphor from my experience of the Vatican and the Basilica, Saint Peter’s.

After a bite of lunch to eat with Elena Martelli my translator, it was back to the hotel to make sure I was happy with the room set-up. We had 28 participants to prepare for, and we wanted it right.

Elena Martelli and Phillip Holt. Rome 2008

We covered such areas of NLP as, the Meta Model, Anchors, Eye Accessing Cues, Chunking, Deep Structure – Surface Structure, The Map is not the Territory, Transderivational Search, and not forgetting Oh Poo Poo.

The group worked hard and had fun, as they put into practice the training.

For those participants that wish to review the NLP Meta Model structure in Italian, please click here.

Thank you all who attended. I cannot do my job without you.

Practicing the NLP Meta Model, Rome 2008.

“NLP is content free”, is a phrase heard many times when working with clients or within trainings.

There are many “technologies” or methods of working with clients, for example to cure or remove phobias.

Many of these methods will require the client to re-experience their fear, or to go back and describe the incident as it happened.

An example of this is called flooding. Here the client is confronted with the situation they are fearful of, and by continually putting the client into that situation the client will become used to it, and thus the fear will go. In a TV program some years ago, a professor was given a client who was phobic about earth worms. The professor had on his desk a clear plastic container on his desk with an earth worm into. As the client was shown in and saw the earth worm, she ran out in a “flaming phobia” state, crying and screaming.

All day the client was work with, and shown back into the office of the professor, each time getting closer and closer to the clear plastic container with the earth worm, each time crying and shaking with fear.

Eventually, the client was able to place her hand inside the clear plastic container, but not touch the earth worm, still having a fear.

The professor called this a success.

Other methods will ask the client to talk about the problem, for example CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), which talks about the here and now, or other therapies which look for the cause of the problems and difficulties, by going back into the past, and even further back into past life.

With NLP the Practitioner does not have to know about what the cause was, or even what the problem is to be changed.

NLP is content free.

By using the Milton Model language, and looking for what needs to be put in place for the client to overcome the problem, thus change will happen.

I had a very big phobia of heights, so bad that my knees would knock looking out of a 3rd story window, I could not cross a bridge. It became so bad that I asked a fellow NLP Trainer to run the Fast Phobia Cure on me. I had no idea of the film I was seeing in the cinema.

It was months later that a memory came into my mind. I remember being on holiday in the Welsh seaside town of Saundersford with my family and cousins, and walking across the harbour wall.

The harbour wall of Saundersfoot.
 

I was scared. But then, he put me back onto the wall, and off we skipped, as if nothing had happened.

There is another advantage as to why the Practitioner should not get involved in the cause of the problem, to not know the content.

As the client is reliving, talking about the experience, the Practitioner will have to go on a transderivational search, to process what is being said, to go through the experience themselves, to have an understanding. Thus the Practitioner may anchor the same emotions, create a similar fear in themselves.

As long as the Practitioner knows what is the outcome required, the problem can be worked upon. Simply by referring to “the certain thing” or “certain situation”, being very ambiguous, the client will go on their own transderivational search, to put their own understanding, their own experiences into what is being said.

NLP is content free.

We have in a previous article (click to read) learned what is an anchor, and that they are stimulus that triggers or fires via our representational systems, a response.

An anchor can be set by a intense emotional experience, or by a repetitive experience.

An anchor can be set with or without intention by ones self or on others.

An anchor can give a good response, eg confidence, self esteem, or a negative response, eg fears or phobias.

To overcome a certain behaviour, it will be found that perhaps the client could achieve that with a strong state like confidence, relaxation, a “I don’t care attitude”, or any other state, but they cannot get that state when needed.

This is where anchors can be employed.

The first requirement is for the practitioner, or ones self, to find the state or states that would be needed to overcome the problem. It is good if three (3) states, eg happiness, relaxation, confidence, are found, but not necessary.

Establish if these states have ever been experienced before. If the state has not been experienced, then establish what it would be like to have that state.

Establish a Kinesthetic anchor. It is suggested that the touching of the tip of the thumb and one of the remaining four fingers off the same hand be used, therefore there can be four anchors on one hand, and four on the other.

This will be the anchor that will capture the state, and when fired with intention, the brain will trigger the response wanted.

If the anchor being set is by an NLP Practitioner on a client, then the NLP Practitioner should establish an anchor that they can use, be it a Visual (seeing), Auditory (voice or sound), Kinesthetic (touch), Olfactory (smell), and Gustatory (taste) anchor. It is suggested that precise point on the clients shoulder be used.

The NLP Practitioner’s anchor will be used the enhance the client’s experience, to reinforce and build-up the state to be anchored so that the NLP Practitioner has an anchor they can fire only during the process.

Ask the client to close their eyes and recall a time when they had such an experience, or to imagine what it would be like.

Ask them to :-

        “See what they saw, hear what they heard, and feel what they felt.”

At this time, do not ask the client to fire or to touch their two fingers, wait until they experience a good strong state.

The NLP Practitioner should watch for any signal which would indicate that the client is experiencing any shift towards the state wanted, and as this is seen, a light touch to the anchor on the shoulder be made.

Continue building the client’s experience by doubling the V,A,K,o,g, spreading them around the whole body.

When it is seen that the client is reaching (just before the peak) a strong state, ask them to “anchor the state” by touching their two fingers together, and at any time in the future they need this state, all they have to do is to touch these two fingers together.

This process for each of the states or anchors should be repeated three (3) times, to establish a good memory or strong neural pathway.

An anchor in NLP, is a term we use to set a state, an action or memory, that can be triggered or fired as required, so that state, action or memory will be recalled and used. It is a mood or state that can be recalled in response to a stimulus.

The earliest form of anchors can be attributed the work of the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov who in the late 1800’s, experimented in what he called, “conditional reflex” (“условный рефлекс”). 

Pavlov was experimenting with dogs, and their digestive systems, and whilst undergoing this research, found that the dogs had involuntary automatic reflexes due to certain conditioning, that is to say, that when conditioned with various stimulus, including the ringing of a bell, and that food would be given, then every time that stimulus was fired there would be an involuntary reflex, that is to say the dogs would saliva, even if no food was given.

After Pavlov’s work, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russell, William Sargant and John B. Watson among others, continued furthering more research into conditioning.     

In NLP the “P” stands for Programming. It is how the mind is programmed to do certain actions in response to triggers or some stimulus, often involuntary and unconsciously. The stimulus that fires the response is called an anchor.

Anchors are learned, and often takes a number of conditioning actions to make them strong, and when working with clients I will normally run the anchors, three (3) times.

A stimulus can be in any of the five (5)  modalities, VAKOG, or rep systems, being Visual (seeing), Auditory (hearing and speech), Kinesthetic (touch, feelings, both internal and external), Olfactory (smell), and Gustatory (taste).   

Examples of Anchors.

Visual

You are walking down the main street in any major town, and you see a big red plastic shop sign, with one letter in yellow on it, what would it mean?

MacDonald’s?          This is a visual anchor, which will even, depending on your likes or dislikes or preferences towards their food, make your mouth saliva or make you feel sick.

Your national flag or other’s national flags. You instantly recognise your own flag, and know the countries of some of the others.

Auditory

As you are listening to the radio and you hear a certain sound being played,  (click to play), what does it remind you of? Perhaps a trip to London, or that it is time to listen to the news?
 
If you hear your name calling, like your mother’s, you will respond to it. When my mother called my name, depending on the tonality, would depend on my response, run to her if it was a happy high voice, or run away if it was a low, stern voice.
Kinesthetic

Have you ever been touched by someone, a friend, a loved one, a baby, an enemy, and had a certain feeling, may-be butterflies in the tummy? Or perhaps you have cuddled up to your duvet and felt so comfortable?

Olfactory

Walking down the main shopping street, in the shopping mall or supermarket, and you smell fresh baked bread? What do you feel? Hunger? Perhaps the urge to buy a loaf of bread?

Perhaps it is the smell of a hospital or dentist which can spread fear in some people

Gustatory

You eat a certain food or meal that you have not eaten for a long time, a meal that perhaps you eat on holiday, where does your mind, your memories go too?

The taste of a chocolate cake brings happiness to many people, like me.

These are all examples of how our representation systems use anchors to do certain actions or bring back memories, in response to triggers or some stimulus.

Not everyone will have the same anchors. A certain restaurant, a favourite restaurant, will bring happy romantic memories to some, because they have been their with a loved one. Yet, the same restaurant will be disliked by others, as they have had a bad experience, may be the waiters did not give good service, or the food was bad on that one occasion, or they argued with their loved one.

Phobias and fears are set by anchors, perhaps by one intense emotional experience, or a conditioned or by repeating, reoccuring exposure (3 times) can set-up a lifetime problem.

Note:- Phobias and fears can be removed easily, call for an appointment or read blog here or visit www.c4phobias.com

Anchors are around us all day, every day, through music, advertising, objects, people, sight, sounds, tastes, and we do not pay attention to them, but respond to each and everyone.

We can set-up anchors with intention in ourselves and others, to change fears and phobias, to give confidence or relaxation.

See how to set anchors with NLP.