Neuro Linguistic Programming
I am a fully qualified NLP Practitioner having gained my qualification under the tuition of Adam Eason the world renowned hypnotherapist, NLP master practitioner, author, speaker and personal development guru. (You can read my testimonial from Adam on my testimonials page) I use NLP as an individual therapy and within my hypnotherapy practice as the two therapies effectively go hand in hand. I also use some NLP techniques when life coaching. I am also qualified in the technique of Neuro Affective Desensitisation Treatment, a therapy derived from some NLP techniques used for the treatment of anxiety and panic attacks as well as other issues and problems.
NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming is a form of therapy that has helped many people to improve their lives. Milton Erickson an American psychiatrist and hypnotherapist along with Fritz Perls, the founder of ‘Gestalt Therapy’ and Virginia Satir, a successful family therapist were observed by two men, Richard Bandler, who had a background in Psychology and John Grinder, who’s background was in linguistics.
Bandler and Grinder are the founders of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Neuro is about our neurological system, Linguistic refers to the way we use language to make sense of the world and Programming draws heavily from learning theory and addresses how we mentally represent experience.
NLP historically started life as a research project in the 70s at the University of California in Santa Cruz. Bandler and Grinder originally set out to understand the patterns of therapy used by successful therapists (Perls, Satir and Erickson) who consistently achieved positive results in their practice. An early influence on NLP was ‘General Semantics’, a theory developed by Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879-1950) a Polish Philosopher and Scientist. General Semantics was a new perspective for looking at the world which included a kind of ‘mental hygiene’, not only influencing NLP but other schools of thought.
Seminars in California were attracting people such as Perls, Satir and Erickson along with Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguistic and cyberneticist who wrote on subjects such as systems theory and psychotherapy, Bateson’s ideas also influenced Bandler and Grinder, it was Bateson who introduced Bandler and Grinder to Milton Erickson.
Early studies formed the basis of workshops and seminars on NLP as Bandler and Grinder developed through ideas, insights and techniques their method of NLP which became increasingly popular with therapists, business managers and sales people.
“Tom is a serious hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner and counsellor with a wonderful sense of humour that he uses to great effect in his work. His strong sense of purpose and deep understanding of his clients’ needs combines well with his skills and practical experience of delivering results with people. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Tom to my best of friends – however acute or mundane their therapeutic need.”
Andrew Fogg, Golf Psychologist & Hypnotherapist
Tom Smith, common name, uncommon therapy
