Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)

Neurolinguistic Programming was created in 1972 as a result of an investigation carried out by John Grinder, psychologist and linguist, and Richard Bandler, psychologist and philosopher who, based on the data obtained through all their investigations, developed the system that today is used as a generic learning system or as therapy. NLP can be considered as the study of subjective human experience, that is, the study of the way in which we organize our material things, ideas, etc., the way in which we perceive and how we filter the outside world through our senses.

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the individual and mental perception that a person has of the world is called a "map". This mental map is built through personal filters by which each one assimilates the world and reality. Filters such as education, culture, beliefs, in short, all the experiences and ways of observing that a person develops, as well as the perceptions and feelings of their own experiences through their own filters of reality. The mind map is determined by genetic makeup and personal history. Hence, it is impossible for two people to have exactly the same perception of the same event. “The map is not the territory”, a phrase used by Korzybsky (Science and Sanity, 1933), as a metaphor to explain how language constitutes a map used by people to represent the reality they perceive. It refers to the fact that all people generate their own reality; In other words, there is no single reality, but there are as many realities as the number of people.

Metamodel

NLP is an unrivaled tool to locate the information that is lost in the interpretation and filtering processes that people make of the reality. Due to its advantage over other methods to reveal the limitations that the consultant may have to understand the distortions and specific needs regarding their mental map and their interpretation of reality. The metamodel is a model developed by Bandler and Grinder that postulates the existence of certain universal linguistic mechanisms that reflect the limitations of the mental map of people. In turn, the metamodel allows the retrieval of verbal information that the person systematically omits. Three processes or universal mechanisms that people use to create their map of reality or model of the world at the individual level can be identified: generalizations (when from a concrete experience, we assume that the same thing will always happen), eliminations ( the missing parts of the model ) and distortions (a simplified version that distorts the meaning). Among other NLP techniques that we use during consultations are: calibration, rapport, metaprograms.

Meta-model can be used to:

1 – Gather information.
2 – Clarify meanings.
3 – Identify limitations.
4 – Open new options.