What’s NLP?

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NLP is a technique to model human behavior, foster personal growth, and assist in communication. It was developed in the 1970s and can be used in various fields. NLP is a way of approaching personal development and is often considered a technology. It provides professionals with a set of tools to live a richer and fuller life. NLP techniques are taught through workshops, and it was influenced by the New Age philosophy. It is criticized by some in the scientific community, but NLP practitioners argue that it is not intended to be a science.

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a general approach to model human behavior, foster personal growth, and assist in communication. It was developed in the early 1970s as a set of techniques derived from observed behaviors in effective psychotherapists and has since been generalized and used in a wide range of fields. The term refers to the three areas that NLP sees as giving rise to subjective experience: the mind, language patterns, and the programming that organizes our perceptions and thoughts.

Defining NLP is somewhat difficult, simply because it can be used in so many different ways. It is basically a way of approaching personal development and can be extended to improve one’s interpersonal skills. NLP is often considered a technology rather than a science because it focuses on what works rather than trying to come up with a general theory. In essence, it aims to provide professionals with a set of tools through which they can live richer and fuller lives, drawing on observed behaviors of others to infer what those tools might be.

NLP techniques are usually taught through workshops, each of which focuses on a specific “tool” for a happier life. These workshops are designed on the assumption that there are many ways of thinking and living that can be generalized to a large group of people, and that instead of working for years to find an easier way of doing something, the methods can simply be transmitted in a rational way so that people can benefit immediately. Techniques taught might include things like how to communicate more clearly with other people, how to gain a better understanding of people’s motivations, and how to change some key aspects of one’s personality.

NLP was heavily influenced by the New Age philosophy of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which focused on increasing individual potential rather than trying to come up with a set of universally true and objectively demonstrable teachings. While this has increased the appeal of NLP for many, it has also made many groups, such as the mainstream business world, a little more cautious about adopting it, as there is a perception of NLP as a “touchy” methodology. NLP is often criticized by groups within the scientific community, who view the method as groundless in its claims, with little or no empirical evidence to back it up. Most within the NLP community respond that NLP is not intended to be a science or to represent statistical truths – rather, it is meant to show people some personal techniques that others have subjectively found to improve their lives.




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