Does NLP Exist ? - Updated
17 May 2009 22:17 Filed in: NLP
A few years ago I had a discussion about what NLP was about and one of the suggestions was that it didn’t exist. At the time I dismissed it but the more I learn the more I’m coming to that conclusion..... sort of......
If you consider NLP to be modelling, it could follow that all NLP models are NLP. Taking this to a logical if infinite conclusion - if you model everything, everything is NLP 
So conversely you could argue that as NLP is a set of models and the models are not NLP, then there is no NLP....
You can then reverse it again and say that the skills one uses to model are NLP and as you potentially use all the skills that NLP has modelled to model you get back to everything being NLP
The real argument around NLP not existing is that all the tools and techniques have come from somewhere else, so nothing in NLP is new. That makes NLP a labelled container into which all this good stuff has been put.
In a very recent discussion I had, based on the first version of this rambling, the opinion was that NLP is more about skills. Rather than it being about using techniques well, it is about having the skills, capabilities and flexibility to create new techniques, on the fly, to facilitate the required outcome.
I’m pretty much happy with that description as it certainly matches my experience of NLP. When I started training, my use of it was certainly technique driven. This was ok and you got changes with some of the people some of the time. When I did my master practitioner we focussed more on skills and the techniques became guidelines; you went with what worked for your partner. Training was always a difficult environment as we would use the skill or technique being learned whether it was right for the issue being worked on or not, whereas in real life you would use what was appropriate.
So now I can confidently say that I will go into a session with only one thing planned, to focus on the client and trust myself to use my skills and knowledge to help them facilitate the change they want. It can be a little scary sometimes, but it certainly gets results
Mike
So conversely you could argue that as NLP is a set of models and the models are not NLP, then there is no NLP....You can then reverse it again and say that the skills one uses to model are NLP and as you potentially use all the skills that NLP has modelled to model you get back to everything being NLP
The real argument around NLP not existing is that all the tools and techniques have come from somewhere else, so nothing in NLP is new. That makes NLP a labelled container into which all this good stuff has been put.
In a very recent discussion I had, based on the first version of this rambling, the opinion was that NLP is more about skills. Rather than it being about using techniques well, it is about having the skills, capabilities and flexibility to create new techniques, on the fly, to facilitate the required outcome.
I’m pretty much happy with that description as it certainly matches my experience of NLP. When I started training, my use of it was certainly technique driven. This was ok and you got changes with some of the people some of the time. When I did my master practitioner we focussed more on skills and the techniques became guidelines; you went with what worked for your partner. Training was always a difficult environment as we would use the skill or technique being learned whether it was right for the issue being worked on or not, whereas in real life you would use what was appropriate.
So now I can confidently say that I will go into a session with only one thing planned, to focus on the client and trust myself to use my skills and knowledge to help them facilitate the change they want. It can be a little scary sometimes, but it certainly gets results
Mike