Chapter 3: What You Need to Know about Neuro-Linguistic Programming

In a nutshell, NLP is an alternative form of organization change that rests on the assumption that a person’s pattern of behavior is a result of the language that they use to think about a particular subject matter. By helping clients realize the role of language in their mental programing, NLP experts claim this process can be used to change behavior and reach specific goals. This is accomplished by a process called modeling in which a person intentionally adopts another person’s language, perspectives, beliefs and behaviors in order to become more successful.

During the course of the last 20 years, NLP has become particularly popular amongst professional coaches and management training specialists. Books like Joseph O’Conner’s Coaching with NLP and Ian McDermott’s The NLP Coach have provided business and life coaches with the knowledge and instruments necessary to help clients develop new habits by understanding and changing their patterns of thinking. The goal of this alternative coaching system is to introduce clients to certain modes of thinking that successful people do constantly but most people do not know about.

Although a significant percentage of today’s life and business coaches now include basic NLP techniques in their coaching toolkit, it is worth noting that the field of neuro-linguistic programming is not without its critics. NLP is rarely used mainstream psychotherapy or counseling due to the lack of empirical evidence that basic claims like the effectiveness of NLP modeling..

Despite claims that NLP is fundamentally founded in pseudoscience, coaches and various management training experts have discovered time and time again that the approach continues to deliver results. Whether you choose to use NLP techniques in your coaching practice is up to you.