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What is NLPt?

Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy (NLPt) is an "experiential constructivist" type of therapy. It is based on the discoveries in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and related approaches and theories, which have been developed further and applied to psychotherapeutic work.

Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy is a relatively young, very efficient method with roots in Gestalt-therapy, System theory and Hypnotherapy, which has become recognized as an independent model for constructive change work in clinical contexts as well as for personal growth and learning.

NLPt can be seen as based on six different theories, which through successful modelling have been integrated to a whole new approach:

•  William James' theory of sensory representational systems as fundamental for information processing and subjective experience.

•  Gregory Bateson's theory of mind, particularly his ideas of logical levels, which were further developed by Robert Dilts.

•  Theories of Miller, Galanter & Pribram (1960) about human action as being goal-oriented.

•  Noam Chomsky's transformational grammar, Korzybski's semantics and Glasersfeld's radical constructivism, which laid the foundation for Bandler and Grinder's linguistic models.

•  Albert Bandura's social-cognitive theory of learning and Bandler and Grinder's modelling approach (see our modelling trainings).

•  Richard Bandler and John Grinder's modelling of the practical work of Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson.

The approach is called "constructivist", because it has a strong focus on the client's construction of her/his subjective experience of the past, the present and the future. As the Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy and Counselling Association (NLPtCA) says:

"the emphasis is on how he or she constructs... [a] state from experiences past and present rather than on why. In general, this is taken to involve processes of 'deletion' in which some experiences are ignored, 'generalisation' in which universal rules are inferred from individual sets of experiences, and 'distortion' in which connections are made between experiences, the intensity or quality of which may be heightened or diminished by internal processing." (see more on NLPtCA's web-site)

The change work focuses on changing the client's construction in a way that is desirable and ecological for her/him. This work involves conversations, where language patterns are detected and exposed, as well as physical movements around the room, e.g. moving on a "time line" on the floor in order to reinforce the experiences.

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Last modified: 06/03/07