Operational Presuppositions of NLP
We have included a selection of presuppositions that guide the use of NLP. The presuppositions included overlap Ericksonian approaches, systemic and brief therapy approaches and DBM. Not all NLP trainers would agree with all of them and the application and training of NLP has not always been consistent with them. They are drawn from a variety of sources that NLP drew upon and are of particularly useful if NLP is used on its own. They have been remodelled and integrated into the methodology of DBM.
There
are 18 in our selection below.
1.
People Operate Out Of Their Internal Maps And Not Directly On The Sensory
Experience.
This first principle acknowledges that
each individual perceives the world from a unique vantage point of his or
her own frame of reference (Korzybski). Keeping this principle in mind sensitises
the worker to the individuality of the client. Interventions will be greatly
enhanced by tailoring them to fit the clients model of the world. From the
vast array of sensory experience people select particular areas and interpret
these in terms of their own models of the world. They impose meaning and structure
on their experience in terms of what they see, hear, feel, taste and smell
directly. Indeed we do not wait passively for sensory experience, we go seeking
certain experiences; we listen, look etc. for certain things. We will have
more to say about models and maps in the next chapter.
2.
Mind And Body Are Part Of One Cybernetic System.
All external and internal behaviour are
part of one recursive system. As such 'external behaviour' is part of the
'internal thinking' and the 'internal thinking' is part of the 'external behaviour.'
The structure of the 'internal subjective experience' can be monitored through
its external components, the internal experience being sequences of the five
senses. The five senses, what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell, are the
basic building blocks of experience.
3.
People Make The Best Choice For Themselves At Any Given Moment.
This does not mean that a person always
makes a choice that other people would consider the best. What it does say is that from a person's own individual frame
of reference and life history, even a so-called problem behaviour or feeling
is the best choice the person has learned to make in a particular circumstance.
In increasing the choices that people have, the choices have to be
practically available to that person's own model for them to be real choices
for that person. If they are
not compatible with the individual's own model then they would not become
real choices for that person although to the outside observer they look as
though they are options. The
actual choices made will indicate where particular blocks exist and where
additional choices would be useful.
4.
The Positive Self Worth Of The Client Is Held Constant.
A distinction is made between
self, intention and behaviour that the person engages in. This allows
the intentions and behaviours to be explored and improved relative to their
usefulness and effectiveness while maintaining support for the person as a
unique individual.
5.
The Explanation Or Metaphor Used To Relate Facts About A Person Is Not The
Person.
This includes the client's explanation
and ideas about themselves as well as the worker's ideas, theories.
This principle is particularly important in the area of assessment.
The minute after a formal assessment is completed it is out of date.
As people change, the circumstances change and assessment has to be
updated. Even the most consistently
updated assessment is still not the person.
It is only as useful as it usefully facilitates successful interventions
to produce the outcomes agreed by the client and worker.
The dangerous situation can arise whereby we respond to the assessment
rather than the person. Conferences, meetings, case files, can all discuss
the map they have made rather than the person.
6.
Respect All Messages From The Client.
There are many messages sent simultaneously
during any communication. There
are verbal and non- verbal components, there are multi-levels in each.
As theorists grew more aware of the non-verbal components, a debate
ranged over which was the real message and therefore, which one should be
responded to as opposed to the other.
We consider it disrespectful to the whole person to view things in
this way. As we concern ourselves
with the whole person all messages received from that person should be respected.
It is not that one is right and the other is wrong or one is accurate
and the other inaccurate. It
is rather that they represent accurately
different parts of that person's model of the world.
This is an important aspect of communication.
Increasing our own skills in multi-level communications will enable
us to further improve our work with the whole person. Bringing the two messages together by pointing out consciously
to somebody that their body does not match what they say is not respectful
of the fact the client chooses to give the two messages independently.
This superficial way of dealing with different levels of communication
is rather clumsy and disrespectful of the subtlety of the client's communication.
In latter chapters we will discuss ways of communicating more accurately
and respectfully to the whole person.
7.
Teach Choice; Never Attempt To Take Choice Away.
This principle follows on principle 2,
namely that people make the best choice themselves.
In addition to this principle, we have a sub category that states that
you should always leave a client, or an individual, at least no worse off
than when you found them, and at best, better off than when you found them.
Some behaviours, attitudes or feelings that people consider negative
or bad may at some point in the future be useful for that person to be able
to choose. In the mean time a
new choice if more appropriate will be chosen.
To take the old choice away, however, would be to debilitate the person
in a possible future situation. It
is therefore important to add to choice and not as behaviour modifiers do
substitute one choice for another. Our
aim in our work is not just to substitute choice and therefore keep individuals
equally limited as to the flexibility they have, It is to increase their ability to create more choice for themselves
(an appreciation of the application of logical levels to learning greatly
assists).
8.
The Resources The Client Needs Lie Within Their Personal History.
For the vast majority of people, a great
variety of possible behaviours have been experienced, either first hand through
their direct interaction with others or through their observations of the
behaviour of others. This observation can be through seeing others in day-to-day
life, through media and television, books and through their imagination (fantasy
can be as useful as external experience). These resources are potentials of
future behaviour, attitudes etc. Our role in helping people is to enhance
these resources in order to accomplish the desired changes.
9.
Meet The Client At Their Own Model Of The World.
To set off on a journey to anywhere , you have to start from where you
are. The old joke of a stranger asking a farmer the best way to the nearest
town and being told by the farmer that he would be better starting from some
where else is relevant at this point. If we aim to help an individual, family,
organisation etc. move in a certain direction then we have to start from where
they are and then move on. The concept of rapport is crucial in meeting others
at their model of the world not just verbally but non-verbally. Following
this principal of matching the clients model will help sensitise the individual
to their model of the world and greatly facilitate the level of rapport; and
therefore the level of co-operation in whatever work is undertaken.
Continued...
