8 presuppositions of NLP

NLP has a set of beliefs, expressed through what’s called the NLP presuppositions, that help us to become more successful in our lives and help us help others more effectively too. The presups are culled from the attitudes and belief systems of some of the world’s most successful therapists. But beliefs are funny things. Everybody has different beliefs and their beliefs have a lot to do with what they accomplish in life. The NLP presuppositions are extremely useful, but here’s a piece of news…

Years ago, I was helping teach an NLP Master Practitioner class. Often, right before we went to lunch I’d do a group induction with some general suggestions of well-being and effectively absorbing and utilizing the material we’d covered. One time I mentioned childhood. “Go back to a pleasant memory, ” I said. “It could be something as simple as watching the water flow by in a stream or looking out a window at a pleasant sight or even a pleasant thought you had as a child.” Afterwards, we broke for lunch and a woman approached me. “Not everyone had a pleasant childhood, you know, ” she said.

The Meaning Of Your Communication Is The Response It Elicits

The meaning of your communication is the response it elicits is an NLP presupposition. It’s designed to get us NLP folks to be flexible in our communication. If we look at our communication as achieving an outcome, what do we do if we don’t get the outcome we’re after? Why, we change our communication! That’s a powerful frame. Let’s say we want to hypnotize someone and we say in a soft voice, “relaxing now, ” and they tense their shoulders. We thought that communication meant “relax.” They thought it meant tension. So, with curiosity, we might experiment with different communications until we get the result we’re after–namely trance. It takes communication out of the whole, “I said this but she didn’t listen” thing and in to a “My job is to help that person to a particular response. What do I need to do to help get them there?” thing.