WHAT NLP-METHODS MAY BE EXPECTED TO DO FOR PHOBIC PEOPLE

In the past it was difficult to get rid of phobia’s and other fears. Hypnotherapy seems to work very well for some people but there are no formal statistics for this. Many people are phobic of hypnotherapy because they are afraid of losing control during hypnosis. If people really believe that a religious procedure will get the phobia out of them like a devil being exorcised it may help them. If people only go to get such kind of help to satisfy their relatives or neighbors it will not have the desired effect. Some people find having a phobia is useful to them, as a means of getting the attention of other people and will avoid under all kinds of pretexts to do something effective about their fears. Whatever is done, nothing will help such people and may sometimes even have an adverse effect. The same goes for making a pilgrimage. For exceptional people such action will even cure cancers as has been proven. A phobia is subjective, after all is said and done, many things will help. Psychiatry does not have a reputation in being effective in combating phobia’s.

In the last years behavioral therapy is reputed to be effective. As a method is a bit like desensitization in allergies. It takes some time and if a person wants to fly tomorrow it would take longer than the one day and would not be of any use. Statistics of effectiveness are getting produced and it looked the best bet until NLP came along.

For the uninformed: NLP (or Neuro Linguistic Programming) is relatively new. The basic theory was developed by a system analyst (a computer man) and a linguist. Together they made the claim that the way a (human) brain works is like a computer. Like the computer the brain may be said to work with programs to execute all kinds of routine tasks. Like any computer program it has a programming language like BASIC or JAVA. Each language has it’s own use; if an inappropriate language is used the results may get funny. The programs are made by humans, limited only by genetic possibilities: the human cannot make a program to fly, nor a program to live without sufficient oxygen.

The input of the brain can be said to be all data from outside the body: quality and quantity of food, water, outside circumstances with it’s temperature and humidity, flora and fauna, other human beings with their appearance and actions including words and tone of voice. In the memory of the computer are hardwired in the genetic possibilities, output is the action of the person and the regulation of the internal chemistry and internal household, almost entirely without being conscious of it.

From all this data the two founders drew several conclusions: the first one is that anybody doing anything chooses the best program available given the hardware, all input from outside and including the experiences from the past. The second conclusion: every program available to the human being is a program which is useful in some circumstances and should never be discarded entirely; a psychotherapist can help people find and activate other programs which are more appropriate for the moment.

The next thing they did is too find out what effective therapists were doing. Good psychotherapists might, unknown to themselves, have developed procedures which help others to change their habit of destruction causing programs into using more useful ones. Such effective procedures are now called metaprograms. A systematic examination and analysis of video’s taken of important psychotherapists has shown that there are such metaprograms and NLP teaches all this: the frame of thinking, metaprograms and how and when to apply them.

In this way of thinking a phobia is the result of a program which has been useful at some point in the life of the person with the phobia. The “treatment” consists of teaching such persons to find and put to work a more appropriate program instead of the phobia-causing program.

In practice: the therapist will ask the client to sit relaxed in his chair, he will ask a number of appropriate questions. The therapist sits opposite and gives the client a series of “instructions” to follow; they might be something like: close your eyes and think that you sit in such and such building. The therapist will observe the reaction and formulate his next instruction as he thinks fitting. When he thinks the last reaction of the client is satisfactory he will talk this over with the client. When both agree, the “therapy” is finished. A session will typically last less than two hours. The last thing the therapist will ask is to let him know about the result: did it work? This the client can do by e-mail, by telephone or by letter, after an agreed period of time.

It may be that the client wants to talk a bout other problems as well with the therapist at that time or later. This is possible after an appointment.