NLP is a big term in coaching circles, which no coach can avoid in his training and work. In the public perception, however, NLP suffers from image damage. People like to associate it with slick salespeople who want to push products on you that you don't even want. NLP has partly fallen into disrepute as a supposed manipulation technique. But what exactly is behind NLP Coaching? How did it become so famous and why are some people so sceptical about it? We now want to get to the bottom of these questions.
NLP Stands for Neurolinguistic Programming. The NLP definition in detail is:
NLP Coaching was developed in the 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder justified. They addressed the question of why some psychotherapists were so successful and others were not. They hypothesized that the successful therapists did similar things in their work with patients. They began to study the therapy styles of the psychotherapy stars of their time. These included the famous hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, the extraordinary family therapist Virginia Satir, and the innovative Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls. Bandler and Grinder found common patterns in the therapists' - sometimes quite different - approaches.
Grinder and Bandler put in writing what was the quintessence of the stars' therapeutic work. They refined it, experimented with it in seminars with their students, and eventually developed a model they called NLP. NLP was intended to help people communicate more effectively, learn faster, and develop personally to achieve a higher quality of life. They further developed NLP as a process to crystallize patterns behind brilliance in any field. Moreover, NLP is a smorgasbord of effective strategies of thinking and communicating from top personalities in a field.
Most people communicate their feelings in different ways. For the most part, they unconsciously communicate how they are feeling. Their tone of voice, volume, rate of speech, facial expressions or the words they use tell you what is going on emotionally. An NLP coach is trained to detect minute clues in the behavior and communication of his clients. This enables him to understand them in depth. He uncovers the limitations that his clients have imposed on themselves and works with them to move forward.
The most common limiting Beliefsthat people suffer from are: Hopelessness, worthlessness and helplessness. If you think badly of yourself, it is likely that you will have bad experiences. You increase the likelihood of not succeeding and failing. Beliefs are treated as presuppositions in NLP. The NLP coach assumes that you can make a conscious decision about what you want to believe. If you don't like the results you get with a belief set, you have the freedom to change your belief set. The NLP coach uses questioning techniques to find out what feelings are behind the limiting beliefs. He then challenges the limitations in order to change the client's negative thought pattern.
NLP Coaching is suitable for everyone who wants to change, improve and generally achieve more in his life. Especially successful people like to use NLP Coaching to overcome unpleasant limitations in their lives and to acquire a new repertoire of possible actions. NLP Coaching methods help them to adopt structures for a happier way of life. NLP coaching gives them a wider range of positive feelings and behaviors. They learn to communicate and respond better. The more options they have available to them, the more more easily they can make optimal decisions.
NLP coaching helps wherever one's own potential has been exhausted or where the Communication should be improved. The NLP coaching methods help you to become more efficient, to grow personally and to develop yourself. Thus, NLP also helps in school teaching or in education in general to achieve better results. It is also used effectively in management, human resources, mediation or in the court system.
In psychotherapy and counselling, amazing results can be achieved with NLP coaching methods. In the business world, executives use NLP to improve their rhetorical skills and presentation techniques. Interpersonal communication in the business world is improved through NLP coaching methods. People learn to build better relationships with each other, even across cultural and national boundaries.
NLP Coaching finds a wide range of application in practice. In principle, it can be used wherever people communicate with others or themselves. NLP helps to stay motivated even over a longer period of time and to keep one's Achieving goals. By visualizing your desired state and experiencing it in your mind in all details - over and over again - it will be easier for you to reach your goal. It works the same way when you want to dissolve fears. You imagine your desired state and then manage to achieve it by overcoming your fear.
NLP helps in communication and therefore also in consulting and sales. Through the NLP methods, facts can be explained to someone else so that he grasps them in his own way. You can use NLP questioning techniques to find out exactly what your counterpart needs. Your customers or clients don't see the world the way you do. They have their own priorities. Thanks to NLP you speak the language of your target group. In sales, NLP training helps you to speak the language of the customer. You learn to listen carefully to your customer and understand what is important to them. These are most likely not the same priorities you have. Through NLP, however, you can engage with his way of looking at the world. Accordingly, you can sell him the right product for him.
Our expert Denys Scharnweber talks in this interview about NLP and how we understand people better.
You become an NLP coach by completing an NLP coach training. It is a continuing education that is open to everyone. Often people do an NLP coach training who work as a coach themselves and want to apply the NLP coaching methods. But also managers, consultants, salesmen and employees from marketing decide for a NLP coach training, because they can profit from it in their job. Also as a private person you can go through a NLP Coach Training. There are many advantages for your own life and the communication with your fellow men.
The NLP coach training consists of several levels that build on each other. The NLP Coach training is regulated by the German NLP Association (DVNLP). Those who are interested in the NLP coaching methods or would like to deal with the NLP meaning and the NLP definition, can participate in various information and introductory events, which extend over a few hours or a few days and provide a first insight into the NLP world.
If you want to use NLP professionally, you can go through various certified training levels. To reach the next level, practical experience over a certain period of time is usually required. First of all you acquire a certification as NLP Practitioner. This is the basic level and here you get all the basic information about NLP and learn the basic models. You develop yourself and your social skills and learn to communicate better.
As a certified Practitioner and NLP Master you can use NLP Become a coach. You will further develop your skills as a coach in this training. During the training you develop your personal way of coaching. The focus of the training is on questioning and conversation techniques, Conflict Management, systemic aspects in conflicts as well as team and group processes.
The NLP Master is a connoisseur and user of advanced NLP techniques. Prerequisite for the NLP Master is the certificate as NLP Practitioner. Training contents are communication, coaching, presentation and moderation, mediation, pedagogy, conflict management, social pedagogy and psychotherapy. As a Master you can call yourself NLP Master Coach.
You can train to become an Advanced NLP Master if you already have an NLP certificate and would like to deepen your NLP Master skills. In addition, you can set job-specific priorities in the NLP Advanced Master. Training focuses on metaprograms, core transformation, timeline work, belief system work, social panorama and work with the inner team.
It is the main argument of NLP critics: NLP is Manipulation! But is this really true? The accusation is based on the fact that some NLP methods are aimed at eliciting a certain reaction from the other person. You make your client feel comfortable through rapport, communicate in the same representational system as he does, etc. Through your knowledge advantage you can theoretically easily influence a communication in your favor. For some people NLP is even a synonym for manipulation.
For one thing, not every manipulation is NLP. On the other hand, every kind of influence that is not disclosed is manipulation. Accordingly, salespeople, psychologists, journalists, lawyers or politicians manipulate on a professional level, so to speak - without consciously using NLP for it. It is also normal in everyday life to be friendly to each other and to establish a rapport with your conversation partner.
For NLP or a manipulation technique to be successful, the counterpart must cooperate. It is therefore his or her own personal decision whether or not to engage with the technique used. To answer the question: NLP is not in itself a manipulation technique. However, NLP methods can be used by manipulative people for their own purposes.
This question is not easy to answer, because most coaches are not pure NLP coaches, but combine different coaching methods in their work. Thus, even a good coach usually does not work strictly according to NLP, but combines different approaches in his work. In addition, it depends on the specialization and reputation of a coach, what he earns. A business coach earns significantly more than a coach for private persons or students. On average, a coach earns €42,000 gross per year. The starting salary is lower and with some notoriety and experience it can go way up.
The most important NLP associations in the German-speaking countries and internationally are:
NLP Coaching has enjoyed great popularity for decades. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that it can be used very broadly and provides assistance with practically all concerns of daily life. On the other hand, results are quickly visible after an NLP procedure.
The trick later is to keep it alive in everyday life. If you attend a motivational seminar, for example, you come home on Sunday evening and could pull out trees. That's how you start the week, and if you're really disciplined, you feel great even after two weeks. After three weeks at the latest, however, the slump comes and the energy and euphoria wane.
NLP is excellent as a short-term therapy. If you want to achieve something quickly, make a Group to a strong team, then NLP is the tool of choice. Most Coaching methods rarely take a holistic approach. NLP focuses strongly on bringing about immediate change, but offers little prospect of success in the long term.
If there is no coach available to help and monitor the change process, most people give up and fall back into their old patterns. It is important to look at all areas - the present, the past and the future. This is the approach taken by the Greator Life Coach training. This makes sustainable changes possible that stand a chance against the challenges of everyday life.
In contrast to NLP Coaching the Greator Life Coach a holistic approach. The training to become a Greator Life Coach takes nine months. In the first few months, the prospective coach undergoes a personal transformation. This is important so that they get a feel for what is possible with clients later on. In the following months, they learn their coaching skills from top coaches and gain practical experience. In contrast to NLP, Greator Life Coaches learn a holistic approach that combines various scientific disciplines. The latest findings from brain research, quantum physics and modern vision work flow into the Coaching training inside.
As a Greator Life Coach, you are part of a large community of like-minded people. You learn together, grow together and support each other beyond the training. After you Certified Greator Life Coach you have the opportunity to be part of the Greator coach network. This makes it easier for clients to find you. The Greator Life Coach training also teaches you how to successfully set up your coaching business and market yourself. After all, the best training is useless if nobody knows you exist.
