Two topics of particular interest to me that you might not have heard of before are NLP and EFT.

NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming

NLP is a methodology that allows you to take thinking patterns that are already established at the unconscious level and use them at the conscious level. This allows you to gain control over the way you think, and subsequently your feelings and actions. It is used by therapists, coaches, teacher and trainers to help people make the most of their minds in order to produce the results they want in their lives.

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic-Programming and is a term coined in the early 1970’s by a mathematician named Richard Bandler and the linguist John Grinder. Bandler and Grinder were investigating what made particular therapists so good compared to others. They decided to build formal models of the linguistic and behavioural patterns of three of them in particular: Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls.

These models, and the skills and techniques derived from them, could be taught. This allowed others to create the same results as those three therapists, and these skills, techniques and models have for the past 30 years been labelled as NLP. Now a variety of people use it in many contexts including: training, coaching and self-development.

Although this knowledge has helped many people to produce better results in their lives, some have lost focus on what is really important in NLP. That is, the overall mindsets are more important than any particular technique.

Richard Bandler puts it best by saying that: “NLP is an attitude and a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques.”

Read about NLP at the Guardian site Don’t worry, get therapy.

EFT: Emotional Freedom Techniqe

EFT, colloquially known as ‘tapping’, is a simple but effective technique somewhere in between hypnosis, meditation, and acupressure. You can learn it in a matter of minutes and use it to apply instant relief to stressful situations in your life. EFT was developed by Gary Craig and you can find out more about it from his website www.emofree.com

Also read about EFT at the Times Tap away the trauma.

The following video provided my friend Magnus from www.tapping.com is a great introduction to EFT.