NLP for Mental Health

How Is NLP Useful in Mental Health?

Mental health has escalated in importance overnight, since Covid-19 swept through the world. More important now than any other time in history, it isn’t only our physical health that is under threat.

Our ability to cope in these stressful times depends on the state of our mental health. To take it a step further, our immunity too depends on it. When seen from a mind-body-spirit angle, most people fail to realise that our mind is the driver. Yet we pay so little attention to it!

Why is that so? Could it be that our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing which affects how we think, feel, and act, is invisible hence not worthy of as much attention as our physical being?

Or is it the past stigma of being emotionally unstable if one sought out a coach, counsellor or therapist? If you fall in this bracket of people, re-think! Improving emotional wellness is at the core of what it is to be human.

Our mental wellbeing regulates how we connect with people in our lives, cope with stress and make decisions. From the time we’re born to the end of our lives, mental health will always be as important as physical health, at times even more.

Doesn’t it make sense then to empower ourselves with something like NLP for mental health?

You might wonder what is NLP? Described further in this article, NLP is a modality that could be used to stay motivated at work. A different and effective way to deal with motivation but at the root, no different to the source of mental health issues.

It is common for a human being to experience mental health problems at various stages of a lifespan. Crises such as the loss of a loved one, divorce, job loss, work stress, trauma or abuse could trigger a spate of, mental health problems.

In such situations improving emotional wellness becomes paramount, to move through events with the least possible damage and this is where a thought to learn NLP comes in.

What is NLP?

Neurology - refers to the workings of the brain and nervous system
Linguistic - refers to how we use language and its effects
Programming - refers to changing behaviour patterns for better results

The basis of NLP is that there is a natural unconscious connection between:

NLP founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder purported (when they created NLP) that all of these components could be changed to improve our lives. Those of us who learn NLP and teach it, know this first hand.

We know that by improving emotional wellness we most definitely possess the behavioural flexibility to for example, stay motivated at work, handle family commitments and deal with stress along the way.

NLP has been widely used in the past and especially at its inception, for psychological disorders, including phobias, depression, generalized anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Today it has traversed boundaries into the corporate world, where applications like leadership and coaching, communication and team effectiveness are the beneficiaries of this accelerated technology.

How Does NLP for Mental Health Work?

Our mind runs many unconscious programs. This happens every second of every day. Most of the time we are not aware of these programs.

If a program is working to create positive results for us, then let it run. If a program sabotages our best efforts to hinder our desired goals, then it becomes the root cause of the problem.

NLP for mental health techniques focus on deleting such unhelpful programs and installing more helpful ones. The same techniques also reveal the strategies of good programs, which allows us to then replicate that specific behaviour.

         Powerful stuff indeed!

• When therapy only focuses on the conscious mind, it neglects to address the root cause of mental health problems. This is why there are so many people living in depression today.
  
  The unconscious mind is the domain of emotions and patterns of behaviour. For example, a person who wants to stay motivated at work will find working with the conscious mind challenging. Not only is it time consuming, it is also less effective.
  
  Having heard a million times over that motivation drives results and high achievers are oozing with it, a person would still find it hard to give up based on thoughts alone. NLP by-passes conscious filters to go straight into the unconscious mind and work to re-align values in one session.
  
  Processes are so easy to do. Results are fast and profound!

• When you learn NLP, you will realise that the coach is not interested in WHAT the client thinks. They’re interested in HOW the client thinks. The focus is on the context, not the content.
  
  This is very appealing to the client as they need not face the pain of reliving trauma or feel agitated talking about details of their problems.
  
  By permanently shifting mindsets to dealing with problems from the perspective of context, the effect is immediate in improving emotional wellness.
  
  A completely opposite approach to most healing modalities!

• The NLP presupposition that “people already have the resources they need” ensures clients are not dependent on coaches indefinitely. In fact, NLP coaches are thrilled when clients are confident to stop sessions after only a few.
  
  The role and challenge of an NLP coach is to simply help clients remove past negativity and arm them with tools for the future. By this time, they are able to figure out solutions that fit them best.
  
  As an NLP coach and trainer, my focus is to have clients live an empowered life without hanging on to my coat tails. I am most excited when clients give up medication and get back to normalcy.
  
  Learn NLP to become independent is the mantra!
  
• There are many NLP for mental health tools at the disposal of an NLP coach. An adept coach would know how to dovetail into one or the other, to create a powerful outcome for the client.

        So what is NLP and what does it do? The simple answer is it’s a system that addresses the root cause
        of a mental health problem which sits in the unconscious mind.

Addressing the root cause is the only way to permanently eradicate the problem. Not only do processes 
that use NLP for mental health make improving emotional wellness so much easier, the best part is that
results are permanent too.

Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information.