NHR is often talked about in seedy backstreets and bars around NLP seminars by NLP practitioners and professionals, most of whom heard a rumor than someone amongst their group has been on an NHR seminar. Their are significantly more NLP seminars run than NHR, and other than a set of DVDs there is no literature at all on the subject, and as such it is often discussed like the black ark of NLP. Both Richard Bandler and John LaValle are vague in their literature as to what NHR is; And this is not by chance. Most people start by asking the question “What is NHR?” or “How does NHR differ from NLP?” These questions are not easy to answer without an understanding of how and why NLP came about.

NLP is a set of tools that leave behind them a set of techniques. NLP uses observances to model, replecate and improve a process. “Eye accessing cues” for instance are an observation which gives the Practitioner a clue as to how the subject might be processing information as part of a process. The “Visual Swish” is a tool created from the observation that people pigeon-hole information by using various submodalities. Most of the tools that fall under the NLP banner are mathematical observations of a particular behaviour or process which can be used to leverage a change.

NHR is much more about state awareness, state control and deep state accessing. It goes one level below where NLP stops and begins to discuss and understand some of the underlying mechanics of NLP. We all filter reality based on the state we are in. Someone who is in a happy uplifted state is much more likely to filter their reality in such a way as to keep them happy, than to filter and find ways of feeling depressed. Every state you enter and move though serves a purpose, either as an end state to participate in a process or (more likely) as part of a chain of states which you move though to participate in a process.

When an NLP Practitioner begins to model a subject, they often are looking for the picture they make or the sounds in their head that ’starts’ a process. It is often considered that a Kinesthetic shift is 1 or more processes down the chain in the process model. This is not true. Every single experience you encounter begins and ends in a Kinesthetic shift; the pictures and sounds are anchors for your unconcious to shift to another state. Yes, by being aware of, and altering, the pictures or sounds in your head you can change the next state you enter, but it’s important to understand that the new state is also the catalyst for an entirely new chain of filters, hence why constant calibration is so important. With NHR you become less clinical with the process, and much more aware of a state chain, which can be broken, relinked, looped or deepened.

The NHR course in Edinburgh run by META-NLP was the very first NLP related seminar I attended. When I went along I was not only a total novice, but I was also a total skeptic as far as Hypnosis was concerned. I think this belief was shattered within 4 hours of the first day. I found that NHR course to be the single most empowering seminar I have ever attended, and can 100% recommend the course to anyone wanting to understand and use NLP/Hypnosis/NHR for personal or professional use.

NHR is not kludged together with NLP, because they are different. Very different. They have different purposes and different techniques. Their aims are the same, and the processes may seem similar, but do not be fooled. As a technology, I use NHR much more than I do NLP, but use the pre-text of NLP to illicit the change. And I’m not alone. Richard uses NHR techniques thoughout all of his more recent seminars to teach NLP much more effectivly. Strange huh!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Courses, NLP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.