DOES NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP) WORK?
Used by many medical practitioners, NLP is known to be very effective for treating phobias, particularly ones that are easy to identify, such as flying or spiders. It has strong roots in hypnotherapy and uses many of the same techniques. Clinical trials have shown that hypnosis works for conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and surgical pain. It appears that using hypnosis to reduce the fear of pain and discomfort really does improve health and speed of recovery. WHY DOES IT WORK? Like hypnosis, it exploits our natural ability to go into a trance. Once in the trance, practitioners use techniques such as relaxation and visualisation to help patients think differently about an irrational fear. According to Dr Ann Williamson, chair of the British Society of Dental and Medical Hypnosis, NLP uses language such as “go inside yourself and ask . . .” and the trance state is a consequence of thinking about the question. Unlike hypnosis, there is no formal induction into a trance. IS A TR
