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How NHR is different from traditional NLP
Both created by Richard Bandler
Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning (NHR) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) are both methodologies founded by Richard Bandler, and they share similarities due to this origin. However, they have different focuses and approaches in helping individuals change patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. Here's a breakdown of how NHR is different from traditional NLP:
1. Focus on Emotional States:
- NHR: The primary objective of NHR is to deeply change and enhance one's emotional states. It uses trance to make these emotional states more fluid, allowing for the possibility of transforming negative emotional patterns into more positive ones.
- NLP: While NLP also deals with emotional states, its primary focus is on the patterns of thought and behavior. It examines the structure of experiences and provides tools and techniques to modify these structures.
2. Use of Trance:
- NHR: Trance and deep hypnotic states are fundamental in NHR. Bandler often described NHR as a process where participants "get into a state, and then get more of that state."
- NLP: Although NLP does utilize trance and hypnosis (especially in its early days with the influence of Milton Erickson), it is not as central as in NHR. NLP offers many techniques that don't necessarily involve deep trance states.
3. Methodology:
- NHR: The methodology of NHR is more fluid and is based on immersion in an experience. It tends to be less structured than traditional NLP techniques.
- NLP: NLP is known for its structured techniques and models such as the Meta Model, Milton Model, strategies, and others. Each technique has a set of steps or patterns that aim at specific outcomes.
4. Applications:
- NHR: Mainly used for profound emotional changes, enhancing quality of life, and reaching high-performance states.
- NLP: Has a broader range of applications from therapy, coaching, sales, communication training, personal development, and more.
5. Training:
- NHR: Training in NHR might feel more like an experiential workshop where participants are continuously in and out of trance, experiencing shifts in their emotional states.
- NLP: While experiential in nature, NLP trainings are often more didactic, teaching specific techniques, models, and concepts with exercises to practice them.
6. Depth of Change:
- NHR: Aims for deep and lasting change at the level of identity and core emotional patterns.
- NLP: While NLP can and does facilitate deep change, many of its techniques are also geared towards quick fixes and surface-level changes.
In conclusion, while both NHR and NLP have the shared goal of facilitating positive change, their approaches, methodologies, and specific applications differ. NHR dives deeper into the realm of emotional states through trance, aiming for profound transformation, while NLP offers a wider range of structured techniques targeting patterns of thought, behavior, and emotion.