Transforming health with NLP + the mind-body connection
Last weekend I attended the International NLP conference in London where Phil Parker delivered the full-day Masterclass to a room of NLP professionals and coaches.
You may ask, what is NLP? Who is Phil Parker? And why should I care? If you are interested in transforming your health, you will want to keep reading.
What is NLP?
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) looks at how our brain is processing information and how we can shift patterns of thinking, our language, and behaviours to change our experience of the world. It’s a fascinating approach to transformation used in various fields including therapy, coaching, sales, education, and personal development.
Who is Phil Parker?
Dr Phil Parker is a leader in the international NLP community, Master NLP trainer and author. What sets Phil apart is his background as an osteopath and deep knowledge of the mind-body connection. His unique expertise led to a focus on utilising NLP to transform health and the development of the Lightning Process. This transformational technique has been used by over 25,000 people to resolve challenging conditions like chronic fatigue/ME, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, anxiety and more.
At the two-day conference surrounded by other NLP coaches, I realised how exceptional this niche is. Many coaches are well versed in personal transformation, very few specialise health or chronic illness recovery. Even fewer in the southern hemisphere, I’m one of 3 Lightning Process Practitioners in Australia.
How does NLP relate to health?
NLP is a great modality for facilitating change. When combined with an understanding of the mind-body connection, we can apply this knowledge to influence health in remarkable ways.
To understand a bit more about NLP, let’s break it down by name:
Neuro - refers to our neurological processes and the communication between our brain and body via the nervous system. Our brain processes information from the world around us and from our internal environment to respond to our needs and to manage our health and activity levels. Our brain’s job is to take care of our body and is responsible for our thinking, emotions, habits, and choices.
Linguistic - refers to the importance of language and communication. Language and the words we use in our internal conversations and the way we communicate with others shape our experience. Even more significant is the non-verbal communication between our brain and our body via our nervous system.
Programming - refers to the patterns that our brain learns and its ability to create short cuts for efficiency. For example, learning to tie your shoelaces was once challenging but now something you do on ‘automatic pilot’ and don’t think twice about. Where this becomes problematic is if the pattern you’ve automated isn’t good for you - like bad habits, unuseful responses, or limiting thoughts or beliefs.
How does this impact chronic illness recovery?
A common adverse automatic pattern in chronic illness occurs when the nervous system gets stuck on ‘high alert’, activating the stress response or ‘fight and flight’. This natural response is designed for the short-term to keep us safe. However, long-term activation of the stress response impacts our physiology and gets in the way of healing and recovery.
You can learn how to reprogram the way your brain is influencing your body
The Lightning Process utilises elements of NLP, along with other techniques such as mindfulness, hypnotherapy, life coaching and osteopathy. The Process aims to empower individuals with the knowledge and skills to influence their own health through mental training, visualisation, and self-coaching. One of the key goals is developing an awareness of when our nervous system is running unuseful patterns or programs and learning how to shift out of them. By learning how to change our neurology we can influence our physiology and our health.
If you’re interested to understand how the Lighting Process can help transform your health, I encourage you to contact me to learn more.