A client of mine recently met up with me, looking gloomed and moody. Her family had some money issues and she had been trying to get her husband to close down their small business and start all over again. They were contemplating filing for bankruptcy. According to her, the husband just won’t listen no matter how hard she tried talking to him.

A few months back before I attended the NLP Practitioner course, I might have blamed it on the husband for being plain stubborn. It was only when I was introduced to the fundamentals guidelines of NLP known as Presuppositions that changed the way how I perceived two people to be communicating with one another.

According to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, all of us process our external events through the 5 senses. However, once it goes internally to our neurological system, it is deleted, distorted or generalised based on our past experiences, values or beliefs and which is why different people will react differently to the same scenario.

NLP Presuppositions are a set of guidelines that NLP practitioners pre-supposed to be true. When you pre-suppose something to be true, it changes the dimension of how you view the world. In the earlier example, statements like “He made me mad!” or “He is just so idiotic and won’t even listen to my advice” were plenty. Most of us chose to play the victim role whenever communication breaks down.

Thus, I sat her down and gave her some pointers from the viewpoint of NLP:

Read more: How a Certified NLP Practitioner Helps A Friend Prevents Communication Breakdown

According to Wikipedia, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created in the 1970s. NLP refers to a stated connection between the neurological processes ("neuro"), language ("linguistic") and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience ("programming") and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life. In simple terms, we receive information through our five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch and smell) and process through our filters (life experience, preferred mode of language and behavioral patterns) to reach an understanding of the information in our own terms."

NLP has always been a subject that I am very interested in. Before attending the course, I have a perception that NLP is a tool that I can use to understand how people think and it will be a powerful tool to add on to my sales experience and my current business that I am in.

I was in for a surprise. On the first 2 lessons while covering the presupposition of NLP, it has benefited me a lot. It is not just a tool of understanding how the mind works but also broaden and increase my awareness, generosity and accommodation to people and their behavior around me.

Read more: How NLP Presuppositions Help In My Parenting and to Improve My Relationships - A NLP...

For the last decade, NLP coaching has been gaining mainstream recognition in Singapore as an emerging and growing field.

Since its origins in the early 1970s, Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP has been widely used by countless successful and renowned trainers, coaches in Singapore and all over the world to help their clients make personal breakthrough and develop their higher potential in life.

Here is a list of compelling reasons why this incredible human change technology remains as most peoples’ favourite coaching tool in the areas of personal achievement and self-growth:

Read more: 6 Reasons Why You Want to Incorporate NLP in Your Coaching Program Today!

It has been a rather interesting journey for me to learn that many of the things I do on a conscious or unconscious level is a result of experiences & perceptions that was accumulated and processed in my mind, which often operates at a sub-conscious level. 

To be an NLP coach is a continuous learning process of always remembering the language and words I use, as it will have a direct bearing on the results I get when working with clients. I personally appreciate the way NLP has helped me to understand the lessons on the presuppositions and why our sub-conscious mind is truly remarkable. 

I feel I have come to a better understanding of the applications the second time around as I begin to understand better the thought processes that any words, feelings and experiences help to shape and create. 

Read more: A Certified NLP Practitioner’s Learning Experience of NLP – Rose Toh