{"id":29380,"date":"2015-09-28T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=29380"},"modified":"2015-09-23T12:21:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T19:21:26","slug":"the-power-of-neuro-linguistic-programming-to-transform-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/power-of-neuro-linguistic-programming-to-transform-trauma-0928154","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Transform Trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CalmHis name was Zack. Zack was a 150-pound, 2-year-old Newfoundland dog\u2014my buddy. Wild at heart\u2014at best only ever semi-domesticated\u2014he loved nothing more than to escape from our three-quarters-of-an-acre fenced yard and head toward the hundreds of acres of forest and trails that lay just up the road from our house.<\/p>\n

I came home from work late one afternoon and discovered Zack was gone. I parked my car, got out, and then heard the screech of brakes, a loud, dull thud, and one heart-breaking yelp. I ran up the road to the crest of the hill and saw that my worst fears<\/a> had come true. Lying in the road\u2014 illuminated by the car\u2019s headlights\u2014was Zack, tongue hanging out from the side of his open and bleeding mouth, his bear-like chest still. He was dead, killed by a car traveling over the crest of the hill, by a driver who could not see him until it was too late. I felt devastated.<\/p>\n

For the next several weeks, as I traveled this same road, each time I came over the crest of the hill where this tragedy had occurred, the image of Zack\u2019s lifeless body, lying in the road, involuntarily came to mind accompanied by all the associated feelings of grief<\/a>. The sight of the crest of the hill had become a trigger<\/a> for activating painful memories.<\/p>\n

A couple of months later, I attended a weekend workshop focused on something called neuro-linguistic programming<\/a>, or NLP for short. NLP is the study of how thought and language impact and influence personal experience.<\/p>\n

\n\t

Find a Therapist<\/a><\/h2>\n\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\tAdvanced Search<\/a>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

During the NLP training, the two facilitators\u2014Rick and Ricky\u2014asked that we each find a partner to complete an exercise. In this exercise, one person was to act as the \u201cclient\u201d and the other as the \u201ctherapist.\u201d The client was directed to pick a memory<\/a> that was still bothering him or her. The therapist was directed to guide the client through the steps of an NLP procedure called the \u201cswish pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were told that when using the swish pattern, it was not necessary for the client to reveal the contents of his or her memory to the therapist. This meant the entire process could be completed without the therapist even knowing the client\u2019s issue.<\/p>\n

For this exercise, I opted to play the role of client. As the \u201cclient,\u201d here are the instructions I received and followed:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Select a specific \u201cunpleasant memory\u201d you want to change.<\/li>\n
  2. Close your eyes and mentally re-create that unpleasant memory to the best of your ability. Imagine it in detail as if it was happening to you now. Be in the experience and see, hear, and feel what you would if it were happening now. (Note: for this exercise I recalled coming to the crest of the hill, finding Zack dead, and feeling devastated.) This original unpleasant memory will soon become the cue for triggering a new \u201cpleasant substitute memory.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Next, create an alternative mental image of what you would prefer to recall\u2014a pleasant substitute for the original, unpleasant memory. (In my case, I wanted the crest of the hill to automatically trigger a pleasant image of a time spent with Zack instead of triggering the unpleasant memory of his lifeless body lying in the road. The pleasant memory I selected was an image of Zack standing on his hind legs, front paws hanging over the fence, black tail wagging, and happy to see me.) Imagine this new alternative \u201cpleasant memory\u201d as if it was happening to you now. Be in the experience and see, hear, and feel what you would if it were happening now. This is now your new substitute pleasant memory.<\/li>\n
  4. Now, once again, imagine a big, bright picture of the unpleasant memory you wish to change (your original cue image). In the bottom right-hand corner of this mental picture, construct a small dark picture of your new \u201cpleasant memory\u201d that you would prefer to experience instead.<\/li>\n
  5. Now, quickly and smoothly expand the small, dark image of the pleasant memory so that it grows to become a big, bright image right in front of you\u2014completely replacing the unpleasant memory. This quick exchange of images (from unpleasant to pleasant) takes about a second. Swap the images in the time it takes you to say, \u201cswish.\u201d The key point is to make the exchange sudden and very fast.<\/li>\n
  6. Repeat steps four and five 10 to 12 times.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I listened attentively and followed all of the therapist\u2019s instructions. This was my first experience with the \u201cswish pattern.\u201d Was it effective? Last week, I drove to the old house. As I passed over the crest of the hill, sure enough, the first memory that came to my mind was the happy image of Zack standing on his hind legs, front paws hanging over the fence, black tail wagging and happy to see me\u2014just like we programmed my mind to do in this exercise first completed a quarter of a century earlier.<\/p>\n

    Is the swish pattern magic? No. Does it always produce such impressive results? Probably not. But when you have a troubling memory, is it worth giving it a try? Absolutely!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Using a procedure called the “swish pattern,” neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) empowers therapists to help people turn unpleasant memories into positive ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[31,327,226,25,27],"class_list":["post-29380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-articles","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-neuro-linguistic-programming","tag-posttraumatic-stress","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-psychotherapy-models"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}