Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

N euro-Linguistic Pro- gramming, or NLP, has been described as “the handbook of how to achieve what we want out of life”. It is a model that helps us understand how we think, how our use of language affects how we think and how others understand us, and how all of this affects our behaviours. It was developed in the 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, who were very curious to discover how certain therapists were achiev- ing consistently good results with their clients. It draws on many estab- lished areas of psychology, bringing together all the ele- ments that work and putting them into a framework that is comprehensive, accessible and ethical. From understanding yourself, your personal rela- tionships and your professional relationships, NLP will chal- lenge the way you think about your world, and have a positive impact that is empowering for you and those around you. The name is derived from: Neurology (the study of the mind and nervous system; how we think), Linguistics (the study of language and how we use it) and Programming (the sequence of our actions; how we motivate ourselves to achieve our goals). NLP is therefore the study of the struc- ture of subjective experience or, in other words, how we use the language of the mind to consistently achieve our spe- cific and desired outcomes. It is a practical philosophy of being. Did they hear what you said, or what they think you meant? We’ve all had the experi- ence of having somebody take something we said the wrong way. The meaning of communication is the re- sponse you get from the other person; people will respond to what they think you said – which is sometimes not what you actually meant! Because we all think differ- ently, we will perceive others’ communications in different ways. The NLP Communication Model can help us appreciate how our unconscious mind fil- ters our experiences through our personal internal values, beliefs and memories; so that effectively we all construct our own idea of what reality means to us. As we listen to others, no- ticing language patterns, body language and voice tonal- ity, we can gain insights into how they are processing their own experiences, which can help us discover how best to make ourselves understood. If a patient is nervous, for example, they will be filter- ing your conversation through their belief that your practice is a scary place to be, so that any words they don’t understand may cause added anxiety (“I’ve never heard of it, therefore it’s something I need to be afraid of.”) The more choices and behavioural flexibility we can have in our communication style, the more likely it is that the other person will under- stand what we really mean. Understand how you can use body language to help your patients feel comfortable We all instinctively “do” rap- port with people we like, and NLP teaches us how these un- conscious processes work. Through techniques such as matching and mirroring we can gain rapport with people very quickly in order to in- crease their feelings of comfort and security in the surgery. Us- ing our sensory acuity, we can pay attention to our patient’s unconscious responses in their body language and physiology so that if our communication is not working, we can change our approach. Respect for others’ own opin- ions An underlying part of the phi- losophy of NLP is respect for another person’s “model of the world”. Our perception of reality is not necessarily real- ity, because we all construct our own view of it – however, it is our reality. Everybody has a different way of perceiving their world; their opinions, beliefs and values are individ- ual to them and NLP teaches us that it is not our responsibil- ity to change somebody else’s model. Accepting this idea can have an enormous positive im- pact on any relationship; as the author Wayne Dyer says: “Prac- tice being kind, not right.” Sometimes another per- son’s ideas might be radi- cally different from yours be- cause we all have our own opinion as to what is impor- tant to us. How useful would it be if you could discover a patient’s values just through conversation? When you un- derstand what is important to your patient, it means that you know exactly how to sat- isfy their needs, and your pa- tient knows you are really listening to them. You may con- sider that a patient with discol- oured teeth would certainly be interested in a whitening treat- ment, but is that their value, or your own? Once you understand a patient’s values, it’s possi- ble to use that knowledge to increase their motivation; for example in oral hygiene compliance. A teenager might be thinking of oral hygiene as an unwanted interruption in their Facebook time, but if you can discover some- thing else that is important to them (for example a forthcom- ing job or university interview) then you can use this infor- mation to “reframe” their ap- proach to oral hygiene. This is another example of respect- ing someone’s “model of the world”, however – it won’t work if you are using your own values of what you believe they should think is important! As we listen, respect the patient’s “model of the world”, pay attention to what is important to them and how they are constructing their re- ality, we can make a real differ- ence to the quality of our com- munication and develop a solid, long-term relationship which is based on respect and under- standing. We already have all the re- sources we need NLP has been described as “a practical philosophy of be- ing” – hence the title of this article. We operate most ef- fectively when we are in a re- sourceful state; utilising the philosophy of NLP can help us access our inner positive re- sources and operate from a “physiology and psychology of excellence”. As human beings, we have a tendency to believe what we see, and see what we believe; consider – how many times in the past have you “known” something would go wrong with a particular patient, and proved yourself right? What if, instead, you “know” you will have a good day, or that a challenging treat- ment will work well? When you start your day by be- lieving that it will be good, then your unconscious mind will collect evidence for you to support that belief through- out the day. This isn’t a magic wand to ensure nothing bad ever happens again, but if we are changing the focus from why our day was so bad into what made the day good, de- spite the bad thing that might have happened, then we are creating for ourselves a differ- ent and more resourceful way of perceiving our world; what, in NLP, is called a “reframe”. NLP – a practical philosophy of being Joanna Taylor discusses Neuro-Linguistic programming NLP can help you communicate effectively with patients ‘Once you understand a patient’s values, it’s possible to use that knowledge to in- crease their motivation; for example in oral hygiene compliance’ February 11-17, 201314 Feature United Kingdom Edition14