Brief Changework

This lens offers an introduction to NLP and three related models for change. All four models provide techniques and practices for focusing on the positive, building richer descriptions of what is working and moving towards desirable outcomes.

NLP was one of the first models of brief therapy. It focused on identifying desirable states and results and producing them more reliably. At NLP Canada Training, NLP is taught to produce influence with integrity. Clients learn to identify and model their own states and behaviours, and to elicit positive outcomes from others. NLP practices have been challenged, but they overlap significantly with many forms of brief therapy and produce excellent results under normal circumstances.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a relative newcomer to brief therapy which uses mindfulness training to teach people to accept their full range of thoughts and emotions. When thoughts and emotions are experienced without resistance, clients avoid the downward spiral that often accompanies "negative" perceptions or sensations. In the ACT model, symptoms are accepted as part of the normal range of human experience. Because they are accepted, they are not exaggerated, and clients often experience both alleviation of symptoms and an increased ability to move toward desired states and outcomes.

Narrative therapy overlaps the use of storytelling in NLP to present patterns of change to clients. In narrative therapy, clients are led to produce richer descriptions of what is already working in their lives. Therapists guide the development of new stories that allow clients to see themselves as strong, resilient and capable of satisfying lives.

Finally, Solution Focused Brief Therapy overlaps NLP in it's relentless pursuit of what is already working and what is desired. In solution focus, the two primary questions are: in a perfect world, what would you want? and where in your life are you already experiencing aspects of what you want?