On the surface of it NLP and PSYCH-K® can seem like they’re the same thing. This perception comes up a lot when having a conversation about PSYCH-K® and what it is. For this reason, we thought it would be helpful to put together an article describing both PSYCH-K® and NLP so that you can understand the differences and similarities between them.
At the end of this blog are the thoughts and opinions of a client who has had both NLP and PSYCH-K®. They answered a few questions giving their thoughts of one v’s the other.
The Origins Of PSYCH-K®
PSYCH-K® was founded by Rob Williams in 1988. It was born from his studies in a number of different fields which included NLP in addition to some intuitive insights he experienced.
These created the foundation of the PSYCH-K® methods and the Processes that are used by facilitators (people trained in PSYCH-K®) within their sessions.
Rob Williams is still very much involved with the development of PSYCH-K® to this day.
The Over-riding Ethos Of PSYCH-K®
PSYCH-K® is based on the idea that subconscious beliefs shape our reality. If you are experiencing life patterns that are in opposition to the life you want to live it will be due to self-limiting beliefs that are preventing, you from the reality you consciously wish to experience.
The PSYCH-K® Method focuses on finding out what those subconscious beliefs are, then finding out the best Method to create the new self-supporting belief to help create the new reality you wish to experience.
The Origins of NLP
NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. It was developed in 1970 by Richard Bandler who was a mathematician and John Grinder a linguist.
They analysed the methods of some key people in different specialities. This included:
- Fritz Perls – Gestalt therapy
- Virginnia Satir – Family therapy
- Milton Erickson – Hypnotherapist
Bringing together the best to form NLP. There has been further development over the years.
There are branches of NLP such as Timeline therapy (Ted James). The Lightning Process (Phil Parker). NLP the new code (John Grinder after he parted company with Richard Bandler).
Application For Health and Wellbeing
The PSYCH-K® Approach
Anyone who has gone on to train on the PSYCH-K® health and wellbeing course will also have been trained in how to help you receive the messages behind conditions and diseases. This includes physical pain, symptoms, diseases, allergies such as hay fever.
Whilst this doesn’t guarantee the complete resolution of those symptoms., because of our mind/body connection there will often be subconscious reasons for a symptom existing.
If you have ever read Louise Hay’s ‘You can heal your life’ or ‘You can heal your body’ books, you will already have an understanding of this. PSYCH-K® takes this to a deeper level so you receive the positive beliefs you need to help your specific condition to resolve.
It can also create those positive beliefs in a quicker way than needing to repeat positive affirmations repeatedly until it becomes your subconscious belief.
The NLP Approach
NLP can also help with the mind-body connection. In essence any improvement in your beliefs and self-talk will only ever help you to be healthier no matter what the approach.
To the best of my knowledge NLP is focused on a narrower range of conditions. I will update this if I learn otherwise. I believe that this is limited to fears and phobias, anxiety, depression unless the practitioner is trained in Phil Parker’s the Lightning Process.
We have an interview with Alison Petty who overcame Fibromyalgia using this method. It has a number of other applications including drug and alcohol addictions.
Identifying Subconscious Blocks
Core Beliefs
One huge difference we observe between NLP and PSYCH-K® is the way you identify the core beliefs that are holding you back.
Within a PSYCH-K® session we use muscle testing when working in person with you. Or a pendulum when working online. Either method quickly identifies the key next step and limiting belief that needs to be transformed.
The Wisdom of Your Higher Self
In PSYCH-K® we simply ask your subconscious mind and Higher Self directly and receive the answer. You see there and then what your sub-conscious mind believes.
We then find out the best Process to create that subconscious change and you will do it at that moment. We then ask if there are any other beliefs that need to be transformed.
This Process is repeated until all core beliefs have been received and installed within your subconscious mind. Sessions are streamlined and from experience can mean that you will experience the positive changes in 1-3 sessions.
On a conscious level you can think you know what it wrong, what needs to be changed. The problem is that the limiting belief/s holding you back are being held at the subconscious level. Below your level of awareness. So, what you think is the key belief and what it is can differ.
Each and every step within a PSYCH-K® session is in your best and highest interests and the next best thing for you to think and believe or release in order to create lasting change in a gentle and profound way.
Personally, I love the fact that your Higher Self, the all seeing all knowing part of you guides the whole process. As the facilitator we are there to create the safe space and help you to uncover the answers.
Your body and mind have lived with you 24/7 for your whole life. It knows what has happened and when.
Knows what needs to happen to create the change that you seek. Not me/us who only see a snapshot.
The whole process is guided by your wisdom not our perceptions of what is best for you. This for me is the Power of PSYCH-K® and what sets it apart.
An NLP session will be guided by the knowledge of the person you work with and their judgement of what they believe is the technique you need to enact change.
NLP is an approach that helps you to change your internal map of the world. It focuses on how change can be created using specific techniques.
Creating Lasting Change
Positive Focus
Both NLP and PSYCH-K® are positively focused. They are looking to find what is needed, how to create the positive outcome rather than delving into the why. Focusing on the how creates positive change in a shorter time frame.
Changing Your Habits & Behaviours
The way that you behave stems from your identity which shapes what you think, how you communicate with yourself & others, the words you use. How you approach your life, and how that affects your habits and behaviours.
NLP helps to create the identity change you want for example being a confident public speaker, overcoming phobias through the techniques it uses.
Methods of Change
Balances In PSYCH-K®
Both have a number of ways of creating change.
Within PSYCH-K® we use what are known as Balances. Balances are Methods that create in integration of both hemispheres of your brain to allow subconscious change and help you to find solutions.
Your sub-conscious mind choses the method that will be the most helpful for you.
Techniques Used In NLP
With NLP there is also an array of options available. Some well known NLP techniques are re-framing, anchoring and mirroring.
The NLP coach will decide which is the best to apply judging from what you have said and there expertise to know which would be the most appropriate at that time.
When To Choose PSYCH-K® or NLP
There is a huge amount of learning from NLP for personal and professional development. By having the knowledge that there is a connection between your thoughts, language and behaviours.
Plus, the awareness that you have the power and can choose to change anything that is now serving you. NLP can help to open your eyes and become more of an active creator in your life.
PSYCH-K® can help you to change the sub-conscious core beliefs that are holding you back but you’re not actively being coached. During a session you simply create the subconscious belief change and your habits and behaviours will change as a result.
Any changes you make beyond a session to help leverage that permanent change will be decided by you at the end of the session.
What we find is that for some people who are new to the personal development space. Or new to the world of neuroplasticity (your brains ability to build new connections and change) then you may be limited by what you believe is possible.
In these situations, the knowledge that comes from NLP can be hugely beneficial in helping you to get even more from a PSYCH-K® session.
Spiritual Dimensions
Connecting With Higher Consciousness
There is also a spiritual difference between PSYCH-K® and NLP.
PSYCH-K® has spiritual and metaphysical elements. As facilitators we believe that the mind and body are interconnected with a higher consciousness. Your Higher Self/Soul/Super-conscious/Spirit/God/Universal Intelligence. Whichever name you put to this.
We believe that the wisdom received within a session though the core beliefs that need to be and are transformed comes from this partnership between the sub-conscious and super conscious minds. The Process aligns you to your Purpose.
NLP has more of a practical approach. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have a spiritual element to it. Just its application tends to be more focused on observable patterns of behaviour and communication and applying a technique to change it in a successful way.
NLP tends to be more grounded in cognitive and behavioural psychology principles
Making The Decision Between NLP & PSYCH-K®
If the awareness of subconscious mind change being possible is new to you. The fact that you can be the creator of your thoughts and remove those that are holding you back.
If this is a whole new world of discovery for you then using NLP and PSYCH-K® together can help to magnify your results.
Personal Preferences & Beliefs
When deciding between PSYCH-K® and NLP, it may be worth reading other sources for other opinions. The choice will be down to your personal preferences and beliefs.
Ultimately you need to be comfortable with and have confidence in not only the method you use but also the person you work with. When you have confidence in the person you work with and they have the confidence that they can help you, the magic happens. Your chances of a successful outcome increase hugely, this detail cannot be underestimated.
Do your research, make sure they are fully qualified and partner with someone who is aligned with you.
Finally, here is the perspective of a client we worked with and their reflections on the difference between their NLP and PSYCH-K® experiences:
A Client's Perspective
Whenever we have a conversation with someone about PSYCH-K® they inevitably reply by saying ‘Isn’t that just the same type of thing as NLP?’ Seemingly on the surface it appears to be. However as a facilitator I can see the difference but it can be difficult to articulate.
For this reason I went out on a quest to find someone who had previously had NLP sessions, who had something that they would like to change in their life and would be open to have two PSYCH-K® sessions and then describe and compare their experiences. The important part was that they were to have no training in mindset modalities at all. So you get the complete layperson perspective.
Everything you read below are completely Helen’s words. Her replies to the questions that I asked, unedited. I hope this gives you a little more insight into PSYCH-K® and how it compares to NLP.
How would you describe Your PSYCH-K® Experience?
You start by discussing where things are at for you, and then you focus on your subconscious through the PSYCH-K® method. This involves listening to statements that relate to your life.
You find the statements that resonate with how you want your life to be by a pendulum (online method for me.) tuning into your subconscious and confirming that the statements are true (or not) for you. If they are not true yet for you, you go through a gentle physical exercise, or hold a specific gesture, whilst repeating them out loud and in your mind, until they become an actual belief for you.
This makes you feel like you have accepted them mentally and emotionally and can move forward with living them in your life.
It’s like finding the best, most apt life affirmations for yourself and then accepting these as your truths.
Side note: An NLP practitioner wouldn’t use a pendulum in a session.
How did PSYCH-K® compare to NLP for you (differences/similarities)?
NLP involved identifying behaviours that were once a coping mechanism to difficult situations but are no longer relevant to your life. Those behaviours and reactions are embedded neural pathways and so you focus on breaking them by consciously going against those impulses and thus re-working the neural pathways.
This is somewhat similar to PSYCH-K® because you find statements that help you think in a different way, and respond differently to life. But PSYCH-K® feels more like an unconscious effort because, once you have your statements, you don’t need to focus so explicitly on the changes in your mind on a daily basis. They come naturally because you have already accepted them as your truth.
PSYCH-K® also feels more informal than a session with a therapist or counsellor and yet you still talk about your life, where you are currently at, and where you want to be.
However, you tune into your subconscious and bring out things you perhaps didn’t realise were in need of change; beliefs you had that are holding you back. PSYCH-K® replaces these with positive, life-affirming statements that are embedded into your conscious and sub-conscious and then you start living them more effortlessly.
How much did you know about each before the first sessions?
Very little about NLP but it linked to other counselling sessions I’d had so felt familiar to tackle behaviours and focus on trying to change them. I knew nothing about PSYCH-K® before the first session.
Has PSYCH-K® done anything that NLP didn’t?
It is the unconscious, effortlessness of PSYCH-K® that NLP does not have.
The positive thoughts / statements coming to mind, or directing my behaviour without realising or without having to focus too much on it. The positive statements gained after a PSYCH-K® session are there in a way that they weren’t before.
I found myself wondering why I didn’t believe these statements about my life before because they feel so effortless now.
Did you feel sceptical about either of them beforehand?
If so, how do you feel about them now?
I felt less sceptical of NLP before I experienced it because it was delivered as part of a counselling / psychologist’s method. I was sceptical of PSYCH-K® because I had no previous knowledge of it, and I was unsure how it would connect with my subconscious and bring about positive change.
In a weird way, I am still sceptical of PSYCH-K® because it is amazing that the changes it brings have come so effortlessly. You think – it can’t be this easy for my life to change! But we are conditioned to think things take time to change, that it takes effort to change them. PSYCH-K® has shown me it doesn’t.
These changes can take immediate effect with minimal effort because once you accept the statements as your truth, you just start living them. You find yourself responding much better to life and accepting the things you want to happen without questioning or doubting your choices.
Why shouldn’t change be that easy!
Did one perform better than the other for you? If NLP was better from your point of view you can say.
NLP was helpful and made me more conscious of my reactions and behaviours coming from my responses to past challenges. Even now, I do occasionally make the decision to check my behaviour and try and go against them when I know they are resurfacing from past events. But the fact that those reactions do still resurface perhaps suggests the NLP is a way to manage them, rather than change them.
PSYCH-K® has had a more immediate effect and it is wonderful that the mental and emotional approach I need comes to me without much cognitive effort. It’s like the thoughts I need to help me, or make a situation better for myself, are already in place because the PSYCH-K® sessions helped me create them and put them there ready to use.
When I have felt stressed or uncertain, I have returned to my statements and used them to ground myself, or reset my thinking to a place of calm assurance that I have, and am, everything I need to get the best out of my life.
I haven’t been using PSYCH-K® method for long, but I already feel like it will be with me now for a long time, whenever I need it.
How have you benefited from your sessions?
I feel more confident in myself and the decisions I am making in life.
I have had less stressful days and feel more able to handle challenges as I face them.
I am worrying less and not doubting or second-guessing myself as much as before.
I am less upset about things that do not go as planned.
I feel like I am living more in the present moment that I was before.
I feel happier and more relaxed about my life.
For the purposes of clarity please remember that the answers to these questions are the interpretation of someone who received two PSYCH-K® sessions and compared them to NLP sessions they’d previously received. This article is intended to give you some information about their perception of both methods for to decide which one sounds like the best fit for you. Please fully explore both options and gain the insight of other opinions.
Both NLP and PSYCH-K® create change at a subconscious level helping you to achieve the outcome you desire from your sessions.
Has this article left you wanting to find out more about PSYCH-K® ?
