Childhood is a crucial development time. During childhood, the foundations of our personality and psychological associations are embedded in us for life. Childhood is also when we are at our most flexible, it has been found many times that therapy works quicker with children than adults as children are much more open to change. Parents are more often than not the first to notice when their child begins to act differently or out of character. Being aware of your child’s behaviour is key in preventing their behaviour having a limiting effect on them later in life. The quicker a problem is resolved, the quicker your child can begin to behave like themselves again.

NLP can be effective in helping children cure a wide range of problems and phobias from school anxiety to low self esteem and other behavioural or psychological issues. NLP can help your child to take control of their emotions, their behaviour and their thoughts. There is a range of tools and techniques that can be used to help your child develop strategies to overcome their challenges. NLP is particularly useful for children as it appeals to their vivid imagination and utilises it to achieve your child’s full potential.

NLP is a powerful tool for identifying and changing the habitual patterns of behaviour that affect all of us. Children are constantly learning new things and have new experiences. The association between our experiences and our senses is key in creating our response, feelings and beliefs to certain situations. This process of learning can often lead to children becoming stuck with negative thoughts, beliefs or behaviours that don’t serve them in the correct way, they can counter-productive in helping your child to create a positive model of the world.

For example, a child whose mother is scared of spiders may see a spider on the floor and react by screaming and looking scared. Their child may then think that this is the way to react to spiders, so when they see a spider they will react in the same way even though the spider hasn’t actually done anything to cause the child to choose to feel scared.

The constant repetition of negative behavioural patterns can limit the range of responses you may have once had to a situation. This is when a phobia can occur, as you have always reacted or behaved in the same way your responses are limited so you no longer have a choice in how you react or feel about a situation. You just react in the way you always have. One of the principles of NLP is that “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!” In other words, if you want something different, do something different.

NLP works by breaking down and shifting negative thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviours so that you can respond in more positive ways. Through the use of well established techniques, NLP provides your child with choice in how to respond to any situation.