NLP Lexicon, the most important NLP terms

Welcome to our comprehensive NLP Lexicon. Here you will find clear and understandable explanations of the most important NLP terms from Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Many central concepts originally come from English – including Report, Reframing or Core Transformation. We consciously use these internationally recognized terms, so that you find a consistent NLP language everywhere in the world.

Our lexicon helps you quickly understand NLP models, methods, and technical terms. You will find definitions of important terms such as Accessing Cues, Ambiguity, Anchor, the B.A.G.E.L. model, the Diamond technique and many other NLP concepts. Whether you are new to NLP or already doing a NLP training – this lexicon supports you in deepening your knowledge and applying the NLP terms correctly.

If a central NLP technical term is missing, we appreciate your feedback. This way we can continuously expand our NLP lexicon and make it even more valuable for all NLP practitioners.

As-Is and To-Be Timeline: An NLP concept that divides the subjective perception of time into two states.

A derivation: interpretation or conclusion that is not directly stated but is supplemented or assumed by the listener.

Accurate Perception: The ability to recognize subtle nonverbal signals such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. This sensitivity helps to better understand the inner states of other people.

Assumptions: Unspoken assumptions that shape and unconsciously influence how people think, speak, and act in every communication.

Act-as-if Frame: Allows for mentally simulating desired states or goals to activate resources and test new perspectives or behaviors.

Acting-as-if Method: An NLP technique where a person temporarily adopts a desired behavior to make new skills, feelings, or perspectives immediately experienceable.

Affirmations: positive, affirming statements that can reprogram the subconscious to promote desired states and enhance self-esteem.

Age regression: one is transported back to the past through suggestions, hypnosis, etc., and experiences it as realistically as possible. It may happen that one temporarily exhibits childlike behavior patterns and can no longer rely on all adult abilities.

Access Signals: Also Access Cues: Indicators from which one can infer which representational system the client is working with. For example, Eye movement patterns, tonality, pitch, etc.

Ambiguity: a language structure in NLP that allows for multiple meanings and thus stimulates different inner representations in the listener.

Amplification: the conscious enhancement of an inner image, feeling, or signal to increase its meaning, effect, or clarity.

Analgesia: The ability to mentally block out or significantly reduce pain, often achieved through trance, focus direction, or submodal changes.

Analog: continuously adjustable, e.g., pitch

Analog Anchor / Sliding Anchor: an NLP technique that uses a sliding, continuous touch along a body line.

Anchor: (engl. Anchor) a process in which an external or internal stimulus is associated with an internal process. If this stimulus occurs later, the associated state is automatically triggered.

Anchor chain: an NLP technique in which one goes through a sequence of mental intermediate states to gradually move from an unwanted state (e.g., fear) to a desired state (e.g., self-confidence).

And-attitude: Allows for the simultaneous acknowledgment and integration of opposing perspectives or behaviors to achieve greater flexibility and inner balance.

Anesthesia: a state of reduced or absent perception that is used or simulated in NLP to temporarily block out pain, sensations, or disturbing stimuli.

Angle of Approach: The way a person internally approaches a topic or task – that is, the mental 'angle of access' that determines how information is received and processed.

As if: a technique aimed at breaking entrenched thought patterns and overcoming mental blocks by consciously imagining that a desired situation is already a reality.

Ashby's law: the principle that in any system, the part with the greatest flexibility and variety of response options has the most influence.

Association techniques: association means to experience an event or memory from one's own body perspective, as if one were seeing and hearing the situation in the here and now with one's own eyes and ears.

Audiovisual: describes in NLP the perception system that focuses on hearing and processing sounds, tones, and language.

Autogenic training: a method developed by J.H. Schultz for self-relaxation. It aims for an increasing mastery of otherwise automatically occurring bodily functions through graded concentration exercises.

Autosuggestion: the conscious influence of one's own thinking and feeling through repeated internal or spoken self-instructions to produce desired states or behaviors.

Autotelic Self: at its core, the autotelic self refers to the property of people who derive their motivation and fulfillment from within themselves.

Away from: A meta-program in NLP where people are motivated by avoiding undesirable states – the focus is on evading problems rather than actively pursuing goals.

Access System: The preferred sensory channel through which a person retrieves and processes internal information – such as visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically.

Access Cues: Nonverbal signals such as gaze directions or body movements that indicate which sensory channel someone is currently thinking or remembering through.

B.A.G.E.L. model: It is a model developed by Robert Dilts that deals with physiology in modeling. The following points should be noted:

Body Posture = Body posture
Accessing Cues = Access cues
Gestures = Gestures
Eye movements = Eye movements
Language Patterns = Language patterns

Backtrack: Through backtracking, an NLP mirroring technique, the previously expressed keywords or phrases of a conversation partner are repeated.

Bandler Richard: One of the developers of NLP.

Being dissociated: describes the process of distancing oneself from an experience or state to view it from a neutral perspective.

Belonging: The feeling of being part of something greater that gives life meaning and direction.

Bateson's Levels of Learning: The learning categories developed by Gregory Bateson describe hierarchical levels of learning and change, with the nature of learning changing from one level to the next.

Behavior: Refers to all external and internal actions of a person and can be consciously changed in NLP to achieve desired results.

Behavioral cues: Nonverbal signals such as eye movements, body posture, or speech patterns that allow conclusions about a person's inner thought processes and preferred representational systems.

Behavioral flexibility: Refers to the ability to flexibly adapt one's behavior to situations in order to act effectively and goal-oriented.

Behaviorism: The psychological school of behaviorism focuses exclusively on observable behavior from the outside.

Being associated: to experience an event from one's own body. To see through one's own eyes, to hear with one's own ears, etc. When one remembers an event associated, one recalls the corresponding situation as if experiencing it from one's own body.

Being in the moment: A state of full presence where one consciously focuses on the here and now.

Beliefs: In NLP, beliefs are subjective convictions and attitudes that shape a person's thinking, feeling, and acting as 'inner maps'.

Body: An integral part of mental and emotional processes, understood in NLP as a form of expression of inner states and a primary access to the kinesthetic sensory channel.

Body Awareness: The conscious attention to sensations, movements, and signals of the body, which in NLP is used as access to the unconscious and as a basis for state change, anchoring work, and parts work.

Belief System: A system of beliefs that support each other. It is often difficult to change such a system.

Body language: The totality of all nonverbal signals such as posture, gestures, facial expressions, breathing, or movement that express inner states and thought processes.

Breath: in NLP, breathing is considered a central element for regulating emotional states and reducing stress.

Basic Assumptions of NLP: Important beliefs or axioms that are assumed to be given and form the basis of NLP.

Calibrated Loops: are unconscious, repetitive communication patterns between people.

Calibrating: accurately recognizing the state of another person by reading their nonverbal signals.

Capacities: The cognitive, emotional, and strategic processes at the level of inner strategies that a person uses to perform a specific behavior or successfully complete a task.

Catalepsy: Absolutely rigid state of the limbs. Can be induced in hypnosis through suggestions.

Conscious Competence: The model of learning stages describes the four-stage process through which people develop new skills – from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence.

Consciousness: refers to the ability to be aware of one's own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

Cause-Effect: Refers to a deeply rooted assumption about oneself, others, or the world that shapes perception, thinking, and behavior – and can be deliberately changed through awareness.

Changing the Story: An NLP technique that reinterprets distressing memories to change their emotional impact and activate inner resources.

Chain Anchors: (engl. Analogue Marking) means that one uses changes in voice, facial expression, or gestures for certain words or sentence components Anchor sets.

Chaining Anchors: also collapsing anchors: with this NLP technique, unpleasant Anchor can be effectively neutralized.

Chaining multiple anchors: An NLP technique where multiple anchors are activated in sequence to gradually lead from the undesired to the desired emotional state.

Chunking: Refers to breaking down information or experiences into smaller or larger units, called chunks.

Circle of Excellence: is an NLP technique where an imaginary circle is used as an anchor for positive states.

Cognitive Psychology: A central area of psychology that deals with the internal information processing processes of humans, such as perception, thinking, memory, and problem-solving.

Collapsing Anchors: in NLP, the conscious or unconscious weakening or neutralization of an existing anchor that triggers an unwanted reaction.

Columbo Technik: is a communication strategy in which a seemingly naive and inexperienced attitude is adopted to disarm the conversation partner.

Complex Equivalence: is a linguistic structure in NLP where two different facts are connected in such a way that they are perceived as logically equivalent ("A means B"), even though this relationship is not factually proven.

Computer-Metapher: views the brain as 'hardware' and mental processes as 'software'.

Confusion: refers to a cognitive state of uncertainty or overwhelm in NLP that interrupts existing thought and behavior patterns. It is deliberately used to bypass critical thinking and open access to the unconscious as well as the willingness for change (e.g., in hypnotic trance work according to Milton Erickson).

Congruence: Someone appears to be congruent when the messages they convey do not contradict each other, i.e., nonverbal and verbal information are the same.

Connection: Describes the feeling of being part of something greater – a community, vision, or source of meaning – that strengthens orientation, identity, and inner fulfillment.

Constructivism: is the epistemological assumption of NLP that reality is not objectively given but is individually constructed by the subject through subjective perception filters (values, beliefs).

Content Reframing: An NLP technique that changes the meaning or interpretation of an experience.

Context: refers to the external circumstances (place, time, social framework) and the internally constructed meaning framework in which behavior or an event is interpreted.

Context Reframing: changing (exchanging) the context, the connection, the environment of a statement to give it a different meaning by asking: "In what context would this be an appropriate response (reaction)?"

Conversational Postulate: is a linguistic form from the Milton model of NLP, which is formally structured as a question but aims not for an answer, but for an action or an inner change.

Core Beliefs: The most important beliefs of a person. They are usually connected to identity.

Core Credo: Refers to the deepest, early-formed fundamental belief about one's own being, which shapes all further belief systems and can be recognized and transcended through conscious work.

Core State: This refers to a deep, inner source of positive feelings and states that is rooted within us.

Core Transformation: This NLP process was developed to resolve inner conflicts and unwanted behaviors.

Covert work: Focuses on changing internal processes without disclosing the concrete content, thus enabling discreet and profound developmental work.

Criteria: Individual standards that determine what someone perceives as important, right, or desirable in a specific context.

Critic: An internal or external role with a scrutinizing and evaluative function, primarily used in NLP in the Walt Disney strategy alongside Dreamer and Realist.

Critical Sub-Property: Submodalities, which triggers the strongest changes in experience.

Criticism: A communicative evaluation where behavior or individuals are judged negatively; in NLP, a distinction is made between behavior-oriented feedback and identity-attacking devaluation to avoid defensiveness and shame.

Cross-mirroring: does not directly mirror the movements or rhythm of a person, but does so in another way or modality. The overarching goal of this technique is to unconsciously build a trusting connection with the other person without it appearing obvious or unnatural.

Cultural NLP: An approach that transfers and examines NLP models on collectives such as cultures, societies, or groups, and how shared language patterns and belief systems shape perception, behavior, and goals.

Cybernetics: The study of feedback loops and interactions in systems that describes how behavior is controlled, stabilized, or changed through interactions.

Decision Strategy: An internal process at the end of which one makes a decision or takes action or is ready to do so. It is important that one has the ability to make good decisions.

Deep Structure: The complete inner experience of a person – including all thoughts, images, feelings, and meanings – before it is linguistically filtered or simplified.

Deep Structure of Language: Refers in NLP to the hidden meaning behind a statement, which is made visible through the Meta-Model of language to uncover distortions, deletions, and generalizations.

Defense mechanism: a term from psychoanalysis. It refers to certain psychological behavior patterns that serve to mitigate and eliminate inner conflict. For example: suppression/repression, regression, denial, projection.

Deframing: This is a communication method that detaches an event or situation from its usual context of meaning.

Delete anchor: in NLP, the technique of consciously or unconsciously weakening or completely neutralizing an existing anchor that triggers an unwanted reaction.

Deletion: Process in which information from the original experience is missing in the internal representation .

Diamond technique: The Diamond technique is a very nice addition to other NLP techniques. It can be used both as a problem-solving technique and as a creativity technique. Its goal is not necessarily to solve problems, but rather to dissolve them, i.e., to gain entirely new perspectives and insights that often result in the problem being seen or understood differently.

Digital & Analog: describe two different types of communication and information processing.

Dilts Robert: Robert Dilts is one of the most important developers of NLP. Formats such as the Walt Disney strategy and models like the logical levels were significantly co-developed by him.

Dissociation Techniques: Methods that consciously aim to put a person in a state of emotional distance.

Distortion: In the process of distortion, experiences are transformed in various ways. Often in such a way that it severely restricts a person's options for action.

Double Induction: The Double Induction is one of the basic confusion techniques in hypnosis. The client is confronted with different audio signals from the left and right.

Double-Bind: Refers to a communication structure in which someone is subjected to two contradictory instructions or wishes.

Down-Time: Down-Time refers to a state in which one is deeply introspective and can intensely perceive one's own emotional states.

Dreamer: Represents the creative state of limitless imagination, in which new ideas, visions, and possibilities are developed without restrictions.

DVNLP: German Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming e.V.

Ecological Check: The examination of individual goals and behaviors for their impact on other contexts and larger systems such as family, colleagues, politics, or the environment.

Eliciting: The targeted evocation of inner experiences, states, or strategies through appropriate questions, observation, and verbal cues.

Eliciting: The conscious evocation of an inner state, feeling, or image through language, stimuli, or targeted impulses.

Embedded Commands: These are linguistic constructs in which action prompts or instructions are subtly integrated into a sentence.

Embedded Questions: These are questions that are not directly asked but are hidden within a statement.

Emotion: Individual subjective quality of consciousness that is triggered by conscious or unconscious reactions to stimuli.

Environment: Refers to the external conditions and contexts in which behavior occurs and serves as a basis for actions and developments.

Exact Perception: Conscious and systematic observation of body language, breathing patterns, and other subtle nonverbal signals of another person.

Explore strategy: In NLP, this refers to uncovering internal thought and perception processes to understand how someone arrives at decisions, feelings, or actions.

Eye movement patterns: the (often unconscious) eye movements of people can be an access hint for which representation system internal processes are currently taking place.

Family Constellation: A procedure for intervention in which representatives for family members are set up. This makes interaction patterns, relationships, and structures of the family system clear.

(Perception) Filters: Mental and neural mechanisms that determine which information from the environment is absorbed and processed.

Fast Phobia: Spectacular technique of NLP. With this technique, it is possible to eliminate phobias in minutes, often with 100% certainty and also permanently.

Feedback: A response about perceived behavior or effect, which serves to create clarity, support learning processes, and enable change.

First Position: describes the subjective perspective in which a person perceives an experience from their own point of view.

Five-Four-Three-Two-One Method: Method is a technique for trance induction and mindfulness developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

Focus of Consciousness: The selective orientation of consciousness towards specific contents or aspects of perception.

Format: A clearly structured sequence of steps with which a specific change process in NLP is systematically carried out.

Frame (Framing): To view something in a frame or context. Different contexts can apply to the same event

Feelings: Physical and psychological reactions to internal or external stimuli. In NLP, they are understood as expressions of our inner processes and beliefs, which can be influenced by targeted techniques.

Fritz Perls: Founder of Gestalt therapy

Future Projection: A process in which one mentally places oneself in a future situation to envision the successful application of a new skill or behavior. It is a mental preparation aimed at internalizing desired changes and ensuring they can also be implemented in practice.

Ground Anchor: Marking on the ground that can stand for a specific event, state, or point in time. Often marked with notes.

Generalization (Meta-Model): A mental process in which general rules or assumptions are derived from individual experiences and applied to similar situations.

Generalization in Learning: Refers to the mental process of deriving general rules or patterns from individual experiences – useful for learning, but often a source of limiting ways of thinking.

Gestalttherapie: An experiential therapy approach that strengthens awareness and responsibility in the here and now.

Goal Physiology: Physiology, which a person develops when thinking about and visualizing the goal.

Gilligan Stephen: A student of Milton Erickson who further developed hypnotherapeutic approaches and coined Generative Trance and Generative Change

Graveslevel: An evolution of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It shows how people's values develop over time.

Grinder John: Co-founded NLP with Richard Bandler starting in 1974. He primarily contributed his knowledge of language and modeling.

Guiding System: The preferred representation system with which a person unconsciously begins an inner process, such as when remembering, understanding, or deciding.

Gustatory: Relating to the sense of taste.

Haptic: The ability to perceive the world through the sense of touch. In NLP, this term refers to the processing of touch, pressure, and texture, which serve as an essential channel for storing and retrieving information and emotions.

Hidden commands: Language patterns from NLP where instructions are subtly embedded in the flow of speech and marked by emphasis or tone to directly address the unconscious.

Happiness Anchor: A technique in which a positive feeling such as joy or satisfaction is linked to a specific trigger.

Hidden questions: Indirect questions that are subtly embedded in statements or stories to stimulate the thinking or feeling of the other person without demanding a direct answer.

Hypnosis: A focused, altered state of consciousness in which attention is concentrated and inner processes become particularly receptive to suggestions and impulses for change.

Hypnotic Language: The targeted use of linguistic patterns to address the subconscious and focus a person's attention.

Hypnotic Language Patterns: Linguistic formulations that focus attention, open spaces of meaning, and make unconscious processes accessible for change.

Hypotaxie: The use of nested, subordinate sentence structures that are often used in NLP to bind attention and deepen trance.

Identity: Refers to what truly defines a person or distinguishes them from others. The V. Neurological Level.

Imperative Self-Analysis: An active and goal-oriented process in which a person guides themselves through pressing inner questions or prompts for reflection.

Imprint: A formative emotional key experience that shapes deeply impactful beliefs or behavior patterns and often unconsciously influences throughout life.

Interim Time: An inner conception of time where the past and future lie before one, and the present is experienced in the body to promote clarity and orientation.

Imprinting: Early shaped experiences or impressions that permanently influence behavior and beliefs and can be consciously changed in NLP.

Incongruence: A discrepancy between the different levels of communication, particularly between what is verbally expressed and nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

Indirect Suggestion: An NLP technique where information or instructions are conveyed subtly and encoded.

Induction/Trance Induction: Refers to the targeted initiation of a trance state to direct attention inward and activate unconscious resources.

Information Gathering: A systematic process of collecting relevant data about a person or situation.

INLPTA: International NLP Trainers Association. The largest NLP association in the world.

Inner Dialogue: The continuous mental self-talk that significantly shapes our thinking, feeling, and acting.

Inner Representation: The way a person internally stores and processes their subjective reality.

Inner State: The current and overall condition of an individual, consisting of their emotional, mental, and physical sensations.

Install strategy: In NLP, this means anchoring a new internal sequence of thought or behavior so that it runs automatically and reliably.

Installing: The targeted process of permanently integrating new, useful behaviors, strategies, or beliefs into a person's subconscious.

Integration: A therapeutic process in which contradictory inner aspects, emotions, or beliefs are merged into a coherent whole.

Intention: The reason for a specific behavior. In NLP there is the basic assumption that behind every behavior there is a positive intention.

Internal Representation: This refers to the inner images, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes generated in one's mind.

Interrupter: is a technique that dissolves negative states through a sudden interruption. Discover how to break emotional blockages with simple exercises and create space for positive changes.

Intervention: A planned and deliberately employed measure by an uninvolved party to change a situation.

Isomorphism: The concept that two seemingly different systems or areas of life are structurally the same in their underlying form or functioning.

Johari Window: A psychological model of self and external perception that visualizes the communication dynamics between individuals.

Key Moment: Resource technique in NLP that activates a moment of inner significance and self-worth to make recognition, dignity, and self-respect available regardless of performance.

Kinesthetic: relating to the sense of feeling and touch, the feeling, touching, handling; concerning external, tactile sensations and internal feelings (such as remembered feelings, emotions, and sense of balance).

Kinesthetic Self: A concept from advanced NLP that describes the physically felt, emotional sensation of one's own identity.

Lateral Eye Movements: Lateral movements of the eyes on a horizontal plane, interpreted in NLP as access cues for auditory information processing.

Level of Experience: A hierarchical model from NLP that divides human experience into different levels, from the environment to identity.

Lead System: The preferred sensory modality system with which a person primarily processes information and initiates decisions.

Leading: refers to the process of guiding a person to a desired response or state through targeted language or behaviors.

Learning Stages: A four-phase model in NLP that describes how people develop competencies – from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and finally to unconscious competence.

Learning Styles: Individual preferences for how people take in, process, and remember information – usually recognizable by preferred sensory channels, strategies, or meta-programs.

Linear Time Perception: This is a method by which a person perceives their past, present, and future as an ordered structure outside of themselves.

Macrostrategy: A overarching pattern of action or thought that describes how a person fundamentally approaches tasks and structures decisions in larger contexts.

Manipulation: targeted influence on internal states, thought processes, or behavioral patterns, understood as an unavoidable factor in every communication.

Mapping: a structured process in which internal representations and preferred sensory channels are made visible through the observation of external signals such as eye movements, language, or body posture.

Matching: The conscious alignment of language, body language, or behavior to build trust and establish rapport.

Matching / Mirroring: with this NLP technique, the communicator adapts to the observed behavior of their counterpart, whether through body language, tone of voice, or breathing.

Mechanistic Worldview: A perspective that understands the world as a machine – composed of parts that interact according to fixed rules and thus appear to be planned and controllable.

Movement Anchor: is a special form of the kinesthetic anchor in NLP, where a specific body movement is linked to a desired inner state.

Meaning Reframing: The context and situation of a statement or thought remain, but the emotional meaning of this event is reinterpreted.

Mentor: Role model, teacher. Someone from whom you would like to learn something.

Mentoring Technique: An NLP format in which one puts oneself in the shoes of other people to gain new perspectives and resources for one's own challenges.

Merging Anchors: by stacking anchors, different emotional or mental states are linked to a single anchor to enhance it.

Meta: A higher-level perspective in NLP that allows for reflecting on experiences, communication, or inner processes from a distance and thus consciously steering them.

Meta Message: A 'message about the message' that determines the actual meaning of a statement through tone, body language, or context and is crucial in NLP for recognizing congruence or incongruence.

Meta Mirror: An NLP technique that makes relationship patterns visible by switching between four perception positions (self, other person, observer, systemic overall view) and opens up new pathways for solutions.

Meta Model: An NLP tool that clarifies unclear, generalized, or distorted statements through targeted questions, thus promoting access to the complete inner experience.

Meta Position: A higher-level perception perspective in NLP that allows one to view oneself, others, or entire systems with distance and neutrality to gain more insight, choices, and self-regulation.

Meta Program: Unconscious mental filters in NLP that determine how people sort information, make decisions, and are motivated, serving as a basis for targeted communication and behavioral change.

Metaphor: A central NLP tool that addresses unconscious processes through vivid comparisons, transfers meanings, and thus enables change, resource access, and new perspectives.

Microstrategy: The fine, step-by-step sequence of internal processes – such as images, sounds, feelings, or thoughts – with which a person performs a specific task or makes a decision.

Milton Model: A language model in NLP based on the hypnotic language patterns of Milton Erickson, which activates unconscious processes through vague, ambiguous formulations to enable trance, suggestion, and change.

Mindset (mindset/attitude): The fundamental inner attitude with which a person evaluates situations, forms expectations, and aligns their thinking, feeling, and acting.

Mismatches: In NLP, mismatches refer to either the conscious or unconscious non-alignment in behavior (breaking rapport) or a meta-program where someone systematically perceives and emphasizes differences rather than similarities.

Mixed Physiology: A physical expression state that arises when two inner states – such as problem and resource states – overlap and make visible through posture, breathing, or facial expressions that a change process is underway.

Modal Operators: Linguistic markers such as 'must', 'should', or 'can' that make unconscious rules and limitations visible in NLP and provide starting points for changing beliefs and choices.

Modalities: Sensory channels such as seeing, hearing, or feeling, through which inner experiences are represented and used for change processes in NLP.

Memory: The ability of the brain to store information and retrieve it when needed. It is a dynamic process influenced by our senses, emotions, and language.

Mind Reading: A meta-model violation where someone claims to know what another person thinks or feels without having verified it or without clear evidence.

Model: In NLP, a pragmatic representation of behavior, inner experiences, or strategies that does not claim truth but usefulness – whether as an inner map, methodological tool, or through modeling successful individuals.

Modeling : A central NLP method that analyzes excellent thinking and behavior patterns and prepares them in a way that they can be reproduced by others.

Moment of Excellence: A resource technique in NLP that activates a remembered peak state to make confidence, strength, and inner resources accessible at any time.

Multiple Description: An NLP technique that describes an event from various perspectives and frames of meaning to enable flexibility, new meanings, and creative solutions.

Multiple Description: states that every experience can be described in various ways – depending on personal filters such as beliefs, values, or meta-programs.

Muscle Tensions: Nonverbal cues in NLP that reflect unconscious emotional or cognitive processes and are used as feedback for states, blockages, or access methods.

Negative Commands: Language patterns in NLP that unconsciously activate exactly the internal image or behavior that seems to be prohibited through negated imperatives, thus enabling indirect suggestion.

Negotiation reframing: An NLP technique for resolving inner conflicts, where contradictory 'parts' of a person negotiate with each other to integrate their positive intentions and create inner harmony.

Negotiation-mediation process: An NLP-based procedure by John Grinder for conflict resolution that enables joint, win-win-oriented solutions through structured conversations and reframing.

Nested Loops: Interwoven stories. A story is started, then the next one, then the next, etc., then the last one is finished, the one before that, etc., until all stories are completed. Nested Loops can effectively address the subconscious.

Neurological Levels: Environment, behavior, skills, attitudes, and beliefs, identity and spirituality; also referred to as the different "logical levels" of experience.

Neurologically: Every behavior is controlled by neural processes. All human perception and control operates through the nervous system and brain.

Neurology: A metaphorically used term in NLP for the neural basis of perception, behavior, and internal representations.

New Behavior Generator: An NLP technique that creates new action options through resource activation and visualization, mentally preparing desired behavior for effective implementation in everyday life.

NLP Communication Techniques: encompass all methods for consciously optimizing self- and interpersonal communication.

NLP system matrix: An integrative analysis model that combines logical levels, time, and perception dimensions to systematically understand and change personal and interpersonal processes.

Nominalization: When an adjective or verb is transformed into a noun. Often indicate a deletion in.

Notation: Symbolic language for representing internal processes and strategies that map sensory channels (VAKOG) and their sequences to make perception and decision structures comprehensible and changeable.

Olfactory: relating to the sense of smell.

Observer Position: Taking the observer position means viewing oneself and others from a neutral, distanced perspective.

Obstacles: Internal or external barriers that prevent an individual from achieving their goals.

Pacing: see mirroring

Para-messages: Simultaneous nonverbal and paraverbal signals in NLP that work alongside the verbal statement and convey additional or contradictory layers of meaning.

Parental Time Line: NLP technique for processing parental imprints that makes childhood experiences visible on an inner timeline and transforms blockages or beliefs through re-evaluation.

Parts: Refers in NLP to inner parts that take on specific tasks or behaviors and always pursue a positive intention, even if their expression seems problematic.

Preferred Representational System: This concept describes the sensory channel system (such as seeing, hearing, or feeling) that a person prefers to use to perceive and process information.

Parts Model: In NLP, there is the useful assumption that we consist of many sub-personalities that live in forced kinship under the same skin. Each part tries to achieve its own goal.

Parts Negotiate: An NLP process in which inner parts with different concerns are brought into dialogue to enable common solutions and congruent decisions.

Parts Party: This is a complex 'integration role-play'. For one person, the 'host', a celebration of their personality parts is represented by the group. Based on the parts model of NLP.

Past: Encompasses past experiences that shape today's thinking and behavior and can be transformed in NLP through re-evaluation.

Pattern interrupt: A targeted interruption of an automatic thought or behavior pattern that creates a moment of new choices.

Perception Levels: The sensory channels through which people receive, process, and store experiences – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory.

Perception Training: Targeted practice to consciously recognize and correctly interpret subtle changes in the language, body language, and behavior of others.

Perception Types: Preferred sensory channels through which people receive and process information – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, or gustatory.

Perceptual Position:(engl. Aligned Perceptual Position) the perspective or viewpoint we take at a certain moment. It can be our own (first position), that of someone else (second position), or that of an objective and benevolent observer (third position).

Personal identity: Dynamic self-image shaped by experiences, beliefs, and roles that expresses how a person perceives their uniqueness and values.

Phobia: Irrational fear reaction to specific triggers, which is resolved in NLP through techniques such as dissociation or Fast Phobia Cure.

Physiology: Physical processes such as posture, breathing, or muscle tension that are consciously changed in NLP to influence inner states and behavior.

Placebo effect: Positive change in health or well-being solely through expectation and belief in a treatment, which in NLP is used as evidence of the effective power of inner beliefs.

Polarities: Opposing poles that are understood in NLP not as contradictions but as interconnected forces, the integration of which enables inner balance and development.

Polarity reaction: Unconscious counter-reaction where someone expresses or does the opposite of a statement, which in NLP is interpreted as an expression of resistance.

Post-hypnotic suggestion: An instruction given during a trance that only takes effect automatically afterward, once a specific trigger occurs.

Power Source: is an inner representation or memory (place, symbol, experience) that reliably triggers an intense resource state (such as security, strength, or peace) in a person.

Pralinee pattern: A humorous NLP intervention where a problematic inner pattern is interrupted and thereby defused by a completely unexpected, absurd, or exaggeratedly positive thought.

Predicates: Words that express sensory channels and provide insight into perception preferences in NLP.

Preframe: A conscious pre-framing that directs expectations and influences the meaning of a situation in a desired direction beforehand.

Prescriptive Rules: Internal or social prescriptions about what is "right," which act like beliefs in NLP and unconsciously govern behavior.

Linguistic Presuppositions: Implicit assumptions that shape communication and perception and are used in NLP as unconscious filters for interpretation and change.

Presuppositions of NLP: A number of useful principles serve as the foundation of NLP, which are used as a guide for understanding human behavior and communication.

Primary representation system: Preferred sensory channel through which a person primarily perceives and expresses experiences in NLP.

Problem physiology: Physical expression (e.g., posture, breathing, facial expressions) that reflects an inner problem and is used in NLP to make emotional states visible and to change them purposefully.

Problem physiology: The physical posture, breathing, and tension that automatically arise from a problem state and maintain the unwanted pattern.

Problem state: A mental and physical state in which thoughts, feelings, and body language align with the experience of a problem.

Process: The manner in which thoughts, feelings, and actions occur, where in NLP the 'how' is more important than the specific 'what'.

Proprioceptive sensations: Physical sensory impressions about posture, movement, and muscle tension, which are used in NLP as an important bridge between inner state and outer behavior.

Punch-Reframing: Language patterns from NLP that quickly reinterpret limiting beliefs, thus opening up new meanings, perspectives, and action possibilities.

Quantum NLP: A spiritually influenced NLP approach that works with metaphors from quantum philosophy to see through learned identities and access the true essence of being.

Questioning Techniques: Strategic questions that serve to clarify vague or unclear language patterns.

Quotes: A technique of indirect communication in which messages are conveyed in the form of others' statements to achieve an effect without direct confrontation.

Rapport break: A conscious interruption of the connection or alignment with a person to create distance or initiate a change in the communication process.

Relationship Reframing: the perspective on a conflict or problem within a relationship is deliberately reinterpreted.

Re-Imprinting An NLP method in which burdensome early experiences are re-evaluated and emotionally re-stored with helpful inner resources.

Realist: An internal attitude that transforms visions into clear, actionable steps and focuses on practical feasibility.

Reality strategy: The internal approach by which someone decides whether an experience, memory, or information is true, consistent, or credible for them.

Reconciliation Physiology: Physiology, which can then be observed when a person becomes aware that a problem behavior is not only to be evaluated negatively but is indispensable in certain contexts, thus positively evaluated.

Reference: A thinking and decision-making pattern that describes whether people rely more on internal beliefs or external opinions when making evaluations.

Reference experience: A formative memory that serves as evidence for abilities or beliefs and is used in NLP to strengthen self-confidence or change beliefs.

Reference experiences: Concrete memories or experiences that someone internally refers to in order to confirm a belief, evaluation, or decision.

Reference system: The representation system, with which the correctness of an experience, the truth of retrieved information is internally verified.

Reframing: A technique in which the meaning of an event or behavior is reinterpreted through a changed context to open up helpful perspectives and new possibilities for action.

Report: Being in rapport means having a trusting relationship with each other. Being on the same wavelength.

representation system: Mental perception channels through which people receive and process information – visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, olfactorily, or gustatorily – and which shape their thinking, feeling, and acting.

Representation systems of language: Linguistic cues that indicate through which sensory channel people perceive and express their experiences.

Resource focus: The conscious orientation of attention towards existing strengths and abilities to master challenges in a solution-oriented and self-efficacious manner.

Resource physiology: The physical expression of a resource-rich state, where posture, breathing, and tension are aligned to activate inner strength and calmness.

Resource state: A mental and physical state of inner strength in which existing abilities, confidence, and energy are active to calmly and effectively cope with challenges.

Resources: Everything that helps one achieve their goal; sources of strength.

Rules: Internal or social guidelines that govern thinking and behavior and either describe how something works or prescribe how something should be.

S.C.O.R.E Model: A structured NLP approach to analyzing and changing problems, systematically connecting symptoms, causes, desired goals, necessary resources, and long-term effects.

Satir Category: A model by Virginia Satir that describes five communication styles with which people respond under stress – four protective, incongruent patterns and one authentic, congruent style.

Selection of Consciousness: describes in NLP how your consciousness actively filters the relevant information from your environment. In doing so, you direct your perception to certain aspects and exclude others.

Spatial Timeline: is an effective NLP technique that uses spatial anchors to connect the past, present, and future.

Self-Anchor: A self-imposed stimulus, such as a gesture or touch, that serves to consciously evoke a desired inner state – such as calmness or self-confidence – at any time.

Self-Image: The inner representation a person has of themselves – how they perceive their identity, abilities, and values. This inner image significantly influences thinking, feeling, and acting.

Self-Regulation: The ability to consciously direct one's thoughts, emotions, and actions to act clearly, calmly, and purposefully even in challenging situations.

Self-Worth: The inner appreciation and recognition of oneself – the feeling of being fundamentally 'okay'. Healthy self-worth strengthens self-confidence, authenticity, and inner stability.

Semantics: The study of the meaning of words.

Sensory Channels: The pathways of perception through which people take in information – seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting – and thereby structure their inner reality.

Sensory Systems: The sensory channels through which people take in information – seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. They determine how experiences are perceived, stored, and communicated.

Separator: A mental technique to consciously separate thoughts, emotions, or states and deliberately interrupt patterns – helpful for gaining clarity and actively managing inner states.

Short-circuiting: An advanced NLP technique where a person's incongruences are mirrored by consciously 'cross-mirroring' verbal and nonverbal behavior.

Six Levels of Reframing: An NLP technique for changing unwanted behaviors, where the positive intention behind the behavior is recognized and fulfilled through new, more helpful strategies.

Second Position: The conscious adoption of another person's perspective to better understand their thoughts, feelings, and perspective.

Skills: This refers to the mastery of a class of behavior as well as the knowledge of how to do something.

Social Identity: The awareness of belonging to certain groups – such as family, culture, or profession – and deriving self-worth and orientation from it.

Social Panorama Model: A model that shows how people perceive and experience their relationships as an inner map.

Source: An inner image or memory used in NLP to activate positive resources such as calmness, strength, or security, making them accessible at any time.

Spiritual Panorama: A mental model that shows how people perceive and relate to spiritual or transcendent forces in their inner space.

Stack Anchors: to check whether an anchor triggers the desired positive state, it is activated in a neutral state.

Standard swish: An NLP technique in which an unwanted inner image is quickly replaced by a positive target image to change automatic behavior patterns.

Star step anchor technique: An NLP technique in which a problem is anchored at a fixed point and gradually transformed through movement to surrounding resource points.

State Management: The ability to consciously manage, stabilize, or deliberately change one's emotional and physical state to act optimally in a situation.

Strategy: In NLP, the sequence of internal perception and thought patterns that lead to a specific behavior or outcome.

Streamlining; also Straightening: An approach where complex inner processes are reduced to their most important elements to enable change more quickly, directly, and with less effort.

Stuck State: Stuck or tightly secured State. The change techniques of NLP aim to positively alter this.

Sub-properties: Describe the subtle differences within the sensory channels – such as brightness, volume, or temperature – that determine how intensely and in what way experiences are perceived internally.

Submodalities: Subdivision of modalities, e.g., in the visual system: brightness, color; or in the auditory system: volume, pitch, etc.

Surface Structure of Language: The visible expression level of a statement, which is used in NLP as access to deeper meaning (deep structure).

Swish design: A personalized NLP technique in which an individual trigger image is replaced by a positive self-image to specifically change unwanted automatic reactions.

Swish strategy: An NLP technique that interrupts unwanted thought patterns at a critical point and automatically redirects them into a positive reaction.

Swish Technique: Described by Richard Bandler as the most effective NLP technique. In a Swish, two inner images are exchanged very quickly.

Symptom reframing: An NLP technique in which physical symptoms are understood as meaningful messages and replaced with new, positive strategies.

Synesthesia: In NLP, it describes the simultaneous activation of multiple sensory channels, where a stimulus in one system automatically triggers a reaction in another, such as when a sound evokes a certain feeling.

Synonymity: In NLP, it describes that different linguistic expressions can convey the same meaning – different words, same inner experience.

Syntax: Sentence structure theory

Stacked Anchors: An NLP technique in which multiple positive states or memories are stacked onto a single stimulus to allow quick access to combined resources.

Systemic Analysis: A structured method for exploring situations, problems, or goals along the logical levels (e.g., environment, behavior, abilities, beliefs, identity, vision). It allows for making inner and outer connections visible, locating blockages, and identifying points of entry for targeted change work.

State: The totality of emotional, physical, and mental experiences that determines how a person thinks, feels, and acts at a moment.

Tactile: Refers in NLP to physical touch perceptions such as pressure or texture, which are part of the kinesthetic system.

Thinking: is considered a process in which information is processed through the senses, such as inner images or dialogues.

Through-Time: Variant of the Time Line. Those who code in the form of Through-Time will encode their memories so that the entire time is in front of them.

Time Frame: Refers to the temporal reference of a feeling or thought to the past, present, or future.

Third Position: This is a perception position from NLP that allows one to view a situation from the perspective of a neutral observer.

Time Line: Represents the inner or outer arrangement of past, present, and future, showing how a person spatially perceives and experiences time.

TOTE Model: A model from cybernetics. The letters stand for Test- Operate- Test- Exit. They denote a defined behavior sequence, a process over four phases.

Target State: The inner, positively charged state experienced when imagining that the desired goal has already been achieved.

Target Sentence: A short, positively formulated statement that describes the desired outcome and aligns the subconscious with success and change.

Target Frame: A structured guide of questions that helps to formulate goals clearly, realistically, and in accordance with one's own values.

Target Image: An inner, sensually experienced representation of the desired outcome that strengthens motivation and clarifies the path to achieving the goal.

Target Work: Refers to the structured process in which a person defines a clear, realistic, and value-congruent goal and plans steps to achieve it.

Target: A clear, positive, and achievable vision of a desired state that provides orientation and motivation for change.

Time Distortion: Refers to the subjective perception of time, which can stretch or shorten depending on the inner state. NLP uses this principle to specifically influence experience, stress, or focus.

Time Orientation: Refers to the tendency to primarily align one's thinking and actions with the past, present, or future.

Timeline of Parents: Refers to the inner representation of parents and their influence, which can be newly experienced and positively reshaped through conscious change.

Trance: also Hypnose: an altered (state of consciousness) State, in which attention is directed inward to a few stimuli.

Trance Ratification: Refers to the confirming feedback during a trance that deepens the state and strengthens the client's trust in their inner experience.

Trance Termination: Refers to the conscious transition from trance back to the waking state to integrate the inner experiences into everyday life.

Trance Utilization: Refers to the active use of the trance state to activate unconscious resources and enable new meanings or behaviors.

Transderivational Search: (engl. Transderivational Search) also derivation search: A transderivational search refers to a search process within the client, where they unconsciously look for information to complete or give meaning to a sentence. For example, when one says "And the thoughts you had yesterday ..." the client will start searching for those thoughts. The transderivational search thus partially describes the functioning of the Milton Model

Transfer: Enables the transfer of learned skills or resources to future situations to make changes permanently effective.

Time Horizon: The temporal orientation on which someone evaluates their experiences, decisions, or goals – for example, short-term, medium-term, or long-term.

Time: Refers to the individual way of categorizing and experiencing experiences in the past, present, and future.

Time Line: also Time-Line; a spatial arrangement of our experiences (images, sounds, feelings) of the past, present, and future. Variants of the Time-Line are In-Time . By repeating positive thoughts like "I am calm and composed" daily, you can leave behind Through-Time.

Time Hole: A subjective experience in which the sense of time is strongly distorted, and minutes are experienced like seconds or vice versa.

Transformation: An inner change process in which thoughts, feelings, or behavior patterns are reshaped so that new, more helpful experiences and reactions arise.

Transformational Grammar: Explains how linguistic meanings are altered through rules between inner meaning and outer expression, forming the linguistic basis of the Meta-Model in NLP.

Trauma Techniques: Utilize specific NLP methods to reprocess distressing memories, resolve emotional tensions, and strengthen inner resources.

Trigger: in NLP, a trigger is a stimulus that evokes a specific, often unconscious reaction or emotional state.

Uncle John's Stories: Metaphorical or humorous narratives in NLP that stimulate unconscious learning processes and enable change indirectly through images and insights.

Unconscious system: Refers to all internal processes that occur outside of consciousness and act as a source of resources, intuition, and automatic behavior patterns.

Unified Field Theory: This NLP model, developed by Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein, summarizes central NLP concepts in a structured schema.

Universal quantifiers: Express absolute generalizations that allow no exceptions and reveal rigid thinking or language patterns in NLP that can be made flexible through clarifying questions.

Up Time: Refers to a state of full attention to the outside world, in which perception, communication, and rapport are sharpened through conscious observation of the environment and people.

Utilization: In English, "to utilize" means: to make usable, to evaluate. A central term of the approach by Milton Erickson. It essentially states that everything that comes from a person can be used for the therapeutic process.

VAKOG: abbreviation for visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory or gustatory.

values: Values are what is important to a person and motivates them. The values hierarchy shows their order, with the highest value representing the most important inner guiding principle.

Visceral body sensations: Internal signals from the body that make emotional states tangible and reflect unconscious reactions.

VK-Dissociation A technique in which a distressing memory is first experienced visually and then kinesthetically from an observing external position to create emotional distance and change the reaction to it.

Voice: In NLP, the voice provides clues about a person's inner processes and preferred perception system through features such as pitch, tempo, and timbre.

Walt Disney Strategy: A creativity strategy developed through modeling by Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Strategy is a Model for three phases in a creative process: (1) the dreamer phase, (2) the realist phase, and (3) the critic phase.

Well-formed: Refers in NLP to a clear, specific, and achievable formulation of goals or statements that enable effective communication and implementation.

Well-formed goal: Refers to a clearly formulated, realistic, and positively oriented goal that is specific, verifiable, and motivating to effectively promote success.

Well-formedness criteria: Guidelines that ensure a goal is clearly, achievable, motivating, and ecologically congruent formulated, so that change is effectively supported.

Why-Questions: Questions that seek causes or motives and help to understand backgrounds, motivations, or connections.

World Model: A subjective inner map that reflects experiences, beliefs, and values and serves as a basis for understanding, communication, and targeted change in NLP.

World-View: The individual, subjective 'inner map' of reality, shaped by experiences, values, and beliefs – it determines how a person thinks, feels, and acts.

NLP Lexicon, the most important NLP terms

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