Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being - Dilts, Hallbom & Smith

Paperback, 240 pages

4.5/5

Sometimes I read a book and instantly feel I should read it again, and I take this is an endorsement from my unconscious that there is richness to the content that warrants further exploration. This is one such book.

The first thing that I think marks this book out is that it works at multiple levels of abstraction - it is both big chunk and small chunk. The authors give us both the big picture and the detail, making for a genuinely systemic approach. This is both refreshing and informative because so many NLP texts nod to ecology, reminding us to take it into account, but very few books really look at NLP processes in an ecological context (this, I think, may in part be responsible for the huge number of NLP'rs who totally misunderstand ecology, thinking that it is something to do with morality). With this book the author/s embark at the level of broad ecology and keep it in the frame throughout - they look at the systems that sustain 'states' rather than just diving straight in and taking the state outside of it's ecological context. (NOTE: They do not explicitly talk about ecology, but the approach is within that frame). Here is an abridged overview of what is inside:

Chapter 1 - Overview of beliefs and a model for change utilising belief systems
Chapter 2 - Reality strategies
Chapter 3 - Belief strategies
Chapter 4 - Re-imprinting
Chapter 5 - Incongruence and conflicting beliefs
Chapter 6 - Criteria
Chapter 7 - Health specific view
Chapter 8 - Allergies

For me this book has just about the right mix of theoretical perspective, transcript and explanation, presented in a well thought out structure. The transcripts I found particularly good, because Robert Dilts give a lot of detail regarding subtleties (like what he is seeing in the clients physiology etc.). I do find, however, that Dilts seems to make a lot of inferences and treat them as facts, and I am sometimes a little uncomfortable with this.

Now, regarding health. In chapters 1 to 6, reference to health matters seems largely peripheral to the focus on belief systems and change. This was the section of the book that I found most interesting. Chapter 7 is a loose collection of thoughts on health from an NLP/psychological perspective and chapter 8 focuses on allergies. The feel here is that the last two chapters were 'bolted on' to boost the health angle - and I'm not too sure how much they really offer that is of depth and substance. This was no problem for me as I bought the book for the view on belief systems, and as such was very happy. If I had bought the book from a health perspective, however, I may have been quite disappointed, and you would be reading a very different review.

I also have reservations about the re-imprinting process detailed in chapter 4, having used it with many clients and had it run on me twice. I believe that it is a very powerful technique, and needs to be handled very carefully. There are some distinctions that I feel are important in using this technique which are not made clear in this book. Without understanding these distinctions this technique can be just as powerful in embedding problem frames even more deeply. Please be warned (I will write this up in an article as soon as my diary permits).

In summary: If you want to get a better idea of the belief systems and how they affect us, buy the book. If it is health that you are interested in, be aware that there may be less here than you might wish for.