Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality

Book excerpt: Written by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality is a compelling study of the important elements that make up a person's core personality, and a detailed exploration of and introduction to how Time Line therapy works in practice. Utilizing discoveries made by Richard Bandler, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality expands and updates our knowledge of how people actually store their memories, and sheds light on the effect that the system used for memory storage has on the individual. The authors contend that the concept of Time Line, or the notion of time that you have stored in your mind, shapes and structures your experience of the world, and consequently shapes your personality. Time Line therapy is therefore based on the premise that the client goes back to the first time they remember a particular problem, does change work utilizing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to eliminate irritating behaviors or issues and, if necessary, goes to subsequent times when their behavior or response was a problem, and undertakes further change work to resolve it. Written in an informative and engaging manner, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality offers readers the opportunity to see how Time Line therapy works providing a clear description of how to elicit the Time Line, and sharing step-by-step methods to subsequently help the client to release a limiting decision or trauma, remove anxiety, or set a future goal. All of these key aspects are explained using clear language and easy-to-follow steps, and the authors' expert commentary is further complemented by examples, exercises and transcripts in order to help the reader transfer the theory into effective practice. In Section I, the authors explain the NLP Communication Model and share their in-depth analysis of the filters values, beliefs, attitudes, decisions, memories and meta programs which we subconsciously use as we process the world around us and which form the basis of our personalities. Section II provides a comprehensive description of the Time Line and how it works: laying down a theoretical basis for the technique before offering insight into its practice and application with a demonstrative transcript of Time Line elicitation and change work in order to illustrate the concepts explored. In Section III the authors move on to carefully survey simple and complex meta programs (and how they can be changed) before exploring the formation, evolution and changing of values in Section IV, which includes a helpful exercise that gives guidance on how to elicit values from the client. Exploring many interesting contexts and how personality can be positively changed to help people live happier lives, Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality is a worthy addition to any therapist's or NLP practitioner's library and is suitable reading for anyone interested in behavioral change. Sections include: Section I Introduction; Section II Time Line Therapy; Section III Meta Programs; Section IV Values. Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality was originally published in 1988 by Meta Publications.