Page 189 - Effective Communication Skills Mastery Bible 4 Books in 1 Boxset by Tuhovsky, Ian

Chapter 17:

Meta Model

M eta Model is a pillar of the linguistic part of NLP.

Mastery of this concept will not only help you to

improve your communication with others, but

also enable you to cope with your own beliefs.

Let me begin by telling you more about the concept of Meta

Model and the assumptions built on its foundations so you

become familiar with the most important language structures

and questions, which can be used to undermine limiting beliefs

—both yours and the people with whom you communicate.

Meta Model is the work of Richard Bandler and John

Grinder. For a few years they observed and analyzed the

actions of the best psychotherapists they knew. Based upon

Fritz Persl’s, Virginia Satir’s and Milton Erickson’s work,

they created the linguistic therapeutic model, which allows for
effective problem solving during therapy. You can find a very

exact description of the Meta Model in Richard Bandler’s

book The Structure of Magic, which was also his PhD thesis

work. It’s a great read.

To understand what the Meta Model is, it is worth the time
to familiarize yourself with the concepts of deep structure and

surface structure, which describe the formation of mental

representations in an easier way.

Using our senses, we receive “raw material” from the world

around us—what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell. All of this