NLP Milton Model

Milton Model is vague rather than specific, the exact opposite of the Meta Model, an equally useful tool for personal change and communication.

The Milton model lists the important patterns that are very useful in subtly and effectively directing another person's way of thinking. It is useful in sales, therapy, family relations and in gaining rapport in general.

The principles of the Milton Model basically state that more "general use of language" can lead to more rapport, which more "specific language" is more limiting and has a greater chance of excluding concepts from a person's experience.

The Milton model: inverse of the meta-model

Unspecified nouns, pronouns and verbs, Referential index shift, Null comparatives, Universal quantifers, Linguistic presuppositions, Indirect suggestion, Conversational postulates, Embedded questions, Embedded commands, Metaphors, Quotes, Ambiguity, Pacing and Leading...etc.

“The Milton Model is a way of using language to induce and maintain trance in order to contact hidden resources of our personality. It follows the way the mind works naturally. Trance is a state where you are highly motivated to learn from your unconscious mind in an inner directed way. It is not a passive state, nor are you under another’s influence. There is co-operation between client and therapist, the client’s responses letting the therapist know what to do next.”(pp. 113-114)

Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People, Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour; Thorsons, Hammersmith, London, 1995.

Bandler and Grinder described pacing and leading the client in their book titled Structure of Magic. While pacing, the practitioner just feeds back the client's current experience. For instance:

1. You are now sitting in the chair (pacing)
2. You are looking at me (pacing)
3. You are breathing in an even rhythm (pacing)
4. You are hearing me now (pacing)
5. And when you move slightly in your chair (pacing)
6. You may also begin to feel more comfortable and start entering into a state of relaxation (leading)