NLP Matrix Model

NLP Matrix Model

NLP Matrix Model is a systemic model in NLP and Neuro-Semantics (NS). In this article, you will also gain an understanding of the Neuro-Semantics Matrix model. You will also get to know what specifically does the NS NLP Matrix Model means for Coaches, NLP Practitioners, and Meta NLP Practitioners.  The Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model is a very useful coaching model, and the introduction to the NS NLP Matrix model is covered as part of the Meta NLP Practitioner program.

This is the first of a two-part series in which you will capture the essence of coaching to the Matrix of Frames in depth. In the next part of this article, you will understand how you can use the Neuro-Semantic Matrix model in coaching. You will learn how to detect a person’s matrix, how you can change and transform a person’s matrix.  NS NLP Matrix Model is the go-to model for a Meta NLP Coach.

The Neuro-Semantic NLP Matrix Model

In Neuro-Semantics, the Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model gives an answer to commonly asked questions like how does a person create a matrix of meaning? How does a person’s matrix come into existence? so on and so forth.

What is the human Matrix?

The Matrix is your world of frames. It is “the reality” that you live in, and from which you engage the world of people and things.

In simple words, your matrix is the World as you know it from the inside. It is the World that you have received as “real.”

Metaphorically, the Human Matrix is a prison for your mind. It is a neural interactive simulation that seems to be all around you. Just like a dream world that you live in, it is the world that has been pulled down over your eyes to hide you from the truth.

And in NLP terms, it is the inside of the map, not the territory.

How does a person’s matrix emerge or come into existence?

Your matrix emerges from the ones you inherited and from the ones you invented.

Here’s how you inherited your matrix:

The Matrix is the world of meanings into which you were born and educated.

Each and every person is born into a matrix of frames. Your social realities arise as you enter into a culture and cultural reality. Your mind and emotions are “cultured” and “cultivated” so that you are fitted for life in a given social reality.

The frames are incorporated into the language you learn, the family into which you are born, the culture that you assimilate, and the education that guides what and how you will learn. All of this occurs long before you knew anything about any of this.

And thus, the cultural matrix of all of your group and cultural frames of beliefs, values, and expectations creates a matrix of frames that drives your perceptions. They govern who you are and what you are about.

NS NLP Matrix model improves the coaching skills of NLP coaches.

Here’s how you invented your matrix:

In addition to the group and cultural frames, each individual uses personal experiences and understandings to invent and create a matrix of frames that subsequently governs his or her sense of reality.

Your matrix emerges as a result of all of your models and maps about things.

It is actually a world of your own making and construction.

In fact, you invent your matrix as you go living your life. Every day you add belief frames, value frames, understanding frames, decision frames, intention frames, etc. You built it with a five-year-old mind, or with a thirteen-year-old mind. And to this day you continue to construct frames as you seek to understand things and create meaning from the experiences that you happened to encounter in life. Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model enriches the understanding of our clients.

What is the Human Matrix made up of?

Your matrix includes all your frames of meaning, frames of reference, and frames of mind. It is made up of all of the maps and models, the memories and imaginations, the fears and hopes that give structure and form to your life. Simply put, all your frames of reference and frames of meaning constitute the Matrix you live in.

All of the logical levels of your mind are the embedded frames within frames that make up the Matrix of your neuro-semantic reality.

Specifically, this Matrix comprises several sub-matrices that make up the essence of your personality, your attitudes, and your perceptions. They include five content matrices and three process matrices.

The matrices of meaning frames and definitions are explained below in detail:

The Content Matrices (NLP Matrix Model)

Content Matrices in the NS NLP Matrix model are the essential frames and meanings that you hold in mind and carry with you everywhere you go.

People derive meanings about various topics, situations, and happenings that they experience. When the particular content about some things is so critical that they determine the very feel and fabric of reality for you, you fabricate content matrices.

As per developmental psychology and the work of Erick Erickson in the psycho-social stages of human development, the content matrices are built around the central concepts of self, other, power or resourcefulness, time, and the world.

Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model ~ content matrices:

Self Matrix: The first content matrix that all individuals build in the process of developing and becoming human is the Self matrix.

As they differentiate yourself from your mother, early home, family, etc., you become more and more of yourself as a separate self.

Power Matrix: The second content matrix that all individuals build in the process of developing and becoming human is the Power or Resourcefulness matrix.

By mapping what you are able to do, your capabilities, talents, predispositions, and basic powers, you create your Power matrix.

Time Matrix: Another content matrix that people discover very early is the concept of time.

As you are called upon to do things and you use your innate resources or power, you discover that there are things you are currently doing, things you have done, and things you will do.

The way you sort out activities and events, and your ability to hold events in mind enables you to differentiate the temporal classifications of past, present, and future. And according to Immanuel Kant, time is a priori concept in human brains.

Others Matrix: The next content matrix that all individuals build in the process of developing and becoming human is the Others or Relationships matrix.

With your growing mind and the resources for thinking, imagining, remembering, feeling, etc., you develop constancy of representation which enables us to carry mother, father, and other relationships in your mind. This begins the development of the Others matrix.

World Matrix: Another content matrix that all individuals build in the process of developing and becoming human is the World matrix.

As you develop mobility and your exploration of your world continues, you begin filling up your mind with a matrix about the World in general. It includes knowing about the big wild world out there and what you can do in it.

The Process Matrices (NLP Matrix Model)

The Process Matrices in the NS NLP Matrix model are those embedded frames within frames that do not contain or carry content but continually process the thinking-feeling-choosing experiencing data, knowledge, and information.

While you are creating content matrices, simultaneously, you are also developing a style for the creation of meaning and significance.

They are the ones that describe how you experience your mind-body-emotion states, the construction of meaning, and your intentions, purposes, and agendas. Accordingly, they are classified as State Matrix, Intention Matrix, and Meaning Matrix.

Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model ~ process matrices

State Matrix: This is the matrix in which every thought-feeling awareness is grounded. In other words, it is the foundational matrix that grounds all of your frames.

Meaning Matrix: This is the matrix that enables you to identify what is, what you call things, how you label them, evaluate them, feel about them, and meta-state them up the levels of your mind. It begins with your ability to associate or connect things in the stimulus-response world.

Intention Matrix: As the Meaning matrix comes into its own, you create other dimensions of meaning that include meaning as value, purpose, intention, design, and motivation. This creates your Intention matrix.

A person’s intentions at first are simple and instinctive. Some examples include: to feel comfortable, to be rocked, to be nursed and fed, to play, to discover, to explore, to express ourselves, etc.

When those simple intentions, agendas, things you want are fulfilled, and your basic needs are satisfied, you move on to the higher needs of self-actualization.

Where did the Neuro-Semantic NLP Matrix Model come from?

The Neuro-Semantic Matrix Model is based upon developmental or lifespan psychology and the psycho-social stages of Erik Erickson, the psycho-cognitive stages of Piaget, and the psychosexual stages of Freud.

Importance of The Neuro-Semantic Matrix Model

The Matrix model is structured to reflect the natural development of human personality over the lifespan.

It is useful in the following ways:

• Mapping human meaning-making:

The Neuro-Semantic Matrix Model offers an easy way to map human meaning-making and experiencing. It simplifies detail complexity and provides an overarching template for greater understanding.

• Finding the critical frame for change and transformation.

The Neuro-Semantic NLP Matrix Model enables you to find the critical frame for change and transformation more easily.

• Living up to your highest values and visions.

The design of the NLP Matrix Model for coaching is to empower people to take complete charge of themselves in becoming a master of their own Matrix.

It gives you a clear insight into situations so that you can actualize your best potentials and live up to your highest values and visions.

• Navigating various experiences:

The design of the NS NLP Matrix Model helps people in navigating their journey to various experiences. After all, it is in and with your matrix that you make meaning and create the intentions that energize and motivate your actions.

• Greater Mindfulness:

People create their frame-states of Self, Power, Time, Others, and the World and they take their frames with them everywhere they go.

Yet sometimes these frames do not empower them. They do not bring out their best side.

In such cases, the NS NLP Matrix Model helps people to create profiles of themselves, others, and groups so that they can know how to respond more effectively, in creative and caring ways.

We cover Matrix Model, applications, and case studies in detail during our Meta NLP Master Practitioner ~ the program is facilitated by Vikram Dhar, who is the only certifying Meta NLP and NLP Trainer in India.

How can you detect a person’s matrix?

You can detect a person’s matrix by asking open-ended questions. You can find the matrices one by one, and begin to explore their style and content.

The below mentioned Coaching Questions will enable you to elicit the matrix, as part of the NS NLP Matrix Model:

State Matrix:

• What specific state of mind, body, and emotion are you in?
• How are you feeling?
• How intense is the state?
• What triggered the state?
• How do you do that?
• What do you call this particular state?
• To do this, what exact state will you have to be in?
• How do you get yourself into this state?
• What are you thinking and feeling?
• What is the quality and style of this state?

Meaning Matrix:

• What is this event, situation, person?
• What does it mean to you?
• What significance do you give it? How much significance?
• What is the quality and style of this meaning?

Intention Matrix:

• What do you want? What do you really, really want?
• What’s important to you? And why is that important?
• What’s your outcome? When you get that outcome, what does that do for you, or what do you get from that?
• What’s the purpose? What’s it all about?
• What is the quality and style of this intention?

3) Self Matrix:

• Who are you?
• How valuable are you as a person?
• What are you like?
• What is your nature?
• How do you define yourself?
• Does your self-definition, self-esteem, self-valuing support and enhance your life?
• What are you all about?
• Do you have conditional or unconditional self-value?

4) Power Matrix:

• What can you do? What natural talents do you have?
• What are you skilled at?
• What mental, emotional, and behavioral skills do you feel confident and self-assured about?
• What are your best coping and mastering skills?
• What skills do you need to further develop and refine?
• How much self-confidence do you have regarding your skills?
• How much self-efficacy do you feel about your basic powers?

5) Time Matrix:

• Is time your friend or enemy?
• Do you have enough time? Do you manage it well?
• What time zone do you mostly live in? Past, present, or future?
• Do you have the ability to sequence time effectively to get things done in a timely manner?
• How skilled are you to be able to step out of time and enjoy the eternal moment when you so choose?
• How skillful are you at turning on fast or slow time at choice?

6) Others Matrix:

• What audience do you carry in your mind and play your life to?
• Who are other people and what are they like?
• Are they open, friendly, and rewarding, or are they fearful, dangerous, and punishing?
• Do you easily enter into trusting relationships or hold back?
• How well do you create loving companions, friends, and colleagues?
• How much of a team player are you?
• What are your best social and interpersonal skills and states?

7) World Matrix:

• What do you think about life and human adventure?
• What’s out there in the big world?
• Is the universe friendly or frightening?
• What specific worlds captivates your interest and fascination?
• In what worlds do you never explore?

End Notes:

If you are going to coach your clients to the Matrix of Frames using the Neuro-Semantics Matrix Model, you may have questions like how and where to begin the coaching process? How to use the Matrix model to work effectively with a client in a coaching situation? What steps are to be taken? So on and so forth.  We will cover NLP Matrix Model applications/case studies in more detail in a subsequent post.