If you ask someone to point to the past and then point to the future, they will normally point either behind and then in front, or to the left and then the right. This suggests that the memory naturally stores events in a linear fashion – The Time Line.
Aristotle was the first to mention the “stream of time” in his book Physics IV, and William James spoke of linear memory as early as 1890. Finally, when the concept was almost forgotten, the creators of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) revived it in the late 1970’s. In 1985, the creator of Time Line Therapy (TLT) Tad James, applied a therapeutic process to the concept of an internal memory storage system. The result of this was a collection of techniques which were found to bring a long lasting transformation very quickly – faster than what is currently known as Brief Therapy. These powerful TLT techniques have become the current method of choice to make effective long term changes in behavioural patterns.
Your “Time Line” is how you unconsciously store your memories, and how you unconsciously know the difference between the past and a projection of the future. Behavioural changes in an individual take place at this unconscious
level continually. The TLT process works at the unconscious level to release the effects of negative experiences and change “inappropriate” programming in just minutes rather than days, months or years.
After years of development, the TLT model has become a revolutionary new approach that is becoming extremely popular due to its ability to create quick, long lasting results. TLT can be used as an application of NLP techniques, allowing you to gain emotional control over inappropriate emotional reactions. For example bursts of anger, apathy, depression, sadness, anxiety and chronic feelings can be responsible for preventing people from reaching the target they have set themselves and it may thus effect quality of life. It can cause a limiting in the decision making process; feelings such as “I’m not good enough” and “I don’t deserve a good marriage” create limitations and hamper a persons ability to set reachable and attainable goals and outcomes. TLT techniques allow us to change decisions and beliefs that limit us, together with facilitating the installation of compelling goals into our future.
