Collapsing Anchors is a process used by NLP Practitioners and NLP Master Practitioners in order to assist people in essentially getting more of what they want in life and changing old bad habits.

In the following paragraphs we discuss how it can be used and examples of the techniques in practice:

“It seems to me that almost everybody that I come into contact with these days has either a mild (sometimes dubious) interest, or other form of curiosity. It also seems to me that all of these people are in need in some way or other. So many people are needlessly trapped by self imposed, inhibitive limitations; or are living at effect – their states being dominated by preconditioned circumstantial triggers….natural Anchors!

Here I explain the collapse anchor technique. As I have journeyed, and developed throughout this training my partner has been an inquisitive observer; coyly displaying a natural (sometimes paradoxically reluctant) inquisitiveness for various elements of NLP. Ultimately he appears to be wholly impressed by the benefits that it has already had upon me. This has actually been of great encouragement and support to me; so, on this occasion I decided to relieve him of a disempowering negative state by collapsing it – and replacing it with a powerful positive state. He has been encountering significant upheaval at work recently, and this has generally had an overall detrimental effect upon him happiness. Allow me to explain the process that I followed to alleviate this, and describe the results;

  • I had absolutely no difficulty in getting into rapport with my partner; we have a strong trust each other. Trust is something of an abstract concept, but nevertheless we have built it up over the last ten years – forged through the darkest hours to the brightest of days.  We sat opposite each other on chairs and …chatted. Our models of the world are very different; so I entered his on his terms and started to ….pace and match….his…..breathing….postures….gestures…speed of speech…voice tone. I could gauge, through sensory acuity that he was responding…and…understanding. At this point I decided to gently lead him.
  • Now that we were in sync I explained that I was going to carry out a very powerful…useful…helpful process called Collapse Anchors; and that this would necessitate that I touched him….if that was okay. He was comfortable with physical contact and I proceeded to the next stage.
  • I ascertained a very specific strong, powerful state that my partner could vividly recall; a state of empowerment (underpinned by jubilation and pride) that he experienced after crossing the finish line having completed her first half marathon. On the flip side he had been encountering a feeling of helplessness whenever walking through the door of his office at work. Clearly the states that were involved in this process were;

Positive – jubilation/pride/empowerment

Negative – helplessness

  • I personally was able to elicit and enter the positive state as I had also been a keen long distance runner…and could recall the high that accompanies physical achievement…jubilation/pride/empowerment
  • I evoked the positive states in him; made sure he was fully associated and congruent, asking him to go back to that time and enter his body and relive the triumph…I then made the positive states even more intense. I asked him to increase the brightness, make the images (he is very visual) more colourful, bigger…the state even better than before….
  • After a few seconds, when I could see that he was at the peak of the experience (my cue was when he took a deep breath) I anchored the state by squeezing her left thumb with my right thumb and forefinger. After 6-7 seconds, when I could see that the experience was subsiding I released the anchor.
  • At this point I broke the state; I asked him to come back to the present, leave his historical self and re-enter the now. I then required him to stand up for a few seconds and shake himself down.
  • Now I requested that he sit back down as we were going to test the positive anchor once more. I repeated the previous sequence; he confirmed that the positive state was easy to re-access…and indeed powerful.
  • At this stage I told him I was going to repeat the anchor process…only once…and that I would use the negative state. I asked him elicit the feeling of helplessness that he felt as she entered his office each morning (I could empathise with this state also having experienced similar difficulties at work). On this occasion I had him make the internal image smaller and. As I saw the peak of the experience, I squeezed his right thumb with my left thumb and forefinger. After about 5 seconds, when I could see that the experience was subsiding, I released the anchor.
  • I now had him break state once more in the same way as previously, and then fired both anchors…one at a time. When questioned over the intensity of each he stated that the positive anchor had been much stronger. I took this to be a good omen!
  • The next stage was to fire both anchors simultaneously until they both peaked; this was done for the purpose of integration. I watched my partner very closely and he exhibited what appeared to be confusion and uncertainty.
  • At this time I released the negative anchor…but maintained the positive one for a further 5 seconds….then released.
  • I now asked him how he felt about the old negative state; to which he replied that he was surprised because he felt “really okay about it now” and that he had a “neutral” feeling about it
  • I now future paced him, asking how he would feel at a time in the future when he would undoubtedly find himself in a similar situation…I asked him to tell me what would happen. His reply;

I will fire the anchor myself by squeezing my left thumb. The helplessness won’t be there now because I know that I am capable of major achievements. I am really proud of what I have done, what I am, and what I can achieve – and I am now glad that I realise the uncertainty has stopped. I am not trapped. Nothing can take my power from me…it can only be given it away.”