There are a number of Presuppositions mentioned in NLP. One of them is:

• Resistance in a client is due to a lack of rapport. That is there are no resistant clients, only inflexible therapists.

This presupposition matches the beliefs of Milton Erickson, a hypnotherapist that was being studied by the founder of NLP.

Erickson believed in building close rapport with the client. That is why he was observant of the client’s body language (like the fluttering of the eyes). All these little and subtle body movements reveal the unconscious reactions from the client.

He clearly understood that people have different characters, personalities, experiences, preferences and so on. There is no one-size-fit-all model.  Which is why he did not use the traditional hypnosis approach of direct suggestion. He knows some clients will resist.

Instead, he developed the approach of indirect suggestions which was perfect in the sense that the indirect suggestions were vague and did not give specific answer to the client. The client would have to search within himself to get the answer. 

My understanding of his statement tells that a therapist (whether hypnotherapist or others), does require to be creative enough to be flexible in using the right approach.

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