The Logical Levels concept in NLP was first introduced to the field by Robert Dilts, one of the most productive NLP master trainers and researchers. Dilts developed his logical levels to guide the process of intervention. Rather than focusing on physiology and behavior, or emotional states, Dilts tells us to focus directly on strategies, sub-modalities, beliefs, and identities. His levels help to put them in perspective. Dilts’ logical levels, from the higher, overriding levels, to the lower ones:

Spirit or higher purpose: the belief in a higher purpose or values that give meaning to one’s identity.

Identity: a sense of self that fosters values and beliefs.

Values and beliefs: an increased level of internal resources that influence decisions and how you apply your skills and knowledge.

Skills and knowledge: the fundamental internal resources for behavior.

Behavior: physical actions and patterns, including habits and the power of behavior modification principles.

Environment: The context and how it stimulates, guides, facilitates and limits behavior.

Let’s apply this to a phobia and see how it works. The first level is about where, when, and with whom the phobia occurs. That is the environmental level. It is the context of the behavior. You can’t really understand the behavior without context.

A way to understand the relevant context is to recognize that there are times and places where the phobia does not occur and that there are people with whom the phobia does not occur.

What is special about the times, places, and people connected in your mind and emotions to this phobia?

The second level is the specific behaviors that occur. This is the behavior level. This level lets you get more specific in defining or identifying the behavior. It helps you escape the trap of vagueness that can help keep people in a neurotic tangle.

The third level is capabilities and strategies.

How does the phobia get expressed through the person’s existing skills? I

f they panic on an airplane, what skills do they use to channel that energy constructively?

How do they prevent themselves from screaming and running up and down the walkway?

Or are their energies expressed in utter chaos?

The more capabilities that a person has that can serve as resources for coping with the phobia, the more complex and functional the person’s behavior can become.

Chaos looks more complex than an organization, but that is because organizations use complex rules and abilities to stay organized. On the surface, they are usually orderly and appear easier to understand. In reality, they are complex and require exploration and study to understand their complexity.

The fourth level is beliefs and values. What can your client tell you about their conscious values that guide what they do around this phobia?

The phobia itself may seem to the person to be very much counter to their values, but there is more going on than just the phobia. This is how they react to it from this higher level. A good place to start is to simply ask your client why they do what they do.

Don’t just ask about the phobia itself, but what they do to cope, or how they avoid situations, or how they explain their behavior to themselves and others.

You can clarify their values further once you have this. You can ask them what they are trying to accomplish, or what they feel are their obligations or responsibilities in the situation. From there, you will see that they have heartfelt values and other values that seem to have been attached to them by their parents and others. Their values exist along with their beliefs. They have beliefs about where their values come from and what would happen if they did not possess these values and sincerely act on them.

The fifth level is identity and mission.

How does your client perceive herself?

How does her phobia affect her identity?

How does her identity affect the phobia?

That one is especially interesting because the phobia doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The person’s identity is kind of like an environment for the phobia. Your client might say, “Well, I’m a very private person, and I keep these things to myself.” I will never fly on a plane because no one should see me like that. I’ll tell my relatives that I’m helping a sick friend and can’t come out for the holidays. “ One way to get to the identity level is to ask who the person feels she is when she is dealing with the phobia. You can ask what roles she is acting out; roles like parent, role model, employee, airplane passenger, and so forth.

The sixth and final level is spirituality and purpose. This level addresses your client’s connection to a higher reality.

What is it that she believes about spirituality or the universe that guides her?

This is an expanded version of the two levels that precede this level. The previous two were about beliefs and values, and identity and mission.

This spirituality and purpose level exists because people tend to have this level of belief. Even non-religious people usually have values that they feel extend beyond them and define their place in the world. Those values tend to shape their behavior as strongly as religious beliefs shape a believer’s behavior. If nothing else, this level helps to summarize the way that beliefs and identity work together to create another level of meaning.

Does this all sound like too much to think about for a silly phobia? Well, I’ll wager that you already think about these levels more than you realize. However, these six levels assist you in putting such thoughts into context and in asking some questions to round out your understanding; an understanding that will assist you in providing a relevant response.

You don’t have to spend an hour asking all the questions that go with each level. With experience, you’ll get better and better at knowing what questions to ask which people. You will develop an efficient approach.