July 2009

“What I found really refreshing was that fact that the three trainers were constantly rotating in the teaching and this kept me very interested and alert.” Lisa

My first NLP Practitioner training as a novice student of NLP was a twenty day course for 140 people run by a single trainer (with helpers). That was very impressive to me, I thought that I had received a ‘true’ NLP training.

However when I attended my next NLP Practitioner training with a different company I found the style and set up were completely different - four trainers on a rotating schedule for 24 students. A very different atmosphere and a very different style of training and interpretation of NLP.

On my third Master Practitioner training (with yet another training organisation) I was introduced to some new trainers with yet another style of training.

The change from the first NLP Practitioner to the second was quite surprising. I thought I knew how NLP was done, I thought there was just the one right way to do things. By the time I had started my third NLP Master Practitioner training I realised that there are lots of approaches to NLP and I welcomed the difference.

Now I find the variety of perspectives helpful in the development of my own unique understanding of NLP.

If you look around at adverts for NLP courses you will see that some of the courses almost advertise themselves as ‘The True NLP’ from the mouths of one or other of the early developers or their students. Wouldn’t it be best to get the story straight from the horse’s mouth? That might be true if there was only one horse! Even the co-creators of NLP disagree about how best to do NLP.

Wouldn’t it be better to get the training from one person so you have a consistent demonstration of what NLP is? That might be the case if NLP was a prophetic revelation of ‘The Truth’.

Fortunately NLP is not a cult, it’s a methodology for modelling human skills. The more skills there are on display the more there is to model. Originally NLP was modelled on the skills of three therapists, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erikson, people with very different ways of working, many more people have been modelled since.

Here are three reasons to have three trainers on a training:

1. You get more than one point of view.

If you attend a ’solo provider’ on your first NLP training it’s very easy to believe what the trainer tells you is chapter and verse on NLP only to be surprised by the variety of opinions within NLP. It is refreshing and reassuring to find that NLP is hotly debated between NLPers that new processes and approaches are being developed all the time and there is much to be learned from each other. Having three trainers gives you three points of view from the beginning.

2. You learn different ways of approaching the same situation.

Each trainer will tackle an issue differently. Each approach is one way, of many ways, of using NLP to get a result. Since the basis of NLP is modelling successful strategies - the more strategies on view the better.

One of the four pillars of NLP is behavioural flexibility, the ability to do things differently when required. The more exposure you have to doing things differently the more likely you are to be able to develop your own flexibility.

3. You get much more for your money.

Just from simple economics having three trainers on one course is going to cost you less than attending three practitioner trainings in a row.

The three principal trainers at IntegrityNLP for both the NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner trainings have very different approaches and backgrounds in NLP. Nigel Hetherington has trained with one of the co-founders of NLP and has a strong interest in trancework and hypnosis, Andy Hunt blends NLP with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Harry Knox has an extensive background in training and mental health work within the NHS. As well as our different backgrounds and professional inclinations we have very different training and personal styles.

Special Offer

If you want to find out more about the experience of some of our practitioners you might like to check out the book “So, what is it you are doing? An Insider’s Guide to an NLP Practitioner Training“.

If you choose to buy a printed copy of the book you will be eligible for a £75 discount on IntegrityNLP NLP Practitioner Trainings held in Newcastle upon Tyne. (If you download the electronic version of the book you will eligible for a £35 discount.)

Photo courtesy of  Anderson Mancini

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NLP Master Practitioners and NLP Practitioners all have experienced the Fast Phobia Cure as part of their training.  Our Newcastle NLP training courses offer a variety of process tools and techniques that help you change you life for the better.

Enhance you communications skills so as to be able to connect even better with yourself and others …

Watch Andy Hunt here demonstrating the NLP Fast Phobia Cure.

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When I did my first NLP Practitioner training, people asked me what I was doing and I told them as best I could. If they hadn’t heard of NLP they would have an air of puzzlement or disbelief. “What are you doing that for?” seemed to be the unspoken question. At that time I found it a very hard question to answer.

I’d first been introduced to NLP about 20 years earlier on a teacher training course and had been intrigued. It kept surfacing from time to time down the years but it took me until 1999 to attend my first NLP training. I attended a weekend introduction to NLP (a lot like the IntegrityNLP Introducing NLP course) in London to find out at first hand what it was all about.

I was astonished. Up until then I thought the furniture of my mind was fixed in place and I was stuck with it. After two days I realised that a lot of the limiting and negative thoughts I experienced were optional not obligatory. I had to find out more.

If you think all the thoughts, feelings, ideas, memories that rattle around in your body and mind are fixed this is probably difficult to imagine. If you have not attended an NLP training take a moment to imagine that you can quickly and easily change the way that you think and feel, that old hurts can be healed and old reactions dissolved. It’s a very different way of thinking about the world.

I think that contributed to my difficulty in explaining what the training was all about and what it meant to me. This experience prompted me to start the “So, what is it you are doing?” book project, where participants of past and present NLP Practitioner trainings share their thoughts on what it means to attend an IntegrityNLP NLP Practitioner Training.

Here are some of their thoughts about why they chose to do an NLP Practitioner Training

Actually   ‘doing’   something   concretes  my   learning. Books have their place, however it is only when I practice and experience skills that I find true value in them. Having considered a certain missing something  from my Humanistic  counselling approach  I  decided  that   this  was the next  step  for  me,   to sign up  for   the NLP course and learn new skills.In a nut shell experiential  learning floats my boat and for me  NLP is all about jumping into the deep end and immersing myself in valuable learning and personal development

Rob

So   I enrolled on a weekend training course, the results of which shifted my perceptions of  how to deal  with people,   I  was suddenly provided with a framework in which I could fit my years of observing peoples behaviour and use of language.This  led me  in to doing the full  practitioner course,  and  I will   never   look   back   as   it   compliments   all   of  my   other interests and has woven itself into my life journey, allowing me to develop the confidence in myself that I have always felt was lacking, through the key thing that I have needed, which is understanding.

Huw

Over the past 15 years or so I  have heard the term ‘NLP’  bandied about,  it  must  be said,  with some derision and suspicion  from various colleagues.  Then about  eight years ago  I  met someone,  who has since become a good friend   who   had   trained   with   Bill   O’Hanlon,   and   who appeared  to achieve dramatic  results  with his clients.   (I work for the Probation Service,  incidentally) In my pursuit of   delivering   the   best   service   possible  I  asked   many questions and sometimes received straight  answers.  And, slowly, the door to the power of  language was delicately unlocked and allowed to glide open…

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