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ChangeCamp is a one day low cost event in the North East for professionals and interested laypeople who want to change their inner and outer worlds for the better.

It can be about changing yourself if you want to explore your inner life and further develop your skills and resources.

It can also be about helping others if you work with other people to help them change, or it can be about changing groups if you work with groups and teams.

There will be a wide choice of presentations and workshops for professionals and the public including:

• Taking your life in your hands: Iain Mackenzie, Gestalt psychotherapist and coach. This is a taster session for anyone interested in exploring and sharing a range of strategies to enhance inner strength. (Counsellors and therapists may also find this useful for personal development and for use with your clients.)
• Quick Start EFT: Andy Hunt, NLP & EFT therapist and trainer. A brief introduction to EFT that will give you an introduction to the basic skills and strategies of Emotional Freedom Techniques
• How to get well and stay well: Lyn White, Reverse Therapist. Come and learn how you can listen to your body to get rid of symptoms and keep yourself well.
• Compassion, self awareness and the paradoxical nature of change: Iain Mackenzie, Gestalt psychotherapist and coach. An experiential introduction to gestalt therapy
• The Good Feeling of Practice Well Done!: Andy Hunt, NLP & EFT therapist and trainer. Using NLP to enhance mental rehearsal so you can improve your performance at work, at home or at play.
• Bring More Laughter into Your Life: Keith Adams, accredited life coach and training manager who specialises in the science of happiness and laughter as a coach and laughter facilitator. The workshop explores the psychological and physiological benefits of laughter. Its aim is help you to generate more fun and humour into your life and uses NLP techniques to get you smiling and laughing.
• The Gulliver Club: Andy Hunt, NLP & EFT therapist and trainer. Using EFT in a gentle way to bring relief and relaxation and to work on long term issues that restrict our inner freedom.
• Resolving Your Inner Conflict: Alan Scott, NLP Trainer, this workshop introduces you to tools and techniques to resolve inner conflicts, allowing you to feel strong calm and in control
• Feeling Good and Loving Yourself: Alan Scott, NLP Trainer, workshop presenting tools for helping yourself feel good and appreciate yourself even in difficult circumstances.
• Laughter workshop: Keith Adams accredited life coach and training manager who specialises in the science of happiness and laughter as a coach and laughter facilitator. This is the Laughter workshop – 45 minutes of serious laughing – this is the workshop that will leave you smiling for days and is a perfect way to round of the ChangeCamp experience.
• There’s more: More workshops are being added as we get closer to the event ….

Who can attend? Anyone who is interested in this kind of work: therapists, trainers, teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, anyone who works in the helping professions.

Where and when is it on? Spring ChangeCamp 2010 will be held in Gosforth High School, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne on Saturday March 20th 2010 from 9:30 – 6:00

How much does it cost? The cost for the whole conference is just £10 (that’s right, just £10) and a contribution to a shared lunch.

To find out more and book your place go to  www.changecamp.co.uk

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There are only two weeks now until ChangeCamp 2 the number of presentations is now up to 12 with more to follow.

For just £10 and a contribution to a shared meal you can choose from (just click on the link to find out more*):

• Quick Start EFT
• Gestalt Experiential Workshops
• Creating Confidence with NLP
• Solution Focused Brief Therapy
• Life Club
• Self Image & Esteem Building
• Stop Feeling Sh*t and Feel Good
• The Delights of Meta-Modelling
• The Happiness Workshop
• EFT for Cancer Patients
• Hypnosis To Stop The Stress And Begin Deep Relaxation
• Feel better with tapping

Last but by no means least there will also be a Laughter Workshop at the end of the day.

To sign up for ChangeCamp all you need to do is book your place online with Paypal or your credit card. It only costs £10 for the whole day’s presentations and the Laughter Workshop. It’s a bargain!

Look forward to seeing you there.

*If you are not already a member of the ChangeCamp website you will need to sign on, it doesn’t cost anything and it gives you full access to the details of the sessions and other parts of the website.

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“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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Following on from the last hint and tip are you still chattering away to yourself or have you committed some time to applying yourself to the meditation to stop your internal dialogue? Either way, you can do even more.

There are times to have your attention focused fully on the outside world. Paying attention to other people and the opportunities that are very often present for much of the time. Opportunities such as potential new careers,  meeting new and interesting people, noticing works of art or perhaps really exceeding your customers expectations. That’s the ability to actually just be in the moment, a human-being.

Gordon Brown is said to be about to tell the British public “The recession is a test of character the British people must pass“as well as we Brits to  “rise to the challenge of the economic crisis“. Now this may indeed be a good sentiment for us Brits who are now and will be paying in many ways for what is essentially ‘greed’ gone mad. But how do we survive a recession. Specifically, what can we do?

Taking charge of how you feel, physically and emotionally is one of the good places to start.

A great many people talk themselves into unfavourable emotional states and even ill health. Being able to stop your own negative internal dialogue is one way you can make yourself feel better and be more resourceful to be able to rise to the uninvited challenges that will test your character.

Fear not - if the internal chatter hasn’t quite stopped yet, there is an nlp way that will usually dramatically shorten the meditative time requirement to stop your internal dialogue. For those who think just reading this will be enough, sorry! Again you have to do the exercise.

One of the massive influences on and in NLP is the works of Carlos Castenada.  He mentions his benefactors inferences on the importance of ‘Stopping the World’ as a prerequisite of personal genius and growth.

What is the Stopping the World?

Its quite simple, its an allegory for stopping the internal dialogue. And as a result it is about being present in the moment. Being present in the moment is arguably what Zen Buddhism is all about and one of Master Yoda’s teachings too, so it can’t be bad.

The importance and value of being able to, to have the choice to stop the internal chatter can never ever be overstated.

It is about having additional choice as to how to experience and as a result act in the world.

I remember once someone I know very well telling me how they kept track of where they are during performances and presentations, by taking to themselves most of the time in their internal dialogue. I was also privileged to view their performance and noticed how much of the audience responses and interactions they missed by talking to themselves.

Some of the people also watching this made the comment the performer in question was ‘wooden’ and some described this person patronising. I saw this with my own eyes and thought this person was a considerable way out of touch with their audience, missing important real time feedback.

This about it this way. I am sure you have been engaged in a conversation with a friend or colleague and then some thought of your own side tracks you and a little later you find yourself nodding ( in hopefully the right palaces ) and having no real idea what the other person has just said. I think this is an experience we all have had ourselves at some time.

So what can you do about it?

the good news is its actually very simple.

We experience the world with our five senses. What we see, smell, hear, taste and feel.

Think back to the last time you saw a film or listened to some music,it doesn’t matter which. Now remembering the sounds from this memory, answer the following for yourself.

• Where does the sound sources(s) come from? Left, right, behind, above, directly in front etc?
• What is the volume of the sound? High, low, natural sound etc?

Now think back to a conversation you have had recently. Answer the following for yourself.

• Where does the person you are talking with voice sound like it comes from.  Left, right, behind, above, directly in front etc?
• What is the volume of their voice? High, low, natural sound etc?
• What vocal qualities does their voice have? Gravelly, whispery, sharp, angry, sexy, soft
• What is the tone of their voice? High, low, modulating, monotone?
• What is their rate of speech? Fast, slow, medium?

Before you work with your own internal dialogue, here is an experiment for you to try. Remember back to that conversation you had recently and have a play with changing individually all the qualities you identified.

If they spoke fast, slow it right down. If they have a gravely voice change it to a soft whispery voice.  If they speak in a high tone make it a low tone. If they were in front of you, imagine they are off to one side then the other.

It is really important that you take just five minutes and experiment and change things around.You can have as much fun as you wish doing this.

Working with your own internal dialogue

OK, here it is. It is really important for you to have done all the previous exercises ( about 8 minutes ) if you want to get the most out of this. Now, check in your own internal dialogue and answer these questions.

• Where does your internal voice sound like it comes from.  Left, right, behind, above, directly in front etc?
• What is the volume of your internal voice? High, low, natural sound etc?
• What vocal qualities does your internal voice have? Gravelly, whispery, sharp, angry, sensuous, soft
• What is the tone of your internal voice? High, low, modulating, monotone?
• What is your rate of speech? Fast, slow, medium?
• Now, whose voice does your internal dialogue sound like?

The first thing to to is realise that in the same way you changed the qualities of someone else’s voice you can do the same with your own. Here are some things to experiment with.

1. Change the volume of your internal voice. Make it go absolutely silent, make it louder.
2. Change the the rate of speech. From sounding like Mickey Mouse on helium to a sleepy Moomin just waking up.
3. Alter the vocal quality. make the voice sensuous, make it raspy and make it whispery.
4. Modify the location.
5. Experiment changing your voice to a person you respect and admire or some helpful deity.

Now, once you have really had a good exploration and enjoyable play, find out what is going to benefit you the most. Again you have to be willing to experiment and change stuff around until you really like it. And remember, you can always put it back the way it was or change it to something else.

What benefits will I get by doing this?

Right now I invite you to commit to doing this now for 10 minutes and you will have done the whole exercise.

Of course you really do have to practice to feel the benefits. Make the time. The results are astounding.

It is quite likely that most people who read this won’t do the exercise. They will talk themselves out of it, wont be able to make the time, any number of excuses. it takes just 10 minutes the first time and will likely take much less to practice your new skills.

Before you commit to starting this, take a moment to note down the level of stress, anxiety, worry, calm, relaxation and optimism etc in your life. Rate them out of 10. After one week of practising changing the qualities of your own internal dialogue to simply quietening it right down revisit those marks out of ten.

Be one of the small percentage of people who will do more than just read the article.

originally posted on  Communicating Excellence

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We all talk to ourselves.  Most of us do this a lot of the time too. Its that little voice, our voice that is in our head. Its not the voice we use to talk to others, the external voice that has sound and can be heard by other people.

This is the voice we use silently, either consciously or unconsciously. The one that might seem to have a life of its own, chattering away in the background and foreground of our thoughts throughout the day.  This is our internal voice.

Our internal voice is often know as our internal dialogue.

There are times and places where internal dialogue can be very useful. And for a significant majority of learning, doing, performing at our best, opening up and being present to the opportunities in life we really don’t need any ongoing internal dialogue at all.

I recall some years ago, a new student coming to my Kung Fu club. He was rather unskilled but made up for it by being very aggressive and attacking with little apparent control.  He had trained at some other club in London and was ‘very advanced’ in his application.

My Sifu, My Kung Fu master watched him and said “you have to empty your cup first”.

Once in China a man came to the Kung Fu school and talked about how much he knew. How to apply each technique, the benefits of this stance over that stance. The Master asked if he wanted tea. Yes he replied. The master began to pour tea into a cup for the visitor.

The visitor continued talking about his skills and the Master continued to pour. Eventually the visitor realised the Master was continuing to pour and the cup has been overflowing for some time. I think you have made a mistake and have poured tea all over, the visitor said. The Master continued to pour as the visitor continue to talk and talk.

I say said the visitor, looking at the spreading pool of tea, don’t you realise the cup is way over full. Yes said the Master. To begin here you have to empty your cup first.

The visitor to my club, his aggressive style, I think made some people not want to train with him, others somewhat reluctant to get a punch in the face and others still intimidated by him. In short he was very much stuck in one particular way of application.

When this man came to train with the senior Kung Fu brothers at the club he got a very rude awakening. The first time he applied his aggressive style it was redirected back at him with a lot more force. Needless to say he got walloped and then walloped again.

Nose bleeding, seriously winded and tears in his eyes he eventually got some part of the message. What he was doing could not work. There was no refinement or choice in his technique.

He chose not to return to the club.

One of the most profound ways I know to really relax and let go of every day thoughts, worries and stresses is a simple breathing meditation.  The purpose of this meditation is to still the mind. To stop the internal dialogue, to find a place of profound peace.

Now. The first time you try this I practically can guarantee that it wont be as easy as you think.  I can practically guarantee after just a few seconds your internal dialogue will start up and you will catch yourself chattering away in your head. That’s OK its part of learning.

I learned this particular meditation from a Deepak Chopra product some years ago. I continue to use it still as it is so simple and the effects continue to pay dividends. It is called the …

SO - HUM meditation.

Pick somewhere quite and comfortable to do this and do this sitting up.

Close your eyes and AS you breath in say to yourself with your internal dialogue  SOOOooooo and then AS you breath out say to yourself with your internal dialogue Hummmmmmm. Repeat and focus on your breathing. That’s it.

The chances are your internal dialogue of words will start up, distract you from the process. That’s OK. Simply bring your attention back to your breathing. Focusing your internal dialogue so the sounds SOOOooooo Hummmmmmm SOOOooooo Hummmmmmm as you breath in and out.

What will I get by doing this?

Well I invite you to commit to doing this meditation for 10 minutes per day for one week and noticing what changes. You can increase the time from 10 to 20 minutes as you become more proficient in the meditation.

Before you start this. Take a moment to note down the level of stress, anxiety, worry etc in your life. Rate it out of 10. After one week of meditating rate those things again and look out for differences.

Of course you really do have to practice to feel the benefits. Make the time. The results are astounding. It is quite likely that most people who read this won’t do the exercise. They will talk themselves out of it, wont be able to make the time, any number of excuses.

Be one of the small percentage of people who will use this to find calm, tranquillity and clarity of thought.

originally posted on Communicating Excellence

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NLP is a skill set that is used in all sorts of fields from education, training, management, sales and medicine to name but a few. When learning about NLP for the first time people often wonder how do I apply these approaches in my line of work.

There are quite a few medical practitioners using NLP in their daily work. In this talk to the West of Scotland Pain Group Jonathan Bannister (anaesthetist) and Garner Thompson (trainer) discuss the application of simple NLP principles in a medical context. If you are in this line of work yourself you might like to listen into this discussion of NLP in action.

If you are a complete newcomer to NLP you might want to check out our three day Introduction to NLP that IntegrityNLP will be running later this year in Newcastle. If you would like to attend an NLP Practitioner training then we are starting our next on in September this year (I know that sounds like a long time away, but the earlier you book the less it costs).

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Our Newcastle based training of our NLP Practitioner course is filling up fast! There are only 7 places left! If you are thinking about doing an NLP Practitioner in Newcastle upon Tyne or in the North East of England then do have a look at our responses to Andy Smith’s guide to choosing an NLP Practitioner course. In addition to NLP you will also learn Hypnotic and Hypnotherapy skills too.

Andy Smith of Practical EQ has written an excellent summary of ways to choose an NLP Practitioner course that’s right for you. Given the plethora of courses available in all sorts of styles, this is a very helpful guide to new ‘NLP shopper’.

Here’s my shortened version of his list.

How to choose a practitioner course

1. What is the emphasis of the course? Therapy, business, self development or general purpose.
2. How big is the course? Course sizes can range from 12 to 500! How big would you like your group to be?
3. ‘Intensive’ or ‘Extensive’? Intensive courses can be as little as 7 days long, extensive courses are usually 20 days long.
4. How is the course structured?
   Does the course run for 10 days straight, or one weekend a month over
   10 months? Do you want to complete the course quickly or do you want
   time to take it on board and integrate the learning into your life.
5. How much access do you get to the trainer? Is the trainer available to answer questions or does he use assistants and coaches to do that work?
6. How much are NLP Practitioner courses? The pricing varies from under £1,000 to £3,000 that’s quite an investment.
7. How much does the personality of the trainer matter?
   Does your trainer inspire trust? Do you feel at ease with them? If
   possible meet up with them before taking a training to find out what
   they are like.
8. Does accreditation matter?
   Since there is no official body setting the standards a lot training
   institutes adding their own ‘accreditation’ to the trainings.

Here are our answers to his questions

Emphasis of the course:
Practical application, our course is structured so that you learn by doing. NLP is not a theoretical subject and through experiential learning you will gain skills and techniques that you will be able to apply in your own life and others. In doing the exercises you will not only learn NLP you will also develop mentoring or coaching skills that will assist you in applying NLP with others as well as yourself. We work from the NLP foundations of rapport, calibration and behavioural flexibility while having a specific outcome in mind. We also have a very strong emphasis on ethics and the appropriate use of these powerful skills.

Group size:
To give you the right amount contact and interaction with course facilitators our maximum group size will be 24 participants. There are usually two facilitators and at least one assistant.

Length of the course:
We adopt The Professional Guild of NLP’s minimum contact time of 120 hours direct contact. We run your course over 10 months and this 20 days at one weekend per month. We understand the importance of having time to integrate your learning through experience we have found this format works best.

There is absolutely no requirement to do any additional outside study or purchase additional materials as all required material is provided and our comprehensive course more than covers The Professional Guild of NLP’s requirements for Practitioner Level training. For those who want to know more we provide a comprehensive reading, audio and video list to help them develop their understanding and skills.

Structure of the course:
Our NLP Practitioner course is one weekend per month over a ten month period. We give a lot of time to experiential learning, a cycle of instruction, practice and reflection. At the beginning of each weekend, in keeping with our emphasis on practical application in the real world, we share and explore our experiences of NLP over the past month and share our learnings and discoveries as well as answering any questions that arise.

Access to the facilitators:
During the course the facilitators and assistants are readily available during the training and breaks. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and fully participate in the experiential learning. We don’t leave in-between training weekends we offer an on-line forum where you can ask questions and share thoughts and experiences with your fellow participants and facilitators.

How much is the course:
We strongly believe that this amazing and incredibly beneficial technology that is NLP should be within reach of as many people as possible. We provide excellent and affordable training (we don’t use fancy hotels or drive flashy cars) our NLP Practitioner course is great value at just £995 or £850 if you book early.

Personality of your facilitators:
We have three very different trainers working on our NLP Practitioner Training. We think that the wide variety of approaches beautifully demonstrates that there is no one ‘true’ way of using NLP it can be used effectively in many ways by many different people. You don’t have to be a clone of the trainer to get results.

We welcome people from all walks of life on our NLP Practitioner training. We also make clear that an NLP Practitioner Training is an opportunity to learn skills not a substitute for therapy. Although it is likely that what you will learn on the course can change your life.

Accreditation:
IntegrityNLP training facilitators are accredited NLP Trainers with The Professional Guild of NLP, one of our trainers is also accredited as an NLP Trainer by Dr. John Grinder ( the co-creator ) of NLP.

Your NLP Practitioner is certified by The Professional Guild of NLP.

How we assess your progress.

• Through continuous assessment throughout the course
• There is no written examination ( NLP is a practical application subject )
• The final weekend is a series of practical exercises that are designed to show your application of your learnings over the course period. Unlike exams most people really enjoy the experience.

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Andy Smith of Practical EQ has written an excellent summary of ways to choose an NLP Practitioner course that’s right for you. Given the plethora of courses available in all sorts of styles, this is a very helpful guide to new ‘NLP shopper’.

Here’s my shortened version of his list.

1. What is the emphasis of the course? Therapy, business, self development or general purpose.
2. How big is the course? Course sizes can range from 12 to 500! How big would you like your group to be?
3. ‘Intensive’ or ‘Extensive’? Intensive courses can be as little as 7 days long, extensive courses are usually 20 days long.
4. How is the course structured? Does the course run for 10 days straight, or one weekend a month over 10 months? Do you want to complete the course quickly or do you want time to take it on board and integrate the learning into your life.
5. How much access do you get to the trainer? Is the trainer available to answer questions or does he use assistants and coaches to do that work?
6. How much are NLP Practitioner courses? The pricing varies from under £1,000 to £3,000 that’s quite an investment.
7. How much does the personality of the trainer matter? Does your trainer inspire trust? Do you feel at ease with them? If possible meet up with them before taking a training to find out what they are like.
8. Does accreditation matter? Since there is no official body setting the standards a lot training institutes adding their own ‘accreditation’ to the trainings.

I think this is a great list of things to look out for when choosing an NLP Practitioner training.

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We think we’ve been suffering from some contact form problems on the website. If you have sent us a message (or at least thought you had) and not received a reply, please send it again to info [at] integritynlp [dot] co [dot] uk and we will respond swiftly with a thousand apologies.

Here’s one apology to get you started: Sorry about the inconvenience.

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In a study of 401 cancer specialists in the UK, 102 exhibited possible psychiatric morbidity and more than one in ten showed clinically important levels of depression. The study was published by Professor Chris Todd and his team at the University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and Christie Hospital, Manchester in Clinical Medicine in June.

Cancer doctors under stress - The Cancer Blog

Dealing with serious illness can be hard work and very stressful for all concerned. In the survey mentioned the respondents noted that talking with distressed relatives was one of the stress factors.

Of the respondents they found 102 with levels of psychological distress, 44 had scores indicating depression and 15 expressed suicidal ideas.

Coincidentally our first introductory workshop Applying NLP: An Introduction is based around this very issue. How can you be with people in an effective way without being overwhelmed by their suffering?

The day long workshop is at St Oswald’s Hospice in Newcastle on July 18th and it’s free of charge to anyone working in a hospice in the Tyne and Wear area. Let me know if you are interested

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