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NLP began when Richard Bandler and Michael
Grinder adapted therapeutic tools and
communication patterns used by Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and others,
to provide a toolkit of
methods for rapid personal change.
Ecology of NLP Strategies . Ecology of NLP
Techniques
The founders of NLP described it as "the study of
the structure of subjective behavior", which assumes that
subjective behavior (behavior which cannot be directly observed, e.g.
thinking, planning and remembering) has a structure which can be studied and
modeled.
The primary developers, Bandler and Grinder, did not define the theoretical aspects of NLP.
This allowed other people to introduce a huge amount of
unnecessary ideas and/or irrelevant concepts into the NLP
toolkit. I have seen NLP trainings advertised for increasing
sales, seduction, hypnotic marketing, magic, intuition,
better sex and much more.
Students of low quality courses may enjoy the training but
leave with low quality skills. They may say the course was wonderful until they
gain enough competence to evaluate and compare it with others.
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Martyn's first NLP course
was with Greg Cheatwood, a Tony Robbins fire-walk wannabe. Martyn told me that he
enjoyed that course - but that when he met higher quality trainers, he identified and kicked
out a lot of beliefs that had been installed as post-hypnotic suggestions during
that first course. Since then Martyn has been slightly allergic to hypnosis -
saying that it irritates him. |
Advertisements for NLP training are usually well
made and the books can be alluring. Yet NLP training can be extraordinarily manipulative. In a world of illusions, NLP trainers can justifiably
claim high positions for manipulation ... for manipulating themselves as well as other
people.
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Somebody once asked me, they said,
"Isn't NLP manipulative?" and I said,
"Yeah,
of course it is." Richard Bandler (from
Persuasion Engineering) |
NLP Practitioner Certification
In case you're wondering, I was certified as a NLP
practitioner. But NLP certification does not imply competence in any skill.
On graduation, some of my certified NLP classmates still lacked even the
most basic communication skills. The only meaningful test I encountered was my ability to
pay.
Check the training of a NLP trainer! Was the trainer
certified by email or by some audio program? Was it in a short
"accelerated hypnotic learning" course? Check who certified
the trainer. Check who certified the certifying agency. You
probably won't like what you discover.
Check the NLP trainer's experience. Many trainers' entire experience
seems to be assisting other NLP trainers ... with no practical experience in
the 'real' world. It is worthwhile enquiring - who has paid this person to work for them
... for doing what?
Check the NLP trainer's beliefs and values. Read whatever he
or she has written ... is it easy to understand? ... is it tedious repetition of
the obvious? ... or is any meaning buried within psychobabble or systemic voodoo?
There is no central organizing body for NLP. Many
advertisements for NLP include statements like, "Trainer Registered with
the Association of NLP (ANLP)" or "Certified by the British Board of NLP
(BBNLP)". But registering with these or similar bodies has little or
no meaning. There are only two genuine NLP training organizations - the
Society of NLP and International NLP Training.
Hence NLP is difficult or even impossible to regulate. While organizations try to
play leapfrog to gain credibility as professional bodies for NLP
practitioners, few certificates are worth they paper they are printed on ...
except perhaps to impress potential clients and students.
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NLP training seems to attract
passive aggressive people. A
question in a NLP Master
Practitioner exam included, "Describe how you covertly used a NLP technique
in a social setting." Do you want to use sneaky ways to
increase compliance?
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On top of this, many new NLP skills are older techniques
relabeled and repackaged. Many more are cut and pasted from other disciplines
and called great NLP discoveries. Caveat emptor!
Many NLP Practitioners who have attended our master
level trainings have told us that their practitioner level trainings were
inadequate. They did not know how to coach people to define goals and could not check
relationship ecology (the consequences of a specified change on important relationships!)
But relax, in most places, students get certified
no matter their competence. It's too expensive and time consuming for NLP trainers
not to certify paying students. Most certificates indicate at best that a person kept a
chair warm for a requisite number of hours. A NLP certificate will carry little
or no indication of a person's skills or competence.
What's Wrong with NLP training
Your Emotional Health
NLP works ... NLP techniques can change your beliefs and
values. And if you don't like the results, it can be hard to undo the damage.
Many NLP techniques provide ways by which people can dissociate (not feel
/ not experience / dis-integrate ) emotions that support your beliefs and
values using a variety of dissociation and hypnotic techniques that masquerade
as self-control and willpower.
If you are considering attend NLP training, ask if the trainer
practices unconscious installation of competence and skills (that is,
hypnosis). If the answer is, “Yes”, consider leaving now.
Unconscious installation means that you will not know what is installed (if
anything) during hypnotic programming by the trainer. Do you want to feel
compelled to carry
out unknown post-hypnotic commands?
NLP Training & Relationships
The NLP training and so-called NLP therapy that I have witnessed
tended to be egoistic and often passive aggressive. It may harm
or damage student's and client's relationships.
Much NLP training appears to be oriented towards sales,
negotiations and seduction. If winning at all costs fulfils your
ideal of a relationship skill ... then NLP may be for you.
Martyn's Soulwork originated in part as a quest to resolve two
inter-related aspects of NLP coaching: Goal Definition and Ecology.
Many NLP trainers proclaim competence in these two topics, so it is
worth checking their claims.
I have yet to see a NLP trainer or 'master'
demonstrate goal definition or ecology during a Soulwork course, although
Martyn has asked many NLP trainers and 'masters' who attend his courses if they
would
demonstrate their claims or their skills. (See
Soulwork Exam)
NLP Presuppositions
The core presuppositions of NLP seem to vary from trainer to
trainer. Strangely, the opposites of NLP presuppositions more often seem true. Much depends
on how you define words like meaning, communication and
resources.
- You cannot not communicate.
- There is no failure, only feedback.
- Every behavior is useful in some context.
- Behind every behavior is a positive intention.
- Having choice is better than not having choice.
- People already have all the resources they need.
- If one person can do something, anyone can
learn it.
- The meaning of a communication is the response
you get.
- If you aren’t getting the response you want,
try something different.
- In any system, the element with the most
flexibility controls the system.
In the real world, few people communicate well, many
people behave in very weird ways, and many people lack essential resources,
including genetic, educational,
economic and nutritional resources.
NLP & Hypnosis
It seems that most people often access short spontaneous
trances. Most people can intensify these trance states in themselves or in
others, using guided imagery, relaxation, deep breathing, meditation,
self-hypnosis or hypnotic inductions.
Hypnosis is
the intentional induction, deepening, maintenance and termination of natural
trance states for specific purposes. For medical hypnotherapy, the purpose
is to reduce suffering, to promote healing, or to help the person alter a
destructive behavior.
People who practice hypnosis, unless they are medical
doctors, cannot claim to treat or to cure medical problems, unless requested by a
medical doctor. If they claim these things, they risk legal charges of
practicing medicine without a license.
NLP & Ecology
An ecology check seems to be taught in most NLP
courses - perhaps asking people, "What could go wrong if you make
this change?" Some NLP trainers teach that this eco-check
is supposed to remove the chance of unpleasant consequences and even
the need for long-term follow-up. Not likely!
See NLP Ecology
Redefined by Annegret Hallanzy
Some NLP Trainers
Richard Bandler is a
co-founder of NLP with John Grinder and is known in the NLP community
for his funny, very direct and often offensive teaching methods.
John Grinder has a background in linguistics and
transformational grammar. He studied the language patterns of some successful
therapists - Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Dr Milton Erickson.
Robert Dilts has authored many books and articles about
how to use NLP to enhance leadership, creativity, communication and team
development.
Tad James teaches NLP,
hypnosis and Huna, usually in Hawaii. He is known for his accelerated hypnotic
learning courses and for what he calls Time Line Therapy (although at
least two other well known trainers claim credit for discovering timeline
therapy).
Heidi B Hottinger is currently teaching NLP in
Schaffhausen, Switzerland, for NLP Foyer (Ausbildung für
Persönlichkeitsentwicklung). Heidi plans to open a NLP seminar center
in Spain specializing in team and managerial training.
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright ©
Jan Sikorski 2004 All rights reserved |
