WhY NLP?
"The beliefs that control your life the most are the ones you don't know about" - John Overdurf
Neuro Linguistic Programming has always been controversial. It was started in the 70s primarily by two geniuses. They modeled a few of the best psychotherapists of their day as the core of this blend of art and science. So a lot of people think it’s about therapy and because so many NLP Practitioners have been/are therapists - but it is absolutely not limited to that. In fact it was used in business since the early days and it’s only grown in that context. There has been a lot of hype but that’s often part of the territory with extraordinary things. It’s actually all about communication and since that is everything (including you communicating to yourself) and there are all kinds of obstacles to it, NLP in turn has all sorts of applications.
"If you're going to live in a box make it a big one" -Rex Sikes
NLP is not without its critics and people with axes to grind. However this is counter to the experience of many thousands of NLP Practitioners and the millions they have helped. Many NLPers are degreed psychologists, doctors, lawyers and so many other kinds of professionals. I see it just like psychology; always with its enemies but despite them and its own shortcomings it’s an ever growing science. And indeed it is part of the broad field of psychology but with more effective 'tools’ thus getting to the root of problems faster than psychologists can. Still, they have some common ground and some breakthroughs that psychologists are now describing have been NLP techniques for many years.
"The most important thing to learn is how to learn"- Wyatt Woodsmall
I don’t know how many Practitioners there are or have been, but there are hundreds of training institutes and centers around the world. While most Practitioners are very intelligent, NLP is a "full body sport” it’s more about the experience than calculations. The body may be as much of the mind as the brain itself.
"Brains aren't designed to get results; they go in directions. If you know how the brain works you can set your own directions. If you don't, then someone else will" - Richard Bandler, NLP Founder
My story with NLP.
The Practitioner that almost wasn't.
There are so many books written about NLP I don’t know how many there are, whenever I come across one I want to read it. Interests come and go for me and but I’ve always been fascinated by it. When my acting mentor (I’m an actor) George Morrison (the guy behind Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman) introduced it to me I was awestruck. I attended the Manhattan acting school he founded with director Mike Nichols during the mid 90s. They showed me all sorts of intriguing things I had no idea about such as Gestalt Therapy and Ericksonian methods (both very related to NLP). By the way, spend some time with Mike Nichols and you’ll figure out why they pay him the big bucks. George really opened my eyes to a whole other world. He was so influential I regarded him as my mentor and I never had one before. What he taught me most was awareness. I immediately started reading about NLP and got a home study course introduction from ‘NLP Comprehensive’ distributed by Nightingale Conant (NC my favorite company) and searched out a training that would certify me in this visionary field.
"Your Brain Works Faster Than You Think!" -John LaValle
Just from that little 6 tape audio course I learned a lot. My friend was a great mother but she had a nasty behavior of screaming and cursing at her little kids. She was quite embarrassed by it. She agreed to let me help her. I did a simple NLP technique on her called ‘anchoring’ so that when she felt out of control and was about to start that behavior she would feel calm and confident. It worked great!To everyone’s amazement she stopped yelling and cursing at her kids. Then after a week she resumed the old behavior. All that was needed was a reinforcement of the anchor. But she didn't let me do it. That’s because in NLP we have something called “secondary gain”. That embarrassing behavior did something for her that was not obvious. And it wasn't something she was willing to give up. So that was the end of that but it showed me that NLP worked – and I really didn't even know what I was doing.
“You've got one really important job in life, and that is to keep the channel open” -Judith Delozier
Well while my interest in NLP did not exactly wane (it always resurfaced or I just remembered to use some technique (or tried to remember) but my resolve to do training did. Certification is not cheap and it’s extensive - if it’s any good. Life went on and without getting trained. Then after eight years of not smoking a cigarette I began smoking again. An NLP Master Practitioner who was teaching me it in the late 90s had sent me a home study self-hypnosis course (another NC home-study course). The wrapper stayed on it for years. I took the course and applied it – and it worked. Hypnosis is closely related to NLP. Well that got me going again. I went to a Meetup.com intro put on by Joel Elfman. It got me juiced again. From Joel I went to an intro by Jonathan Altfled and Doug O’Brien (a former top trainer for Tony Robbins, who is NLP’s rock star). They pretty much blew me away. I went to several other one-day events. I met a number of people involved in the NY NLP/hypnosis community and took some classes, went to more intros. I took Jonathan and Doug’s Belief Craft intensive 3-day training where I learned how people believe what they do and how to get them unstuck. This NLP stuff can really be astounding! I've had doubts about some of its claims but after spending time with Jonathan they were gone. I watched him do remarkable things, not only with beliefs during his evening workshop and during the Belief Craft weekend with Doug, but also outside the workshop, during mealtimes, with everyone. He once turned a meal into an incredibly entertaining phenomenon involving quite a few of the restaurant staff. I was impressed. I found out he was doing a Practitioner training with Rex Sikes who was one of the trainers I was considering in the 90s. The time had come to make the move. Because I decided it was here.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first." – Tony Petrozza? I came across this in my computer, I wrote it in 2000 and had attributed it to NLP"
Links-
Contact me now if you’re serious about having the life you could have. [email protected]
718-331-0536
Captain Coaching
Neuro Linguistic Programming has always been controversial. It was started in the 70s primarily by two geniuses. They modeled a few of the best psychotherapists of their day as the core of this blend of art and science. So a lot of people think it’s about therapy and because so many NLP Practitioners have been/are therapists - but it is absolutely not limited to that. In fact it was used in business since the early days and it’s only grown in that context. There has been a lot of hype but that’s often part of the territory with extraordinary things. It’s actually all about communication and since that is everything (including you communicating to yourself) and there are all kinds of obstacles to it, NLP in turn has all sorts of applications.
"If you're going to live in a box make it a big one" -Rex Sikes
NLP is not without its critics and people with axes to grind. However this is counter to the experience of many thousands of NLP Practitioners and the millions they have helped. Many NLPers are degreed psychologists, doctors, lawyers and so many other kinds of professionals. I see it just like psychology; always with its enemies but despite them and its own shortcomings it’s an ever growing science. And indeed it is part of the broad field of psychology but with more effective 'tools’ thus getting to the root of problems faster than psychologists can. Still, they have some common ground and some breakthroughs that psychologists are now describing have been NLP techniques for many years.
"The most important thing to learn is how to learn"- Wyatt Woodsmall
I don’t know how many Practitioners there are or have been, but there are hundreds of training institutes and centers around the world. While most Practitioners are very intelligent, NLP is a "full body sport” it’s more about the experience than calculations. The body may be as much of the mind as the brain itself.
"Brains aren't designed to get results; they go in directions. If you know how the brain works you can set your own directions. If you don't, then someone else will" - Richard Bandler, NLP Founder
My story with NLP.
The Practitioner that almost wasn't.
There are so many books written about NLP I don’t know how many there are, whenever I come across one I want to read it. Interests come and go for me and but I’ve always been fascinated by it. When my acting mentor (I’m an actor) George Morrison (the guy behind Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman) introduced it to me I was awestruck. I attended the Manhattan acting school he founded with director Mike Nichols during the mid 90s. They showed me all sorts of intriguing things I had no idea about such as Gestalt Therapy and Ericksonian methods (both very related to NLP). By the way, spend some time with Mike Nichols and you’ll figure out why they pay him the big bucks. George really opened my eyes to a whole other world. He was so influential I regarded him as my mentor and I never had one before. What he taught me most was awareness. I immediately started reading about NLP and got a home study course introduction from ‘NLP Comprehensive’ distributed by Nightingale Conant (NC my favorite company) and searched out a training that would certify me in this visionary field.
"Your Brain Works Faster Than You Think!" -John LaValle
Just from that little 6 tape audio course I learned a lot. My friend was a great mother but she had a nasty behavior of screaming and cursing at her little kids. She was quite embarrassed by it. She agreed to let me help her. I did a simple NLP technique on her called ‘anchoring’ so that when she felt out of control and was about to start that behavior she would feel calm and confident. It worked great!To everyone’s amazement she stopped yelling and cursing at her kids. Then after a week she resumed the old behavior. All that was needed was a reinforcement of the anchor. But she didn't let me do it. That’s because in NLP we have something called “secondary gain”. That embarrassing behavior did something for her that was not obvious. And it wasn't something she was willing to give up. So that was the end of that but it showed me that NLP worked – and I really didn't even know what I was doing.
“You've got one really important job in life, and that is to keep the channel open” -Judith Delozier
Well while my interest in NLP did not exactly wane (it always resurfaced or I just remembered to use some technique (or tried to remember) but my resolve to do training did. Certification is not cheap and it’s extensive - if it’s any good. Life went on and without getting trained. Then after eight years of not smoking a cigarette I began smoking again. An NLP Master Practitioner who was teaching me it in the late 90s had sent me a home study self-hypnosis course (another NC home-study course). The wrapper stayed on it for years. I took the course and applied it – and it worked. Hypnosis is closely related to NLP. Well that got me going again. I went to a Meetup.com intro put on by Joel Elfman. It got me juiced again. From Joel I went to an intro by Jonathan Altfled and Doug O’Brien (a former top trainer for Tony Robbins, who is NLP’s rock star). They pretty much blew me away. I went to several other one-day events. I met a number of people involved in the NY NLP/hypnosis community and took some classes, went to more intros. I took Jonathan and Doug’s Belief Craft intensive 3-day training where I learned how people believe what they do and how to get them unstuck. This NLP stuff can really be astounding! I've had doubts about some of its claims but after spending time with Jonathan they were gone. I watched him do remarkable things, not only with beliefs during his evening workshop and during the Belief Craft weekend with Doug, but also outside the workshop, during mealtimes, with everyone. He once turned a meal into an incredibly entertaining phenomenon involving quite a few of the restaurant staff. I was impressed. I found out he was doing a Practitioner training with Rex Sikes who was one of the trainers I was considering in the 90s. The time had come to make the move. Because I decided it was here.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first." – Tony Petrozza? I came across this in my computer, I wrote it in 2000 and had attributed it to NLP"
Links-
- NLP in the NFL
- What is NLP
- An article in Psychology Today how they’re finally catching up with NLP
- A very short list of classic NLP books
- A Critical Appraisal book “The Clinical Effectiveness of NLP”
- One of a number of NLPers helping sufferers of PTSD
- NLP criticisms
Contact me now if you’re serious about having the life you could have. [email protected]
718-331-0536
Captain Coaching