When I graduated and became a Practitioner of NLP is 1996, people would ask me to recommend reading materials so they, too could learn this art and science. Yet, as much as I would have liked to satisfy those wishes, I myself, could not find anything around that really encapsulated the essence and sometimes complexity of Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Some books were heavy in detail, and very hard to trudge through (full of labelling language), and others way too simple, like a ‘Janet and John’ book. Therefore I decided to write my own version of the techniques and most importantly, the thinking that goes behind what it takes to be an excellent NLP Practitioner.
As much as possible, I wanted to give the reader insights into what makes change occur. What is the background thinking that enables one practitioner to be successful when another can not be as effective. I’ll give you a clue: It’s not the techniques!
The book covers pretty much all of the techniques that are covered on a an NLP Practitioner course, plus Time Based Techniques
The ART side to NLP is in the approach. Even though the structure to NLP can be classified as scientific, the way different Practitioners tackle an issue can be universes apart! I deliberately put my previous experiences of success away when meeting a new client, as I cannot possibly predict what method will work with another human being.
I have had situations where the client has literally healed themselves just by turning up to my studio! What replicable scientific method was present on those occasions? Which brings us to the answer of what is happening in the dynamic of practitioner and client in any learning, therapy situation.
If you think of the client as a seed of possibilities, or even just as a seed; your environment (i.e. your studio, your training room), will act as a womb (from which the word room has come in the first place) and therefore the clients will begin to heal themselves or at least assist greatly in the transformational process.
This we cannot measure and is not scientifically provable. I can just assert that when my preparation of my own mind, my clients’ mind and the training room or studio has been immaculately prepared, the transformation of people is a whole lot easier!
The book Knowing NLP The Real Understanding of it, is available at amazon (click here) or from my own bookstore as a PDF download (click here)