Choosing the best Course or Therapy for You

You will have your own considerations when choosing the right course or therapy for you – these may include value for money, quality of materials, experience of trainer/therapist, or simply just your positive intuitive feeling on reading a website or brochure.

Here are some of the criteria you may wish to consider.

A Word on Convincers

A “Convincer” is a trainers term for a trick to demonstrate to a trainee that they have achieved change. These include such things as “Arrow Breaking”, “Board Breaking”, “Fire Walking” and so forth. However, these practices are never dangerous (arrow breaking rests the arrow on a point of the neck covered in cartiledge and bone, so requires no skill or preparation to perform) otherwise the insurers would want to know!

So, trainers have to ‘psych up’ the participants to believe that they will have the confidence to do an apparently ‘risky’ activity (boards are usually weakened in advance) that they couldn’t do without their training & confidence-building.

In my book, this is not only a ‘cheap trick’ but demonstrates a non-respectful attitude. The trainer is installing a negative belief only to remove it again to demonstrate something that should be demonstrated by the trainees own skills and confidence learnt in the training.

I refer you to the Karate Kid II film, where the master and his young pupil walk by a competitors extravagent poster showing a guy breaking a log in half. “Hey,” says the excited pupil to his elderly master, “can you do that?”

“Don’t know,” replies the master, “never been attacked by tree”.

Experienced Trainer

Ensure your Trainer has over five years of training experience and ten years of NLP experience. Many NLP Trainers have only one year of NLP training and may have only just become Trainers!

This is important to ensure your Trainer can answer your questions, demonstrate flexibility and apply NLP or Hypnotherapy to your areas of work.

“I was introduced to NLP by a drunk Salesman in Geneva in 1986. For twenty years now I have been learning and teaching NLP and many related subjects.”

Good Value for Money

There is no standardisation to pricing for courses. I have priced my courses in respect of the market, the most beautiful venue in England and my own costs in producing excellent training materials – even the Hypnotherapy Foundation Manual is over a hundred pages of material written by myself for this course – I do not use ‘template’ manuals downloaded or purchased elsewhere.

“Our courses include materials from two thousand years ago to the day before the course starts – including access to a library of rare works on NLP & Hypnotherapy at our disposal.”

Deep Content Simply Delivered

Does your trainer understand teaching methods such as 4MAT to deliver content in a simple way and respond to your learning style?

Professional Accreditation and Licensing

It is difficult, I’m sure you may have found, to work through the un-regulated nature of NLP & Hypnotherapy Training. My work with the GHSC keeps me informed as to the status of regulation, and it looks unlikely that any such regulation will be enforced for many years (despite what other courses may suggest)!

NLP Practitioner

Ensure you ask what license/validation you will achieve on your courses and what they are ‘worth’. Ensure they are UK-based.

“I chose to work within the GHSC and Hypnotherapy Society as they are working with the medical profession to achieve a high standard of ethics and regulation. If regulation is enforced, my students will be best placed to meet – even exceed any likely criteria – including supervision and CPD.”

Respectful Attitude

NLP in particular tends to attract a wide range of students and trainers – the beauty of its flexibility and range of application! However, not every NLP Trainer will be right for you.

Motivational and Business Gurus are not often suited for considered therapeutic work – Counsellors are not always great public speakers!

Ensure that your trainer has a wide range of experience, and ask about their attutude to clients.

“It sounds corny, but I honestly feel honoured every time a client chooses to work with me and respect their bravery at challenging their limitations. In respect of that, I believe integrity of the relationship should be paramount.”

Source of Training and Background

Find out more about your Trainer and his training. Has he studied with one or both of the co-founders of NLP; Richard Bandler and John Grinder?

Have they studied under any of those respected in Neo-Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, such as Steven Gilligan? Masters of Sleight of Mouth like Doug O’Brien? Clean Language?

Indeed, before choosing your courses, can you actually talk to your Trainer or even meet them for a day?!

“As most NLP & Hypnotherapy requires rapport and integrity, it is important that you get your trainer and have a good alignment to their attitude. It is important that your trainer is involved in the environment in which they are training, and not just a trainer!”

NLP Training Course

NLP was developed over 40 years ago – and many trainers are still teaching methods from that time. However, Bandler, Grinder and others have constantly evolved and refined their earlier techniques.

Ask when was the last time your trainer studied with either of the Masters of NLP? Are you going to be taught old material or up-to-date NLP?

Good Training Delivery

Is the course going to be fun? What have other people said about it? What may they not have said?

Try this NLP yourself on your trainer – Ask your trainer why you shouldn’t go on their course! If they quickly say they can’t think of any reason, they’ve never thought about it!

Have confidence that the training you are going on is going to be delivered to you!

Wide Range of Approaches

One of the keys of NLP is flexibility of response. This is gained from good training and experience. Ensure your trainer or therapist has a wide range of approaches; whether it be NLP or Hypnotherapy, or training and experience in business or with your type of issue. Do they understand cultural differences – have they trained globally?

Academic & Contemporary

Is the course up-to-date with the latest academic research in hypnotherapy and NLP, and Neurology, Psychology and related fields? What about the News? Does your trainer appreciate the impact of new regulation on your business or work?

Is the training grounded in the history of NLP & Hypnotherapy, which is often clouded by hearsay and obscurity? It is important that you get to know about the ‘hidden depths’ of the field as well as contemporary arguments happening on NLP Forums today.

Practical Experience

Will you get lots of practical experience? Not only with each other, but with your trainer, and perhaps members of the public?!

“Much of the joy in training, both as a Trainer and a Student, comes from novel ways of learning – the learning experience is best undertaken with surprise and laughter. That’s often how we learn the things that we remember for ever! So, prepare for the sudden appearance of a Metronome, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and an Oscilloscope, amongst other delights!”

One student recently said:

“The first day was a bit of a blur, and I wasn’t quite sure where I was. Then, when you asked me the on the second day to come up with different methods of intervention with a weight-loss client, and I came up with fifteen ‘off the top of my head’ I realised that there was something else going on!“