Further Adventures in NLP: Master Practitioner Course, London 2009 - by Matthew Wingett

So, what sort of person comes to the Licensed NLP Master Practitioner course? - I wonder as I arrive.

 

A quick chat with some of the delegates reveals: a Scottish entrepreneur, a Spanish human resources manager, a Bollywood actress who has come from India specifically for the course, a Spanish olive oil baron, a British hypnotherapist, a German IT specialist, a high-powered Hong Kong business executive and a New York property agent - as well as coaches, therapists and several GPs. They've already experienced the NLP Practitioner track, so these people know what to expect from the teaching team. No surprise, then, that there is something of a buzz in the air!

 

The first day starts with Richard Bandler focussing on strategy work, and demonstrating on a delegate how to elicit good and bad decision strategies. This is a really interesting demonstration, because the delegate presents Richard with a very "busy" series of answers to his questions. In fact, as the demonstration unfolds, it turns out to be a model of how to deal with clients who are highly analytical and are interested in talking about the history, content and conceptualisation of their inner processes, rather than the structure.

 

I see how patient and funny Dr Bandler is as the delegate drops into yet another existential or moral discussion of his beliefs and ties himself up in knots. Then there is a beautiful moment in which Richard asks the delegate the straight question:

 

"What is it that you want?" 

 

And the delegate answers, slightly wistfully:

 

"That is a question I have been asking myself for a long time."

 

To which Richard replies:

 

"Well, how about f***ing answering it?!"

 

The moment is priceless. The question cuts through the knots to the heart of what the delegate is doing. The demonstration turns out to be a model of how to deal with highly analytical clients.

 

Having demonstrated strategy elicitation so clearly, Richard sends us to do the same. Strategy elicitation will be a procedure we will go through time and again, each time adding a different nuance to the process. It is one of the key procedures that gives the NLP Master Practitioner course so much more depth and reach. It will build on itself in the days to come.

 

In the afternoon of this first day, a pattern is started that will repeat itself on many of the days to come as John La Valle takes the afternoon session. This first day, he works with us on rapport-building and anchoring. Once again, we are encouraged to work on each other to ensure that we have the techniques right, and to ensure that we are paying close attention to our "client".

The following days see us working on identifying our strategies to do with motivation, learning and decision making. We work on improving them, changing them and streamlining them, so that we become more and more clear about how our own and other people's strategies work.

 

Day 3 is also broken by a stretching series of short classes in aspects of NLP, delivered by the assistants. The 20 assistants who have volunteered to assist on the Master Practitioner course are respected NLP trainers in their own right, and they work together to give mini-lessons to the group. This is a really effective sharpening exercise for us, in which the assistants present NLP ideas very clearly and with a great sense of humour. The groups have a lot of fun learning about phonological ambiguity, cycling rep systems, controlling their expressiveness - and much more. It is a real pleasure to receive this training from these highly experienced trainers.

 

As the days go on, we work on modal operators, and look at how they affect the submodalities of the client. Kathleen La Valle, John's wife, also takes to the stage to give a more in-depth discussion about the Meta-Model. As she did on the NLP Practitioner course, she advises on the careful use of the Meta-Model, cautioning that "the way I teach the Meta-Model should enable you to gently slice off parts of the subjective world of the client, and to add parts for them." She warns about older terms such as "Meta-Model Violation" because they seem to set a context which can be unnecessarily confrontational, and she gives clear advice on not becoming a "Meta Monster", pouncing on "Violations" just for the sake of it. The exposition is clear and helpful. It's not about combating the client, it's about getting them to a new place, and helping them there by being curious. The lesson is a masterpiece of teaching a concept gracefully and elegantly.We also work with meta-programs, discussing the different drivers that affect people's strategies in different contexts. Is the client moving away from something? Are they large chunk-size thinkers? Are they internally or externally motivated? These are just a few of the considerations that John La Valle takes us through.

Richard also describes how to generate "memories for the future" that seem as real as your genuine memories of the past. It is a means of setting up a context for timeline work, and John La Valle takes us through it in a later session. We also study time distortion, that strange psychological state that enables the subject to "slow down" time around them, so that they have more thinking and reacting time. A very useful skill for public speaking, that one.  

 

Suddenly, we reach a point where the work we have done over the previous days starts to lock together. The people I pair up with now find that they are eliciting strategies in a far more complex way then they had done previously. By taking more notice of body language and noticing how it intermeshes with the client's language we are able to include metaprograms in our understanding of the clients strategy. The result is a more rounded and complete elicitation of strategy then we have ever managed before. We combine the strategy work with timeline work, and begin to see how to create more compelling futures. Things start dropping into place.

 

As I look around the room, I see that more and more people are "getting it". The proficiency and ease with which people are now generating hypnotic states in subjects, the ease with which they are streamlining strategies and helping to generate new behaviours is fascinating to witness.

 

The confidence of the entire group grows as the training continues. People begin to really flourish and relax into their newly learned skills. And there are some really major fun moments. One of the exercises the class does is "drug of choice". The demonstration on stage is hilarious to see, with two hypnotic subjects reliving their younger days with great gusto.

 

As is common with the teaching methods employed by Richard Bandler and John La Valle, there is a serious intent behind the laughter. Yes, you see this effect used in hypnosis shows - but it can be very useful in a therapeutic context. The process enables people to do things they wouldn't normally think they can do. It can help someone overcome pain, shift mood quickly, relax deeply, deal with addiction - and all sorts of applications that probably haven't even been discovered, yet.

 

I think it's true to say that by the end of the penultimate day, delegates have started to become blasé about the skills they have acquired. On that day, three people are asked by John La Valle to come up and do a demonstration of Deep Trance Identification on stage. This is a method by which you identify closely with another person you admire, so that you are able to acquire insights into their skills, and replicate what they do.

 

Three people help with the demonstration. The first, Stevie Kidd, is a Scottish Entrepreneur who feels he's been let down by the education system and has never learned joined-up writing. Another is a New York property agent who wants to improve her negotiation skills, and the third is an Indian Bollywood actress, Shraddha Nigam who wants to remain more detached when it comes to other people's dramas. It is amazing to see the changes in physiology and ability of each of these people as the trance goes on. 

 

And what is also funny to see is Shraddha's attitude when she arrives late on the following day. While John La Valle waits for her to sit down, Shraddha remains bright and breezy, explaining that the change from British Summer Time has completely thrown her time-keeping.

 

John's response is hilarious: "I knew I should have saved teaching attitude till the last day. See what you get?"

 

This last day sees a rigorous recap of all the skills we have learned during the week. There has been a strong emphasis on the Meta-Model in this class, as well as a very strong emphasis on strategy learning. Although the test is fun, it also has a deeply serious intention behind it - to ensure that everyone has taken on board the learnings of the previous 9 days.

 

The trainers look well pleased at the results. After the certificates are awarded to the class, there is a real sense of achievement and uplift in the air. As I am leaving to join new-found friends for a drink in the bar, I overhear one delegate saying to a friend:

 

"It has been a great time. Who would have thought that learning could be this much fun?"

 

And that, I think, captures the 9 days at the Licensed NLP Master Practitioner Course, perfectly!

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