Info For Practitioners

If you're genuinely interested in NLP and everything I have presented here in this blog, and wish to know all that you can, whether you want to become a fully certified trainer like myself or just an at-home practitioner, I further present here my recommendations for you.

1. Master the Meta Model

At first the Meta Model may seem daunting and very difficult to learn, so my suggestion is to read through vol. 1 of The Structure of Magic, and picking up knowledge along the way, find the bits you understand and notice when other people use it in their language patterns, and of course your own speech. Once you've started to get the hang of this, reread that book, picking up even more knowledge, and again practice listening to the patterns & violations, then apply any of the challenges that you understand. Do this as often as possible, then repeat. The importance of mastering the meta model cannot be overstated. It is of the utmost importance with learning how to understand and utilize NLP. Learn the basics first and practice them! Then learn the new parts and practice them! Then learn the remainder and practice them! After lots of practice, move on to vol. 2 of The Structure of Magic. Then use the same method. At this point I recommend reading Michael Hall's Communication Magic, which is an extension of The Meta Model, which I have mostly plagiarized Here. One of the best books you can read is the huge work by Alfred Korzybski Science and Sanity. After all, the principles of the Meta Model were based off of the information in that book. A good practice is to watch movies and the TV to listen to people speak and to use your new language skills (I highly recommend shows like The Mentalist and Lie To Me). Try it with friends and family. However, there is a slight warning with trying it on people if you haven't fully mastered it. Generally, people find the questions quite imposing and demanding, and often difficult to answer, especially if these people aren't used to you asking the kinds of questions presented in the meta model. So try to be subtle, and realize that not everyone will react how you would like. And if you feel like your questions are being resisted use this as an opportunity to go inside (our term for 'introspection') and ask the questions to yourself, because this set of tools is not limited to other people; you can use the whole tool set entirely on yourself. By now you should have a good understanding of Part 1 of the language aspect of NLP. Part 2 is The Milton Model.

2. Master The Milton Model 

As stated in my post on the meta model, the Milton model is its inverse. Learning this will teach you everything else about the meta model. It will show you the opposite side. The main recommendation is to do as you did before, but this time sense the effects of the language patterns, and how they are used to influence people. Book suggestions for this are The Patterns and Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, 1 & 2. Again, read, listen, practice. Repeat. I also suggest reading other books on hypnosis, Hypnotherapy by Dave Elman is excellent. Other great books you can read about language are The Language of Change, The Situation is Hopeless, But Not Serious, and Pragmatics of Human Communication by Paul Watzlawick. Any book by Ernest Rossi is also an excellent book on clinical hypnosis.

 3. Transition To Techniques

At this point you'll want to transition to the exercises, the programming aspect. 

A good way to transition is to begin reading Milton Erickson's books, and books about him, such as My Voice Will Go With You by Sydney Rosen, Uncommon Therapy by Jay Haley, and Gregory Bateson's Steps To an Ecology of Mind. And of course, the collected works of Milton Erickson. As with before, practice trance work on others and yourself. Write your own scripts, and test their effectiveness. Most of what we as therapists do within NLP is done purely with words. A lot can be achieved with the right use of language!

4. Master The Techniques

After you've got the language aspects down, it's time to begin learning all of the techniques. Bear in mind that there are dozens upon dozens of techniques. My suggestion is to pick a few that interest you the most and master them, first on yourself, then others. Also, a very good thing to do is to make sure you can undo any applied technique. So, if you remove a phobia, learn how to install one as well. Because if some technique doesn't work out with your clients, or an undesirable outcome happens, you'll know how to reverse it. (And some phobias are actually beneficial!) It's a fail safe method, and makes you all the more effective! You can find lots of good books full of simple explanations of most of the techniques, including The NLP Practitioner Manual by Peter Freeth and Stephanie Smith, The Big Book of NLP Techniques by Shlomo Vaknin, for very brief descriptions of all the main techniques. It should go without saying that to study the people Richard and John studied - Satir, Erickson, Perls, Bateson, Huxley, etc. is also a wise thing to do. At this point you should have lots of knowledge and direct practice with all kinds of people with all kinds of problems, using a multitude of methods and techniques.

(Top tip for research material: study primarily from the originals.)

Remember - "NLP is an attitude and a methodology, not the trail of techniques it leaves behind." - Richard Bandler

5. Become Certified!

Now it's time to attend a course or courses to become certified, and make sure you haven't missed anything, gaining even more experience! The suggested order of courses to attend is as follows:

Practitioner 
Master Practitioner
Trainers Training (this is where you learn how to teach NLP to others, to become a coach.)

If you want to become certified by the best, then I suggest you only train with the best. Among the best in the field to be trained by are Richard Bandler (schedule), John Grinder (courses), Robert Dilts (schedule), John and Kathleen La Valle (link), Paul McKenna (events). If, however, you're looking for trainers who won't burn holes in your wallet, and are perusing through websites looking for a good trainer be sure to look for the certification logos:

Attend as many courses, seminars, lectures and workshops as you can, in all kinds of subjects, even if you think you know it all already. It will only help you become better at it.

Final Notes & Recommendations 

Read everything you can, not just NLP. After learning even just the basics of the Meta Model, learning in general will become a totally different experience; it will make you want to reread everything you've ever read. It will give you a whole new perspective. So study neuroscience, biology, endocrinology and nutrition. Study biochemistry and bioenergetics. Study history and art. Study maths, philosophy and technology. Try not to limit yourself to any one way of thinking, or any one area of study. Keep asking more and more detailed questions, and never stop learning!

With regards to books, I would like the reader to keep in mind 2 quotes by the brilliant Oscar Wilde: 

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

and

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”

How's that for a perfect punctuation ambiguity!?

It is imperative to love what you do and do what you love. If you don't, then change it. And if you can't change it, then change your attitude about it.

Start a blog, write articles and books, make videos, audio recordings, hold free workshops in your area, spread your message. Variety is the spice of life! 

Above all, master the techniques and methods on yourself. This is perhaps more important than being able to do it with your clients, because if you want to know how to help other people, you have to know how to do it on yourself first. It's the same principle as 'you have to love yourself before you can love others.' And remember, the purpose of the methods and techniques of NLP is to be able to do things better, so don't limit yourself to just studying or thinking about only NLP; go out and do the things you want to do, and apply what you've learned there, interact with people, learn all you can from them, and offer your knowledge to them.

For trainers or aspiring trainers, I highly recommend studying and applying Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People. This book will help you with developing interpersonal relationships, in your work and personal lives. And I would like to make one major point with working with people in any therapeutic setting, and one that is key to mastering NLP, and that is that the number 1 thing that people value in others is the ability to listen. Listening (and observing) is how anyone ever became good at anything, and NLP is no exception. Peruse through the quotes on listening here.

Most of the products I have recommended can be found at NLP Life Training and NLP Store.

Anything else you want to know can pretty much be found through Google, YouTube and any good book store.

I wish you all the best, and good luck!

"Master the instrument, master the music, then forget all that shit and play!" - Charlie Parker