Getting to grips with NLP

I recently found myself on an NLP Practitioner course run by Bruce Grimley http://www.innergame.co.uk/ .  I say ‘found’ because I have long been an NLP skeptic.  I’d had several encounters with people who told me they were NLP Master Practitioners and yet their ability to communicate sincerely and build rapport seemed to be amiss.  I’d also been on one or two courses where NLP was used and I had this feeling of being sucked into some sort of  cult. I know it wasn’t just me that had these negative encounters, in fact as I started to tell people that I was doing the NLP course, I had lots of similar negative comments to those I used to make. Both from individuals who had trained as NLP Practitioners and those who had just heard of it.

Anyway, I saw this course advertised and somewhere in my brain a little thought process took place to the point where I decided to give Bruce a call to find out more. His integrity and enthusiasm came across in spadefuls, and I also liked his intellectual approach to the subject.

Four months later and I’m so glad to have done the course. When I first encountered NLP in a book by John Seymour over 13 years ago, I thought it looked interesting. Then swiftly NLP became the ‘next big thing’ and everyone seemed to be doing the courses (much like coaching today). I didn’t look into it further.  Over the years I have used techniques which come under the NLP umbrella but wasn’t always aware that that was the case. I started to see NLP as clever repackaging of stuff that was already out there, just another way to make money.

The biggest thing I learnt from the course is actually what NLP is – I’d never really got this before. NLP is fundamentally about modelling excellence and many of the techniques ascribed to NLP are tools to help that process or have been extrapolated from such modelling projects. During the course I began to see how it could be of value, both to me in my own life and when working with others. There’s still lots to learn, the Practitioner course is just the beginning. I’m so pleased that finally I didn’t let some poor experiences deter me and now I have the opportunity to become an ‘elegant’ practitioner.