Training Background
I didn't set out to help people -- I'm quite wary of people who believe they can. My interest started when doing my finals at Bristol University, I tried using affirmations to help motivate myself to study and was amazed how easily I went from 4 hours to 40 hours a week!
When I called the various hypnotherapy schools, I wasn't impressed by the people I spoke to. In contrast, the NLPeople I met at a local NLP Practice Group seemed a lot more enlightened: they didn't put people in boxes and weren't attached to any particular way of doing things. And at the first session I was taught a technique which radically improved my life within 12 hours.
I decided it was more important to have skill than certificates and decided to train with the best I could find:
Richard Bandler, Paul McKenna and Michael Breen, NLP Practitioner, London, September 1997.
Most informed NLPers seemed to agree that Richard was still one of the best trainers in the world so I actually booked myself on two consequetive trainings. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made...
Richard Bandler, Paul McKenna and Michael Breen, DHE<tm> Practitioner, London, October 1997.
Apparently, people started to notice my skills, because I was invited to assist with:
John Seymour Associates, NLP Practitioner, Bristol, April 1998.
It took me a while to integrate everything I had learned and the next training I was a student in was:
Carmine Baffa, Persuasion and Negotiation, Amsterdam, March 1998.
This training affected me deeply. I not only found new ways to integrate the basic skill set Richard had taught me, but I expanded other skills such as covert submodality swishes, which allows me to do more interventions without the client's conscious interference and without having to induce a formal trance. Despite the name of the seminar, Carmine showed me that my ethical standards had been letting me down, and it behooved me to aim even higher, not just for the benefit of the world, but also for myself.
A few months later, I was again invited to assist with:
Jonathan Altfeld, Knowledge Engineering, London, December, 1998.
Knowledge Engineering trains the ability to precisely track and remember complex belief systems in real-time as somebody is speaking. Think of that in terms of therapy: the main difference between a therapeutic client and a coaching client is that the person seeking therapy has typically let their problems take over their life. They are now backed into a corner and their options are running out. They can't do X because of Y1 and Y2, which they can't do because of Z1, Z2, Z3 etc.
Many of these limitations are genuine, and the solutions either involve threading a way around them, or restructuring towards a more useful belief system.
Jonathan Altfeld, Skills Builder, London, May, 1999.
I'm very fortunate to have Jonathan as a friend. Not only is he a wonderful human being, but he is also one of the top 5 trainers in the world. In this training, I built on my existing skillset in anchoring and rapport.
Richard Flook, NLP Practitioner with Timeline Therapy, Bristol, March 2000.
This was another 7-day training I assisted on. I even did some of the teaching on this one! We covered all the NLP practitioner skills as well as Timeline Therapy as taught by Tad James.
Jonathan Altfeld, Linguistic Wizardry, London, June, 2000.
This was the first training I acted as intervenor in Jonathan's Village Council exercises and chanced upon the rapid change model made famous by Richard Bandler. As I remember it, I spontaneously cracked up and struggled to contain my enthusiasm.
John Grinder & Carmen Bostic St Clair, Tapestry, London, July, 2000.
John is the other co-creator of NLP and hence has been doing it as long as anyone. I incorporated his teaching style into my own, but left early because of technical problems outside of his control.
Jonathan Altfeld, Knowledge Engineering, London, December, 2000.
Although I had attended this training before, I have found repeated attendance is often beneficial. The taught material always differs slightly, and there is always much to learn outside of that.
Jonathan Altfeld, Linguistic Wizardry, London, October, 2001.
This was the first training where I encountered the use of bodywork to create lasting changes in how the mind works.
Richard Bandler, Paul McKenna & Michael Breen, NLP Practitioner, 2nd-8th April, 2002.
It had been nearly 5 years since I last encountered the legend that is Richard Bandler. I was assisting with the mammoth task of training 600+ trainees. The link above is a more detailed review of how I benefitted (and how others may benefit) from their training.
Jonathan Altfeld, NLP Practitioner Training, London, November 2003.
Split into two training slots, I assisted on this course where we covered the basic NLP practitioner skills.
Carmine Baffa, Beyond Expectations, 17th-19th September, 2004.
Success in one's life is determined by the quality of decisions you make. In recognition of this, Carmine has created and continually refined a system of consistently making optimal decisions.
Frank Farrelly Workshop, 5th-6th November, 2005.
Frank has stayed outside of the NLP field and thus his fascinating approach is largely unknown to those within.