“Frogs into Princes” was one of Richard Bandler and John Grinder’s first books on NLP or neuro-linguistic programming. They are generally credited with creating NLP. However much of their material is drawn from the work of William James, the father of modern psychology. His books called Psychology, volumes 1 and 2 cover much of what Bandler and Grinder wrote about. James’s book was published in 1896 so NLP is nothing new.

I agree with the general consensus that you cannot learn NLP from a book unless it is accompanied by some live training or some of the better virtual trainings. One of the other benefits of formal training is that you will be educated in ethics and codes of conduct. NLP has a reputation of being the tool of salesmen and seducers.

NLP is said to be extremely useful for meeting women but I would reframe that as, “The skills you learn are a great way of breaking the ice and starting a conversation.” And that applies to every area of your life.

So what is NLP? Many people think of it as a series of processes. Neuro-linguistic programming is also a methodology for modeling or copying excellence in such great detail that you can teach it to others, and reproduce the same result either in your self or in others.

Now this can range from creating confidence in your self which is very useful if you want to meet the opposite sex all the way through to “curing” major cases of PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder in one session.
The word “curing” is in speech marks because Doctors and Psychiatrists don’t particularly like having their territory encroached on. So, let’s just say that people no longer get to experience the symptoms of PTSD.

NLP is primarily about language and how you use it. This relates to both external dialogues that you have with the world that is external to yourself; and it also includes conversations that you have internally with your self. This also includes conversations with your unconscious mind that you are not aware of.

When they review what they learn on an NLP training most people report that the NLP training was one of the most significant change agents in their life.

But I digress…

NLP can be used for, in no particular order: stress, trauma, anxiety, motivation, hyper activity, weight loss, significant health problems such as asthma and a lot of mental health related issues.

NLP has uses in interpersonal communication and relationship building in areas like sales, marketing, family and social situations, also with colleagues, employees, teams, and bosses and of course with your clients or customers.

NLP is also used for conflict resolution and can resolve issues in marriages and all of the other areas listed above and a whole lot more. For instance it was a methodology used in Northern Ireland to broker the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

NLP is used in education and Universities and teaching institutions as a means of creating rapport and also the NLP teaching method which is the basis of accelerated learning techniques. A basic description of how you would teach using nlp is

• I tell you what I’m going to teach you.
• I then demonstrate it so that you can see and understand what I just told you.
• Then I ask you if there is anything else that you need to know about this before I get you to practice the activity.
• I then get you to do the thing I just showed you and told you about
• I then get you to tell me what it was like to do the activity
• And then I tell you what I just taught you

The interesting thing about this methodology is that when teaching people you will speak to the four major languages of the brain. These are:

• visual what you see.
• Auditory, What you hear
• Kinaesthetic. What you feel in terms of body sensations

and

• Auditory digital which is what you say to your self inside

There is of course much, much more to this than what I just described and as I said earlier on on this article this is not meant to be an NLP training session. NLP is the study of excellent performance which means doing things the smart way and the easy way.

So what I would ask you is, based on what you have read so far, do you believe that you can learn NLP from a book?

Absolutely…

But not very well and that is the problem with much of the training that is out there.

I came across someone on the internet who claimed they can teach me NLP up to master practitioner level in 2 hours. Quite frankly I’m really impressed by that and I want to learn their secrets. However there is so much to learn, that it is faster and quicker to attend a live training near you. It will also ensure that you get everything in context.

Some of you may ask “What have I got from NLP, personally?” The answer lies below.

What NLP did for me was it gave me the clarity and the focus to complete my NLP International Trainers Certification in 126 days. This was achieved after years of academic non achievement. In addition to that I am happier, healthier and more confident in every situation.

It’s definitely worth a look. But then again I am really biased.

Michael Noone is a communication skills specialist and NLP trainer living in Thailand with his partner Evelyne Draper. They have worked together for many years teaching clear communication which leads to trust and understanding between people. The net result of that is cooperation…the place where conflict disappears and shared, common values drive the efforts of everyone involved.

You can learn more about them here at http://www.topcommunicationskills.com and also at http://www.nlpskills.org/ which is their NLP coaching website