Therapeutic NLP - Classes

What are the different styles of NLP out there?

Formulaic, conventional, conversational and therapeutic. The most basic of versions of NLP have tremendously valuable and powerful formulas for creating change in comparison to no NLP at all.

How does what you do differ from what a coach does?

Coaching is a process whereby a person helps you to achieve a goal over time. The way they help you is through breaking your goal (with your input or without) into manageable chunks and then they support you through each step.

NLP uses a process of imagination, hypnotic languaging, and other language patterns to add a new perspective or take your brain to a threshold. Based on what you are currently experiencing in your life it will affect a change so you can get what you want out of life. NLP tends to stay within the confines of the present and future.

TNLP uses expanded NLP processes to go beyond the present and work through past pain including looking at familial and ancestral inheritances. During the process we implant new perspectives on old memories to provide new alternatives for belief, identity, and system level perminant change resulting in permanent behavior change. There is no need to hand hold as in coaching because the TNLP client will feel noticeably different on the inside and be recognized as different on the outside (even if they are just leaving the session!).

What is Tapping or EFT?

Practitioners use tapping and physical stimulation along acupuncture/meridian points to relieve blockages. This creates substantial relief from the emotions and symptoms a person may be experiencing but doesn't cure what caused the symptoms.

What can NLP do for me?

NLP gives you the ability to have anything that anyone else may have that you might want.

Where can I read more about NLP?

There are other NLP books out there but for beginners I like to recommend anything by Gennie Laborde. Her books seem to cover the material in such a way that it is simple, understandible and you can use the information easily. I find with her books you can get a good grasp of what NLP really is. A lot of books out there are in geek speak making it almost impossible to learn. Add to the issue that we all learn in different ways and the people writing these books may not have been aware of these issues (despite what they were teaching) and their own teaching style. The other issue is that there is so much more learning that takes place when you have someone standing in front of you rather than what is written on a page. This was the research that Albert Mehrabian did: 8-10% of information is transfered through words alone (Body language makes up 55% of communication that is received and is missing when you only read the words on the page! Also missing is the information that is available in tone, cadence, and everything else that makes up the sound of someone's voice.). That means 90-2% of the information stored in your brain as a result of that new 8-10% of word information is from your own brain filling in the gaps (and is most likely wrong!).

Many of the recent NLP books also miss out much of the information in the NLP curriculum because their teachers and their teachers, teachers never learned these things. You could imagine how much you might be missing, if you only get to spend 5-10 days learning what it took a bunch of people years to learn and develop. Here is a link page of additional resources you can check out.

Do you change or alter memories?

Some NLP practitioners change memories. It is my personal position that we respect every memory as useful information - like there is nothing wrong with you in any way, shape or form - you just have a perception of a memory that doesn’t work for you anymore. Although the process I use can be used to alter memories, I don’t advocate that. I prefer to add an alternative perception of the orginal memory that is better than what is currently available.

When someone comes in to see me, they are experiencing what seems like the worst option. It may be the only option that their brain has available currently but at one time it was the best option because it made that person feel safe. I work with the client to create a much better option and perception of the memory and then we implant it using a bit of hypnotic languaging. The implanted information has an expanding effect so over time the effects are greater felt. So people that are not happy become happy and even happier over time.

How does what you do differ from what a counselors does?

Many counselors are tasked with the responsibility of determining when a person should be seeking medication for their issues or not. They are trained to use the DSM for this purpose.

They are trained to take a client through a process to achieve a particular goal or outcome. The client is tasked with attending appointments until the counsellor determines the client has accomplished the task. However, many people (something like 60% of clients) do not complete the scheduled course of counselling.

TNLP is not counseling. A client comes in 1 to 3 times over a 6 months period of time. Most of the time we will fix the issue you came in with in a single session. If you choose to come again, it will be for different issue. Sometimes during a session we uncover something very deep and can’t get the full root of it. But removing a portion of the issue helps provide your system enough relief to allow us access during a successive session. For example, I had a client who was convinced a major child hood trauma occurred between the ages of 5 and 9. During the session, her brain would only let me communicate with the 5 year old version of herself. 6 weeks later she came back for a follow up session and her brain let me access a trauma at 6 months old.

Why are your sessions so long?

My sessions were originally 2-3 hours in length and I found that I wasn't always able to get to the depth I wanted to with each client. I also felt rushed to meet the next client and I didn't want thave this cloud my work with any particular individual. I find everyone is unique and needs a different amount of support to achieve the change they want. I also know that if I get to go deep, I get to work on more than a person's capacity to do and accomplish tasks. I get to work on thier belief structure, ths core of their identity identity, and I get to alter the foundation created by their family system and what was passed down from their ancesteral lines. If any of these things are missed, it could trigger a relapse of what you experienced before, since each level of change successivly supports the others. Which means, with the extended length of a session I can guarantee my work and you don't have to worry about getting your money's worth. If I can go deep then the client can experience amazing relief from the issues they brought to me. It's also kind of fun to think that you can get rid of your emotional pain in a single session...not a very traditional model of therapy and certainly not the model of therapy used by other health practitioners today.

One of my friends said you talk about health topics. How does that relate to what you do?

I do. However, only in relationship to your brain. Anything brain related, brain health, memory, learning, brain exercise, stimulating parts of the brain. The reason why I do talk about these things is that I find that there are things I know about the brain that are not approached in conversations with doctors. For example, a client of mine sent me her mother after she hit her head. When checked out by a doctor, x-rays, CT-scan and MRI revealed nothing. But to my client, her mother's personality change and short term memory issues were alarming. I was able to give her exercises (both physical and mental) to stimulate the deficits to start to repair the trauma. With may people, sleep is a huge issue and lack of sleep translates into anxiety but can lead to huge issues if not taken care of. Lack of sleep is also the one thing that will delay proper processing of one of my client sessions.

Do you use Hypnosis? Or does NLP use Hypnosis?

Yes and no. I use something called "Hypnotic Languaging." Hypnotic Languaging requires the use of hypnotic language patterns. A sample of ahypnotic language pattern is:A pacing statement, a pacing statement, followed by a leading statement. You can use as many pacing statements (like 9) before the leading statement. The pacing statements prime the brain into a suggestible state. A pacing statement tells the listener something they already know like: "The TVs are over there." and the there is a huge sign saying "TVs" where the person is pointing. A leading statement tells the listener something they don't know but can agree on and is directive like " and you will notice you are getting sleepy." When the brain hears at least 2 things it already knows and agrees on, it will automatically agree to the 3rd statement. Although there's a little bit more to this, Hypnosis follows this pattern.

I use hypnotic languaging to have my clients relax while I'm working with them. This means, I don't repeat the language pattern over and over again together to get someone from a waking state to a deep trans state. I use a little bit to make them relax and experience what I ask them to imagine viscerally. Not to manipulate or influence them, or make cluck like a chicken. And, I try and keep people very close to fully conscious until the last half an hour of the session in which I tell them what to do to raise their trans level immediately after the session. You have my word on this.

What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?

NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is the process of working with old, memories that hold people back from achieving what they want in their lives. It is working with the way that a person structures their experience of life (and past) to enhance their future experience into something they desire and want.

What is the history of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Neuro-Linguistic Programming was born out of the Gregory Bateson's question:

What is the difference that makes the difference?

As in, how is it that people with amazingly similar backgrounds can be so different in their ability to create a meaningful and fulfilling life experience for themselves and for others?

This led to the question: If we can identify these differences, can we also make these differences teachable and learnable to enhance life experience for everyone?

Over three decades ago, these questions were answered by Richard Bandler, John Grinder and a host of others at Santa Cruz University with a resounding Yes! and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was born.

Like many others, they had observed that people with similar education, training, background, and years of experience were achieving widely varying results ranging from wonderful to mediocre.

Bandler and Grinder were intrigued by these differences. They wanted to know how effective people performed and accomplished their goals. And, they wanted to know how to duplicate or model those effective behaviors and competence. Bandler and Grinder set out to "model" human excellence and experience in the fields of education, business, and therapy. What emerged from their work came to be called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Over the years, a variety of creative and brilliant people have been attracted to Bandler's and Grinder's unique work and discoveries. They helped to expand the NLP model and organize it into a vast set of tools, skills, and information. As a result, there are NLP training centers throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. The conventional/classical/formulaic form of Neuro-Linguistic Programming has made astonishing contributions to personal and professional communication, growth, and change and continues to do so.

Even if you have only recently heard of NLP, chances are you have already been exposed to it, in one form or another, without it being identified and without your realizing it. NLP is so useful for the whole human experience that many of its original tools and distinctions have already integrated into education, training, business, and therapy, becoming part of the common sense wisdom of our society.

While including conventional NLP and many more aspects from the evolution of NLP, Therapeutic NLP is largely based on Tracy Joy's distinctly original, unconventional approach to application of Neuro-Linguistic Programming session work. Tracy's approach has evolved and unfolded over more than 30 years. Therapeutic NLP incorporates and adds Tracy's 20+ years experience of providing personal and business change, academic studies and personal experiences. Therapeutic NLP mainly works and focuses on more serious issues (addictions, anxitey disorders, depression, traumatic brain injury, attachment disorders, disociative disorders, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and traumatic memories) that traditional therapies may not be able to resolve completely.

How do I take the edge off of my depression?

Please note, if you are on any medication for depression, please stay on it. If you come in for a session, we can re-assess the situation after you experience the results of the session. If we determine that you don't require these drugs it will take you at least 6 weeks to wean off these drugs with a doctor's supervision.

Depression in the NLP world is one of two things: 1.) Either you are stuck in a review cycle; As in, you hear, see, smell, or taste something and it triggers a painful emotional memory and then you re-review internally what was heard, seen, smelled, or tasted and then review what you made it mean and the painful emotional feeling. By repeating this cycle over and over again you build a pain profile so the emotional pain gets larger and feels worse over time. Or, 2.) the emotions are so big that they bleed all over to every part of your life.

Which every you are experiencing, I recommend people start by assuming the first use the suggestion here to experiment with what works uniquely for you. Which ever you are suffering from, this suggestion will help both situations. Note: not all depression is the same ie: Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder is essentially symptoms of Jetlag and require a Circadian-Circannual Rhythm reset accomplished by a 5 minute walk outside rain or shine upon morning waking and/or using an progression light alarm clock. This may work with other types of depression but eating chocolate or petting a dog/cat for this type of depression may not help at all.

The first thing, you might want to know is that emotions and feelings are slow. They move slowly. They are so slow that we often mistake an emotion or feeling and think it relates to experience we are having in the present. Many times the emotion has nothing to do with our current experience.

So for each of the things I suggest, you will need to sustain them for 20 seconds to a minute and half to get a break from the emotion. Visual: Change your visual. This could be changing the scenery, moving your furniture around, calculating how many spots are on a purple cow, painting a wall a favourite color or even just looking up at the ceiling for 20 seconds to a minute (make sure to keep your head straight and just move your eyes to point in a upward direction). If this doesn't work, try this next one. Auditory: Change the sounds you are listening to. On an old TV show called Ally McBeal, Tracy Ulman played a shrink and told Ally to pick a new theme song. Pick a new theme song. Put something new on your iPod or MP3 player or just remove yourself from the noise. If this doesn't work try this one. Taste: Change the taste in your mouth. Maybe it's making something new, or something familiar and eating it. If you are female try chocolate. Chocolate has a chemical in it that causes your brain to switch. If chocolate doesn't work for you, try cinnamon. Cinnamon has the same brain stimulating properties of chocolate but may work better in a male brain. If this doesn't work try changing what you are smelling. Smell: Sometimes just changing the smell does wonders. Consider the smell of fresh baked cookies in a house you a looking at to possibly buy. If you choose to use vanilla, it actually stimulates the same receptors the cinnamon and chocolate do. And if you are trying to kick that chocolate habit, it will help you do that. If you are stuck in a review cycle what is happening is you are not getting to the next sense in your information processing cycle. When we process information we process it through specific patterns of our senses. To move us to the next pattern you may need to introduce a new visual, and new auditory, a new smell, or a new taste.

If none of the above things worked, you will be in category 2. And this is what I suggest: Go for a walk. Make a commitment to walk on a regular basis. In fact if you live in Vancouver, like I do, most people here suffer from a depression called Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder. What this means is our Circadian-Circannual processes are off or our internal time clocks are not functioning properly. Because of the darkness of the weather outside we tend to avoid the outdoors and this messes up out internal clocks making it feel like we constantly have jetlag. The easiest way to cure this is to go outside for a 5 minute walk every morning, rain or shine as soon as we wake up. The walking and the exposure to the natural elements makes it possible for our body clocks to reset and work properly. If we are only exposed to artificial environments we don't get that same internal clock reset. And if you are experiencing this type of depression the walking will start increasing your blood flow through your brain removing the toxins that are keeping you sluggish. An alternative is to do something tactile, like pet an animal. Petting an animal gets our brain to release endorphines (the drugs in our brain that make us feel good) which is why we tend to feel better after doing so.

What is NLP?

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming and it is the study of subjective experience. There are many different definitions of NLP and what it can do for you. This is because there were so many developers (and ways of learning and teaching the information) involved with the initial crafting of the technology. 99.99% of the NLP available today was taken out to the greater business community in the form of marketing, sales and negotiation technology. As a result it was formulated into and taught in a formulaic or conversational fashion (the quick format). The dominant learning form of NLP takes place in a quick fashion (from 3 hours to 12 days in a row) and practitioners are asked to regurgitate information learned through reading, watching videos and classroom material in a written open book test or essay format to obtain their practitioner certificate. In this way it is a very structural or right brain approach.

This not the version of NLP taught or practiced here. An alternative form of NLP was taught and further developed by therapeutic practitioners for therapeutic work. This form of NLP is highly conceptual (and right brained) and requires the student to integrate the material into every area of their life and person. It requires the NLP trainer to be able to shift into any of the student’s learning and behavioral styles and strategies to teach the student how to learn the material best for their learning and communication style. The exams are competency based on the individual's personal integration of the material and ability to perform and meet certain standards, rapport skills and demonstration of use of the material to create sustained identity, belief, competence and behavioral level change. This is the style NLP practiced and taught here. Tracy personally guarantees you will integrate this material into your life and you will at the very least get magical personal change, growth and development by learning this material. Tracy's vision is that you will to be able to create the formulas, for anything including changing your husband’s brother’s aunt’s dog.... not just have the one’s Richard Bandler or John Grinder are using and have been promoting for the last 35+ years. Tracy wants her students to be able to take a formula and fit it to the individual they are working with or be able to make up an entirely new formula.

What is EMDR?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro, a NLP practitioner who was taught by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. EMDR uses bilateral (visual stmulation - flashing lights or waving objects, autitory stimulation - sounds, or physical stimulation such as tapping) stimulation while the client holds painful thoughts in their mind in the hopes of scrabling the brain's access to the memeory. They offer a quick fix reduction in pain without actually dealing directly with the problem (like the beliefs, identity and family system issues behind the behaviors and memory trauma) and could cause other memory issues due to how unspecific the techniques are used. They do provide great relief. But, they are unspecific because the process requires the client to remember the memory and then they attempt to break up the memory into pieces. The problem is the practitioner can’t be sure which memory the process is scrambling and potentially useful and needed information could be at risk for being altered including needed access to safety information.

How does what you do differ from what a psychologist does?

Psychologists provide therapy, but their treatment and therapy is usually based on a specifci theory and pattern of study. Therapists with only one therapeutic stance or lense are less likely to get comlete resolution with their client to due to not being able to adapt their skill set to the uniqueness of their client. Sessions with psychologists tend to be ongoing until the therapist determine that the client has reached some point of view.

TNLP offers additional sessions at the client’s discretion not the therapist. NLP is based on what works in reality not in a vacuum of an academic laboratory setting. There may be some theories associated with the material but all material has a practical base and works. Not all psychological theories have a practical base nor do they work with all people and for all problems.

How does what you do differ from what a psychiatrist does?

Psychiatrists mainly deal with medication and assessment. They do very little counseling or therapy. And if they do, it realtes to medication. They also work with severe neurological deficits in a medical way.

TNLP doesn’t determine or assess pharmacological aspects of a client. Although it does deal with brain health, it is only to create desired memory effects. For example: TNLP/NLP can even give you non-drug way of experiencing the effects of a drug. It uses mind over matter techniques that work on how you use your brain.

Why is the practice of NLP so different?

Many teachers with many different learning styles and many different ideas what is important and what’s not. We (Therapeutic NLP) really take to heart, that we teach you the entire NLP toolbox and much, much, more and show you how to adapt it for you and for your unique uses, using your strengths and adaptability.

Have other questions you want answered?

Contact me and I'll write you back and post your questions and answer here.

Can I learn how to do Constellations without learning NLP first?

Certainly you can do that through other organizations but you will hear from them that NLP training enhances your ability as a constellation facilitator. For Therapeutic NLP, many important concepts of the Constellations training is covered during the NLP training. We also use and build on that NLP-Constellation foundation and expand on it to be able to create healing change throughout final three courses (TNLP 1, 2 and 3).

What do you mean by good sleeps?

If you don’t have a good sleep it means your brain may not properly respond and process the information you receive during a session or even during the day. Which means processing times for a session will be off (i.e.: much longer than 21 days). A good sleep is signalled by reaching a dream state for at least 20 minutes 2 times a night. It's normal to not remember your dreams, but you probabaly will remember that you had dreamed. If not, feeling tired when you wake up and not being able to easily fall asleep at night can signal you are not getting enough REM/Dream sleep. This is the timme your brain is processing the days events and not getting to this stage or going past stage into deep sleep can cause memory issues, anxiety, irritibility and even depression.

If you are not getting good sleeps contact me (604-442-8657 or ) and I'll suggest a sleep plan for you based on your current situation.