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Dear reader,

Welcome to the July newsletter. We have an extra special discount for those wishing to do either the next NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner trainings, or Practitioner of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. If you book either course before September 2009 you can claim 25% discount!

What’s new at Brain Train Academy

Personal Transformation Day & Introduction to NLP on Sunday 5th July.

NLP Social Confidence & Public Speaking Workshop on Saturday 8th August.

NLP Practitioner Certification (Immersion Experience) 7 days in September.

NLP Master Practitioner Certification (Immersion Experience) 7 days in October.

Article of the month

Remember that change can be simple! By Thom Shillaw

The NLP model for change is solution orientated. Ask simple questions like “what do you want?” and often people don’t know how to reply. Their attention is often focused on their problem. I like to look for simple ways of doing things.

We were doing language training in one of our NLP Practitioner Certifications and one lady asked me what I would say if an employee said that they were going to be late for work. The first thing that came to mind was the question “what would happen if you weren’t?”

Within a second her eyes had moved up and to the right (typically indicating that she was constructing a visual representation). I paced her non-verbal response by asking “what are you picturing?”. She replied “I saw an image of her hailing a taxi cab.”

“Clearly, you can see yourself doing that, can you not?” I replied. She thought for a moment and said “Yes.”

“And I wonder how does it feel, good, doesn’t it?” I replied. “Yes, funnily enough it does feel good.” We both smiled.

For a week or two afterwards I tested this simple process with clients. A client would come in and say I have a problem with X. I would say “what would happen if you didn’t?” “But, I do.” the client would continue. “Yes, but, I’m asking what would happen if you didn’t?” and simply wait for an eye-accessing response indicating that they were hallucinating new choices.

Upon noticing the approapriate physiological cue, I would simply use embedded or tag quesitions to pace and reinforce what they were already doing and then I would continue with similar questions to to map this experience across representational systems, particlarly the feelings. Once the client had alternate content to their problem, and felt good about it, I would simply extend my hand and tell them “well done!”

Of course, as they watched the changing focus of their eyes, I would simply instruct their hand to move down at the rate and speed at which they “remembered that they had a problem, but no more about that, because they had found their own solution, and as they forgot to remember that which was not important any more, and simply focus on the new representation and magnify that, particularly the good feeling.” Ok, so during trance my language may have been a little more sophisticated, though I was amazed at how many people were very quickly orientated towards what it was that they wanted with a simple few-step process.

I was even more amazed at how many problems were solved in a few moments. This is a very simple exercise to teach structure and orient attention toward the outcome/direction. Maybe the lesson here is to remember to forget to make change complicated and begin to focus your attention on how easy life can be when you put the things you already know together in new configurations.

Thom Shillaw is a Licensed Trainer of NLP at Brain Train Academy (Edinburgh). He can be contacted by emailing thom@braintrainacademy.co.uk

For course information, including 7 Day Licensed NLP Practitioner Training in September and 9 Day Master Practitioner Training in October then please visit www.braintrainacademy.co.uk

Success story of the month

“Have you ever wanted something so much and for a very very long time? That was how it was with me. Since my early teens I wanted to become a BHSI but never thought I would achieve it, it seemed personally unattainable. I contented myself with achieving the BHSII. After several failed training attempts I decided I was happy without it. I made a career in the horse industry, I rode and competed at Horse Trials and Dressage, I taught - anyone who wanted help. I ran commercial riding schools, I worked in a competition yard and eventually set up my own yard where I take liveries and do some teaching. I am talking a lot of years here and eventually on the right side of 50 (guess which one I mean!) someone gave me the idea of sitting the BHSI. This is where Dawn and Brain-Train come in. I had already experienced some NLP so decided that if I was going to seek the help of a sports psychologist then I should stick with something that was familiar. The only high-profile person I knew doing this in Britain was Paul McKenna so I surfed his website and was amazed when a real person answered the telephone. With his recommendation I contacted Dawn. After only 2 sessions I was able to pick up training for this exam and sat and passed it in November 2007. This was the realisation of a very long-held dream. Dawn was fantastic, so positive and gave me skills far beyond what was needed for the exam. One person believed enough in me to suggest I went for it, another believed enough in me that I could achieve it, but Dawn gave me the ability to believe in myself. A powerful combination. Now I just have to decide what the next goal is and the endless possibilities are so exciting.” Sandra Morri son, BHSI, Edinburgh

Metaphor or quote of the month

“Before teaching, before learning, before knowing, begin with something more. Teaching and learning and knowing must mean more than recapitulation. To teach, install good learning strategies. To make that worth having, do more. You can install in people something much stronger. Call it hope.

Build powerful hope for people. Build it not so much from understandings. Build hope from experience. Create this experience.” (Richard Bandler, Co-creator of NLP)

Practise group

On the last Friday of the month at The Theosophical Society, 28 Great King Street Edinburgh, 7-9pm.

Dear NLPer,

This month we have details of Septembers Fully Licensed NLP Practitioner Program and our Social Confidence and Public Speaking program on the 8^th of August.

In the Success of the Month section, we have detailed two rapid and remarkable turn-arounds from major depression. The Article of Month instructs you on a simple technique to gain more confidence in many social situations.

The Quote of the Month comes from our recommended Book of the Month by Richard Bandler and Owen Fitzpatrick that tracks numerous conversations with the NLP co-creator about creating personal freedom.

Yours in Health

Thom and Dawn

Upcoming Events

Please click on the link for more information.

8^th August Public Speaking and Social Confidence Event

5^th-11^th September Fully Licensed NLP Practitioner Program: The Immersion Experience

Success the Month

I was pleased last week to hear that someone I had completed work with was signed off from their Psychotherapist after battling with depression. Prior to visiting me, they told me that they had been on “suicide watch”, and, were made to sign a disclaimer to acknowledge that their dose of medication was so substantial that it was “off prescription.” Their psychologist was intrigued to discover that they credited their rapid turn around to the hypnosis that we had done.

I was just as pleased to hear the following day that my friend’s brother had experienced a remarkable turn-around from depression. We had worked together for a single 2hr session and Mike has kindly provided me with the testimonial that is printed below. Well done guys!

“Hi Thom

Just wanted to thank you for the remarkable turn round in my battle with depression. After my session with you in the Edinburgh Office I have had a fantastic change of events

I feel a completely different person mentally and physically, this in my mind is all down to the work that you (and my sister) have, through the power of hypnosis etc has changed my complete outlook in life. I know when I finished the session I had stated that I didn’t feel any different, well two weeks on I am amazed at the change in my attitude, outlook in life, confidence and physical appearance.

I don’t have any negative thoughts any longer, I look forward to days ahead ( whilst suffering depression I couldn’t care what the day held) I wake in a positive mood .I can state with 100% confidence that I feel a better person than I did BEFORE I suffered depression. I have a new found attitude and confidence that was lacking for many years. Now I feel I command respect and have a slight arrogance about me. Also I don’t have that “shy” feeling any longer whilst in a crowd of strangers.

On the physical side when I look in the mirror it’s not a gaunt grey face reflection but a person full of colour and dare I boast I look many years younger. Whilst suffering depression I noticed the change in my skin which had become dry, flaky and looked like that of a man twice my age. I had also lost all my arm hair. Now I possess a silky smooth skin and the hairs in my arms are now re growing.

All in all I am delighted at the person I have now become, the fact that I (with your much valued help) have turned around not only my depression, but my low esteem, lack of confidence etc and I cant express enough thanks to you. Whilst being a doubter of this in the past I would recommend this treatment to anybody and I for one believe that your help is far better than any medication ( anti -depression tablets) that I have encountered over the past 4 months.

This was the best £150.00 I have ever spent, and this change in me has been noticed by all my friends, family and work colleagues.

Heartfelt thanks Thom for all your work and look forward to seeing you again so you can see the change for yourself. Should you wish to use any or all of this as a testimonial to your skills then you have my permission to do so.

Thanks again Thom from a very satisfied and changed person.

Kind Regards

Mike Henderson

Galashiels”

Note: Thom can be contacted for private client sessions by emailing: thom@braintrainacademy.co.uk

Article of the Month

Size Matters

By Thom Shillaw

One day I had three ladies visit me in an afternoon. They saw me one after the other and each told me that they had terrible problems with confidence. That much they were confident about.

The first woman said to me that she was having problems being around people in social situations and that she just didn’t measure up. Measure up? Seemed an odd thing to say. There was also a missing standard of evaluation. Measure up compared to whom or what? I asked her to think of a situation where she didn’t measure up. What I wanted to know was how tall she was in her mental image compared to the others that she had problems being confident around. She told me she was like a little girl and much smaller than the other adults. The woman was in her later 50’s.

The second woman arrived and said she had problems with confidence around work colleagues and felt bullied. She said that she just felt, paused for a moment in frustration and made a gesture with her left hand by almost pinching her index finger and thumb together, but not quite. “What was that?” I asked. “What?” She replied. “I noticed that you made a certain gesture with your hand.” The gesture looked to me exactly like what someone would do if they were to indicate with a gesture something tiny. I asked her to think of a specific situation at work where she lacked confidence and sure enough, her mental image of herself was much smaller that that of her colleagues who seemed to tower over her.

When the third lady arrived, I asked her why she had come to see me and she let out a huge sigh and told me that she felt really small. I smiled as this was getting too easy. Sure enough she was tiny in comparison to her husband and other family members that she lacked confidence around.

Remember that the way we experience reality is usually dependent upon how we represent it. While we experience the world through our five senses we also code and represent our experience through these same sensory modes. If we make impoverished pictures or nasty sound inside our head when we think of doing things then we will probably feel bad.

By changing the size of each person in each of the above cases compared to other people that they lacked confidence around, all were able to feel more confident. For one lady, being 40ft tall gave her a real sense of power, for another simply being the same size as the other people changed the way she thought about herself so that she became equal. If we make empowering images and sounds internally then we will most likely feel good and open up the rare and unprecedented opportunity to get a new description where it counts – in life.

Pick some experience where you require more choice around people, whether it’s public speaking or going up and saying “hi” to someone that you would like to meet. Notice how you represent yourself in the experience and play about with changing your size in the image. Maybe you could shrink the other people down? The more you can gain control over your internal representations the more you can begin to open the doorway to experiences that feel larger than life.

Quote of the Month

“Making good decisions is always going to depend upon the decision, because some decisions you can make quickly and some you really have to think through.

The trick is to be able to adjust the amount of information that is considered to relate to what the decision is, so you don’t get too much information, and you don’t get too little. You just get enough so that you make the right choices and learn to trust your unconscious process. We all sort out good decisions from bad decisions subjectively by putting them in different places in our minds, and they have a very different feeling that most people haven’t gotten very good at trusting. Most people know what the right thing to do is, but they just don’t trust it.” (Richard Bandler)

Book of the Month

Conversations with Richard Bandler by Richard Bandler and Owen Fitzpatrick