One of my goals in joining this forum is the demystifying and exposing NLP for what it is. Not the technique based routines that don't work or the mind control type of definition of it. But the truth. It seems there are many people in the hypnotic world that view NLP as nonsense, pseudo-scientific, useless, controlling and charletan based. These points of view are completely valid in my opinion because that's the way NLP has been presented to many many people. It's a big disservice that trainers have introduced into the field and it's frankly a bit frustrating to people who use NLP with great results because most of us results to not mentioning NLP at all for fear we'll be ridiculed or viewed as threatening.

NLP came about circa 1970 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder through the quest to find out why SOME therapists were getting results with their clients while most did not. They studied the powerful patterns of Milton H. Erickson, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satirs and many others. After they spent time with these people they moved on to how ordinary people got themselves over problems and limitations such as phobias, anxiety and others with absolutely no therapeutic intervention. This gave even more material to the field. It was a hacking away procedure to take what worked and left the rest. These gave the field very potent tools and perspectives. NLP isn't just about techniques. Richard and John also studied the frame of mind and beliefs that these therapists and people had to have in order to get their results.

Over time, their techniques were refined, perspectives were altered and the field began taking big shifts towards a more evolved toolset. Unfortunately, many of the practitioners of the old ways didn't come on board for one reason or another. Maybe they didn't keep themselves up to date, perhaps they preferred their old way of doing things etc. Regardles, the field is now filled with very experienced practitioners of the old way. This makes finding a competent and up to date Master Trainer very difficult. Hence why there is so much confusion about the techniques and mindsets of the field.

Having spent 6 years studying this field and only 2 with exquisite training, I can say there are many pitfalls one can fall into. I totally agree, if you do not train with Richard Bandler, Owen Fitzpatrick, Michael Breen, Barbara Stepp and a few others, you may fall into the same trap. I've always had an NLP mindset from the start. If I ever wanted to learn a new skill, I went to the best in the field. Richard Bandler gets results and is terribly offensive in his trainings and that is for a reason.

It was only until the last 2 years training with specific people that made me realize how lost I was. I had false assumptions about hypnosis and change work. It took a while to undo these learnings and to get myself skilled enough to actually learn the principles underlying the techniques. For example, when is it appropriate to use the swish pattern vs any other technique. How can one use it conversationally? How can one move submodalities around conversationally? How can one increase the quality of their life and the quality of the lives around them? What is the unconscious and how can we use its mechanisms to our advantage while respecting the individual overall. These were all answered in great length.

I feel that I owe it to the community to get the reputation of NLP back on track and to eliminate any falsehoods that may have crept in. I would like to answer any questions to the best of my knowledge and refer you elsewhere if I can't. But at the end of the day, I get conversational results. . . fast with people. No matter who I speak with, I can help out one way or another. My skills aren't perfect but they are 5x better than how they were. I mention this because on any forum you go to, no matter the subject, there will be %95 of people speaking and %5 of people who actually have extensive experience. I have the experience to share and the knowledge to impart for any beginner or even intermediate. However, one must be curious to know how this can help them and excited to see more powerful results in their own hypnotic communication to ask the question. The framing of the question itself reveals a lot about how a person thinks. So please ask away and let's get all this NLP myth nonsense out of the way so you can take a stong step forward in developing real skill you may not find to apparent elsewhere. We all know how much garbage there is about hypnosis on the web. It's hard to find good trainers. But I can give you a chance to find out how to decide who to train with and how you know they're good.

With that said, fire away.