NLP
I’m a certified Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). I am dedicated to people being on good terms with themselves, knowing what it is they want, and being able to have that in their lives without a lot of struggle and pain.
NLP is a set of skills, techniques, and presuppositions that was originally created in the mid-70s down in Santa Cruz. It was developed by modeling techniques of Fritz Perls (Gestalt Therapy), Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson (creator of hypnotherapy) and others. It assumes that all humans have a “map” of reality, that they use to make sense of all the sensory input they receive about the world. It’s what allows us to use language, to know how things work, and create internal order from chaos. The vast majority of the time the maps work to give us useful and proper experiences of the world. Discovering someone’s map of the world allows us to understand their experience, and helping them tweak their map of the world will give them a different experience of life.
I gained my training in NLP at NLP Marin, which teaches an incredibly elegant, respectful, and powerful form of NLP. It asks a lot of their students, but gives them amazing skills. I got my Master’s certification through them, as well as taking post-Masters courses, and was a teaching assistant for their Master’s certification course. Their form of NLP incorporates standard NLP with many other influences, such as Reichian developmental modeling, Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellation work, quantum theory, and a whole host of other influences. They have a great description of NLP on their website, which is worth reading.
Personally, learning their form of NLP has integrated a lot of the personal growth experience I had from many sources. It has provided a framework and set of incredibly useful tools that allow me to be real effective in working with people, and really enjoy when I do. It combines my natural geeky curiosity about how the world works with my deep love and respect for human beings. Thus, it is the main modality I use when working with other people.