Should I take an NLP Training?

Chris Harrison - May 2007
©2007 PlanetNLP Ltd

The first question to ask, assuming you're interested in training, is why do you want to take an NLP training?

Generally NLP Seminars can be split into 3 types:

Firstly there are the trainings designed to help people with specific problems.

These are NLP Seminars on issues such as confidence, Weight loss, or public speaking.

The advantages of these courses is that they are geared tightly to the issue itself, and also a good way to meet people in a similar predicament (something not to dismiss lightly).

On the downside, you will probably learn little about actual NLP techniques, but then this may not be of interest or your main goal.

Secondly there are the NLP certification trainings - NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Trainer etc.

These courses are the best way to learn the most NLP, and are invaluable if you would actually like to learn enough to use NLP techniques with others.

Many people turn up on the big practitioner courses, hoping to 'get fixed'. Personally, I think this is the wrong attitude to take to a practitioner training, but most people do leave a good practitioner course with lots of new skills, as well as a shift in their outlook.

If you want to know more about the difference between the certification levels, please read my article within the Choosing a Practitioner' Section, "What do the different titles mean?".

Thirdly, many NLP training companies are taking the contents of the practitioner course and adapting them into a more business orientated package.

Rather than concentrate on the 'therapeutic' skills of NLP, these courses concentrate on the communication skills that are appropriate for sales and marketing.

If you work in this kind of environment, then this kind of course may be best for you. Especially if you would like your employer to pay for it!

Fourthly, there are NLP Niche courses.

Like many areas of business these days, the trainers that survive in the NLP marketplace are the people who carve out a niche for themselves.

Within NLP there are several trainers who have built their own systems on top of the basic NLP skills, and provide trainings in these areas.

Areas such as "Timeline therapy", Tom Vizzini's Essential Skills, Joseph Riggio's Mythogenic-Self process, and Ross Jeffries Speed Seduction fit into this category.

So the question, really is: What do you want from NLP?