Exercises.pdfThe Trainer’s Book of NLP Exercises © 2010 Andy Smith - 2 - Contents INTRODUCTION

The Trainer’s Book of NLP Exercises by Andy Smith

© Copyright 2010 Andy Smith

The Trainer’s Book of NLP Exercises © 2010 Andy Smith

- 2 - www.coachingleaders.co.uk

Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................................10

How To Use This Book......................................................................11

Who Is This Book For? ......................................................................12

What’s Not In The Book....................................................................17

Designing Your Content Delivery..................................................19

How To Frame NLP Exercises..........................................................22

Exercise Pairs Or Triads? .................................................................24

How To Set Up The Room................................................................28

Choosing And Briefing Your Assistants ......................................30

Terms and Conditions For Your Course?....................................34

EXERCISES ........................................................................................38

BEGINNINGS AND WARM-UPS ......................................................................39

Mutual Introductions........................................................................40

Recrossing Arms ................................................................................41

Looking Down/Looking Up .............................................................43

Pointing Exercise................................................................................45

Peripheral Vision................................................................................49

Quick Peripheral Vision....................................................................54

Problems/Resources Exercise.........................................................57

Clarifying Outcomes for Training .................................................59

"Bushy Brain" Exercise ......................................................................60

Present State to Desired State ........................................................62

NLP in a Nutshell................................................................................65

MAPS OF THE WORLD ..................................................................................66



Drawing From Words Alone............................................................67

Drawing My Living Room.................................................................69

"The Elephant In The Room"...........................................................71

Ambiguous Words .............................................................................73

PHYSIOLOGY AND EMBODIED EXERCISES......................................................75

Centering To Reduce Internal Dialogue.......................................76

Centering With Memory of Challenging Situation.....................80

“Weak Arm/Strong Arm" Exercise.................................................82

Group Weak Arm/Strong Arm Exercise .......................................84

The "Walk of Grace and Power"......................................................86

SENSORY ACUITY, CALIBRATION AND RAPPORT .........................................89

Visual Acuity Exercise.......................................................................90

Auditory Acuity: Like/Don’t Like Exercise ..................................92

Auditory Acuity: Clapping Exercise ..............................................94

Kinaesthetic Acuity: Like/Don't Like Exercise............................96

Calibrating States...............................................................................99

Finding The Boundaries Of Personal Space .............................102

Lie Detection Exercise.................................................................... 104

Tracking Two Minds Exercise ......................................................107

"Sticky Fingers" Exercise ...............................................................110

Listening/Not Listening................................................................. 113

Quick Listening/Not Listening ....................................................115

Matching/Mismatching.................................................................. 117

Voice Matching ................................................................................119

Pacing and Leading Exercise ........................................................121

I/You/We Exercise .......................................................................... 123

LANGUAGE EXERCISES...............................................................................126



"Don't Think Of A..."....................................................................... 127

This/That ..........................................................................................129

Meta Model Exercise....................................................................... 132

One-Word Reframing ..................................................................... 134

One-Word Reframing on the fly..................................................137

Reframing Exercise......................................................................... 139

Agreement Frame Exercise...........................................................141

Generating Metaphors ................................................................... 144

REP SYSTEMS AND EYE ACCESSING CUES..................................................146

Rep Systems: Generating Predicates.......................................... 147

Rep Systems Preference Test.......................................................149

Rep System Translation Exercise................................................154

Representational System Exercise 1........................................... 157

Representational System Exercise 2........................................... 160

Rep System Storytelling Exercise................................................162

Overlapping Rep Systems.............................................................164

Generating Rep System Questions .............................................167

Eliciting Eye Accessing Cues........................................................169

Emotional Awareness With Eye Accessing Cues.....................172

Preferred Sensory System for Love ............................................174

SUBMODALITY EXERCISES ......................................................................... 176

Bad Experience / Good Experience Exercise............................177

Compulsion to Indifference Exercise......................................... 181

Submodality Belief Change...........................................................183

Unconfident/Confident State Differences................................186

Dealing With A Critical Inner Voice ........................................... 188

Amplifying Motivation................................................................... 190



Swish Pattern ...................................................................................193

Re-Contextualising Bad Experiences.......................................... 195

The Confidence Chorus ...............................................................198

New Behaviour Generator.............................................................200

ANCHORING AND ELICITING STATES ........................................................203

State Elicitation Exercise ...............................................................204

Self-Anchoring .................................................................................206

Circle of Excellence......................................................................... 210

Collapsing a Negative Anchor......................................................213

New Orleans Flexibility Drill ........................................................215

Walking The Energy Scale .............................................................217

Alphabet Editing..............................................................................219

Peripheral Vision Desensitisation...............................................223

TIME ......................................................................................................... 225

Back And Forward In Time...........................................................226

Elicit the Time Line......................................................................... 228

Test-Drive The Time Line..............................................................230

Trying On A Different Timeline ..................................................233

Verb Tenses......................................................................................237

VALUES AND GOAL SETTING .................................................................... 240

Eliciting Values ................................................................................241

Prioritising Values .......................................................................... 243

Checking for Values Conflicts.....................................................245

Eliciting Motivation Direction......................................................247

Defining Goals in Positive Language.......................................... 249

P.O.W.E.R. Goal-Setting .................................................................. 250

The ‘Compass’ Well-Formed Outcome Process.......................252



Reasons vs Excuses Exercise........................................................256

Goal Installation Exercise .............................................................258

EMOTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS ...............................................................259

Recognising Emotion - Left and Right Brains..........................260

Making Finer Distinctions In Emotions..................................... 262

Understanding Your Own Emotions .......................................... 264

Learning From "Difficult" People ................................................266

Meta-Mirror Exercise ...................................................................... 268

Quick 'Eyes Of Love' Exercise ......................................................270

Accessing Heart Intelligence........................................................273

Problem-Solving With Heart And Gut........................................ 274

EXPLORATION...........................................................................................276

Exploring NLP Presuppositions ...................................................277

Exploring Frames ............................................................................279

Neuro-Logical Levels Review........................................................281

Neuro-Logical Levels Compliments............................................283

Coaching With Neuro-Logical Levels.......................................... 285

Neuro-Logical Levels of Teams....................................................287

Whose Meta Program Is It Anyway?........................................... 289

Meta Program Influencing Language ......................................... 291

S.C.O.R.E. Process............................................................................292

Satir Categories Exercise...............................................................294

Time and Perceptual Positions Exercise ................................... 297

STRATEGIES AND MODELLING................................................................... 299

"Teach Me How To Do It" ..............................................................300

Eliciting Relaxation Strategy ........................................................302

"Disney Strategy" For Creativity..................................................304



Walking In Another's Shoes .........................................................306

Walking In Another's Shoes (with coach) ................................. 308

Deep Physical Rapport................................................................... 310

"Speed Modelling" 1........................................................................ 313

"Speed Modelling" 2........................................................................ 315

Modelling The Timeline................................................................. 317

Who Are You When You're At Your Best? ................................319

Modelling Your Future Self...........................................................321

PRESENTATION SKILLS ..............................................................................323

Outcome Focus................................................................................324

Qualities of a Compelling and Credible Presenter.................327

Energy Bubble 1...............................................................................330

Energy Bubble 2...............................................................................332

Awareness Of The Group..............................................................334

Rapport With The Group...............................................................336

HYPNOSIS AND MILTON MODEL ...............................................................338

Uptime and downtime ................................................................... 339

Simple Self-Hypnosis Using Breathing ...................................... 341

"That's Right" ...................................................................................346

Pacing Current Experience............................................................348

Generate Embedded Suggestion Settings ................................. 350

Embedded Suggestion Practice....................................................352

HANDOUTS ....................................................................................355

WHAT IS NLP?.........................................................................................356

THE THREE PILLARS OF NLP .................................................................... 357

14 PRESUPPOSITIONS OF NLP.................................................................. 358



PRESENT STATE AND DESIRED STATE.......................................................359

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY ...........................................................360

SENSORY ACUITY - (V.I.B.E.S.)...............................................................361

RAPPORT .................................................................................................. 362

How Do We Establish Rapport?...................................................363

How Do You Recognise Rapport? ...............................................364

Is Pacing And Leading Manipulative? ........................................ 364

Practising Rapport .......................................................................... 365

PERIPHERAL VISION ANNOTATED SCRIPT .................................................366

PERIPHERAL VISION DESENSITISATION......................................................370

THE HIERARCHY OF IDEAS........................................................................ 371

REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS................................................................... 372

SENSORY-SPECIFIC PHRASES ..................................................................... 373

REP SYSTEMS PREFERENCE TEST ...............................................................374

SCORING YOUR REP SYSTEM PREFERENCES...............................................375

SUBMODALITIES ........................................................................................376

BASIC SUBMODALITIES CHANGE - “MAPPING ACROSS” ............................377

SUBMODALITY BELIEF CHANGE PROCESS ..................................................378

Key Success Factors In Submodality Work:..............................379

META MODEL ...........................................................................................380

Considerations For Using The Meta Model ..............................381

ANCHORING .............................................................................................382

THE CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE .................................................................... 383



FRAMES..................................................................................................... 384

THE AGREEMENT FRAME .......................................................................... 386

ONE-WORD REFRAMING (“EMOTIVE CONJUGATION”) ..............................387

CONSTRUCTING A METAPHOR .................................................................. 388

“NEURO-LOGICAL LEVELS OF CHANGE” ...................................................389

Neuro-Logical Levels Of Teams...................................................390

THE “DISNEY STRATEGY” FOR CREATIVITY .............................................391

THE S.C.O.R.E. MODEL........................................................................... 392

Sample questions to clarify each component..........................393

Using the S.C.O.R.E. in practice - with individuals .................394

Using the S.C.O.R.E. in practice - with teams...........................395

THE ‘SATIR CATEGORIES’ ......................................................................... 396

VALUES..................................................................................................... 398

POWERFUL GOALS ..................................................................................399

WALKING A GOAL INTO YOUR FUTURE TIMELINE.................................... 400

WALL CHARTS...............................................................................401

PRESENT STATE AND DESIRED STATE ......................................................402

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY ...........................................................403

ALPHABET EDIT ........................................................................................405

COMPASS FOR A WELL-FORMED OUTCOME...............................................406

INDEX OF APPLICATIONS........................................................................... 407

ABOUT THE AUTHOR....................................................................410

Products by Andy Smith ...............................................................411



Introduction

This section explains who the book is for, how to use it, plus

some tips on course design and training room setup that you may

find useful. Feel free to skip it and just go straight to the exercise

that you want.



How To Use This Book

Mostly, it’s obvious - just pick the exercises you want to use, print

out the handout (if applicable), and run with it.

However, there are a couple of slightly less obvious features. One

is the ‘Index of Applications’ near the end of the book. Use this if

you are running a workshop or training course on a specific

subject (like Sales, Stress Management, or Self-Esteem) and want

to find exercises you can incorporate.

Also, included with this beautifully designed e-book in PDF form

are the Word versions of the Handout pages and Wall Charts. I

have included these because you will almost certainly want to

tweak them to reflect the material you are teaching, or the

branding of your training organisation.

It’s quite possible that the pagination of the Word version will be

all over the place, because you may be using a different page size

(this was written in the UK so it uses A4). Also, your computer,

particularly if it runs Windows, will probably interpret fonts

slightly differently from my Mac. Fortunately, you have the PDF

version to show you how it should look

If you find any errors, typos or missed attributions in the text,

please let me know at [email protected]. I will send

the link for updated versions to all previous purchasers. And do

let me know if you want to license this book for your students.



Who Is This Book For?

1. You are an NLP trainer, newly qualified or experienced

When I qualified as an NLP trainer in 1997, I really could have

benefited from a resource like this, giving me access to a wealth

of training exercises.

Of course, if your certifying trainer supports their courses with

audio or video home study products to support their live training,

the easy route is to reproduce a carbon copy of that trainer’s

Practitioner course, using their audio products and licensing their

manual.

If you, like me, want to create something that is more your own,

that you can really believe in, there’s a lot more work involved -

writing or adapting your Practitioner manual, perhaps dropping

elements that are idiosyncratic to the person you trained with but

that don’t quite fit your map of the world, and above all

incorporating, adapting or designing from scratch exercises that

will enable your students to learn the essential elements of NLP

(plus any additional ones required by whichever certifying body

you are affiliated to).

I was lucky, because I also ran an NLP practice group with guest

presenters (the Richmond NLP Group that Nick Driscoll and I

started in 1996) which exposed me to scores of different NLP

trainers and Master Practitioners, each bringing their own

perspective.



My trainers had always told me that “not all wisdom is found in

your school”, and time and again the truth of this was brought

home to me as I tried out an exercise that was new to me.

To use these exercises in my own courses, I still had to figure out

how they worked, remember the step-by-step instructions, and

often adapt them. I also had to reverse-engineer what the

objectives of the exercise were, based on what the trainer said

about it beforehand, what questions they asked afterwards in the

clear up, and the results I observed in myself and others.

Contact me if you would like to become an affiliate, or license

this resource to resell to your own students -

[email protected]

If you are a newly-qualified NLP trainer, this resource gives you a wealth of exercises, probably with some you have not come across before, and almost certainly some with different or additional ways of doing the exercise, learning points, or clear up questions that will enhance your training. You also get handouts for your students that you can adapt and wallcharts that you can easily translate into PowerPoint. If you are an experienced NLP trainer, by now you are probably looking to add some changes into your courses, particularly if you tend towards the ‘options’ rather ‘procedures’ end of the preference spectrum. I am still learning after 15 years in NLP, and I’m sure you are too. This is the resource I wish had been available when I started!



2. You organise or participate in an NLP Practice group

One of the most useful and cost-effective things you can do to

sharpen your NLP skills is to start an NLP practice group, or join

an existing one.

Often people want to keep the wonderful experience of their NLP

Practitioner course going, so they meet up informally every so

often and choose a pattern or two to practice. Where the learning

really goes up a gear is when your group has participants who

have trained with different schools, each bringing different

perspectives, understandings and applications of NLP, and

exercises that may be new to you.

Right after my practitioner training I was fortunate enough to

form a small practice group with two graduates of other NLP

institutes, which gave me the opportunity to try out exercises that

were new to me but which I’ve used with clients and in my own

NLP courses ever since.

It’s fun to try out new and different exercises. After Practitioner

level (an essential foundation to have some sort of understanding

of what you are doing), I believe you can learn as much from

practice with your peers as you can from additional NLP training

(although the learnings are of a different kind).

This resource gives you step-by-step instructions for scores of exercises, plus ready-made handouts, so you can prepare for a practice group and still have time to do your day job!



3. You are a professional trainer who wants to incorporate

some NLP into your offerings

You’re good at what you do. Maybe you’ve read some NLP books

and liked what’s in there, maybe you’ve taken an NLP course

recently and are fired up to sprinkle some of that rejuvenating

NLP fairy dust on your courses, or maybe it was a while ago, you

love NLP, but haven’t felt confident enough to use NLP exercises

in the training room?

This resource is designed to make it easy for you. The only other

NLP resources for trainers that I’m aware of are twice the price of

this one, and from what I’ve seen and heard are not as full of

useful content, and wrapped up in restrictions so that you are

pretty much stuck with their formats and branding.

I designed these resources to supply what you need as a trainer -

with objectives for each exercise, clear step-by-step instructions,

useful questions to ask after each exercise, and where necessary,

handouts and wall charts. Where applicable, I have also added

questions that you might expect from students, and suggestions

on what to reply to them, based on my 13 years of teaching NLP.

As a trainer myself, I know that you want something you can use

quickly, and adapt without hassle to the needs of your students

and the courses you run. With this in mind, the Handout pages

that come with this resource are clear and pleasantly formatted,

usually with some use of colour. In addition to the main PDF



document, you also get the Handouts and Wall Charts in

Microsoft Word format so that you can adapt them and rebrand

them as you wish.

You are free to do pretty much anything you want with these

exercises and handouts, short of pirating them as a product -

select the ones you want, adapt them to suit the needs of your

course participants, or incorporate the handouts into your course

materials.



What’s Not In The Book

Which techniques and exercises you won’t find

There are some NLP exercises and techniques that I have

deliberately not included in this resource. In particular, I have left

out any “deep changework” techniques such as the Phobia Cure

and Parts Integration.

This is not because I have anything against these techniques or

that I don’t think they work; on the contrary, it’s because they are

so powerful that I believe you need to know them inside out

before you teach them or facilitate exercises involving them.

This has meant leaving out some of the highest-profile techniques

in NLP, but I believe it was the right thing to do. Here’s my

reasoning: the exercise for learning or practising one of these

techniques is basically to do the technique. These are readily

available in many NLP books, or even set out for free on the

internet. So if you’re interested in NLP, you probably know about

these techniques already.

More importantly, if you are expert in these techniques and you

can use them with the degree of competence and attention that

they demand to be used safely, you already know how to teach

them. And if you aren’t skilled in them already, and you don’t

have experience of the different things that can happen when you

use them for real with clients, you have no business trying to

teach them to others.



Similarly, there are some “exploratory” exercises that I have left

out, in particular those that involve messing around with your

reality strategy. Carelessly used, those might leave someone less

sure of what is real and what is not - which is not something I

want to encourage.

What you will find is lots of exercises to sharpen skills and

sensory acuity, lead to the discovery of finer distinctions, and

help you teach and learn the main points of NLP in an effective

and enjoyable way.

You also won’t find ‘NLP 101’ explanations

This book is not a primer, or a text that is supposed to help you

‘learn NLP from scratch’. It assumes that you, the reader, has

some familiarity with NLP and NLP terminology. So occasionally,

for ease and speed, I have used a commonly accepted NLP jargon

term.

I don’t expect that anyone who has read even a couple of

introductory NLP books will come across any unfamiliar terms. If

you do, Google is your friend! There are lots of NLP glossaries

online, my favourite being Andy Bradbury’s at

www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk

http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk



Designing Your Content Delivery

The method I use to design my courses is based on Bernice

McCarthy's '4-MAT' system, originally designed to appeal to all 4

'learning styles'. Although a recent study has pretty much

debunked the concept of learning styles, this format still works

on a practical level as it seems to suit the way the human mind

learns.

If you are an NLP trainer or even a Master Practitioner, you will

almost certainly have come across the 4-MAT system. But there

are some things you can do with headlining and review that you

may not have come across (they certainly weren’t emphasised on

the Trainer’s Training I did) so do take a minute to read on, and

maybe longer to think about how you will incorporate these ideas

in the way you train.

Each 'chunk' of content should be delivered with this format:

1. 'Frame' the content, identifying what it is, ideally with a

'headline' that will get people's attention e.g. 'If there was a

way that you could feel centred, resourceful and strong, no

matter how daunting the challenge that faces you - whether it’s

a looming deadline, a crucial presentation, or even a life-

threatening situation, would you want to know about it?'

The other bit of the frame is basically the old favourite 'tell

them what you are going to tell them' from traditional training



advice. As well as giving people a conceptual framework to fit

the information into, it stops them asking irrelevant and

distracting (to other learners) questions about Freud’s

conceptual framework or VAK notation while you are doing the

section on anchoring, or whatever. They will know not to

because you have already framed this bit of the course as

being about anchoring, and if necessary you can gently remind

them of this without them feeling affronted. NB the importance

of headlining was first brought home to me when I attended

my friend Jonathan Altfeld's “Linguistic Wizardry” course

(www.altfeld.com/mastery/).

2. 'Why?' - reasons why they should pay attention, for people who

refuse to learn unless you give them a reason why.

3. 'What?' - the actual information content. Just what people

need, and no more. This appeals to people who like learning

stuff for its own sake, but will bore anyone else if it goes on

too long.

4. 'How?' - the hands-on bit, appealing to practical learners. Give

them an exercise to do. If necessary, demo it beforehand.

5. 'What If?' - for speculative thinkers and people who want to

know exception conditions etc. They may be asking questions

all the way through - if they ask at the 'what' stage, for

example, I generally tell them to try the exercise out first and

ask again if it hasn't answered their question. This bit is where

http://www.altfeld.com/mastery/



you take questions. If you get into the exception conditions too

soon (e.g. in the content stage) it will get too complicated for

people to take in.

6. Review. This is the 'tell them what you've just told them' stage.

Also worth a v. quick review of what you've covered before

each break, before lunch, and at the end of the day. Studies

show that people remember material from the beginning and

the end more than material from the middle (the Serial

Position Effect).

For practical advice about the 4-MAT

system and how to use it, I recommend

the book 'Presenting Magically:

Transforming Your Stage Presence With

NLP' by David Shephard and Tad James.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_position_effect

http://amzn.to/hxS43q

http://amzn.to/hxS43q



How To Frame NLP Exercises

This is what you don’t want: people regarding the exercises as a

competition, or as an assessment of how good at NLP they are,

and you definitely don’t want participant judging themselves on

how “well” they did the exercise.

We learn from our mistakes, but only if we can stay in a

resourceful enough state to be able to learn.

A useful frame to put around exercises right at the start of a

course, with the occasional reminder later, is the “Discovery

Frame.” This is an extension of the principle that “There is no

failure, only feedback”:

• Anything that happens in the course of an NLP exercise can

potentially give you valuable learnings

• If you get the result you expected, that’s useful information.

• If you don’t get the result you expected, that is also useful

information.

• A useful question is “What distinctions do you notice (in your

physiology, your feelings, your internal dialogue, or in external

circumstances) between the times when you get the results

you expect, and the times when the results turn out differently

than expected?”

• Whatever happens, be curious!



The Discovery Frame is only possible if people are authentically

themselves during the exercises. Some participants may have

been conditioned by “role-play” exercises that they have

encountered in corporate training to play the part of someone

other than themselves during any training exercise. This pretty

much guarantees that the exercise won’t work.

By and large, we don’t use role-play in NLP exercises, which will

come as a relief to many participants who understandably dread

it. As with any generalisation, there are always exceptions - in this

resource it’s the Satir Categories exercise.

For most NLP exercises, particularly those where any sort of

changework or coaching is involved, participants need to be fully

present as themselves. They also need to follow the instructions

for the exercise; if they don’t, they may learn something but it

won’t necessarily be what your exercises are carefully designed to

impart.



Exercise Pairs Or Triads?

I was surprised to hear that some large NLP Practitioner courses

don’t use the ‘triad’ structure, instead just doing all the exercises

in pairs. I believe that this short-changes the participants, because

they don’t get as much or as many kinds of feedback on what

they are doing, and they don’t get to observe exercises except as a

participant.

I use triads wherever I can. The triad setup enables participants to

experience a pattern from the multiple perspectives of

‘Practitioner, Client, Observer’ or ‘Guide, Explorer, Supporter’.

The addition of an Observer enables the participants to get

feedback on what happened in the exercise from a viewpoint

which can see the two of them as a system, giving an additional

perspective that neither of them can have as a participant. Plus,

being observed, the participants are more likely to stick to the

exercise as described.

It also gives the Observer valuable practice in delivering feedback

without mindreads or evaluation, simply describing what they

observed in the interaction.

Also, as a trainer you cannot be everywhere. If you are observing

and delivering feedback on one pair, you would necessarily have

to take your eyes off the others.



Plus, having a fellow participant observe the exercise is likely to

affect the process less than if you, the trainer, or one of your

assistants is doing the observing.

Of course there is a downside to including a third party as

observer, which is it makes each exercise take longer - probably

more than the 50% longer you might expect, too, because as well

as having their turn, the third party will be delivering feedback.

With a few exercises that are likely to take longer (such as

‘Coaching With Neuro-Logical Levels’) I tend to dispense with the

Observer role, both because the exercise would take a long time,

and because it’s asking a lot for the Observer to give their

sustained attention over the whole period of the exercise.

Otherwise, I recommend doing exercises as a triad rather then a

pair wherever you can.

How to arrange the chairs

This is going to seem ridiculously small-chunk to some readers,

but how you arrange the chairs for an exercise will make a

difference to how the exercise turns out.

For a pairs exercise, participants may be tempted to arrange the

chairs facing each other like this:



This is not ideal, for a number of reasons:

• facing someone straight-on like this suggests either

confrontation or that you are looking lovingly into their eyes

as a prelude to kissing them, neither of which is usually what

you are looking for in an NLP exercise.

• if you are front and centre in someone’s field of vision, it’s

harder for them to visualise - and you may become mixed up

with whatever they do manage to see in their mind’s eye.

• if you spend a long time sitting facing each other, in rapport,

you will both tend to lean forwards - which can put a real

strain on your back after an hour or so (thanks to London-

based NLP trainer Arielle Essex www.practicalmiracles.com for

this insight).

Much better to sit at an angle to them, like this:

This arrangement gives more of a feeling of facing or examining

something together, and provides a clear field for the Explorer to

project their ‘external representations’ onto. You will find it’s

much easier to work with someone in this way.

http://www.practicalmiracles.com



In an exercise triad you would arrange the chairs like this (where

‘O’ is the observer’s chair:

Sometimes the non-verbal behaviour of the other two participants

may show that they are trying to include the Observer in their

conversation - if this happens, the Observer should be still,

refrain from responding, and possibly lean back or move the

chair back a little.

O



How To Set Up The Room

For teaching

If you wanted people to shut up and just listen to you, then a

‘theatre style’ arrangement with the chairs in flat rows would be

the setup of choice. Everyone is looking forward, so their

attention is naturally on you. As the focal point of the room, you

will have more status than everyone else, and people will look to

you for cues as to how to behave.

If, on the other hand, you wanted everyone to contribute, you

would have the chairs in a circle. That way, everyone is equal, and

everyone can see each other’s eyes so that it’s easy for them to

read the mood of the group. People in this setup are much more

likely to speak up, participate in discussions, and answer

questions.

For most NLP training you want people to listen to you when you

are delivering content, and contribute in the “What if?” segments

and post-exercise clear ups. The best arrangement to encourage

this with a small group is a shallow horseshoe shape, in which

people can see each other’s eyes to an extent but are still facing

forward and looking at you most of the time. This is the shape I

use to set up my courses. Tables in front of each chair would act

as an “energetic barrier” between me and the participants, so I

don’t use them.



With a larger group you can have multiple rows of shallow

horseshoes, but inevitably those towards the back will feel more

cut off from you. The best setup for a larger group is probably

“cabaret style” with around 6 people per table. This makes group

collaboration easier, but do allow for extra space for all those

tables.

Some venues I’ve encountered don’t seem to know what “cabaret

style” is, so draw them a picture like this to make absolutely sure:

Front of

room



Choosing And Briefing Your Assistants

Advice for newly-qualified NLP trainers

I know some NLP trainers don’t use assistants, but I find them

invaluable on a course of any length or depth, for the reasons set

out in my ‘Guidance for Assistants’ below.

Usually you will find assistants willing to work unpaid - it’s a win-

win for them, especially recent practitioner graduates, as they get

to observe the course material from a different perspective and

consolidate their learning.

When choosing your assistants, you are looking for friendly,

bright, emotionally stable people with good rapport skills and the

ability to meet other people at their maps of the world.

If you draw your assistants from graduates of your own courses,

you will know their skills and characters and be able to select the

right ones for the job. If you want to use assistants who have

done other trainers’ courses, make sure you get to know them

first.

Having assistants trained by others is great for them, as it

exposes them to different material or at least a different training

style to what they have experienced previously. It can also be

great for you. I have had many assistants who did their NLP

Practitioner training with others and went on to become students



on my Master Practitioner course, or who got me hired for

corporate work.

If you are a male trainer, it’s a good idea to have some female

assistants, and vice versa, to balance male and female energies in

the training room. Also some students may feel more comfortable

confiding in someone of the same sex.

Advice for trainers who lack confidence with NLP

All of the above is addressed to those who are already NLP

trainers or running NLP-based workshops. I also know that there

are many highly skilled professional trainers out there who have

taken NLP Practitioner or even Master Practitioner training but for

whatever reason don’t feel confident enough to incorporate NLP

into their training. You know who you are! The best advice I can

give you is - find a good NLP trainer running open courses and

volunteer to assist them! You will learn a huge amount from this

different perspective, possibly more than you did on your original

training.

Guidance for Assistants

This is the briefing I give my assistants. I am sure you will want to

reword it to reflect your own requirements:

The role of the assistant is fundamentally to make the experience

as good as possible for the participants.



This means:

• Helping to set up the training room

• Participating in exercises if needed

• 'Rescuing' any participant who gets into emotional difficulties

so they don't disturb the other participants (this doesn’t

happen too often)

• Allowing the students to find their own way through the

exercises

• 'Holding the positive energy' in the training room

• Making the trainer look good! So no asking awkward

questions or distracting the students by talking during the

'lecture' parts of the course. Disagreeing with the trainer or

putting forward an alternative model will confuse the

students as the contradictory models will ‘blow each other

out’ and prevent the students from learning anything. (If you

have any questions about anything I tell the students, ask me

about it in the break!)

• Leaving space for the students to contribute their questions

and observations

Please arrive by <45 minutes before start time> on the first day to

help greet the students and set up the room. On subsequent days

it is VITAL that you arrive on time (before <start time>) -

otherwise you are sending a message to the students that it is OK

to arrive late.



If you can't make it on any day that you said you would come,

phone me to let me know.

Thanks for agreeing to assist on this course. Good assistants are

vital to creating a good course, and are not easy to find. Together

we can make this course the best yet and create an environment

where each student can have a life-changing experience.



Terms and Conditions For Your Course?

I remember when I did my original NLP Practitioner training being

handed some terms and conditions to sign when I arrived in the

training room on the first day. I didn’t mind, because they weren’t

too onerous and I trusted the trainer.

On reflection, I now think that being handed conditions to sign

after you have handed your money over, after you have possibly

booked time off work, made extensive childcare arrangements,

and maybe flown in from another country to take a course is a

little late. I’m no lawyer, so I don’t know if any conditions handed

to you at that late stage would even stand up in law, as they are

an attempt to change the terms of a contract after its been sealed

by you handing the money over. So if you are going to have terms

and conditions for the courses you run, it seems only fair and

prudent that your participants should know about them up front.

So should you have conditions for your courses at all? I chose to,

and this is why. When I started running NLP Practitioner courses I

didn’t have any terms and conditions - people paid their money,

turned up, and did the course. The first course was fine. The

second course was fine. The third course was a nightmare, with

some students who I now believe had chosen to take NLP training

as a substitute for therapy acting out in various ways, harbouring

delusions about attractive assistants, and disturbing the other

students who were there to learn skills. If that had been my first



course, I would probably have resigned from my NLP training

career there and then.

This, I believe, is not an uncommon motive for taking NLP

courses. In his very entertaining book ‘Tricks of the Mind’ Derren

Brown describes some of his fellow participants on an unnamed

NLP course as ‘clearly either unbalanced or self-delusory’. I have

met people holding Master Practitioner certificates from

somewhere that I would think of in similar terms. Unless this is

the target market you are going for, you don’t want these people

on your course.

For the next course I introduced terms and conditions and

subsequent courses ran smoothly. I never needed to invoke the

conditions with anyone; just the fact that the conditions were

present on the booking form seemed to discourage emotionally

unstable people and those who were looking for therapy rather

than to develop themselves and learn skills.

So on the next page, as an example, are the terms and conditions

attached to my courses. Feel free to adapt and improve on them.



NLP Practitioner Certification Training – Terms and Conditions

Please read carefully and print off a duplicate copy for your records.

1. Purpose of course The NLP Practitioner Course is not a substitute for psychotherapy. While you may achieve

major shifts and breakthroughs, the course is designed primarily to impart NLP skills to students

who are already in reasonable psychological health – students with diagnosed

psychological conditions or major unresolved issues may find the course too challenging.

Please notify us of any diagnosed psychological problems, unresolved issues or medication

that you are on before enrolling for the course so that we can determine whether this is the

right course for you.

2. Acceptance of your application Not everyone is ready for an NLP practitioner training – we want to make sure that our limited

number of places go to students who will value the skills they learn rather than those who are

just after another qualification. Enrolment on the course is at the discretion of Coaching

Leaders Ltd, based on the information given in your application and on our conversations

with you. This is to ensure that, in a small-group course, we can provide the best possible

learning environment.

3. Certification as an NLP Practitioner Participants are expected to commit themselves to attend the whole of the course.

Assessment is continuous through practical exercises and also by examination. Your

certification is conditional on achieving standards and attending the required number of 120

training hours.

4. Special requirements Please let us know of any special requirements (e.g. disabilities) which we need to know

about to enable us to provide you with the best possible experience.

5. Our guarantee If you decide at any point during the first module of the course that it's not for you, we will

refund your course fee (less £200 to cover materials and administration). If you have booked

both parts of the course and Coaching Leaders Ltd decide you are not ready for Part II, we

will refund your course fee less £360 + VAT (£423) to cover Part I.

6. Your commitment This course is not deliberately designed to trigger your emotional "stuff". Very occasionally a

participant may unexpectedly run into an emotional issue - especially in the early part of the

course before you learn how to clear emotional baggage. To be fair to yourself and the

other participants, we would ask you to make a commitment to yourself to take responsibility



for your own emotional state and to stick with the course even if you temporarily hit an

emotional 'blip'.

7. Desired Outcomes for the course

What are your goals for this course? What do you want to use your NLP

Practitioner skills/qualification for?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

8. About you

Please include a page or so of background about yourself and

why you have chosen to apply for this course.



Exercises



Beginnings and Warm-Ups

Beginnings have an important effect on group dynamics.

When I was starting out in NLP and personal development, I

attended many courses where the trainer just launched into the

material, or into hypnotic nested loops, without taking any time

to ensure that students felt part of the group. Consequently, I

wasn't in as good a learning state as I could have been.

Whenever I do a training of a day or more, I always take a little

time to make sure that students get to know at least one other

person. The 'Mutual Introductions' exercise is a good way to do

this, although some students will start getting twitchy if there are

more than about 12 introductions to sit through.

In larger groups you can get the students to do a similar exercise

in sub-groups of around 8, with results being shared by a

spokesperson or assistant.



Mutual Introductions

Timing: 5 minutes each way

Objectives:

• To make each student feel more included in the group

• To focus the student's mind on their desired outcome

• To let you know what they want and expect from their training

Ask the students to pair up with someone they don't know and

take about 5 minutes to find out who they are (not their whole

life story) and what they want to get from the course.

When they have gone both ways, ask each student to introduce

the person they have been working with and what they want from

the course. Write up each person's objectives – you can return to

them at the end of the module and at the end of the course to

ensure everyone's needs and expectations have been met.

Use this exercise for:

-Group dynamics, -Inclusion, -Introduction to NLP



Recrossing Arms

Timing: 3 minutes

Objectives:

• Demonstrates the 'programming' bit of NLP in a non-

threatening way

• Helps to loosen up a skeptical audience, especially if they have

their arms folded

Procedure

Ask participants to fold their arms, folding your own arms at the

same time.

"Now notice that one hand is tucked under the other arm, while

the other hand rests on top of the opposite arm. (NB this should

be true of most participants). Now fold your arms.... the opposite

way."

Clear up

Point out that some people end up where they started. Some are

still trying to fold their arms the opposite way a minute or two

later. When you finally do manage to fold your arms the opposite

way, it feels really strange - because the chances are that every

time you've folded your arms previously in your entire life,

you've done it the same way, without thinking about it.



This is a small and easily noticeable example of the habitual

patterns that our brains run again and again, the same way every

time - because it's easier. It takes less processing power that way.

And that's fine - until a pattern, repeated without even being

aware of it, doesn't serve you any more.

I wonder what other habitual patterns - or "programs" - you've

been running up to now, without noticing them?


-Introduction to NLP, -Behaviour Change



Looking Down/Looking Up

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants experience that mind and body are one system

• Participants have a new way of cheering themselves up

Procedure

Ask participants to slump over and gaze at their feet (they could

be sitting or standing at this point).

Ask them to remember a time when they were really happy and

excited (use 'bored', low-energy tonality at this point).

After 30 seconds to a minute, ask them to stand up, make sure

they have enough room to throw their arms open wide, and look

up!

Now ask them to remember a time that was really quite boring

and tedious (your tonality should be somewhat higher energy and

'have a smile in it').

After a minute, bring them back.



What to expect

Participants will have found it hard to fully recall a happy,

exciting time when bent over, and equally hard to recall a tedious

time while looking up with their arms spread wide.

Clear up

Why are you smiling? (most of them probably will be)

What happened as you tried to access the good time while you

were bent over?

What happened as you tried to access the tedious time when you

were looking up?


-Introduction to NLP, -Behaviour Change, -Confidence, -Stress

Management, -Self-Esteem



Pointing Exercise

Timing: about 5 minutes in total

Objectives

• To demonstrate that mind and body are one system

• To show the power of the unconscious mind

• To flush out any 'mismatchers' at an early stage

Have the group stand up and spread out. Get them to point

straight ahead with their right arms, and keeping their feet

where they are throughout the exercise, turn as far to the left as

they can comfortably go. Ask them to take a mental snapshot of

what they are pointing at. Then come back to facing forwards and

relax, still keeping their feet where they are.

Now say, "imagine what you would be looking at if you could

point about 6 inches (15 cm) further round and still be

comfortable. You would be looking at a point some way to the left

of what you were looking at previously – what would that look

like?

"Imagine saying to yourself, 'Wow – I can turn round quite a bit

further than I thought, and still be comfortable.'

“And what would it feel like to turn round that much further and

still be comfortable? Imagine how it would feel.



"And what if you could turn round another foot (30cm) further

and still be comfortable? Imagine what you would be looking at

now. And imagine saying to yourself, 'This is amazing! I am much

more flexible than I thought!'

"And notice what it would feel like to be that much more flexible.

"What if you could turn round two feet further (60cm)? What

would you be looking at then? Take a moment to see it clearly.

"And you'd probably say to yourself, 'This is incredible! I can turn

all this extra way round and still be comfortable – I am amazingly

flexible!'

"And notice what it feels like to turn all that way round and still

feel comfortable."

Now ask them to point forwards again, and still keeping their feet

where they are, turn round to the left as far as they can

comfortably go and notice what they are pointing at now.

The class will be able to turn round much further. Ask them what

happened.

What If?

If someone says "I can't make it work" or "nothing happened", say:



"That's right, it didn’t'; because instead of exploring the images,

sounds and feelings of how it would be to turn round further, you

were talking to yourself inside about how it probably wouldn't

work – which I bet you do quite a bit and already are quite good

at. This is what the average person does and it's a great way for

them to keep themselves average and the same as everyone else.

To get a different result you would have to do something

different – which is to do the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic

steps I described."

This person may be a mismatcher (who sorts for differences, and

who habitually will do the opposite of everything they are asked

to do) or they may just be someone with a strong 'Self One' who

worries about getting things 'right' so much that it gets in the way

of other modes of processing.

If they are a mismatcher, keep an eye on them in future – you

may want to precede some future exercises with something like

"Now some of you won't be able to do this" to elicit a response of

"Oh really? Watch me do it perfectly!" in the mismatcher.

Explanation

When you were using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic senses to

imagine being able to turn round further, you were making vivid

communications to the unconscious mind, which controls the

body.



Your unconscious doesn't really distinguish between imagination

and 'reality', so when you were using those senses to imagine

turning round, you were 'programming' your unconscious mind

to start making what you imagined real at a physiological level.

Future Pace

If you can do this easily, what else could you ask your

unconscious mind to do for you? I wouldn't want to suggest that

you imagine having 20 or 30 years active vigorous life more than

you expected, or that your health and fitness will dramatically

improve, or that you will make far more money sooner than you

expected…


-Introduction to NLP, -Behaviour Change, -Confidence, -Stress

Management, -Self-Esteem

Note: This exercise is based on one by Richard Bolstad and Margot Hamblett in their book Transforming Communication (available direct from Richard's website at www.transformations.net.nz). Another book of theirs, Transforming NLP Training, is pretty much essential for NLP trainers.

http://www.transformations.net.nz



Peripheral Vision

Timing: About 5 minutes for the 'induction'

Objectives

• To give students an undeniable experience of being able to

change their own state

• To relax the group and bring it together

• To get the group used to obeying your commands

What to say beforehand (Whys)

Would it be useful to have a way of calming yourself down in two

minutes or less, without having to do a whole yoga routine or 20

minutes of progressive relaxation, while still being able to pay

attention - in fact greater attention - to what is going on around

you, *and* nobody will know that you are doing it?

Talk the whole group through the peripheral vision exercise using

the annotated script from the Peripheral Vision handout. They

should be seated with their feet flat on the floor and put down

their manuals etc.

Clear up

Afterwards, ask "I'm interested in what happened?"

Generally, students will report being relaxed.



Ask if any of them habitually have 'internal dialogue' – what

Susan Jeffers calls "the chatterbox".

Most students will admit to internal dialogue at least some of the

time.

Ask what happened to it when they were in peripheral vision.

Most students will report that it slowed down or stopped.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

"My eyes started to hurt."

Advise the student to relax into it and not 'try' to focus. You can

illustrate this by pretending to try to read a book held side-on to

your face.

"I wanted to close my eyes."

"And you can." This is a good way to take a client into relaxation

or trance.

Advise the student that they could also do 'peripheral listening' –

listening to sounds that are either side of them but far away. If a

student raises having tinnitus as an objection, they will find that

focusing on sounds farther away will diminish the symptoms.

Peripheral listening is also useful when it's too dark to see

anything.

Peripheral feeling (being aware of every part of the body, or the

whole surface of the skin) will have a similar effect.



"Wasn't it just your voice, being so hypnotic?"

If you want to have some fun, you can say "I wouldn't want to

suggest that my voice has special powers" while nodding slightly.

Get them to do it again, while you say nothing. They will find that

just the action of broadening their attention puts them back into

the peripheral vision state.

"But it won't help me if I space out every time I use it."

This is not an either/or thing. You don't have to go so far into the

peripheral vision state that you lose the power of speech and just

stand there drooling. You only need to broaden your attention a

little to access the deep reserves of peace and tranquillity within

each one of us.

You can say "I'm doing it now" as you talk to them.

Future Pace

Ask "When might this be useful?"

Suggested uses:

• In 'confrontations'

• (Jokily) stare-out contests

• When presenting in front of an audience, because:



- Peripheral vision enables you to see the whole audience at

once.

- Your attention is on your audience rather than on your

own internal state.

- It makes you more aware of tiny movements e.g.

subliminal nods when the audience agrees with you.

There are two types of light receptor cells in the retina –

'rod cells' for detecting movement and 'cone cells' for

detecting colour. The rod cells are grouped around the

outside of the retina, while cone cells are concentrated in

the middle. So when you are in peripheral vision, you are

taking in more information through the rod cells and

hence more sensitive to small movements.

This means you have a greater sense of how your

audience is responding to your presentation – you will be

able to sense when you need to liven up the presentation

and when to calm it down.

• To help you absorb information directly into your unconscious

mind – any time you feel 'overwhelmed', just go into peripheral

vision.

• To teach to your clients as a stress management/relaxation tool.

Martial arts masters are in peripheral vision the whole time – it

makes them very hard to sneak up on!



Optional exercise:

(this exercise is ideal for students to try out during a break)

Take a walk in peripheral vision and see what you notice.

If you walk down the street where you live while in peripheral

vision, you will definitely notice things you have never seen before.


-Confidence, -Hypnosis, -Presentation Skills, -Relaxation, -Stress

Management



Quick Peripheral Vision

Timing: 3 minutes

Objectives

• A slightly quicker and less 'hypnotic' version of the Peripheral

Vision exercise above - use when a hypnotic induction would

not be thought appropriate

• To give students an undeniable experience of being able to

change their own state

• To relax the group and bring it together

• To get the group used to obeying your commands


Would it be useful to have a way of calming yourself down in two

minutes or less, without having to do a whole yoga routine or 20

minutes of progressive relaxation, while still being able to pay

attention - in fact greater attention - to what is going on around

you, *and* nobody will know that you are doing it?

Talk the whole group through the peripheral vision exercise. They

can do this sitting or standing. They should have enough room

that they can spread their arms wide without hitting the student

next to them.



Procedure

Talk the class through this exercise, modelling it for them as you

go:

Lift your arms straight out in front of you, with your palms facing,

and let your fingertips touch, straight ahead of your eyes. Look at

your fingertips in a relaxed way.

Now gradually begin to move your hands apart - and continue to

look straight ahead, being aware of both sets of fingertips, just in

soft focus, so that you gradually broaden your field of vision as

your fingertips move further and further apart, being aware of

both sets of fingertips at the same time, until you can see them out

of the corners of your eyes, both sides simultaneously.

And you'll find a point at the very edges of your vision where you

can see the fingers when you wiggle them, but you don't see them

when they're still. This is the very edge - the periphery - of your

vision.

And now relax your arms and let them float down, as you continue

to pay attention to the edges of your vision... and of course you can

see everything in front of you too, just in soft focus. And extend

your awareness even further round, using your hearing or just

your spatial awareness, until you're aware of everything around

you, all the way round, 360º. And notice what happens when you

stay in peripheral vision - maybe your muscles are relaxed, maybe



your breathing is more relaxed, maybe you just feel calm and

aware...

And now begin to come back to normal vision, bringing everything

you liked about that experience back with you, as you let your field

of vision narrow back to normal. And make sure you're fully alert

and your vision is back to normal.

Clear up, FAQs, future pace, and optional exercise as for

Peripheral Vision exercise above.


-Confidence, -Hypnosis, -Presentation Skills, -Relaxation, -Stress

Management



Problems/Resources Exercise

Timing: 6 minutes for each round

Objectives

• Participants have an undeniable experience, both as coach and

as client, that the attitude of the coach affects the client's state,

beliefs and outcome

• Participants realise that 'less is more' – change can happen

without them having to 'do' anything

Procedure

In pairs: 'client' and 'coach'.

'Client' thinks of a problem (not an overwhelming one). The

'coach' thinks of A as someone with a problem. Sit silently

together for 3 minutes with this mindset.

Now, 'coach' thinks of 'client' as someone with all the resources

they need. 'Client' thinks of the same problem. Again, sit silently

together for another 3 minutes with this mindset.

Now, without any discussion, reverse the roles and run the two

steps of the exercise again.

Return to the group and check what happened. Generally the

'client' feels much better the second time, and the problem may

even have disappeared.



What To Ask

What did you notice – as 'client'? as 'coach'?

What implications does this have for your coaching?

FAQ

How does it work? The unconscious mind picks up on body

language, facial expression, maybe subliminal reinforcements of

shifts in the client… I'm not suggesting we need to go into the

concept of 'energy' to explain this.


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -

Therapy Skills



Clarifying Outcomes for Training


Objectives

• To clarify participant's success criteria for the training, so that

they get more out of it

• To gain experience in helping another clarify their goals

• Participants understand the importance of having specific

success criteria for their outcomes

Procedure

In pairs, One participant takes 5 minutes to talk through what

they want from the training, and what will tell them that they

have achieved it. Then swap round.

Clear-Up

What did you discover? What will you do differently as a result?

What do you need to do to ensure you get your outcomes?


-Introduction to NLP, -Goal Setting



"Bushy Brain" Exercise

Timing: about 10 minutes in total

Objectives:

• Participants warm up their creative abilities and enjoy

themselves while they do it

• This exercise makes a good warm up for any exercise where

participants have to create or design something (e.g.

Ericksonian suggestions or metaphors)

Procedure

In threes. Two people call out a random word simultaneously. The

third person constructs a connection between them. It is

important that the suggestions come at the same time so that one

suggestion does not influence the other.

For example: "fish" and "athletics" - the connection might be "Most

fish do poorly at athletics, although flying fish can perform

respectably in some events such as the long jump, as long as they

can start and finish in water. The sport they really excel at, of

course, is swimming."

Demo this a few times with suggestions from the audience. Then

get the participants to try it out in threes, rotating roles each time

until they have all had several turns at making connections.

Clear up



How do you feel?

"So now you know you can create connections between any two

unrelated things or concepts, this next exercise will be easy..."


-Brainstorming, -Creativity, -Problem Solving

Note: This exercise is adapted from one in the book Training

Trances by John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn. This book is a must for trainers, especially of NLP, and for serious students of Ericksonian hypnosis.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

http://amzn.to/g4dY1U



Present State to Desired State

Timing: 5-10 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Get familiar with Present State/Desired State model

• Improve current state

• Realise that we don't need to describe the content of a

problem before we make a difference

Procedure

Handout: Present State and Desired State

Two participants - Explorer and Guide (optionally three with an

Observer)

Explorer rates their Current State on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is

lousy and 10 is excellent (remind students that the scale is

subjective, and one person's 2 might be another person's 7).

Explorer should not describe the current state out loud, just be

aware of it. Then, describe to Guide what their Desired State (10

on the scale) is like. Describe it in the present tense, as if you are

already there. Guide can ask questions, always with the aim of

assisting the Explorer towards the Desired State.



After 5 minutes, Explorer re-rates their now current state on the

scale (in most cases it will have gone up).

Optionally: What do you need to do to maintain your current

state at this level? What do you need to do to take it one notch up

the scale (if not at 10 already)?

Clear up

How did that go?

What happened as you described your Desired State?

What did you observe as they described their Desired State?

If the rating improved: So you've improved your present state,

perhaps even a problem state, without having to talk about it?

How does it feel to realise that?

If someone's rating stayed the same or even went down, it's worth

finding out what their internal processing actually was.

Possibilities:

• They were using a contrast frame, contrasting their desired

state with the 'reality' of their current state. This could be an

opportunity to introduce submodalities as a concept: check

out the submodalities of each representation, as the

submodalities of the Current State may have been more

compelling. If this is the case, you could play around with

them to move the Explorer towards their Desired State. This

could also be an opportunity to introduce the concept of



frames, specifically the Contrast Frame they were using and

the Outcome Frame that they could have used.

• The Guide was allowing the Explorer to get into the content of

the Present State, or using problem-focused rather than

solution-focused questions. The remedy here is to remind the

Guides to focus on an internal representation of the Explorer

as having all the resources they need, and of being how they

will be when they reach their Desired State.

Note: this exercise would do equally well to introduce the concept

of Solution Focus on a coaching, therapy or counselling skills

course.


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -

Therapy Skills



NLP in a Nutshell

Timing: 15 minutes + clear up

Objectives:

• Become aware of the importance of Outcome Focus, Sensory

Acuity, Behavioural Flexibility, and Rapport

• Consider the future impact of thinking in terms of these four

frames

Procedure

Individually and in groups of 3 or 4.

Take the participants through the 'Three Pillars of NLP' (in

Handouts).

Ask them to take 5 minutes individually to think about how these

four ideas will impact on their daily life, and then share in groups

of 3 or 4 for 10 minutes.

Clear up

What are you going to do differently in the light of these ideas?

What have you heard someone else say that has a powerful

resonance for you?


-Introduction to NLP



Maps of the World

Use the handout and wall chart entitled "The Map Is Not The

Territory" with any of the exercises in this section.



Drawing From Words Alone


Objectives:

• Demonstrate the difference between the 'deep structure' of

our internal representations and the 'surface structure' of the

words we use to describe them

• Make apparent the distortions, deletions and generalisations

that we apply to incoming communications to form our

internal representations

Procedure

In pairs: Describer and Artist.

Give each Describer a copy of a line drawing of some reasonably

complicated scene - e.g. a piece of machinery or a city skyline.

The drawing should not be of something which is one

recognisable object (e.g. an Aston Martin DB7, a hammerhead

shark, or a broccoli stalk).

Describer must not let the Artist see the picture. Instead, the

Artist has to reproduce the picture solely from the Describer's

verbal description.

At the end of 10 minutes, Describer reveals the original to the

Artist. Allow them a few minutes to discuss their learnings from



the exercise, then swap roles. Give the new Describer a different

line drawing and repeat the exercise.

Clear up

What did you learn?

Describers - how did you go about getting the information of what

to draw to the Artist? (attempting to describe the objects in the

picture and their relation to each other, telling the artist where to

move the pencil without reference to objects, dividing the page

into squares and reproducing the lines in each one, or what?)

This exercise gains additional impact if the same image is given

to each Describer in the first round, and copies of another image

are given to each Describer in the second round. The differences

between each artist's attempted reproduction of the same image

in each round is an additional convincer for the idea that we each

have different mental filters.


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Introduction

to NLP



Drawing My Living Room


Objectives:

• Demonstrate the difference between the 'deep structure' of

our internal representations and the 'surface structure' of the

words we use to describe them

• Demonstrate the tendency to use information from our own

map of the world to fill in gaps in incoming information

Procedure

In pairs: Describer and Artist. This is an alternative to the

'Drawing From Words Alone' exercise above.

Give some drawing paper to the Artist. Artist must draw a picture

of the Describer's living room, based on a verbal description only.

Artist must not show the picture to Describer before the time is

up.

At the end of 10 minutes, Artist shows the picture to the

Describer and gets feedback as to its accuracy. Allow them a few

minutes to discuss their learnings from the exercise, then swap

roles.

Clear up

What did you learn?



How close did the picture get?

Describers - did you describe everything in that picture? If not -

where did those additional elements come from? (often it's the

Artist's own living room).


-Coaching Skills,, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Introduction

to NLP

Note: I first came across this exercise at a workshop given by Derek Jackson of the Northern School of NLP - www.nlpand.co.uk. He and his partner Fran Burgess run well-regarded NLP courses and often bring ‘big name’ NLP trainers to the UK.

http://www.nlpand.co.uk



"The Elephant In The Room"

Timing: about 10 minutes

Objectives

• Participants become aware that people have different maps of

the world

• Participants become more aware of useful submodality

distinctions

• Participants become aware of the distinction between the

structure of an experience and the content of an experience

• Participants are introduced to calibration of non-verbal

communication

Procedure

Do this as a group - it works well with small groups of up to

around 14. Beyond this size you may want to split into smaller

groups, each led by a co-trainer or an assistant.

Ask the group to imagine an elephant. Ask each participant to

describe their elephant, keeping your questions 'clean' (i.e. not

suggesting any attributes in your questions). Elicit submodalities,

e.g. size, location, brightness, colour, moving or still.

Ask where they see the elephant. You may get content-related

answers like 'in a circus' or 'in Africa', which is a good

opportunity to point out the distinction between content and



structure of representations (a structure-related answer to a

question about location would describe the whereabouts of the

elephant in the person's perceptual space).

As appropriate, take opportunities presented by the participants

as they answer to point out non-verbal cues (e.g. the person may

look up if they are describing a very large elephant). If (and only

if) the location or other characteristics of the elephant are

obvious from non-verbal cues, ask the participant if your guess is

correct. This is your opportunity to show off your apparently

'magical' people-reading skills.

Clear up

What did you notice as each participant described their elephant?

What have you learned?

What are you going to do differently as a result of what you have

learned?


-Coaching Skills,, -Counselling Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -

Listening Skills, -Therapy Skills,

Note: This exercise is a variation on one by Caitlin Walker (www.trainingattention.co.uk) that I experienced as part of an introductory session on Clean Language for the Manchester Business NLP and Emotional Intelligence Group - manchesternlp.co.uk

http://www.trainingattention.co.uk

http://manchesternlp.co.uk



Ambiguous Words

Timing: 10 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants become aware that the same words will form

varying internal representations for different people

Procedure

Do this as a group - it works well with small groups of up to

around 14. Beyond this size you may want to split into smaller

groups, each led by a co-trainer or an assistant.

Ask the group to describe the images that come into their minds

(images could include auditory, kinaesthetic or other sensory

representations as well as just visual) in response to the following

words:

1. Flower (note the submodality distinctions in the flower

images in people's answers - you may also get answers about

'flour' or about flowering as an action.

2. Bridge - answers may include descriptions of different

bridges, or of the bridge of a stringed instrument like a

violin, the control room of a ship, or possibly of some dental

procedure.



3. Bough - answers may describe an image of someone bowing,

or a bough of a tree, or of the front of a ship (if you get the

last one and someone mentioned a ship in response to the

previous question, you could raise the possibility of

psychological priming).

Clear up

What have you learned? What do you want to ask?


learned?


-Coaching Skills,, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Introduction

to NLP, -Listening Skills



Physiology and Embodied Exercises

Mind and body are one system “ ”



Centering To Reduce Internal Dialogue

Timing: About 3 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants practice calibrating change of state from non-

verbal cues

• Participants are able to reduce internal dialogue interference

and change state rapidly, becoming calmer and more centred

• Participants have evidence that mind and body are one system

Procedure:

Demo this. Client just stands there. Coach gently pushes

shoulders of client backwards and forwards and side to side,

noticing how much they move and how 'strong' client feels.

Coach now asks client to focus on 'hara' (as it's called in Japanese

martial arts traditions) or 'tan tien' (as it's called in Chinese

traditions) or central point (3 finger widths below the navel, and

half way between the front and the back of the body). When client

is doing this, coach tries pushing the shoulder again and notices

difference. Coach asks what is different for the client and

especially how it feels emotionally (NB client will usually say it

feels 'strong', but sometimes say that it doesn't feel like anything

in particular. This is fine - it just means their attention is focused

outside themselves).



Coach then asks client to 'break state' (let go of the focus on the

hara) – distracting client if necessary with some irrelevant

question.

Coach now asks client to focus on a point at the top of their

forehead. When client is there, coach tries pushing shoulder again

and notices difference. Again, coach asks what is different for the

client and how it feels emotionally.

Expected result:

Client feels much more centred and strong when focused on the

hara, both emotionally and physically - as evidenced by them

being much harder to push back.

What to ask

What did you notice? Who often gets a lot of internal dialogue or mental chatter? (some

people will immediately know what you are talking about, others

will be saying to themselves "Internal dialogue? What's he/she on

about?")

What happened to that internal dialogue when you went into

peripheral vision? (most people will find that it slows down or

stops - you can congratulate them on achieving something in a

few minutes which takes many people years of meditation to be

able to do)



When might this be useful?

Be prepared for some wit to say "when someone is trying to push

you over"! Typical answers will include:

• any confrontational situation

• any time you want to feel more strong and centred,

emotionally or physically

• to pause and gather yourself before the start of any task

FAQ's

Can you use when you're sitting down, in a meeting for example?

Yes!

Future pace

Don't wait until you're in the stressful situation - practice it all

the time (e.g. when you are walking down the street) so it

becomes second nature and is available to you when you need it.

Variations

To really make the contrast clear between centred and uncentred,

you can ask the demo subject to tense up and resist your push as

hard as they can. They should go backwards easily (as the

different tensed-up muscle groups cancel each other out). If they

are resisting by leaning their entire weight against your hand, you

can take your hand away and they will have to step forward.

Then get them to centre as before.



Pushing the shoulder is the "PC' version of this exercise. You

could push in the upper centre of their chest instead (get their

permission first). Male trainers, use your discretion if your

volunteer is a woman in a low-cut top!


-Therapy Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -Self-Esteem, -Stress

Management, -Dealing With Difficult People, -Confidence, -

Presentation Skills

Note: centering has been around for centuries in yoga and martial arts. I first came across it used as a standalone exercise for confidence and ‘presence’ at an NLP group session run by Alan Mars, an Alexander, Aikido and singing teacher who is also an NLP practitioner. Alan has written a very useful little book for presenters which incorporates some great tips from NLP and Alexander Technique: Presenter: Be Your Best... and Beyond

http://amzn.to/fnZT7c

http://www.thetechnique.co.uk

http://amzn.to/fnZT7c



Centering With Memory of Challenging

Situation

Timing: about 5 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants gain a technique for building confidence in

situations that they have previously found challenging

• Participants get further practice in noticing state changes

• Participants gain confidence in assisting clients in accessing

resources

Procedure

Two participants – coach and client. Client stands there and coach

asks client to recall an incident they found challenging (only

about 5 on a scale of 0-10, not a full-blown trauma!)

When client has recalled the incident fully, coach gently pushes

shoulders of client backwards and forwards and side to side,

noticing how much they move and how 'strong' client feels. Then

break state.

Now coach asks client to focus on the hara and become centred –

then recall the challenging incident again while remaining centred

and focused on the hara. Coach again tests by pushing shoulder.



Expected results

Client feels less affected by challenging incident, perhaps

imagines being able to handle it better, and feels more confident

about handling it better next time. And/or the 'problem' doesn't

seem like a problem any more.


-Therapy Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -Self-Esteem, -Stress

Management, -Dealing With Difficult People, -Confidence



“Weak Arm/Strong Arm" Exercise

Timing: about 3 minutes each way

Objectives:

• To show that mind and body are one system

• To show that self-talk affects results

Procedure

Demo this. Have a volunteer stand in front of the group with their

dominant arm* (i.e. the one they write with) held out to the side

at shoulder height. Press down on the forearm while the

volunteer resists as hard as they can (without wrenching their

shoulder). This is your benchmark.

Now have the student hold the arm out again while they say out

loud "I am weak" five times. Press down on the forearm again. It

will go down more easily.

Now have the student hold the arm out again while they say "I am

strong" five times. Press down on the forearm again. It will be

much stronger.

Check that the group noticed.

Now have the group pair up and try this exercise for themselves.

* because this will be controlled by the brain hemisphere that processes speech.



Clear up



learned?

Note: this would make a nice precursor to the ‘Dealing With A

Critical Inner Voice’ exercise as it shows the impact of what you

tell yourself.


-Self-Esteem, -Stress Management, -Confidence, -Spiritual

Development, -Goal Setting, -Motivation



Group Weak Arm/Strong Arm Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Illustrates power of group expectations

• To throw in something weird and freaky to keep the group on

their toes, especially if one or two members are too 'internally

referenced' (ie they think they know it all already) near the

start of a training

Procedure

Call for one volunteer, and send them out of the room.

Instructions for the rest of the group: trainer is going to press

down on the volunteer's arm twice (as in Weak Arm/ Strong Arm

exercise above).

The first time, the group should silently think "He or she (as

applicable) is weak."

Break state for volunteer.

The second time, the group should silently think "He or she is

strong."

Volunteer should be stronger the second time.



Clear up

What happened there? (answers might include telepathy,

unconscious reading of non-verbal signals of audience

expectation by volunteer)

What situations do you encounter where the feelings or

expectations of the group may influence your performance?

What could the volunteer have done to counter group

expectations? (e.g. volunteer could have repeated "I am strong" the

first time - you could try this out)

Future pace

What could you do in the situations you face where group

influence impacts your performance?


-Self-Esteem, -Stress Management, -Confidence, -Spiritual

Development, -Goal Setting, -Motivation, -Decision Making



The "Walk of Grace and Power"

Timing: 10 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants notice new distinctions in the way they walk and

hold their bodies, and how this influences their thoughts and

feelings

• Participants practice calibrating another's state from non-

verbal evidence

• Participants get to play with a behavioural "as if" frame

• Participants become more resourceful in a specific situation

of their choice

• Participants gain a useful "walking" resource anchor


Mind and body are one system - so would you like to have a way

of getting yourself into an optimum resourceful state when you

need it (for example on the way to a job interview or important

meeting) that you don't need to take any extra preparation time

for? In fact you can do this as you walk from your car or the

station to your destination...

Procedure

2 participants - 'Explorer' and 'Coach'



You could demo this first. This exercise requires a room with

plenty of space - or ideally, do it outside.

1. Explorer thinks of some situation in which they would like to

feel more resourceful. While thinking about this situation, walk

on a 'track' of at least 4 metres - this could be in a straight line

or an oval. Coach observes how the Explorer walks.

2. Explorer, aided by the Coach, identifies the resource state or

states that would be useful in that situation. Explorer walks "as

if' they are in that resourceful state or combination of states.

Coach observes the differences between the 'unresourceful'

and 'resourceful' walks.

3. As the Explorer continues to walk, Coach suggests further

changes to the Explorer's physiology (e.g. posture, angle of

head, breathing, length of stride, tucking in pelvis, weight

distribution between feet, how much the arms swing, etc) to

feel even more resourceful and reach a state of excellence.

Slightly amplifying the differences between the 'problem' and

'excellent' walks may be a good place to start.

4. Explorer experiences the new walk, noticing what is different.

Coach makes sure that the walk and the excellent state is

maintained.



5. When the Explorer can maintain the walk and the associated

excellent state, they revisit by placing the 'problem' situation

on the track and walking through it and beyond it.

6. When the Explorer has gone beyond the 'problem' situation,

stop walking.

7. Test and future pace.

Swap roles.

Clear up

What happened to that problem situation?

What did your coach do or say that was particularly helpful?

Which change to your walk made the most positive difference?


-Self-Esteem, -Stress Management, -Confidence



Sensory Acuity, Calibration and

Rapport



Visual Acuity Exercise


Objectives:

• Students learn to make finer distinctions in visual calibration

• Students realise that they can discern quite small differences

• Students build trust in their unconscious minds

Procedure

Handout: Sensory Acuity (V.I.B.E.S)

Demo this procedure first, with a volunteer as 'A' and the whole

audience as 'B'.

Two participants, A and B. A thinks of someone that they like.

Imagine the person you like is in the room, that you can hear

their voice, that they are close enough to touch.

Now A thinks of someone they don't like. B looks for the

differences between the two. A continues to alternate between

'like' and 'don't like' until B feels they can calibrate the

differences.

Now A thinks of one or the other, without identifying which. B

identifies which one they are thinking of. If B doesn't get it right,

go back to the calibration stage. Continue until B is consistently

right.



What to Ask

What did you learn?

What did you notice?

As a coach, what told you that they were thinking of one or the

other?

Who got it consistently right or consistently 'wrong'?

How might this be useful in future?

FAQs

"I got it wrong consistently."

So your unconscious mind consistently recognised the differences

between 'like' and 'don't like', even though your conscious mind

swapped the labels round.

"I identified the people correctly, but I wasn't consciously aware

of any signs."

So you can trust your unconscious mind to recognise differences

that your conscious mind isn't yet aware of.

"I can't think of anyone I dislike." (or sometimes "anyone I like!")

So go for someone you like intensely versus someone you're

indifferent to.


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Emotional

Intelligence, -Influencing, -Interpersonal Skills, -Introduction to

NLP, -Sales



Auditory Acuity: Like/Don’t Like

Exercise


Objectives:

• As for the previous exercise, for the auditory channel

Procedure


Two participants, A and B (NB choose a different partner from the

previous acuity exercise so as to practice your acuity skills with a

variety of subjects). A and B sit back to back (or with their eyes

closed) to screen out visual evidence. Make sure they or their

chairs are not touching – to screen out kinaesthetic evidence.

A thinks of someone they like and counts out loud to 10. Then

someone they don't like and counts out loud to 10. A alternates

between the two until B feels they can tell the difference.

Now A thinks of one or the other and counts to 10, without

identifying which it is. B identifies which one they are thinking of.

If B doesn't get it right, go back to the calibration stage. Continue

until B is consistently right.

Then swap round and repeat the exercise.



What To Ask and FAQ's

As for the previous exercise.


Any communication by phone or where visual evidence is limited.

As a culture we rely heavily on the visual channel.




NLP, -Sales



Auditory Acuity: Clapping Exercise


Objectives

This is an alternative to the previous auditory acuity exercise -

use where you have an odd number of participants.

Procedure


3 or more participants: an Explorer and 2 or more helpers.

Explorer sits or stands with eyes closed.

One by one the helpers clap hands once and say their names.

Repeat until the Explorer believes they can identify each person's

handclap.

Helpers move around silently so the Explorer can't identify them

by location. Each time a helper claps hands, the Explorer calls out

the name of the helper. If the Explorer gets it right, helper says

'Yes'. If the Explorer gets it wrong, helper claps again and says

their name.



Continue until Explorer consistently identifies each helper by

handclap, then swap until everyone has had a turn at being the

Explorer.

Clear up

What did you learn?


When might it be useful to notice finer auditory distinctions?

Alternative

Helper takes a number of coins of different denominations,

identifying each in turn. When Explorer is ready, helper drops a

coin at random and Explorer identifies it by sound alone. Repeat

until Explorer correctly identifies each coin.


-Introduction to NLP



Kinaesthetic Acuity: Like/Don't Like

Exercise


Objectives:

As for previous like/don't like exercises

Procedure


Two participants, A and B (NB choose a different partner from

previous acuity exercises so as to practice your acuity skills with

a variety of subjects).

A and B sit opposite each other and slightly to each other's right,

so they can comfortably hold each other's hand as if they are

about to shake. This is a silent exercise, and B's eyes should be

closed - to screen out visual and auditory evidence so that the

feel of the hand is the only sensory input that B has from A.

A thinks of someone they. A then breaks state and thinks of

someone they don't. A alternates between the two until B feels

they can tell the difference.

Now A thinks of one or the other, without identifying which it is.

B identifies which one they are thinking of. If B doesn't get it



right, go back to the calibration stage. Continue until B is

consistently right.

Then swap round and repeat the exercise.

What To Ask and FAQ's

As for the previous exercise.


Picking up information from a handshake. Bodywork therapies.

Maybe contact sports. And I'm sure you can think of other

contexts in which you would like to get a sense of what someone

is thinking or feeling from touch alone...

After participants have done acuity exercises for each sensory

channel:

Who found the visual exercise easiest? Who found auditory the

easiest? Who found kinaesthetic the easiest?

Of course, we don't know if this is because you find that sensory

channel easiest, or if you just had a partner that was particularly

easy to read. The only way to know will be to practice your acuity

skills with lots of different people.

Did you find any sensory channel harder than the others to notice

distinctions in?



Remind students that they can build on their strengths, and that

an improvement in a 'weaker' channel can yield even more results

than a similar-sized improvement in a channel in which they are

already strong.


-Introduction to NLP, -Bodywork



Calibrating States

Timing: about 10 minutes per round plus clear up

Objectives

• Practice calibrating two contrasting states

• A partial alternative to the single-modality calibration

exercises above that you can use when you have less time

available

• Alternatively, more demanding follow-up to the single-

modality exercises above which require the participant to

calibrate in two or three modalities

Procedure

Two participants, A and B. Use the V.I.B.E.S. handout.

A tells B about a past unpleasant experience (give the usual

warning about not choosing a really traumatic experience - you

want something that is around 5 on the ‘Richter Scale’ of

emotional upset. Keep an eye on the emotional states of

participants, note how B handles the situation if A starts going

into a strong upsurge of emotion, and intervene if necessary

before A goes too deep into an abreaction).

B notices non-verbal information (as in the V.I.B.E.S handout) as

evidence of state change. Additionally, if you have covered them



by this point, B could also note predicates, values, meta model

violations, and/or meta programs.

After 3 minutes A breaks state and moves to a different location.

Now A tells B about a very pleasant experience. B calibrates as

before.

After 3 minutes B describes only what they noticed about

differences between unpleasant and pleasant states in sensory

terms, without evaluating or ‘mind reading’.

Switch roles and repeat.

Clear up

What did you notice? (NB watch out for ‘mind reads’ - if these

show up, remind participants to stick to sensory evidence).

As A - any surprises in B’s description?

What have you learned? When would this be useful?

What are you going to do differently as a result of what you’ve

learned?

Variations

• Have A recall the situations silently - B calibrates just the

visual signs.

• Add an observer C - what do they notice that is different to B?

This will mean the exercise takes at least 50% longer.



• You can re-run the exercise later in the course just calibrating

for predicates and/or meta model violations or values.




NLP, -Customer Service, -Sales

Note: This exercise is based on one in David Molden’s very useful book NLP Business Masterclass: Driving Peak Performance With NLP. It does a great job of adapting NLP patterns to a business context (e.g. a version of the six-step reframe for use with a team).

David Molden is an NLP business consultant, coach and trainer. His web site is at http://www.quadrant1.com

http://www.apple.com

http://amzn.to/hIiYmi


http://www.quadrant1.com




Finding The Boundaries Of Personal

Space

Timings: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants develop their sensory acuity

• Participants get a sense of the boundaries of their own

personal space, and how this may vary for different people


Introduce the concept of personal space - a crucial element in

rapport.

Mention how people with a visual preference are usually

comfortable having people where they can see them, auditory will

like people where they can hear them clearly, and kinaesthetic

will prefer to be close enough to touch the other person.

Point out what can happen when 'visual' and 'kinaesthetic' meet -

the visual always backing away and the kinaesthetic always trying

to get closer - and what a video of this would look like speeded

up (a closing sequence of the Benny Hill show).

Procedure

Handout (optional): Sensory Acuity (V.I.B.E.S)



Demo this first with a volunteer. Two participants - A and B.

A approaches B until A notices the non-verbal signal (a flinch, a

wince, a change in breathing) that says that the boundary of

personal space has been crossed. Find out where the boundaries

are by approaching B from different directions (they may not be a

constant distance). Swap roles.

Then change partners and repeat, as many times as you can

before the end of the exercise.

Clear up

What did you discover?

How did you know that you had intruded on B's personal space?

What differences did you notice about how far out the boundaries

were? - from different directions? - same sex or different sex

partner? - any other factors (e.g. the relative height of the

partners)?

Future pace


learned from this exercise?







Lie Detection Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants improve their sensory acuity (note that voice

tonality as well as visual cues may be significant)

• Participants gain confidence in their ability to 'read' people,

encouraging them to pay more attention in future

Procedure


2 participants: 'Interrogator' and 'Suspect'

Instructions for the 'Interrogator':

1. Ask your partner 10 questions to which you know the answer

to be ‘yes’. They should answer truthfully. Look at them in

slight peripheral vision and calibrate their non-verbal

responses.

2. Now ask your partner another 10 questions to which you know

the answer to be ‘no’. This time they should lie by saying ‘yes’.

Calibrate the differences to step one.



3. Now ask them questions to which you are not sure of the

correct answer. They can answer truthfully or lie. You guess

which. Check the accuracy of your guess with them after each

one.

4. Turn yourself between each question so that your partner is in

a different part of your visual field. Notice if this makes any

difference to the accuracy of your guesses.

Clear up

Who could tell when their partner was lying?

What told you? (NB this can lead into a discussion of various signs

to calibrate e.g. changes in skin tone, breathing changes, changes

in voice tonality)

Anyone get it right but not consciously pick up any differences?

The unconscious mind notices more than we are consciously

aware of.

Anyone get it wrong 100% of the time? If you are getting 100%

wrong guesses, your unconscious mind can still tell the difference

- just say the opposite of what your conscious mind thinks is

correct.

Note: This one is based on the ‘Truth Detection’ exercise by Jonathan Altfeld, whose trainings I highly recommend: www.altfeld.com/mastery

http://www.altfeld.com/mastery




-Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Introduction to NLP,

-Influencing



Tracking Two Minds Exercise

Timings: 5 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants improve their observation and matching skills

• Participants enter a 'flow' state

• Participants improve their calibration skills (when checking

that the Matcher is near the edge of abilities)

• Participants warm up for later exercises and learning

What to say to introduce the exercise (Whys)

OK, you've tracked the movements directed by one brain. That's

too easy, and you can do better. Now you're going to take your

observation and matching skills to the next level by tracking two

brains at once!

Procedure

Three participants - Mover 1, Mover 2 and a Matcher.

Demonstrate this initially with two volunteers - just to show

participants how the exercise works, not taking it to completion.

This should be a silent exercise, to allow participants to

concentrate on sensory information and allow them to relax into

the experience.



Mover 1 and Mover 2 stand shoulder to shoulder. Matcher stands

facing them at a comfortable distance.

Mover 1 and Mover 2 begin to move their outside arms only -

slowly at first. Matcher's job is to mirror the arm movements of

both (this will need peripheral vision).

The job of the Movers is to keep the Matcher at or near the edge

of his or her ability to track. In practice this means gradually

speeding up their movements and making them more complex -

and slowing down again if the Matcher loses track.

Rotate after 5 minutes until everyone has had a turn in each role.

What to expect

Laughter after each round, possibly of joy, possibly of relief.

Participants entering 'flow' state, and feeling somewhat light-

headed or 'buzzy'. Is this new neuronal connections being formed

in the corpos callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the

brain, and thereby increasing their intelligence? We have no way

of knowing.

Clear up

How are you feeling?

Matchers - what did you do that helped you to track both sides

simultaneously? What did you do that got in the way?



Movers - how did you know when the Matcher was approaching

the edge of their abilities?


-Introduction to NLP, -Creativity (because it puts people in a

‘buzzy’ state)

Note: This exercise is based on one by the US-based LP trainer Jonathan Altfeld, whose trainings I highly recommend: www.altfeld.com/mastery You can see how Jonathan does this exercise on his excellent Building Hypnotic Rapport DVD set, part of the NLP Skills Builder series.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

http://www.altfeld.com/mastery

http://www.altfeld.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=262&category_id=66&partner=6



"Sticky Fingers" Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants gain experience of non-verbal or 'embodied'

rapport

• Participants experience altered state (eyes closed, plus

''becoming one' with another person

• Atmosphere in room changes rapidly (if needed - e.g. as a

pattern interrupt if participants are getting into unresourceful

state or becoming disruptive)

Procedure

In pairs - A and B. Demo this first. You will need a lot of clear

space in the room. This is a silent exercise.

Face each other in pairs. A holds up palms at shoulder height. B

places the tips of middle fingers in the center of A's palms, and

closes eyes.

A now gradually begins to move their hands. B's job is to

maintain contact between the fingertips and A's palms, very

lightly (almost not quite touching).

A's job is to lead B around, keeping them at the edge of their

ability to follow (ie not too fast, not too slow). A will gradually

speed up and make larger movement.



When you demo this, get to the point where you step back,

forward or sideways, so that B has to move their feet in order to

stay upright.

It's helpful to play some restful music in the background -

Hanshan Temple from Buddhist Chants and Peace Music by Jin

Long Uen is very good.

When participants have had a reasonable time (5 minutes) to

experience the activity, swap round.

Variation: if doing this outside on a lawn where there's plenty of

room to spread out, both participants can close their eyes.

Clear Up

How do you feel now?


What was it like being led with your eyes closed?

What was it like leading?

What information could you get just from the touch of the

fingertip? (usually A will be able to sense very easily how relaxed

B is)

What are you going to do differently as a result of what you've

learned from this exercise?

What to expect: often the pairs reach the point where it's not

clear which is leading and which is following.



FAQ's

Why did we do that? This question comes up sometimes from the

more 'in their heads' participants, so it's worth giving plenty of

reasons up front before the exercise starts.

Reasons could include:

• We're going to experience non-verbal rapport

• We're going to experience being part of a larger system than

just one person.

• We're going to experience an everyday altered state.

• We're going to have an experience of taking in information

through different channels (kinaesthetic) than those we

normally use (visual). So pay attention to what you notice.



Intelligence, -Spiritual Development



Listening/Not Listening

Timing: 7 minutes each round

Objectives:

• To highlight the effects of being fully attending vs. not fully

attending

• To illustrate how we naturally 'do' rapport in everyday life

• Participants sharpen their sensory acuity

• Participants recognise the role of minimal encouragers as

positive behavioural feedback

Procedure

Handouts: Rapport

Three participants: A, B and C.

Chairs arranged in a triad (ie at the points of an equilateral

triangle).

A – has a conversation with B about something A is interested in

(i.e. a subject they can talk about with ease).

B's job is to be interested for the first 2 minutes, then (without

overtly indicating it) to be completely uninterested for another

two minutes. For the final minute B reverts to being interested.



C's job is to observe the two participants in relation to each other

(ie not take part in the conversation). C should be in peripheral

vision. At the end of the round, C can give a couple of minutes of

sensory specific feedback on what they observed.

A can also give feedback about how they felt at different stages of

the exercise.

Then rotate (it's best to anchor the roles to individual chairs) until

each participant has been in all three roles.

Clear up

What did you learn/what did you notice – as A? as B? as C?

What are the implications for your coaching/for your life?

Draw attention to the role of minimal encouragers (grunts, nods,

smiles etc) as behavioural feedback encouraging the speaker to

continue.




NLP, -Customer Service, -Sales, -Team-Building, -Listening Skills



Quick Listening/Not Listening

Timing: 2 minutes

Use this one in preference to the above if you are short of time,

and training managers rather than coaches or therapists who will

be more patient with in-depth exploration.

Objectives

• To highlight the effects of being fully attending vs. not fully

attending

• To illustrate how we naturally do rapport in everyday life.


• Participants recognise the role of minimal encouragers as

positive behavioural feedback

Procedure

Handouts: Rapport

Two participants: A, B and C.

A – has a conversation with B about something A is interested in

(e.g. their best ever holiday)

B's job is to be interested for the first minute, then (without

overtly indicating it) to lose interest.

No need to rotate roles - the point will be made on the first go.



Clear up

What did you learn/what did you notice – as A? as B?

What are the implications?

Draw attention to the role of minimal encouragers (grunts, nods,

smiles etc) as behavioural feedback encouraging the speaker to

continue.


-Influencing, -Interpersonal Skills, , -Management, -Introduction to

NLP, -Customer Service, -Sales, -Team-Building



Matching/Mismatching


Objectives:

• Participants gain confidence in subtle matching

• Participants understand the different impacts of non-verbal

matching and mismatching


Procedure

Handouts: Rapport

Three participants: A (client), B (coach), C (observer).

Again, A has a conversation with B about something A can talk

easily about. B's job is to match non-verbally (subtly, using cross-

matching) for the first two minutes, mismatch for the next two

minutes, and match again for the last minute. B should be

broadly matching on content throughout.

C's job is to observe the two participants in relation to each other

(ie not take part in the conversation). C should be in peripheral

vision. At the end of the round, C can give a couple of minutes of

sensory specific feedback on what they observed.

A can also give feedback about how they felt at different stages of

the exercise.



Then rotate (it's best to anchor the roles to individual chairs) until

each participant has been in all three roles.

Clear up

What did you learn/what did you notice – as A? as B? as C?

What are the implications for your coaching/for your life?







Voice Matching


Objectives:

• Students improve their auditory acuity and voice matching

skills.

Procedure

Handouts: Rapport

Three participants: 'speaker', 'matcher', and 'coach'.

'Speaker' says a short sentence out loud, such as 'My awareness is

constantly improving.'

'Matcher' repeats the sentence back, matching volume, speed,

tone and emphasis as exactly as they can.

'Coach' gives sensory-based feedback to the matcher on how to

get even closer to the original.

Speaker repeats the same sentence, matcher matches it again, and

the coach provides more feedback.

Continue until a close match is achieved, or until the 5 minutes is

up.

Rotate the roles until everyone has had a turn.



Clear up

What did you notice? as speaker? as matcher? as coach?

When will this be useful? (when coaching, selling or

communicating by phone)




NLP, -Customer Service, -Sales, -Listening Skills



Pacing and Leading Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants gain confidence in pacing and leading.

• Participants can recognise when they are in rapport.

Procedure

Handouts: Rapport

Three participants: Speaker, Matcher and Observer.

Speaker has a conversation with Matcher about something

interesting. Matcher subtly matches until confident that rapport

has been achieved. Then, Matcher makes some subtle action and

notices whether the Speaker follows this lead. Matcher's aim is

that the Speaker should not consciously be aware of the

attempted lead.

If the lead is followed, Matcher can experiment with further leads.

If not, Matcher returns to more pacing until rapport has been re-

established, then attempts another lead.

Observer can give 2 minutes of sensory-based feedback to

Matcher. Speaker can also give feedback about what they noticed.

Rotate roles until everyone has experienced each role.



Clear up

What did you notice – as Observer? as Matcher? as Speaker?

Which leads worked? Which didn't? What was the difference?

Check for 'unconscious leads' – perhaps the Speaker or the

Matcher did something unconsciously which the other followed.

The Observer is in a good position to spot this.

When will this be useful? To influence a client – e.g. to lead them

covertly into a more resourceful state at the start of a session.

Also to influence in other situations e.g. sales.

FAQs

"I couldn’t get them to follow my leads."

More rapport needed. Practice! and look out for when pacing and

leading occurs unconsciously in everyday life.







I/You/We Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants explore different ways of relating

• Participants experience that what you pay attention to affects

relationship, and likelihood of success in coaching

• Participants become more aware of subtle nonverbal

influences

Procedure

In pairs - "Coach" and "Client". This is a silent exercise.

1st round: Client thinks of a problem. Coach sits with Client and

thinks "I".

Leave them for a couple of minutes. Then - Coach gets up and

moves around to break state.

2nd round: Client continues to think of the problem. Coach sits

with Client and thinks "You".

Leave them for a couple of minutes. Then - Coach gets up and

moves around to break state.



3rd round: Client continues to think of the problem. Coach sits

with Client and thinks "We". Leave for a couple of minutes as

before.

You only need to do this one way.

Clear up

What was your experience as Client?

What differences did you notice between "I", "You", and "We"?

What was your experience as Coach?

What to expect

Most "Clients" will find that during "You" and particularly "We",

they experienced a lessening of the problem. "I" generally doesn't

help much.

Variations

To make this more robust as a test of how much the attention

focus of the Coach affects the outcome, you could give the

Coaches their instructions for each round secretly. As far as the

Clients know, each round is supposed to be the same as the last -

differences in their experiences between each round can only be

due to any differences they consciously or unconsciously detect

in behaviour of the (silent) coach.




-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Influencing,

-Interpersonal Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -Spiritual Development



Language Exercises



"Don't Think Of A..."


Objectives:

• Participants have an undeniable experience demonstrating

that the unconscious mind does not process negations

• Participants gain a method for indirect suggestion

Procedure

Just do this in passing as you talk to the class. First tell them that

the unconscious mind does not process negation, which is a

conscious mind concept. "Don't believe me? Whatever you do,

don't think of a blue rhinoceros. And I want you to continue not

thinking of a blue rhinoceros for the rest of the day. Are you still

not thinking of a blue rhinoceros?"

What to expect

Participants will laugh as they realise that they are, in fact,

thinking of a blue rhinoceros as soon as you tell them not to

think of it.

Clear up

What happened as soon as I asked you not to think of a blue

rhinoceros?



In order to process the words "don't think of a blue rhinoceros"

you have to form some kind of image of a blue rhinoceros. Since

you can't form an image of 'not' something, it's as if the

unconscious mind simply deletes the "not".

So whenever you tell someone not to do something, it puts the

idea in their head. You may have seen this with parents and small

children in the supermarket - "Don't touch those sweets" puts the

idea of touching the sweets in the child's mind, if it wasn't there

already.

So - if you want to motivate someone to do something (and this

includes yourself), tell them what you want them to do, rather

than what you don't want them to do. Otherwise, it's like going to

that supermarket with a shopping list of what you don't want and

expecting to come home with the right things.

And of course, I'm not suggesting that you play with the idea of

using negation as a means of putting ideas in people's

unconscious minds without their conscious minds noticing. I

would never suggest that...


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Influencing, -

Interpersonal Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -Customer Service, -

Sales



This/That

Timing: 3 minutes

Objectives

• Participants understand the differences between 'this'

(associated) and 'that' (dissociated)

• Participants become more aware generally of the importance

of precision in language

Procedure

Hold up a small object (e.g. a marker pen). Ask the group to look

at it while thinking "This pen. This pen."

Break state.

Now hold it up again in the same place and ask the group to look

at it while thinking "That pen. That pen."

Clear up

What differences did you notice between 'this' and 'that'?

(most people will experience "this pen" as feeling closer and more

'theirs' than "that pen".



Interpersonal Skills, -Introduction to NLP, -Sales



Chunking Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes per round + 2-5 minutes feedback/discussion

between rounds + 5 minutes clear-up

Objectives

• Participants gain experience of maintaining rapport through

matching "chunk size" in conversation

• Participants may gain some experience of leading "chunk size"

in a particular direction

• Participants are aware of the importance of flexibility in

matching chunk size

• Participants increase their rapport skills

Procedure

Handout: The Hierarchy of Ideas

Wall Chart: The Hierarchy of Ideas

In threes. A and B sit facing each other. C stands behind B.

A initiates a conversation with B. B matches A, especially chunk

size in the conversation. C directs A to chunk up, down or

sideways at random by silently pointing up, down or sideways (NB

this has to be out of B's field of vision).

Change over after 5 minutes so each person gets to experience

each role.



Before they start, instruct the group "Don't have too much fun".

Clear up


What do you want to ask? What do I need to know?

What did you find easiest – big picture, details or in between?

Which direction was easiest for you – chunking up, down or

sideways?


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Listening Skills, -Therapy

Skills, -Decision Making, -Management

Note: As far as I know, this exercise was developed by Tad James www.nlpcoaching.com

http://www.nlpcoaching.com



Meta Model Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes per round plus clear up

Objectives:

• Participants get better at detecting and naming Meta Model

'violations'

• Participants become more skilled at responding with

appropriate questions or 'challenges'

Procedure

Do this exercise in groups of 4-6.

Take a small number of meta model patterns (for example, Mind

Reads, Lost Performatives, Cause-Effect and Complex

Equivalences can be grouped as 'Distortions').

Round 1: As a group, generate examples (not the responses) of

each pattern and write them down. Keep the examples short!

Round 2: Mix up the groups. One person reads out an example at

random. Another person identifies what pattern it is. A third

person generates an appropriate response question and writes it

down.

After the clear-up, you can mix up the groups and tackle another

set of patterns.



Clear up

After the first set, ask for examples of each pattern and the

'challenges' that go with them to check the groups are on the

right track.

You may find that some examples fall into more than one

category, which is why you asked them to keep the examples

short - the longer they are, the more chance that additional and

unintended 'violations' will show up.

If it is some students' first encounter with the Meta Model, watch

out for bad anchors of school and limiting beliefs of "I can't do

this" being triggered. This is going to happen occasionally, what

with the number of components in the Meta Model and the

jargonistic names of the patterns.

To combat this, you can switch to more meaningful names where

possible (e.g. 'value judgements' rather than 'lost performatives'),

and emphasise that it's far more important that they can spot the

patterns and come up with appropriate responses than to

remember the exact name of the pattern, unless they are

intending to become NLP trainers.



One-Word Reframing

Timing: 5-10 minutes plus clear up

Objectives:

• Practice reframing a term to have more or less intensity, or to

have more of a positive or negative slant, while retaining

semantic well-formedness

Procedure

Introduce Russell’s examples, perhaps with some others to

illustrate the concept. Give out the ‘One-Word Reframing’

handout.

Suggest that they could regard the connotations as a continuum,

decide which direction they want to go (e.g from ‘good’ to ‘great’

to amplify, or ‘distracting’ to ‘creative’ to reframe from

undesirable to desirable), and pick words at different points along

the continuum.

Ask the group to come up with reframes that ‘diminish’ qualities,

actions or events usually regarded negatively:

e.g. Late -> tardy, delayed

Aggressive ->.............. , .............. e.g. no-nonsense, straightforward

Obstinate -> .............. , .............. e.g. stubborn, persistent

Disaster -> .............. , .............. e.g. accident, occurrence



Nitpicking -> .............. , .............. etc.

And reframes that increase a desirable but weak or so-so quality

or action:

e.g. Not bad -> OK, good

Pleasant -> .............. , .............. e.g. enjoyable, exquisite

Interesting -> .............. , .............. e.g. fascinating, compelling

Acceptable -> .............. , ..............

Clever -> .............. , .............. etc

Clear up

What did you learn?

How easy was it to find words that made sense but reframed the

judgement or associations?

As you look back, in what contexts have you already used

reframing like this, maybe without labelling it as such?

When could you use this method? Where do you see it being used?

(debates, complaints or objection handling, coaching and therapy,

on your own internal dialogue)

What might you want to watch out for when using one-word

reframes? (when the reframing word appears to belittle the

significance of what the other party is saying, when it clashes

with their values, when the associations are too far from the

original term for the other party to get there in one go - in each



case the result could be a loss of rapport as the other party

doesn’t feel heard, or thinks you have misunderstood)

So what do you need to do to make sure this works? (second

position, believe in the reframes yourself, make incremental

shifts in meaning rather than trying to leap from one set of

associations to its opposite in one go).

Variations

You could ask the whole group to shout out suggestions, or if you

have a little more time and want more participation get them to

do it in groups of 3-5.



Interpersonal Skills, -Customer Service, -Sales

Note: This exercise is an expansion of one in Sleight of Mouth: The Magic of Conversational Belief Change by Robert Dilts. Robert Dilts and his collaborators are responsible for many of the most widely-used patterns in NLP. His website is at www.nlpu.com

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

http://amzn.to/eSJ8pd

http://amzn.to/eSJ8pd

http://www.nlpu.com



One-Word Reframing on the fly

Timing: 5 minutes per round plus clear up

Objectives:

• Gain practice in conversational one-word reframing in real

time

Procedure

Do the ‘One-Word Reframing’ exercise first.

Three participants - Explorer, Reframer, and Observer.

Explorer and Reframer have a conversation about something the

Explorer is interested in, or some mild problematic situation

he/she is experiencing.

Where appropriate, and maintaining rapport, Reframer uses one-

word reframing to lead Explorer in a more useful and resourceful

direction - minimising problem words, leading shifting ‘bad

qualities’ towards a more useful representation, and/or

amplifying motivation.

After 5 minutes, Observer reports on any behavioural signs of

state change in Explorer, any reframes that Observer noticed, and

generally what they observed about the progress of the

interaction between Explorer and Reframer.



Switch places until everyone has had a turn in each role.

Clear up


Explorers - were you consciously aware of all the reframes that

your Observer noticed?

Reframers - were you consciously aware of all the reframes you

were doing?

How do you feel about using conversational reframing in future?

What will you notice that will tell you when you are getting really

good?



Interpersonal Skills, -Customer Service, -Sales



Reframing Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants become skilled in formulating context and

meaning reframes and recognising when to use them.

Procedure:

Prior to the exercise, give some examples of context and meaning

reframes. Ask the group for some examples of complaints and

reframe them, asking whether your reframe is context or meaning

based.

As a group, individuals come up with examples of complaints.

Other group members come up with reframes and ask the rest of

the group if it is a context or meaning reframe.

Examples:

I'm always late for work.

"Isn't it great that you're so laid-back." (meaning)

"So you miss the traffic." (context)

Whenever the boss looks at me, I feel nervous.

"And isn't it great that he notices you – I've had bosses who didn't

realise I existed" (meaning)

I'm too soft.



"And I'm sure your family and friends appreciate your warm and

trusting nature." (context)

There are some excellent examples in the book Reframing by

Bandler and Grinder. Note that some examples, like the first one

here, can be reframed using either context or meaning.

FAQ's

"Some of these examples are just silly, and wouldn't work in the

real world."

That's right - to use reframing skilfully, the reframe, whether

context or meaning, has to appeal to some value which is at least

as meaningful to the 'complainer' as the value behind their

complaint.


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Influencing



Agreement Frame Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes (or less) plus clear-up

Objectives:

• Become more able to use ‘verbal aikido’ to reach agreement or

help people to change their minds

• Become more aware of when you use ‘but’ without meaning to

• Prepares for teaching Sleight of Mouth patterns or other

persuasion techniques

Procedure

In pairs. Introduce the Agreement Frame, using the Agreement

Frame handout.

Have the pairs find something that they disagree on, and have

them discuss it. Their challenge is to discuss the topic on which

they disagree without using the word “but”.

If a participant hears a “but” from the other person, they should

jump up, point at their partner and yell “SHE (or he) SAID ‘BUT’!”

As you demonstrate this, make the ‘but’ alarm so dramatic as to

be ridiculous. This will help to keep the exercise light-hearted.

Note: you may want to tailor the discussion topics to the degree

of rapport that the group have with each other. With people who



have already done a lot of NLP and are comfortable with other

people having different beliefs, you can allow them to choose

whatever topics they like (e.g. abortion, gun control, gay

marriage). On the first day of an entry-level course, or when

running reconciliation workshops between warring peoples, you

may want to ask them to choose something not quite so deeply

felt.

Clear up

How did that go? What did you learn?

What happened when you heard a different point of view

introduced with ‘and’ rather than ‘but’?

Note: I first encountered this exercise in workshops run by Doug O’Brien, a specialist in Sleight of Mouth patterns and Ericksonian Hypnosism (http://www.ericksonian.com). Recommended knowledge products by Doug O’Brien:

The User’s Guide To Sleight of Mouth

Belief Craft (with Jonathan Altfeld)

http://www.altfeld.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=261&category_id=65&partner=6

http://www.sleightofmouth.org/the-users-guide.php

http://www.ericksonian.com





Negotiation, -Team-Building, -Interpersonal Skills, -Customer

Service, -Sales, -Spiritual Development



Generating Metaphors

Timing: 15-20 minutes plus clear up

Objectives:

• Practice chunking sideways by going up to higher level and

coming down somewhere else

• Practice devising and telling isomorphic metaphors

Procedure

Use the ‘Constructing a Metaphor’ handout. Two participants,

Explorer and Guide. Explorer tells Guide about some current

problem or situation in which more resources are needed.

Guide chunks up by asking themselves “What is this situation an

example of?”, then chunks down again by finding another

situation which is also an example of it.

Guide devises an empowering story around the second situation,

designed to evoke positive internal representations and help the

Explorer locate new resources. Establish "isomorphism" for all

significant nouns (things/people) and verbs (actions/processes) -

i.e. find elements in the story that match the elements in the

client’s situation.



Find new resources or ways of resolving the dilemma of the story,

so the story goes beyond the problem stage to a successful

conclusion.

Guide tells the story, paying close attention to any signs of the

Explorer changing state, and leaving the Explorer to find their

own meanings.

Guide gets feedback from the Explorer on what happened as they

heard the story.

Break state and swap roles.

Clear up

Explorers - what happened as you heard the story?

How do you feel about that situation now?

Guides - how easy was it to come up with a story?

Variation

Do the exercise as a trio, with two Guides collaborating on

constructing and/or telling the story (or one Guide can tell the

story while the other takes an Observer role).


-Therapy Skills, -Influencing, -Presentation Skills



Rep Systems and Eye

Accessing Cues



Rep Systems: Generating Predicates


Objectives:

• Familiarise students with the idea of rep systems

Procedure

Note: you can do this either before or after the Rep Systems

Preference Test, but definitely do it before the Rep Systems

Translation exercise.

Explain concept of Representational Systems and Predicates. Give

a couple of examples of predicates for each rep system.

Have students take 5 minutes to generate words and phrases for

each rep system. Have them share their results in pairs, or in a

small group, for another 5 minutes or less.

Clear up

Which system did you find it easiest to generate examples for?

Which (if any) was hardest?

Any that you weren't sure about? (in terms of which rep system

they fit into)

Be prepared for some phrases that mix rep systems without the

student having realised it - gently point these out.



Future pace: listen out for these sensory / rep system predicates in

future - from now on you'll see them coming, you'll hear them all

over the place, you'll run into them everywhere, there will be an

increase in your rate of predicate recognition...

Options

You can restrict the exercise to sensory systems (VAK) or you can

include Digital / Auditory Digital (Ad) as another rep system. If

you don't include Ad in the exercise, remember to introduce it

somewhere else!

You could also include the 'minor' rep systems - Olfactory and

Gustatory. The more systems you include, the more time you

need to allow.


-Introduction to NLP, -Coaching Skills, -Therapy Skills, -

Influencing, -Sales



Rep Systems Preference Test


Objectives:

• Familiarise students with the idea of rep systems

• Stimulate discussion leading to greater self-awareness

Procedure

Once students are aware of the concept of representational

systems (including 'Auditory Digital'), hand out the Rep Systems

Preference Test (in Handouts) and ask them to fill it in. Also give

out the Scoring Your Rep System Preferences sheet.

Alternatively, use your own favourite representational systems

preference test. Emphasise that it's not a competition and there

are no overall 'high' or 'low' scores.

Some people will finish more quickly than others. Suggest that

they find someone else who has finished and compare their

results.

Clear up

Who scored highly on one rep system in particular?

Anyone score particularly low on one rep system compared to the

others?



Find out what people's rep system preferences are according to

the test.

Emphasise that this test has no scientific validity - it's just a

snapshot of the way that they have answered the questions at

this particular time. At another time, or in another context, they

might show a different preference.

In particular, caution them against labelling themselves or others

at the Identity level as "a visual" or whatever. People use all the

rep systems most of the time, and some people will be about

equal on all of them.

NLP is about increasing choice rather than reducing it - people

who say things like "I can't visualise, I'm a Kinaesthetic" have

missed the point of NLP (everyone can visualise, otherwise how

would they find their way home in the evenings and recognise

their families?)

This is also an opportunity to remind students that 'Auditory

Digital' (internal dialogue) is not a sensory system like the others,

but it is a representational system.

How would you spot someone's rep system preference (if they have

one) in conversation? Sensory words and phrases are known in

NLP as 'predicates'. At the same time, as John Grinder says, you

have to check in every 30 seconds or so to find out what rep



system they are currently using, rather than assuming that the

first one you hear is the one they use all the time.

Give out the Representational Systems and Sensory Specific

Phrases handouts.

FAQ - "How do I pay attention to someone's rep system as shown

up in their predicates, and at the same time stay aware of the

content of what they are saying?"

Generally, I trust my unconscious mind. Some books on NLP

would have you believe that everyone has a strong, obvious

preference for one rep system or another. In fact, most people

switch happily between rep systems depending on context, or use

all of them in combination.

There are only two situations where you really have to

consciously think about this: one is if you have a very strong

preference yourself - e.g. kinaesthetic. You will be able to

communicate better with a wider range of people, and sound

more interesting and vivid, if you practice thinking in other

modalities and introducing words from other sensory systems

into what you are saying.

The other situation is if you meet someone with a very strong

preference. You will notice this. If you meet someone with a very

strong visual preference, it will be blindingly obvious. If you are

talking to someone with a clear auditory preference, you will hear



it straight away. A strong kinaesthetic preference will jump out

and grab you! And if you encounter a personage with an auditory-

digital preference, your cognitive unconscious will immediately

register the data and communicate its diagnosis to your

attention...

So which predicates would you use in writing, where you don't

know if the recipient has a strong rep system preference?

A mixture of predicates from different rep systems. Your writing,

like your speech, will hold the attention more if you use sensory

rather than Ad words, because it's easier for the reader to make

vivid. internal representations from sensory language. It's also

more precise, because words without direct sensory referents,

particularly nominalisations, can mean different things to

different people or not mean very much at all (I recommend

George Orwell's short essay Politics and the English Language on

this topic - it has some interesting commonalities with NLP).

If you were speaking to an audience, where people will probably

have different preferences, which rep system would you use?

Again, a mixture, with a preference for sensory rather than

'digital' language unless you are talking about a specialised field

(e.g. law, science) which has its own Ad jargon.





Influencing, -Sales



Rep System Translation Exercise


Objectives

• Participants become more aware of rep systems and more

skilled in translating between them

Procedure

Handouts: Representational Systems and Sensory Specific

Phrases.

Individually (in writing) or as a group (verbally), participants

translate the following statements into a different rep system (my

suggestions in italics):

1. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm feeling my way through it.

There are some more optimistic notes beginning to come

through.

2. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I can't see a way out.

There's nothing good to say about the situation.

I'm in the poo.

3. That really resonates with me.



I see what you mean.

That gets me right here

Can't put my finger on it.

Nothing's springing to mind.

I don’t see it.

5. Brilliant!

Cool!

Sound! (this is actually a kinaesthetic one)

Rock'n'roll!

6. I can't hear myself think.

It's all a blur at the moment.

My head's full of cotton wool.

7. It's like a weight was taken from my shoulders.

It's like the sun suddenly came out.

Peace at last!

8. I smell a rat.

It's a bit off-colour.

I detect a false note.

9. He lit up like a Christmas tree.

He felt a rush.

Zing went the strings of his heart!



10. Certain actions were taken which after due consideration were

determined to have resulted in a sub-optimal outcome.

We f***ed up!

We dropped a clanger.



Influencing, -Sales



Representational System Exercise 1

Timing: 3 minutes + 2 minutes feedback per round

Objective:

• Participants develop their ability to track representational

systems in parallel with content

Procedure


Phrases.


Speaker has a conversation with Matcher about something that's

easy to talk about. Matcher (as well as doing normal non-verbal

matching) tracks content and rep systems used – tracking content

is the priority.

Observer tracks rep systems used by both participants and gives

feedback on the rep systems used, and on the matching of rep

systems, after each round.

Rotate until each participant has played each role.

Clear up




(to Matchers) How conscious were you of the rep systems used?

(to Observers) How much matching was going on?

Often the Matcher will have matched rep systems without being

fully aware of it.

FAQs

"I found it really hard to notice any words specific to a sensory

rep system."

So you're feeling stuck with this, like you can't get a handle on it?

Having a rough time? Maybe a sinking feeling? (and so in, using

kinaesthetic words, until they get it).

What rep system was I using there?

See, you saw the light pretty quickly there, I didn’t have to draw

you a diagram – I don't see a problem…

Usually people will use a mixture of rep systems – which means

that you can talk back to them using whatever your habitual

systems are and they will understand you easily. If someone is

leaning very heavily one rep system, you'll find that jumps out at

you and grabs you very powerfully. If auditory words are a

recurring theme in their conversation, that again will strike a

chord and ring the alarm bells loud and clear.



And let's not overgeneralise and forget the auditory-digital system,

which is many people's primary mode of conceptualisation and

communication, especially in business…



Representational System Exercise 2

Timing

5 minutes + 2 minutes feedback each round.

Objectives:

• Participants become skilled in matching and mismatching

representational systems

• Participants develop confidence in their abilities to do the

above

Procedure


Phrases.


Speaker has a conversation with Matcher about something that's

easy to talk about. Matcher (as well as doing normal non-verbal

matching throughout) first matches the speakers rep systems for

two minutes, then mismatches just the rep systems for two

minutes, then matches again for the final minute.

Observer tracks rep systems used by both participants and gives

feedback on the rep systems used, and on the matching and

mismatching of rep systems, after each round.



Rotate until each participant has played each role.

Clear up


(to Speakers) How did you feel when you were mismatched?

(to Matchers) How easy was it?

FAQs

As for Rep System Exercise 1 above.



Rep System Storytelling Exercise

Timing

5 minutes.

Objective:

• Participants become more skilled in shifting gracefully from

one rep system to another, while keeping track of content

Procedure

Four or five participants

Stand or sit in a circle.

A starts of telling a story in Visual mode for two sentences. The

next person then continues the story with two sentences using

Auditory words, then the next person does two more in

Kinaesthetic. The next person continues the story with two more

sentences in Visual. With four people, you are now back to the

first person, who continues in Auditory, and so on. With five

people, the story will arrive back at the first person in Kinesthetic

mode.

Continue telling the story until each person has used Visual,

Auditory and Kinaesthetic - or until the story reaches a natural

punchline.



When it gets too easy

• Add Auditory Digital to the storytelling modes (you will need 5

participants for this)

• Take it down to one sentence in each mode

A note on participant numbers: if you are using 3 rep systems,

you need four or 5 participants, so that the same person doesn't

get the same rep system twice. If you use four rep systems, you

need 3 or 5 participants. Note that 6 participants won't work, as

each participant will end up with the same one or two rep

systems.

Clear up

Which rep systems did you find easiest? Which were the hardest to

do?

If the story was describing an experience that majored in one sense

(e.g. a concert would be mostly auditory), what did you do when

you had to use other rep systems? (they could, for example, use

metaphor to describe a sensory experience in terms of another

sense - "a stirring melody that made my heart leap")


-Storytelling



Overlapping Rep Systems

Timing: 10 minutes per round + clear up

Objectives:

• Become more aware of your own most favoured and least

favoured representational systems

• Become more skilled at leading someone into an altered state

by overlapping rep systems

Procedure

Optionally, demo this first.

In pairs. Notice your most preferred rep system (from VAK), and

your least preferred, and tell your partner.

Find out a typical activity that your partner likes doing (e.g.

walking along a beach, driving a car). Take a few moments to

devise a description of this activity that starts with your partner's

most favoured rep system, continues through the next most

favoured, and ends up with the least favoured.

Example describing walking along a beach for a person with a

most preferred rep system of kinaesthetic and a least preferred of

visual: “As you walk along you can feel the warmth of the sun and



the sand between your toes. You can feel and hear it crunching

beneath your feet, almost drowned out by the noise of the surf

and the cries of the seabirds. If you were to turn towards that

sound, you might notice the sparkle of the sunlight on the

waves…”

Play this back to your partner using a soothing, hypnotic tonality.

Notice what happens. Swap roles.

Clear up

Listeners - what happened as you heard the activity described to

you in overlapping rep systems? What happened in your subjective

experience? (expect the least favoured rep system to be easier to

access than usual, and possibly a sense of 'altered state' from

some participants)

'Overlappers' - how easy was it to overlap from one rep system to

another? (it's easier if you relax and just do it, rather than

agonising over 'getting it right')

What would make it easier? (practice)

What changes did you notice in your partner as you played back

their experience to them? (any signs of altered state)

Notice that if someone has a preferred rep system of visual, and

you lead them into processing in kinaesthetic or auditory mode,

they are in something of an altered state from normal - so



overlapping rep systems can be used as a form of trance

induction. Duane Lakin, in 'The Unfair Advantage: Practical

Applications of NLP for Sales and Marketing', recommends

answering objections in a different rep system from the one they

are couched in.

How will you use overlapping rep systems in the future?


-Hypnosis



Generating Rep System Questions

Timing: 20 minutes

Objectives:

• Become more aware of the impact of language on the internal

representations of the listener

• Become more aware of the possibility of differences in maps

of the world leading to unexpected results

• Specifically, to embed the idea of V (remembered and

constructed), A (remembered and constructed), K, and Ad

• (Covert) Generate questions for use in Eye Accessing Cues

Elicitation exercise that follows

Procedure

Make students aware of the above representational modes. Ask

them as an experiment to generate, write down and try out

questions designed to take someone into one or other of these

modes as they process it, e.g.

Vr (VISUAL RECALL)

"What colour is the front door where you work?"

"How many windows does your place have?"

Vc (VISUAL CONSTRUCT)

"If the Owl and the Pussycat had kids, what would they look like?"

"What would your bedroom look like if it was painted silver?"



Ar (AUDITORY RECALL)

"What was the very last thing I said?"

"What does Donald Duck's voice sound like?"

Ac (AUDITORY CONSTRUCT)

'If tigers spoke English, what would they sound like?'

'What would your favourite song sound like, if it was sung by a

coyote?'

K (KINAESTHETIC)

"What does velvet feel like?"

"How warm do you like your bath?"

Ad (AUDITORY DIGITAL - INTERNAL VOICE)

"Can you recite the seven times table to yourself?"

"What's your favourite proverb or saying?"

Generate as many questions as you can for 10 minutes, then try

them out on each other for 10 minutes.

Clear up


Did the questions have the effect you expected when you tried

them out?

Keep the questions for the next exercise.



Eliciting Eye Accessing Cues

Timing: 15 minutes

Objectives:

• Become familiar with eye accessing cues

• Introduce concepts of Lead, Primary and Reference rep

systems

Procedure

This exercise needs volunteers who are 'normally wired' as

regards eye accessing cues. Ideally, you will already have marked

out some students in whom the eye accessing cues are highly

visible. At the very least, make sure your volunteers are right

handed (unless you have spotted someone who is left handed but

'normally wired').

This needs one volunteer for every six or so students.

Get each volunteer to stand in front of their group of six. Place

the standard 'eye accessing cues' wallchart behind the volunteer.

Students ask them questions generated in the previous '

Generating Representational System Questions' exercise, and

observe the direction of their eye movements in response to the

questions. The volunteer does not have to answer questions out

loud.



Continue until students have observed the eye accessing cues.

If the volunteer is up for it, you could video their responses.

As the trainer, look out for accessing cues indicating Lead and

Reference rep systems.

Clear up

What did you observe?

What to expect: often the eye accessing cues are by no means

obvious. This could be for a number of reasons:

1. The subject may be accessing a different rep system from

the one you would expect from the question. For example, if

you ask them 'What colour is the front door where you

work?' they may be seeing a memory of the door in the

context of the workplace frontage, as you would expect from

the question - or they may be seeing the door just floating

there on its own, which could be a constructed image, since

they have never seen it that way in real life.

2. The subject may access their Lead rep system first, to

retrieve the memory, before processing it in the system that

the question would point to. To answer 'What does a parrot

sound like?', the subject may momentarily flash into their



Lead rep system to retrieve a visual image of a parrot, in

order to access the Auditory remembered sound.

3. After retrieving an image, sound or feeling in response to

the question, the subject may go into their Reference system

(e.g. Kinaesthetic) to check that their answer feels right.

4. The subject's thought processes move quickly, and they

rapidly move on to some other thought which may be

attended by more obvious eye accessing movements, or

movements of longer duration, than those that came from

answering the question.

Also be aware that if students have read up on criticisms of NLP

before coming on the course, they may be skeptical about eye

accessing cues, since this is where critics of NLP have mostly

focused their attacks. It's worth being aware of the flaws in the

design of experiments which have furnished the 'evidence' on

which these criticisms are based - ably exposed in an article by

Andy Bradbury at:

http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/nlpfax09.htm

http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/nlpfax09.htm



Emotional Awareness With Eye

Accessing Cues

Timing: 2 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants gain a way of becoming more (or less) aware of

their own emotions

• Reminds students of eye accessing cues

This exercise could form a lead-in to learning eye accessing cues,

or form part of exploring the concept.

Procedure

Guide the whole class through this, or let them explore in pairs.

Step 1: Check how you are feeling emotionally right now. Check

for quality (what the emotion is) and intensity (how strongly you

feel it).

Step 2: Look down towards your ‘feeling’ side (as previously

established when learning about eye accessing cues, or towards

the dominant hand if you haven't covered this yet) and again

check how you feel.

Step 3: What differences do you notice in quality and/or

intensity? Has the feeling changed?



Clear up

Really Step 3 above is the main clear up. Further questions will

depend on the group's responses. It's always worth asking after

any exercise "What are you going to do differently as a result of

what you've learned?"


-Emotional Intelligence



Preferred Sensory System for Love


Objectives:

• Provides a memorable example of concept of sensory systems

• Increases self-awareness around relationships

• Adds some movement to a study session

Procedure

Clear the chairs away of necessary. ‘Draw’ an imaginary triangle

on the floor of the classroom. One corner is Visual, one is

Auditory, one is Kinaesthetic.

Ask the group to stand up and ask them:

How do you know when you are loved? Is it the way that special

someone looks at you? Or the particular tone of voice they use to

tell you? Or is it a special touch? Which one, or more, of these

really lets you know when you are loved?

Ask them to stand at the place in the triangle which represents

how important each type of information is to them - if it’s all

about the look, stand at the Visual corner; if all three senses are

equally important, stand in the centre of the triangle.

Clear up

Are you where you would expect?



How about other people?

Who would you want to be aware of this information about you,

and how are you going to let them know it? What difference will it

make when they know?

What are you going to do differently now?


-Emotional Intelligence, -Dealing With Difficult People,

-Introduction to NLP, -Interpersonal Skills

Note: This exercise is based on one by Richard Bolstad and Margot Hamblett in their book Transforming Communication (available direct from Richard's website at www.transformations.net.nz).

V

A K

Andrew Smith




Submodality Exercises

All the things that go on in your mind affect you,

and they’re all potentially within your control

- Richard Bandler, Using Your Brain for a Change

“

”



Bad Experience / Good Experience

Exercise

Timing: about 10 minutes with clear-up

Objectives:

• Participants experience the difference that submodalities make

to emotional response

• Participants feel more empowered to "run their own brains"

• Participants understand more fully that the structure of

experience is more important than content

Procedure

Trainer leads this exercise.

(Warning: for the ‘bad experience’, choose something no higher

than about 6 on the scale of 1 to 10)



"Script" Comments

Think of a bad experience you've had. Presupposes they've

had one.

As you picture it:

• How big is it?

• Whereabouts is it in your perceptual space –

point to it.

• Is it colour or black and white?

• Moving or still?

• 3D or flat?

• Is your point of view inside the picture as if

you're there, or outside the picture so you

can see yourself in there?

"Forcing" a visual

Elicit submodalities

(do this quickly, not

giving them time to

'make it up')

How do you feel as you look at it?

We expect a bad

feeling here

Now step out of the picture – make it flat –

freeze-frame it – make it black and white –

make it smaller and dimmer. How do you feel

now?

Check their

responses – the bad

feeling should be

less intense

Notice which change made the biggest

difference

Now think of a good experience – you can

make this as intense as you want!

Note the embedded

suggestion

continues next page



As you picture it:

• How big is it?

• Whereabouts is it in your perceptual space –

point to it.

• Is it colour or black and white?

• Moving or still?

• 3D or flat?

• Is your point of view inside the picture as if

you're there, or outside the picture so you

can see yourself in there?

Do this fast, as

before

As you look at it, how do you feel? We expect good

Now make it life-size!

Make the colour more intense!

Put some movement in there!

Make it 3D!

And step into it, if you haven't already.

What does it sound like?

The sound is a bit

of a cheat as it's

not a visual

submodality

How do you feel now? The good feeling

should be more

intense

What changes made the most difference?

So notice that we're not changing the content

of the experience, just the qualities of how you

represent it



Clear up

"I'm not good at visualising."

It's OK, you can just pretend. You may be better at feeling the good

experience, hearing what it sounded like, or even describing it in

words.

We use the visual modality as our first choice because it works for

most people and it's quicker and easier – you can do it with

auditory and kinaesthetic as well, it just takes a bit longer.

So how might you use this?

(Dissociate and turn down submodalities to defuse bad

memories, mentally rehearse what might go wrong e.g. in a

presentation.

Associate and turn up submodalities to increase enjoyment of

good memories and increase motivation to achieve future goals)


-Introduction to NLP, -Goal Setting, -Motivation, -Stress

Management, -Therapy Skills



Compulsion to Indifference Exercise


Objectives:

• Participants understand power of submodalities in changing

attitudes to things or situations

• Participants acquire a quick and easy "convincer" exercise they

can use with clients

Procedure

Demo this first. Use the ‘Basic Submodalities Change - Mapping

Across’ handout.

A good example to use is a food that the client "likes too much"

(present state) which can be shifted into the submodalities of a

food that is disgusting to them (desired state). Other possibilities

– an unresourceful state (e.g. confusion) to a resourceful one (e.g.

calm curiosity).

1. Identify the two states (or values/beliefs) that you want to

contrast — one desired, one undesired. E.g. a 'tempting' food

and a 'disgusting' food. Check that it's OK with the person to

not like the tempting food ever again.

2. Elicit the submodalities of each separately. Force a visual

representation and get the submodalities quickly.



"Where do you see the chocolate? Is it big or small? Life size or

bigger (or smaller)?…" etc

3. “Contrastive Analysis”. Identify the Drivers - the critical

submodalities which make the difference between the two.

(Usually it is good to go for the following as critical: location,

distance, associated/dissociated, brightness, or focus.)

4. Let go of the content of the desired state, creating a void.

Change the submodalities of the present state to those of the

desired state. Emphasise the drivers. You can leave the content

of the present state as it is, although this may change by itself.

5. Test the change using the internal kinaesthetic experience (e.g.

"Does this feel like understanding now?") and future pace.

Have the students try this in pairs – then swap round.

Clear-Up

What did you notice? Which submodalities made the difference for

you?

Often smell is the driver – a bit of a cheat but if the client comes

up with it, use it!



Submodality Belief Change

Timing: 15 minutes per round + clear up

Objectives:

• Gain experience using submodalities

• Underlines principle of getting results by working with

structure not content

• Let go of a limiting belief

• Gain a way of helping others to let go of limiting beliefs

Procedure

In threes - Explorer, Guide, Observer.

To be done after simpler submodality exercises like ‘Bad

Experience/Good Experience’ and ‘Amplifying Motivation’. In

particular, do this as the next exercise after ‘Compulsion to

Indifference’, since this is essentially an extension of that exercise

which does a similar process twice - once to take the power out of

a limiting belief, the second time to strengthen a replacement

desired belief.

Students should have the ‘Submodalities’ and ‘Submodality Belief

Change’ handouts.

Remind the group that beliefs are arbitrary linkages between

events, things and concepts made by our minds, based on our



existing mental filters and becoming additional mental filters in

themselves. Also remind them of the psychological concept of

‘Confirmation Bias’ - that we tend to filter out evidence that

contradicts our beliefs, while amplifying evidence that confirms

them. Beliefs are therefore not the same as ‘reality’, although they

feel real to us because they create their own evidence and become

self-fulfilling prophesies.

You may want to demo the process first, although if the students

have just done the ‘Compulsion to Indifference’ exercise it should

be enough to point out that the process is essentially the same

exercise done twice.

Have groups of Explorer, Guide and Observer work through the

process using the ‘Submodality Belief Change’ handout, taking

each role in turn. Have the Observers give a couple of minutes

sensory-based, non-evaluative feedback at the end of each round.

Clear Up


What were the drivers?

If anyone says it didn’t work, find out how fast they were doing

the elicitation (sometimes novices do it too slowly). Other

possibilities - the submodalities of the new belief were not made

sufficiently compelling, or there was an ecology issue around

letting go of the new belief or adopting the old one.



What are you going to do differently in future? (answers could be

about how people are going to act now they are free from their

limiting belief, or about how they are going to use the method to

help clients, family, or themselves).



Unconfident/Confident State Differences

Timings: 10 minutes per round

Objectives

• Participants become more aware of submodality differences

between two opposed states

• Participants evoke their 'observing self' - always helpful for

personal development

• Participants become more confident in a given context

Procedure

Two participants, Explorer and Coach (can add a third Observer)

Coach asks Explorer to identify a situation in which they feel less

confident than they would like. Coach elicits the kinaesthetic

submodalities of this 'unconfident' state, starting with location in

the body. (optionally - what words come to mind as you

experience this state?)

Break state.

Coach asks Explorer about the kinaesthetic submodalities of

confidence, starting with what does it feel like and where do you

feel it? (optionally - what words come to mind as you experience

this state?)



Make sure that 'confidence' is experienced more strongly than

'unconfidence' - find other resources states in that location if

needed.

Coach asks Explorer to be aware of both locations simultaneously

- what happens as you move your attention from the

'unconfident' location to the 'confident' location? Pause, then

start again at 'unconfident' and move to 'confident'. The aim is to

set up a pathway that automatically moves from 'unconfident' to

'confident' - or at least have the Explorer know what they need to

do to move from one to the other.

Switch roles.

Clear Up

What happened as you became aware of both locations at the

same time?

What happened as you moved from 'unconfident' to 'confident'?

What to expect

Often the 'unconfident' state will become weaker, or start to take

on some of the characteristics of 'confident'.


-Introduction to NLP, -Confidence, -Self-Esteem, -Therapy Skills



Dealing With A Critical Inner Voice

Timing: About 10 minutes with clear-up

Objectives:

• Experience using auditory submodalities

• Take control of the "inner critic"

Procedure

Trainer leads the whole group. Make sure to return the inner

voice to its starting point after each change, to identify which

changes made the most difference.

Who often has some internal dialogue or commentary? (usually

most people will) The rest of you are saying to yourself, "Internal

dialogue? What's he on about?"

Those of you who can't hear it, you can just smile during this

next exercise – and I want you to observe your fellow participants

closely.

Is that voice ever critical?

Notice where the voice is coming from (inside or outside your

body, and whereabouts), the tone, volume, and pitch. Notice how

you feel when you pay attention to it.



Would the voice still have the same effect if it came from your

left big toe? (the client has to try the new location out in order to

answer the question)

Return the voice to its original location – we are only going to

alter one variable at a time.

What effect would it have if it said the same things, but in the

style of Donald Duck?

If you turned the volume up, if you turned it down (or off), if it

was very high pitched, very deep, very fast, or very slow, if it used

a humorous tone, or a loving tone… (try these out one by one,

putting them back each time - NB some changes might make

things worse, so change them back at once if they do).

Clear up

Which submodality change had the most positive effect for you?

Keep the changes that work best for you.


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management, -Therapy Skills, -

Coaching Skills, -Self-Esteem, -Confidence



Amplifying Motivation

Time: 5 minutes (10 with pairs, 15 with trios)

Objectives:

• Participants experience power of submodalities to amplify

emotional response

• Participants understand importance of having dissociated

picture of goal

• Participants amplify their own motivation

Procedure

Do this with trainer taking whole group through exercise, or

demo it and have the group do it in pairs, trios – depending on

how much time you have.

1. Think of a goal you have and notice how

you feel as you look at it.

Forces a visual.

2. Elicit submodalities Do this quickly

3. Amplify submodalities, checking what

happens to the emotional response after

each one:

Make it bigger – notice what happens to

your emotional response

Make colour more intense

Do this quite

quickly too.

usually life-size is

best – bigger may

make it "not real"



Make it clearer

Put some movement into it

Make it 3D (if flat to start with)

Step into it (if dissociated to start with)

Notice what it sounds like

Notice what you feel – turn up those

good feelings

if still to start with

if flat to start with

if not already

there

state change

should be visible

4 Now step out of it – because you're not

there yet!

Unconscious mind doesn't distinguish

between 'reality' and imagination – if you

stayed associated into the image it would

feel like you were already there, so you

could just spend your life daydreaming.

With a dissociated vision, you know you

want to get there, and you have to do

something to make it happen.

Clear-up


What change made the biggest difference?



Note that since everyone has a different map of the world, the

occasional participant may find that changing a particular

submodality may not have the result you expect - for example,

they might feel less intensely about their goal when they step into

it than when viewing it from outside. Also, turning up a

submodality too far may go over a threshold that reduces

motivation - for example, making the colours of an image too

garish and saturated may make it feel unrealistic.

Variation

If doing this exercise with an audience who have not had the

opportunity to prepare a well-formed goal, you may prefer to do

this exercise with the image of a good memory instead. Just omit

the 'stepping out' in step 4, as maximising the good feelings from

the memory rather than motivation is the aim in this case.


-Introduction to NLP, -Goal Setting, -Motivation, -Stress

Management, -Coaching Skills, -Therapy Skills



Swish Pattern

Timing: 10 minutes per round (inc feedback)

Objectives:

• Participants can use visual Swish pattern to defuse negative

triggers

• Participants get to have one of their own negative triggers

defused

Procedure

Demo this with volunteer. Do the Swish pattern (as in the manual)

to defuse a visual trigger for an emotional response (e.g. the sight

of a particular person, or a particular facial expression, or going

in to a particular office). This can also be done for a habit (e.g.

being offered a cigarette).

Ensure that students know that trigger image should be

associated (because that's how they will see it next time it

happens in real life) while "good" image of self as they want to be

should be dissociated (builds motivation to get there).

Ensure submodalities of desired image are powerful and

compelling (calibrate the emotional response of demo subject

when they have built it).

Have students do the Swish in pairs (or threes if there is time).



Clear-up

The most common reason for it not working is because the

desired image is not compelling enough.

Either size or distance is usually the driver submodality.

Visual swishes are the easiest to do – it is possible to do auditory,

kinaesthetic and even olfactory swishes but visual is easiest.


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management, -Therapy Skills, -

Confidence



Re-Contextualising Bad Experiences


Objectives:

• Participants understand power of submodalities and how

context changes meaning

• Participants 'defuse' a bad experience

Procedure

Two participants - Explorer and Coach

Coach asks Explorer to identify an experience that is somewhat

uncomfortable - a 4 or 5 on the 'Richter Scale' of unpleasantness,

rather than a 9.

Coach asks Explorer to identify four good, resourceful

experiences and to arrange the visual representations of these

experiences (whatever Explorer sees when looking at each

experience) in a quadrant:

1

2

3

4



Make sure the pictures have strong submodalities (big, bright,

colourful, perhaps moving).

Now place the uncomfortable experience with weaker

submodalities (smaller, darker, less colourful, still) in the centre

of the good experiences, so they frame it.

What is different about the experience that you identified as

uncomfortable now?

Clear up

Explorer - what happened when you surrounded the 'bad'

experience with more powerful resource experience?

Coach (or Observer if present) - what did you observe at each step?


learned?

Note: This exercise is based on my (possibly imperfect)

recollection of one devised by John McWhirter

www.sensorysystems.co.uk

1

2

3

4

http://www.sensorysystems.co.uk




-Stress Management, -Therapy Skills, -Self-Esteem, -Confidence



The Confidence Chorus


Objectives:

• Participants boost their self-esteem and confidence

• Participants gain a better understanding of the power of

auditory submodalities, particularly location

Procedure

2 participants - Explorer and Coach (optionally, add an Observer)

Explorer identifies an upcoming situation where they are not as

resourceful as they would like to be (e.g. job interview,

presentation, best man's speech, court appearance). If no suitable

situation comes to mind, ask what the Explorer would really like

to do but has not dared to so far.

Briefly associate into the experience - enough to get a feel for it

and rate it on a 1-10 scale of intensity.

Coach guides Explorer to imagine being 'backed up' by two sets of

people. The 'inner circle' is made up of four people who love

them, or who are close friends. The 'outer circle' is four people (or

more) who respect them and are well disposed towards them.

The 'inner circle' are arranged one at each shoulder of the

Explorer, and two behind. The 'outer circle' are just beyond that.



Explorer imagines each person in the inner and outer circles

saying supportive things that convey a belief in the Explorer's

ability to succeed in the coming challenge. Experiment with the

auditory submodalities of each voice to give the maximum feeling

of confidence to the Explorer.

(Optionally - experiment with the optimum distances from the

Explorer of the inner and outer circle).

Now turn the voices down so that the Explorer can pay full

attention to the challenge, but still knows that the supporters are

'there' and so still feels supported.

As a future pace: what will be different now when you are in that

situation for real? Ask what the Explorer needs to do in order to

have these supporters available when needed in the future (ie

have them self-anchor the experience). Break state and test.

Clear up


Explorers - what element of that procedure made the real

difference for you?


-Stress Management, -Therapy Skills, -Self-Esteem, -Confidence



New Behaviour Generator

Timing: 10 minutes max per round

Prerequisites

Participants are familiar with eye accessing cues and

submodalities. For certain of the refinements, they would need

familiarity with the basic concept of a timeline, chunking, or

communicating with the unconscious mind.

Objectives:

• Participants practice an effective method of 'mental rehearsal',

learning from past mistakes, utilising resources from other

contexts, and learning from role models


We know from sports psychology that mental rehearsal makes

success more likely - here's a way to do it effectively, and to be

able to learn not just from role models but from past mistakes.

Procedure

Two participants - 'Experiencer' and 'Guide'

No need to demo this. Guide coaches the Experiencer through the

following process:



1. Describe a behaviour you would like to be able to do, or how

you would like to be able to do something better. Start from a

belief and internal dialogue of 'I can do this'.

2. Go into Vc and create a movie of yourself doing the new

behaviour the way you want. Add sound so that you see and

hear yourself. Adjust the movie until you are satisfied with the

new behaviour.

3. Step into the 'movie' and check how this feels (K). Make any

further adjustments you need to until you feel the way you

want.

4. Future pace extensively – see yourself using the new behaviour

in 3 or more opportunities in the future to generalise the new

ability out.

Refinements:

Use a role model: In steps 2 and 3 you can use a 'role model' who

you know can do the desired behaviour well. Run a movie of that

person performing the behaviour (Step 2) and then 'become' that

person in Step 3. Then repeat Steps 2 and 3 with yourself in the

movie, making any changes you need to.

Use resources from your past: if you have dealt with similar

situations well in the past, see yourself doing that (Vr) and then

transfer that skill into the new situation (Vc).



Chunk the behaviour down: if you need to, chunk the desired

behaviour down into smaller steps and run through Steps 2 and 3

on each.

Use a timeline: lay a timeline out on the floor. See yourself

enjoying the results of the desired behaviour and place this goal

on the timeline. Step into it, get the good feelings, and notice the

steps and any new behaviours associated with them leading up to

the successful achievement of this goal.

Step off the timeline and notice where each new behaviour step is

on the timeline. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each new behaviour.

Finally walk up the timeline from now, associating into each step,

until you reach your goal. Store your goal and the new behaviours

associated with it wherever feels right for you.

Create alternatives: at Step 2 ask your unconscious mind to

create at least 3 options for new behaviours. Try out each and

select the most appropriate.

Clear up

How did it go?

What happened at each stage?

What made the most difference for you?

What did your guide do or say that was particularly helpful?



Anchoring and

Eliciting States



State Elicitation Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes brainstorm/explanation + 5 minutes per

round

Objectives:

• Become more aware of what works in eliciting states

• Lays the groundwork for anchoring exercises

• Practice calibration

Procedure

With the group, brainstorm different ways of helping someone to

change state. Fill in any important ways that the group has

missed.

Then: In pairs - Explorer and Guide (could be in 3s with the

addition of Observer).

Explorer chooses a state that they would like to go into. Guide

uses any methods they choose to help the Explorer reach the

chosen state. When the Explorer gets there: switch round.

Clear up

Explorers: how did that go?

What did your Guide do that was most helpful in reaching the

state?

Guides: how did you know that your Explorer was getting nearer?



(Optional) Observers: what did you notice?

All: what are you going to do differently in future?


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management, -Coaching Skills, -

Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills, -Self-Esteem, -Confidence, -

Management, -Emotional Intelligence



Self-Anchoring

Timing: 5 minutes

Objective:

! Participants build a resource anchor for themselves and gain a

process they can teach to clients

Procedure (Do this with whole group)

1. "Select a problem situation where you would like to behave

more resourcefully. What is the event that tells you that you

are in that type of situation? Notice how you have normally felt

in that situation and what usually happens."

2. "Now step out of that and choose a resource you would like to

have more of in that situation – it might be courage,

perseverance, energy, humour – whatever is most useful."

3. Elicit the state (get into powerful resourceful state yourself):

"What is it like when you feel like that? How do you know that

you are in that state? When have you been like that? Maybe

there's one specific time…. when was that? Where were you?

What were you doing? Who else was there? What did you see,

hear, feel? Are you in that state now?"

NB this is much better than "Can you remember a time when

you had <resource>?" – if they are not feeling very resourceful



when you ask the question, the chances are they won't

remember it.

4. Select anchors: "I want you to choose an image and a word or

phrase that you can use as an anchor for that state whenever

you need it. Also a physical gesture – something unobtrusive

that you can use anywhere is best.

5. Condition anchors: "Now I want you to go back to that

resourceful memory again – really feel it - and when you feel

the resourceful state is near its peak, see the image, say the

word to yourself and physically make the gesture."

6. Break state: "Now step out of that memory and come back to

'normal'." Make sure they are back – distract them if necessary.

7. Test the anchor: "Now imagine you're about to go through that

'problem' situation again – this time as soon as you notice the

'trigger' event, see that image, say the word to yourself and

physically make the gesture. Notice what's different this time."

Clear-up

Which anchor worked best for you?


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management, -Therapy Skills, -Self-

Esteem, -Confidence



Eliciting Powerful Positive States

Timing: About 5 minutes for the demo, and 5 minutes per

round.

Objectives:

! Participants know how to elicit states successfully

! Participants get into more positive state themselves

Procedure

Demo this first and then have participants try it in pairs. Key

concept is 'state dependent memory' – if they are far from the

desired state to start with, some people can't easily remember

previous times when they had it.

1. Choose powerful, high-energy positive state to evoke – e.g.

ecstatically happy.

2. Identify how they feel now (e.g. calm, a bit flat).

3. Lead them gradually into the state by taking on that state

yourself.

"Think of a time when you felt just OK." (Make sure they get

into it)

"Now think of a time when you felt pretty good and happy."



"Now a time when you felt better than that – really happy in

fact."

"And now a time when you felt even better than that -

absolutely ecstatically happy!"

"And you can anchor that for yourself."

Ask participants in pairs to lead their partners through a similar

process, evoking whatever powerful, high-energy resource state

the partners choose. They should remember to get into the state

themselves.

Clear-up

What do I need to know? What do you want to ask?



Presentation Skills, -Leadership



Circle of Excellence


Objectives:

! Participants experience and practise Circle of Excellence and

stacking resource anchors

! Participants gain a powerful resource anchor

Procedure

Demo this first. This is best done when group is already feeling

good. Use the ‘Circle of Excellence’ handout.

Do this in pairs (Explorer, Guide). Ideally, if you have time, add

Observer.

1. Identify an excellent state that you want to have more of.

2. Think of a future situation (dissociated) where it would be

useful to have that excellent state. Then break state.

3. Set up a circle of excellence on the floor. What colour is it?

How big?

4. Access the excellent state and associate it with the circle.

What does it feel like when you are in that state?



Remember a time when you were in that state.

As soon as you start to feel that state, step into the circle.

Fully access the state.

5. Step back out of the circle and break state.

6. Test by stepping back into the circle. The excellent state should

return. Step back out again.

7. Is that strong enough for when you need it? (if not, repeat the

process with more resource states (make sure they are

compatible with each other) or more examples of the same

resource state, and ‘stack’ them in the circle).

8. Chaining

Remember that “problem” situation?

What will let you know it’s time to have these resources

available?

Imagine you’re in that “problem” situation now, and step into

the circle as soon as you start to access the “problem” state

again.

8. Testing

Step back out of the circle.

Access the “problem” state – perhaps by talking about it.

What happens now when you think of what used to go

wrong?



The problem state should only appear briefly and lead

directly to the excellent state.

Clear up

What did you learn? What’s different now? How are you going to

use this?

If it didn’t work as well as expected, check that the Explorer was

in a sufficiently intense state, that they stepped into the circle at

the right time (ie as their state was changing up, not after it has

peaked), and that enough resource states were stacked.


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management, -Confidence, -Self-

Esteem

Note: this is a simplified version of the Circle of Excellence process developed by John Grinder (www.johngrinder.com) and Judith DeLozier (www.nlpu.com). For the full description of the process (a bit complicated for an intro course but fine for NLP Practitioner training) see The Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP and NLP New Coding

http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com



Collapsing a Negative Anchor

Timing: 15 minutes per round (pairs or trios)

Objectives:

• Participants learn the process and get one of their negative

anchors collapsed

Procedure

Demo this first. As ever with anchoring, get into the positive state

yourself when anchoring it.

1. Set the frame (i.e. explain what you’re going to do, get client’s

permission to touch them – obviously the students know about

anchoring so this is modeling what the students should do

with a real client)

2. Decide on which negative state is to be blown out

3. Decide on which positive/resource state is needed (high-

energy)

4. Get into specific positive state you’re eliciting

5. Make sure that the person is in a fully associated, intense,

congruent state



6. Anchor the positive state by touching some "neutral" part of

the client – knuckles are good (go on to stack more positive

states if you need to. You can ask the client “Is that strong

enough to get rid of <negative state>)?

7. Break state before you elicit the negative state.

8. Elicit and anchor the negative state on another knuckle (only

elicit the negative state as far as you need to anchor it)

9. Fire anchors at the same time until they peak, and the

integration is complete

10. Release the negative anchor

11. Hold the positive anchor for 5 more seconds and then

release

12. Test (by trying to fire the negative anchor, then by asking

about when the negative state used to occur).

Clear up


(If it didn't work, usually it's because the positive states weren't

intense enough)



New Orleans Flexibility Drill

Prerequisites

This exercise assumes that participants can set and stack

effective anchors.

Timing: around 25 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants practice anchoring

• Participants effectively dissolve an unresourceful response to

a particular stimulus

• Participants gain additional behavioural flexibility through

role-play

Procedure

Three participants:

• Explorer

• Coach

• Role-player (or 'actor', or 'annoyance')

1. Explorer identifies an external stimulus (a person, place, thing,

event, or any combination) that for them consistently triggers

an unresourceful state.

2. Coach anchors Explorer with the resources to successfully

handle the situation identified in Step 1, stacking several



resource states on the same anchor if needed. B tests the

anchor.

3. Explorer provides a detailed description of the scenario

identified in Step 1 and coaches Role-player in the specific

behaviours needed to accurately reproduce the external

stimulus. (Note that the term ‘role play’ implies using verbal

and nonverbal language patterns to re-create the external

stimulus, even if there was no other human involved.)

4. Coach triggers Explorer’s stacked resource anchor as Role-

player begins to role-play external stimulus. As Role-player

continues, Coach intermittently releases Explorers’s anchor,

calibrating Explorer’s state. Any time that Explorer begins to

revert to an unresourceful state, Coach reapplies the anchor.

Continue this process until Explorer remains completely

resourceful without needing the anchor to be triggered.

Clear up

What did you learn?

Role-players - how easy was it to role-play the stimulus?

(difficulties, feeling uncomfortable, etc, can be framed as useful

information for the role-player).

This is an adaptation of an exercise found in Tad James' NLP Practitioner

manual (1997) www.nlpcoaching.com



Walking The Energy Scale

Timing: About 5 minutes per round (pairs)

Objectives:

! Participants are aware of sliding anchors

! Participants have useful energy-boosting technique, for

themselves and clients

Procedure

Demo this first.

1. Ask for a volunteer who would like to have more energy right

now.

2. Ask them how they would rate their energy level on a scale of 1

to 10, where one is very low and ten is as high as it can go.

3. Ask them to lay out their "energy scale" as a line on the floor –

it needs to be at least 6 feet long.

4. Ask them to step on to the scale at whatever number they are

at now.

5. Ask them where they would like to be (ie a number – asking

"where" reinforces the spatial metaphor).



6. Ask them to walk up the scale to the number they want to be

at, only as quickly as they can feel their energy rising.

7. Take them beyond that point temporarily (calibrate signs of

rising energy level).

8. Take them back down below their starting point temporarily.

9. Let them walk back to wherever they want to be (NB this may

be a different number from their original desired level).

10. Have them roll up the energy scale and store it wherever

they want to keep it.

Clear up

What did you notice? As "client"? As coach?

You can also set up sliding anchors as "fader switches" e.g. along

the arm.


--Stress Management, -Goal Setting, -Motivation



Alphabet Editing


Objectives:

• Demonstrates state-dependent memory, learning and

behaviour

• Demonstrates power of breaking state/pattern interrupt

• Introduces New Code NLP

Procedure

This is a light, enjoyable exercise that makes a nice close to a

day's training.

Get students into groups of 4 to 6. For each group, set up a copy

of the Alphabet Edit wallchart (in Wall Charts but reproduced

here for convenience).

A B C D E R L T L L

F G H I J R T T R L

K L M N O T L R L R

P Q R S T



T L T R R

U V W X Y L T R T L

Z R

Each group consists of Explorer and Helpers. Explorer thinks of a

problem (nothing too serious, but worth resolving). Explorer

attempts to hold the problem in mind while reciting each

alphabet letter out loud and simultaneously performing the

action indicated by the smaller letter underneath it:

R= raise right arm

L = raise left arm

T= raise both arms

Meanwhile Helpers attempt to distract the Explorer by singing,

waving, making funny faces, etc.

If the problem still exists by the end of the alphabet, go through

the letters again in reverse order. If necessary, go from the top

again, this time using the legs:

R= raise right leg

L= raise left leg

T= jump on the spot



Change roles and repeat until everyone has had a go.

Clear up

What happened to the problem? (we would expect it to become

irrelevant or at least diminish)

Helpers - what signs of state change did you notice in the Explorer?

What you did there was a pattern interrupt. How else could you

use pattern interrupts in everyday life?

Variations

This would suit smaller groups of two (Explorer and Helper) or

three (with the addition of an Observer). Explorer identifies the

problem and thinks about how to solve it for a minute. Notice

how that feels.

Then perform the Alphabet Edit as above, but without trying to

hold the problem in mind, until a 'flow state' is reached.

Now think about how to solve the problem again - take up to 3

minutes. What's different now?

In place of the Alphabet Edit, you could use any activity that you

are familiar with that induces 'flow state' - e.g. juggling, dancing,

drumming, Tai Chi 'pushing hands', etc. Make sure that the



chosen activity will in fact induce a flow state in everyone as, for

example, dancing could be a negative anchor for some students.

Note: I believe this exercise was devised by John Grinder

(www.johngrinder.com)


-Introduction to NLP, -Stress Management



Peripheral Vision Desensitisation


Objectives:

• Learn how to use peripheral vision to come to terms with

uncomfortable memories or images

• Also reinforces elegant use of anchoring

Procedure

Handout: Peripheral Vision Desensitisation

Demo this first.

Two participants - Client and Coach.

Emphasise that clients should choose memories or imaginings to

work with that are uncomfortable, rather than intense traumas or

phobias.

Coach proceeds according to Peripheral Vision Desensitisation

handouts.

Clear up

How did you get on?

What did you learn?

What do you want to ask?



Future pace: When could you use this?

Remind them that this is also a technique they could use for

themselves.

Note: this process was devised by Amy Chu (my first mentor in

NLP) and Susan Chu.


-Stress Management, -Confidence, -Therapy Skills



Time



Back And Forward In Time

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Makes participants more aware of how we use spatial

metaphors for time

• Makes participants more aware of ambiguities and potential

misunderstandings in how we talk about time

Procedure

Do this with the whole class.

"Say we have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, and I tell you we

have to move it forward a day, what day is the meeting now

scheduled for? Monday or Wednesday?"

Explore the subjective experiences of someone who said 'Monday'

and someone who said 'Wednesday' (e.g. were they seeing a

calendar, did they have a sense of time as a line, and if so, which

direction does the line go?) How did they process the question

differently?

Repeat the questions for:

• Moving it back a day



With a deadline:

• Bringing it forward a day

• Pushing it forward a day

• Bringing it back a day

• Pushing it back a day

NB you may find that the same person interprets 'moving it

forward' differently from 'bringing it forward' or 'pushing it

forward'.

Clear up


What could happen in a business context if people interpret

'moving a deadline forward' differently?


-Time Management



Elicit the Time Line

Timing: 3 minutes (elicitation) + 5 minutes clear-up (group) or 2

minutes clear-up (individual)

Objectives:

• Participants understand that different people have different

time lines (group)

• Participants discover their own time line

• Participants practice eliciting other's time lines (individual)

Procedure

Do this with the whole group initially, then have participants

elicit each other's time lines (along with 'test drive')

"If you were to imagine time as a sequence of events or moments,

so that one moment follows another, so it's like a line with the

past at one end and the future at the other, and now somewhere

in between, so that the past is in a particular direction in your

perceptual space, so that you could point to it, if I was to ask your

unconscious mind to point in to where the past is, where would

you point? And with the other hand, where's the future?"

Get the group to look at where everyone else is pointing – with

any luck there will be a mixture of "in time" and "through time".



"And where's now?" Again, some people will point to where they

are, others to about 18 inches in front of them.

If anyone has any difficulty with this method, use the second

version with a mundane memory (e.g. cleaning your teeth) from

this morning, yesterday, a week ago, a month ago, a year ago –

and corresponding intervals in the future.

Clear up

Some people (very few) may not have a line as their preferred

representation of time – but everyone can represent time as a line

and this is what we need for timeline clearing to work (if you are

going on to teach timeline clearing).

If you were just exploring people's spatial metaphors for time,

you would want to use much "cleaner" questions.



Test-Drive The Time Line

Timing: 5 minutes + 5 minutes clear-up (group); 3 minutes + 2

minutes feedback + 5 minutes group clear-up (pairs)

Objectives:

• Participants build confidence in floating above the timeline

• Participants learn "test drive" process for use with clients

• give an early warning of problems if any participant "can't"

float back above the past

Procedure

Do this with the whole group right after you’ve elicited the

timeline, then have the participants elicit the timeline and do the

test drive in pairs as one exercise. Ask the group to let you know

(by lifting their hand) when they've reached each stage.

1. Close your eyes and float up above the timeline to a height at

which you are completely comfortable. Sometimes you may

find it easier to stay where you are and let the timeline sink

away below you – either way let me know when you've reached

that comfortable height.

2. Now turn towards the past and float a short distance in that

direction, and just float there, and let me know when you're

floating there.



3. Now turn around and float a similar short distance beyond

now towards the future, and let me know when you're floating

there.

4. Float back to above now and just practice floating up a little

and down a little and notice what happens as you do. Notice

the difference between this experience and your normal

everyday experience. And float up, and down, as many times as

you need to until you've noticed everything that's worth

noticing about that.

5. Bring back everything you liked about that experience as you

float back down to now, back into the room, and when your

unconscious mind is ready to move on to the next stage you

can open their eyes.

6. (When all have opened their eyes) – Welcome back.

Note the presuppositions in the language above.

Clear up

What was that like? How did it compare with normal everyday

experience?

Most people will say they felt “calm” or “detached” - this is what

we are looking for.



Very occasionally you may get a client who is uncomfortable

floating above the timeline. They can get a similar sense of

detachment by going off to one side of the timeline.


-Stress Management, -Time Management



Trying On A Different Timeline

Caution: you should only take a group through this exercise after

students have been through some form of timeline emotional

clearing to let go of emotional baggage - e.g. Time Line Therapy or

reimprinting.

Timing: 5 minutes to install + time to experience (at your

discretion) + 5 minutes to restore.

Objectives:

• Experience the world in a different way and understand

others better

• Have choice over your timeline's configuration and be able to

move between "In Time" and "Through Time" as appropriate.

• Improve your time management, or your ability to be "in the

moment", if needed

Procedure

You can do this as a group process. Schedule it immediately

before a break, or lunch, so that students have time to experience

the different timeline. Switch them back and do the clear up after

the break period.



It's important that students realise that they can change their

timeline back any time they want – so make sure they understand

how to do this.

Some students may find a re-oriented timeline very

uncomfortable – in these cases it's best to switch them back

straight away.

The process:

1. Ask the students to close their eyes and be aware of their

timeline. Tell them to float up above 'now', to a height at

which they are completely comfortable.

2. Tell "in time" students to rotate the timeline around so the

past is to their left and the future is to their right (or

reorient themselves relative to the timeline if this is easier

for them). Through-time students can just enjoy floating

there for now.

3. Tell the in-time students to float back a little, so that they

are above a point about 18 inches 'back' from now (ie when

they come down, the timeline will be in front of them rather

than through them).

4. Get them to 'click' the timeline into place with the sound of

a Tupperware box closing. This analogue marker fixes the

timeline in its new configuration.



5. For through time students, get them to rotate the timeline

so that the future is directly ahead of them, the past is

behind them, and 'now' is directly below them.

6. For these students, 'click' the new timeline into place.

7. Tell them to float back down and open their eyes and notice

how the new timeline orientation feels (if they are

uncomfortable with the new orientation, reverse the process

to switch it back).

8. Make sure they understand they can switch the timeline

back any time they want or need to.

Clear up

Check that students are OK with trying out their new timeline for

the break or lunch period. If anyone who has switched to "in

time" seems particularly relaxed, suggest that a "through time"

person keeps an eye on them (I used to co-train with someone

who was habitually 'through time'. When she switched to 'in time',

she became so laid-back that she couldn't reach a decision on the

lunchtime menu, and I had to order for her).

After the break, ask how people got on with their 'new' timelines.

How did it feel? What did they notice?



You may find that some people want to keep their new timeline

for a while. Guide everyone else through switching it back (by

reversing the process above).

Emphasise once again that they can change their own timelines

any time they want. Point out that switching from "in time" to

"through time" can be a useful part of therapy for addictions,

enabling the client to be remember the bad consequences of

previous bouts and to be more aware of the future consequences

of present actions.

Emphasise that switching the timeline from "in time" to "through

time" should only be done if the client has already been through

timeline clearing to let go of emotional baggage. Otherwise,

bringing episodes that the client has 'put behind them' into view

on the "through" timeline can restimulate traumas.



Verb Tenses

Timing: 10 minutes (15 minutes if you do it in small groups)

Objectives:

• Participants become more aware of the effects of language on

internal representations of time

Procedure

Do this with the whole group, at least initially.

Ask the group "What is the difference in your internal

representation when you hear 'I walk' compared to 'I am walking?'

"

NB most people will see more movement in the second version.

What about 'I will walk?' and 'I will be walking'?

(NB from this point you could divide the class into small groups

to consider the following tenses, or go through them as a whole

class)

'I walked', 'I was walking', and 'I have walked'?

On the timeline, where is 'I had walked' compared to 'I walked'?

(NB most people will put 'I had walked' before I walked')



What is the difference in duration on the timeline between 'I

thought' and 'I was thinking?' (Most people will have 'I thought' as

a point and 'I was thinking' as a length of time)

Where is 'I will have decided' on the timeline, in terms of location

and of the direction of attention (NB in the future, looking back at

a decision that is still in the future relative to now, although the

decision process may be happening now)

What about 'I will have been deciding'? (NB in the future, looking

back at a decision process that is possibly yet to start)

You could ask each group to map out the location and, where

applicable, the direction of attention, on the timeline.

Optionally: from coaching or therapy point of view, what is the

difference between asking a client about:

• their problem;

• the problem they have been having;

• the problem they were having;

• the problem they had;

• the problem they used to have?

in terms of a) the effect on their subjective experience of the

problem and b) the effect on the rapport between client and

coach or client and therapist?



Clear up


learned?


-Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -Therapy Skills



Values and Goal Setting

Use all the exercises in this section for:

-Goal Setting, -Motivation, -Coaching Skills, -Decision Making

For many more tips and exercises about values and goal-setting, get my book Achieve Your Goals: Strategies To Transform Your Life (Dorling Kindersley 2006)!

http://amzn.to/fIAnoG

http://amzn.to/fIAnoG




Eliciting Values

Timing: 5-10 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants become skilled at eliciting values

• Participants understand the difference between elicitation and

installation

• Participants clarify their own values for a particular area of

their lives

Procedure

In pairs (coach and client). Use the ‘Values’ handout.

Demo this first, using a flip chart to write up the values down the

left side of the page. Make sure that 'coaches' understand they

need to keep their own values out of the way, that they are after

abstract concepts, and that they are not concerned at this point

with the meaning of the nominalisations used by the client.

For a particular context (e.g. work and career, finances, health and

fitness), ask:

“What’s important about <context>?”

If the answer is not sufficiently abstract (e.g. "meeting clients for

lunch", which is a specific behaviour rather than a value) keep



going until you get an abstract value: “What’s important about

<answer>?”

“What else is important?” and when they run out of answers ask:

“What else is important?” to get the values they are less

consciously aware of (often among the most important)

Clear up:

Normally one would expect between five and 15 values to emerge.

If there are more, it's not a problem – usually some of them turn

out to be part of other values and this will resolve during the next

exercise.

Check that the values elicited are in fact abstract – if any are too

concrete, ask "what's important about that?" to force the client up

into the abstract realm.

This exercise, and the other values elicitation exercises that follow, are based on those that I encountered on my NLP Practitioner training with Amy Chu. I believe they were developed by Tad James and/or John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn. Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall has a large section on values.

http://amzn.to/gdST9A




Prioritising Values

Timing: 5 minutes each

Objectives

• Participants practice putting values into a hierarchy of

importance

• Participants clarify their own values hierarchy for a particular

context

Procedure

Again, demo this. Ideally use the same person as before (as their

values are already up on the flip chart). If they have a really long

list of values, use a person with a much shorter list (e.g. 6 values)

if there is one.

In the same pairs as before, ask:

“If you could only have one of these values, which one would

you have?”

Write ! next to that value.

“And if you could have one more, which one would you have?”

Write " next to that value – and so on.

Rewrite the list of values in the order of importance - you may

find that some of the values elicited in the previous exercise

are the same and have merged.



If the client is unsure which value comes next in the hierarchy,

say "You can have either <value A> or <value B> but not both –

which one does it have to be?"

Clear-up

What did you learn?

What do I need to know?

What happened to the values as you prioritised them?

This stage is often where the values list gets shorter as clients

realise that two values they identified in the previous stage are

one and the same – point this out to the participants.

Point out that "Money" is insufficiently abstract to be at the top of

a well-formed values hierarchy. People who put money above

everything else are prone

to making bad decisions

and are rarely happy or

fulfilled.

Variation: Write each value on a sticky note and

arrange and rearrange them in a hierarchy until

they feel right.



Checking for Values Conflicts

Timing: 5 minutes per person

Objectives:

• Participants learn how to check the values hierarchy for

clashes

• Participants discover any clashes in their own values (in the

context used for this exercise)

Procedure

Demo this.

In pairs:

For each value, check that it 'goes with' each other value. They

don't have to actively support each other, as long as they can

coexist peacefully.

(Starting with the lowest value): "Does this value go with <value

above it>?" "Does it go with <one above that>?" and so on to the

top value.

Then do the same with the next highest value, and so on until

each value has been checked against each of the values above it.



Clear up

What if there is a clash? Ideally we would use "Parts Integration"

to resolve the clash. In the meantime, ask the client to find ways

in which both values can coexist – usually the problem arises

because the client has been thinking of the value in terms of a

particular behaviour or activity. Values, because they are abstract,

can be fulfilled in many different ways.

Remind the participants that if a clash is resolved or an away-

from motivation is cleared, the values hierarchy has almost

certainly changed and should be re-elicited.



Eliciting Motivation Direction

Timing: 5-10 minutes per person

Objectives:

• Participants learn how to elicit the proportions of towards and

away from motivation in a client's values

• Participants learn how to hear "concealed away-froms" in the

client's language

• Participants discover the proportions of towards and away

from in their own values (in the context used for the exercise)

Procedure

Demo this briefly.

In pairs, ask for each value in the hierarchy (starting at the top):

“Why is <value> important to you?” Yes, the 'forbidden question'!

The answer may come in terms of what you want (“because I love

it”) or in terms of what you don’t want (“because if I don’t have it,

it will be terrible”).

Watch out for ‘concealed away froms’ which come out as

comparisons (“it’s better to have money” – better than what?) or

as “shoulds”, “oughts”, “musts” etc.



Ask the client to estimate the percentage of towards and away

from in each value. Also pay attention to non-verbal and tonal

indications.

Clear-up

Why is this important? Because away from motivation leads to

stress and to inconsistent results.

Clues about the client's motivation may be helpful in getting

more business. E.g. if mainly '"towards", talk about the benefits of

further coaching programmes. If mainly "away from", talk about

the potential downside of not signing up for the programmes.



Defining Goals in Positive Language


Objectives:

• Become more aware of away-from motivation in your goal

• Notice where your goal is defined in terms of what it is not

rather than what it is

Procedure

In pairs. Person A talks about a goal that they have. Person B

listens. When Person B hears the goal described positively, give

the thumbs-up sign. Any time Person A talks about what the goal

is not, or what the goal will stop happening or get away from,

Person B gives the thumbs-down sign.

Swap over after two minutes.

Clear up


How easy was it to talk only about what the goal is, rather than

what it isn’t, or what you want to get away from?

What have you learned, and what are you going to do differently

as a result?

Note: This exercise is based on one that I learned from the very talented Kate Trafford of Go Beyond NLP

http://go-beyond-nlp.com/



P.O.W.E.R. Goal-Setting

Timing: 10 minutes (demo), 15 minutes per person

Objectives:

• Participants can check goals against well-formed outcome

criteria

• Participants shape up one of their own goals using these

criteria

Procedure

Demo this first. Participants should have previously been thinking

about some goal that they have.

In pairs (coach and client). Coach interviews the client about their

goal, checking that the goal satisfies each P.O.W.E.R. criterion and

assisting the client in tweaking the goal where necessary.

Use the P.O.W.E.R. criteria from the Handouts.

P - Positive

O - Own it

W – What and When

E – "Ecology" (Effects on every area of your life)

R – Resources and Route



Clear-up

What have you learned? What do I need to know?

How do you feel about your goal now?

(If any doubt or incongruence, demo how to amend the goal to

bring it in line with POWER)

Variations

You could, of course, substitute your own favourite checklist for

a well-formed outcome - e.g. Richard Bolstad's SPECIFY, or SMART

(although note that the classic SMART model - Specific,

Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed - doesn't include

anything about whether you care if you achieve the goal or not).

The POWER conditions for a well-formed outcome are adapted from a model by Jenny

Flintoft of Rock Solutions (www.rock-solutions.com) Used by permission.

Andrew Smith

http://www.rock-solutions.com



The ‘Compass’ Well-Formed Outcome

Process

Timing: min. 10 minutes per person

Objectives:

• To explore a well-formed outcome in a physical way

• Get clearer about a goal and what it means to you

Procedure

Two participants, Explorer and Guide (can also be done as a DIY

exercise). Use these instructions as a handout, and use the

‘Compass For A Well-formed Outcome’ wallchart if you wish.

1. Mark out five positions on the floor in the shape of a cross

to represent the centre and the cardinal points of the

compass. Make each point a short step away from the

centre.

Make sure there is enough space ahead of you to be able to

walk forward 'off' the compass.

Centre: Positive statement of the outcome.

North: A full representation of the desired outcome.

East: The context in which you want to achieve this

outcome.



South: The positive by products of the status quo, and the

things you will lose if you achieve your outcome.

West: The resources at your disposal to achieve your

outcome and whether the outcome is under your control.

2. Step into the centre of the compass and state your outcome

in positive terms. As you develop the various aspects of

your outcome you will return to this spot to add in new

learnings and perspectives.

3. Step forward onto the 'North' marker. Imagine being in the

achievement of that outcome. In your minds eye see what

you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel as if it

had already happened. When you have fully experienced

what it is like to achieve that outcome, step back into the

centre bringing that experience into your outcome, and

allowing those sights sounds and feelings to enrich the

outcome for a few moments.

4. Step right to the 'East' marker. Consider for a few moments

the context of the outcome. Where, when and with whom do

you want to achieve this outcome? Consider all the

circumstances in which the desired outcome would be

helpful and when it might not. When you have done this,

step back to the centre and allow these learnings to enrich

the outcome.



5. Step back to the 'South' marker. Consider the benefits of

your current situation, what will you lose by taking this

course of action. What kind of things would you like to take

into the future with you? When you have done this, step

back into the centre allowing these learnings to enrich the

outcome.

6. Step to the left onto the 'West' marker and consider the

following questions: Is this outcome under my control, can I

influence it? What resources do I have and what do I need to

achieve my outcome? If the outcome is not under your

control then you may need to adjust your objective to be

something that you can control. The resources you need

could be time, money, people, skills, information or states of

mind.

When you have identified the resources bring them back to

the centre and let them enrich the outcome.

7. Stand at the centre of your outcome for a few moments and

let the various aspects settle into place. Ask yourself: 'Do I

still want this outcome?'

8. Consider for a few moments who else is involved in this

outcome. Imagine that they are standing a few paces away

from your compass. Just go with whatever springs to mind.

As you imagine a person (or group of people) standing there,



step off the compass and into the shoes of those people,

looking back at yourself from their point of view.

How does your outcome look to them? What do they think

about what you're trying to achieve? You may be surprised

by what you discover. When you are ready, bring everything

that you have learned back into the centre of the compass

and let it blend into your outcome. Repeat this step for each

of the different parties involved.

9. Now move to a ‘detached observer’ location a few paces

away and look back at your outcome and everybody in it

from a more dispassionate point of view. How does the

outcome fit together? What more do you need to know?

When you’re ready, bring everything that you have learned

back to the centre of the compass.

10. Take some time to experience your outcome now, ask

yourself the question 'Do I still want this outcome?'

You can follow this exercise up with the ‘Goal Installation

Exercise’ below.

Note: This exercise was devised by Newcastle, UK based NLP trainer Andy Hunt, who runs extremely reasonably priced NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses: www.integritynlp.co.uk Used by kind permission.

http://www.integritynlp.co.uk



Reasons vs Excuses Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes (individually, writing down reasons) + 10

minutes per person (pairs)

Objectives:

• Participants understand difference between "reasons" for not

achieving a goal and excuses for not achieving a goal

• For a particular goal, participants identify their own excuses

for not achieving it, and turn them into positive beliefs

Procedure

Using the goal from previous exercises:

1. Individually – list out all the reasons for not achieving your

goal (5 minutes)

2. In pairs – talk through each reason for not achieving the goal

and convert it into a more positive belief by:

• Putting yourself "at cause", or even asking "What would

someone who is at cause say?"

• Turn it into a question (e.g. "I can't afford it" becomes "How

can I afford it?")

• Reframe it into something more positive



• Actively look for counter-examples in your own experience.

What would you like to believe instead? You will find the

evidence for the new empowering belief when you look for

it.

• Check the motivation strategy – are you focusing on end

result or the imagined slog of getting there?

Clear up

How do you feel about your goal now? Any reasons left for not

achieving it?

If necessary, reframe or zap remaining excuses by any means

necessary.

Persistent excuses are generally a sign of incongruence about the

goal – is that what they really want or does it need some changes?

Note: I first encountered the ‘reasons or excuses’ concept on a course by David Shephard

www.performancepartnership.com

Andrew Smith

http://www.performancepartnership.com



Goal Installation Exercise

Timing: 10 mins per person

Objectives

• Participants learn a powerful goal installation method

• Participants install a goal into their future time line

Procedure

Demo this first.

In pairs (coach and client) install a goal using the "Walking Your

Goal Into The Future Timeline" instructions from the manual.

Before stepping on the timeline with the goal, clients should have

associated into the goal (to fully experience the positive emotions

of achieving it and so boost their motivation) and then stepped

out of it (so the unconscious mind knows that they are not there

yet).

Clear Up

Ask "Is your goal going to happen?" Expect an enthusiastic and

congruent "Yes!"

What did you learn? What do you want to ask? What do I need to

know?



Emotions and Relationships



Recognising Emotion - Left and Right

Brains

(Note - this isn’t really an NLP exercise but I thought you might like it, so consider it a free bonus!) Timing: 2 minutes

Objectives

• Participants discover if they are better at recognising

emotions using one side or the other of their field of vision.

Procedure

Hand out the picture on the following page. Ask participants to

focus on the nose of each face in turn, and decide which one

looks happier.

Clear up

Who thought the face on the left looked happier? Who thought

the picture on the right looked happier?

The two pictures are mirror images of each other.

Most people find the right hand face looks happier. For people

who are ‘normally wired', the right brain specialises in processing

facial signals to judge emotions.


-Emotional Intelligence, -Interpersonal Skills





Making Finer Distinctions In Emotions


Objectives:

• Participants gain practice in distinguishing between different

emotions

• Participants become more able to distinguish between

physical sensations and the emotional 'labels' we put on them,

and consequently have more choices over their responses

• Participants can distinguish more easily between different

levels of intensity in emotions (e.g. the sort of anger that you

experience primarily in clenched fists may be very different

from anger that you feel mainly in your head)

Procedure

Do this exercise in pairs - Explorer and Guide. Guide takes the

Explorer through these steps.

Step 1: Check how you are feeling right now. Optionally, you can

recall a problem situation (just around a 3 or 4 on the intensity

scale, rather than a 10!). Notice the quality and intensity of the

feeling. Describe how you are feeling about this (not the content

of the situation).



Step 2: How do you know you are feeling this emotion? Guide

uses Meta Model questions to reconnect the emotion with direct

sensory experience:

• Where in your body do you feel it?

• How intense is it?

• Is the intensity constant or variable?

• What kind of sensation is it - warm/cool, heavy/light,

moving/still…etc?

• Are there any visual or auditory components?

Step 3: Now describe how you feel again. What is different in

quality and/or intensity?

Clear up


What happened to the feeling?

(NB what often seems to happen is that for most people, a

'negative' emotion becomes less intense, while a 'positive'

emotion becomes stronger.

This exercise is derived from a Zen meditation exercise designed

to detach physical sensations from the emotional 'labels' we put

on them.


-Emotional Intelligence



Understanding Your Own Emotions


Objectives:

• Participants understand more of their own emotional

responses, their origins, and the messages they carry

• Participants gain a useful set of questions for coaching for

emotional intelligence

What to say beforehand

While most people are aware of their 'surface' emotions in any

given situation, becoming aware of underlying feelings usually

takes more time and attention than many people are in the habit

of giving themselves.

Would you like an opportunity to increase your self-awareness,

and to learn a set of structured questions to coach yourself, or

another person, through understanding their emotions, and the

messages they carry, better?

Procedure

In pairs - Explorer and Coach.

Coach asks Explorer to recall an event about which they still have

some unresolved feelings (no more than 5 on the 'Richter scale'),

or some event about which they have significant positive emotion.



Coach guides the Explorer through examining their memory of

the event using these questions:

• How do you feel about this?

• What else do you feel?

• What is behind that feeling?

• When have you felt like this before?

• What is this feeling trying to tell you?

The exact point in the conversation at which the Coach asks each

question will be guided by the Explorer's responses.

Clear up

What did you learn? (expect some 'aha' moments)

Explorers - what did your coach ask or do that was particularly

helpful?

Coaches - how did you know it was the right time to ask the next

question?


-Emotional Intelligence, -Coaching Skills, -Counselling Skills, -

Therapy Skills



Learning From "Difficult" People

Timing: 5 minutes per person + 5 minutes clear-up

Objectives

• Participants understand that "difficult" people are both mirrors

and learning opportunities

• Participants learn process for helping clients learn from

"difficult" people

• Participants improve their experience of one "difficult" person

• Preframes time line clearing (through principle that "negative"

events can be learned from, and that they continue to happen

until we learn what we need to learn from them)

• Also preframes "second position"

Procedure

In pairs – coach and client, then swap. No need to demo.

Coach asks client:

1. Think of a person who does something that you don’t like.

2. What is the positive intention behind their behaviour? Put

yourself in their shoes and see things from their point of view

(NB don’t do this with mad people). See yourself briefly

through their eyes. What do you learn from this different

viewpoint?



3. If that person’s behaviour had a positive intention towards you

behind it, what would that positive intention be? What positive

lessons do you need to learn from your interaction with that

person?

4. Ask yourself: How am I like that person? When do I behave like

that?

Clear up

What did you learn?

What is the positive intention behind that person's behaviour?

What is the "universe's positive intention towards you"?

How do you think of that person now?

We're not saying the universe has a positive intention towards

you by sending this person along (if you would like to support

this actually quite useful belief, you can nod while you're saying

this, as if you actually think that it has) – we're asking "If there

was a positive intention for you, what would it be?"


-Dealing With Difficult People, -Spiritual Development, -Stress

Management, -Management, -Customer Service



Meta-Mirror Exercise


Objectives

• Participants experience and understand the difference between different perceptual positions

• Participants learn a powerful process for improving working (and other) relationships and for dealing with "difficult" people

• Participants improve one of their own relationships

Procedure

Demo this first, then have participants do it in pairs.

Use the Meta-Mirror process from the handouts.

Important points to remember:

• Break state after first and second positions

• Get the demo subject to totally get into character in second position

• To get more detachment in third position, the demo subject could stand on a chair.

Clear up


When participants run into problems, it's usually because they

have not sufficiently broken state between first, second and third

positions.



Don't use this process where the client seriously believes that the

difficult person is "evil", mentally disturbed or seriously ill (to

avoid 'contamination').

The Meta-Mirror format was devised by Robert Dilts

(www.nlpu.com).


-Dealing With Difficult People, -Stress Management, -Management,

-Customer Service, -Spiritual Development



Quick 'Eyes Of Love' Exercise

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants learn a quick way to accept and value themselves

more

• Unpacking the exercise will reinforce learnings about

submodalities, particularly dissociation, and chunking up to

general and back down to specifics

Procedure

This is a guided visualisation that you can take the whole class

through.

"Now close your eyes and move away from yourself, so you see

yourself sitting there. Move away to a comfortable distance,

where you can see yourself with some context around you.

"Now there are certain people who love you, or who thinks well of

you - perhaps someone who is grateful to you for something

you've done, or maybe just for who you are. Now see this person

in the doorway, looking at you as you sit there.

Float across so that you are standing next to that person who

loves you, looking back at the you that is sitting there, so that you

see yourself almost from their viewpoint. Notice how that feels.



"Now float into this person's viewpoint, so that you look at

yourself through their eyes. See yourself as this person sees you.

And I wonder what you learn from this viewpoint? It may be that

you notice some qualities to appreciate, some of your qualities

that you already knew you have. It may be that this person has

noticed qualities in you that you didn't realise up till now that

you have, or that you are only just realising are your qualities.

"Notice what it's like to really see yourself through these eyes.

Notice how it feels to see yourself through the eyes of love...

(pause for a few seconds)

"And for each of these qualities that you appreciate, of course

this person knows you have them from memories of seeing you

display those qualities - times when you showed the best of who

you can be, events that mean something to this person even if

you didn't realise the significance at the time, or even if you had

forgotten them up to now. And as you notice or remember some

of these occasions when you showed your good qualities, as you

watch them unfold clear and bright through the eyes of love, you

may notice a realisation or a growing sense that you have these

good qualities, and you have them strongly.

"And very soon it will be time to return to your self, so noticing

anything else that's worth noticing, bring back everything that

you've learned and everything that you've enjoyed about this

exercise, as you float back towards your self, into your body, and



take as long as you need for your unconscious mind to integrate

all of these learnings into your everyday viewpoint now as you

return to your wide-awake and fully conscious self.

And the person who loves you can bid you farewell for now, and

walk away, having given you this gift of seeing yourself.

And any time you want to in the future, you know that you can

take a little time to see yourself through the eyes of love. So when

your unconscious mind is ready to move on to the next stage you

can open your eyes."

Clear up

What happened? What did you learn? What do you want to ask?

You may find that some participants get a bit teary during this

exercise - give them some time to integrate the learnings.


-Self-Esteem

Note: This is a variant of the 'Autobiography' exercise in the book NLP: The New Technology of Achievement by Steve Andreas, Charles Faulkner and the NLP Comprehensive team. Admirers of Steve Andreas' excellent book Transform Your Self will also recognise the use of specific memories to strengthen self-concept.

http://amzn.to/hYphCn

http://amzn.to/gaXz8d



Accessing Heart Intelligence

Timing: 5 minutes + 5 minutes clear-up Objectives:

• Participants are able to associate into "heart" feelings and

viewpoint

• Enables "Problem Solving With Heart and Gut" exercise

Procedure

Take the group through this:

"Place your hand over your heart. Imagine you are breathing into

the heart area. Associate into core heart feelings of love, care and

compassion. Take as long as you need, until you feel a shift."

Ensure everyone has got there, then bring them back after a

couple of minutes.

Clear up

How do you feel now?


What do I need to know?a


-Emotional Intelligence, -Decision Making, -Stress Management



Problem-Solving With Heart And Gut


Objectives:

• Participants learn process for helping clients access emotional information in problem solving and decision making

• Participants resolve a problem or "difficult" decision of their own

Procedure

Do immediately after the "Accessing Heart Intelligence" and

"Centering" exercises.

No real need to demo this (although you can).

NB the exercise assumes that the participants are already

considering the problem from a "head" (ie left-brained)

perspective.

Follow the steps from the "Accessing Heart and Gut Intelligence"

handout.

Clear-Up

How did that go?

How do you feel about the problem or decision now?


What do I need to know?



Normally the problem will resolve, or at least participants will

find that from at least one viewpoint the problem is lessened and

they feel more resourceful.

Point out that, like perceptual positions, this is another way of

getting a multiple description of a problem or situation.

If a person has difficulty associating into the hara or they feel

that it is blocked, normally some "Ha" abdominal breathing will

sort things out.


-Emotional Intelligence, -Decision Making, -Stress Management



Exploration



Exploring NLP Presuppositions


Objectives:

• Participants deepen their understanding of the NLP presuppositions

• Participants loosen up their model of the world and make progress with an issue chosen by them

Procedure

In pairs. Write your favourite NLP presuppositions (e.g. "The map

is not the territory", "Mind and body are one system") on cards or

A4 sheets.

Participant A selects 6 presuppositions, arranges them in a circle

and stands in the middle of them. A thinks of a problem or issue.

Participant B guides them in standing on the presuppositions in

turn and asks coaching questions, e.g.:

"How does the issue look in the light of this

presupposition?"

"What would be different if this presupposition were true?"

"What feels different from here?"

"How does this presupposition change that issue?"

The choice of the next presupposition may flow organically from

the conversation so far, or you can choose another one at

random. It's OK to revisit a presupposition.



Continue until the issue loosens, or until all presuppositions have

been explored. Swap places and continue.

Clear up

What did your coach do or say that was most helpful?

Which was the most useful presupposition, and what happened

when you stepped into it?

What else do you want to ask/share/know?

Future Pace

When will holding these presuppositions (or acting as if they are

true) be useful to you in future?

Variations

You could use any number of presuppositions - 3, 4, 8. With

larger numbers, participants may not get to step into all of them.



Exploring Frames

Timing: 10-15 minutes each way, plus clear up

Objectives:

• Familiarise with different frames

• Gain greater flexibility in choosing frames in coaching

• Gain greater clarity about a decision or problem

Procedure

In pairs - ‘Explorer’ and ‘Guide’. Use the ‘Frames’ handout.

Explorer chooses an issue that he/she would like more clarity on.

Guide chooses a frame and asks questions from that frame, with

the aim of helping Explorer to reach a resolution. Guide can

choose the most appropriate frame for that point in the

conversation, and switch frames whenever it would be helpful.

Choose frames from a list including the following:

• Outcome frame

• Ecology frame

• “As If” frame

• Backtrack frame

• Contrast frame

• Appreciative frame



Variation - ‘Spatial Framing’

Write the name of each frame on a piece of paper and use them to

mark out different places on the floor. Move to the appropriate

place when considering the issue using a particular frame.

Clear up

What did you learn?

(Explorers) Which frame was most helpful?

(Guides) How did you choose the frame or frames you used? How

did you know it was time to switch frames?

(If using the ‘Spatial Framing’ variation) What happened when you

moved to a different frame?

What are you going to do differently now that you’ve learned this?


-Decision Making, -Goal Setting, -Management



Neuro-Logical Levels Review

Timing: 15 minutes + clear-up

Objectives:

• Become familiar with Neuro-Logical Levels distinctions

Procedure:

In pairs. Use the “Neuro-Logical Levels” handout.

First, take 10 minutes by yourself to review your job role (or the

main thing you do, e.g. homemaker) in the light of each neuro-

logical level.

Environment: When and where do you do this?

Behaviour: What do you do?

Capabilities: How do you do it?

Values and beliefs: What's important to you about doing it? What

belief enables you to do it?

Identity: Who are you when you are doing this? (or "Who are you

as a <role>?) How does this role fit with who you are?

Spiritual/Connectedness: What is your purpose in doing this? (or

"How does this role fit in with your life's purpose?" or "How does

this role connect you to others/your community/the

planet/God?")

Now take 5 minutes to discuss this with your partner.



Clear up

What did you learn?


learned?


-Coaching Skills, -Decision Making, -Goal Setting (you would adapt

it to consider goal rather than role), -Motivation

Note: This exercise is based on one by Steve Bavister and Amanda Vickers in their book Essential NLP: Teach Yourself - a good introductory book especially for people who aren’t big readers! The Neuro-Logical Levels model was developed by Robert Dilts (www.nlpu.com)

http://amzn.to/fKNg5Q



Neuro-Logical Levels Compliments

Timing: 10 minutes

Objectives:

• Become familiar with Neuro-Logical Levels distinctions

Procedure

In groups of 3 or 4. Use the “Neuro-Logical Levels” handout.

Think of a restaurant that you like to visit (don't say which it is,

to preserve agreement in your group). Now you have 10 minutes

to come up with one-line descriptions of what you like about this

restaurant from each neuro-logical level - e.g.

Environment: "It's in a lovely area with safe parking"

Behaviour: "Where they do it right"

Capability: "They know how to treat people"

Beliefs: "They put customer care before everything else"

Identity: "The seafood restaurant"

Spiritual: "Changing the world, one meal at a time"

Clear up

Which levels was it easiest to come up with something for?

What would be different if you were making statements about

something different - a car? A person? A country? A philosophical

system?



When people compliment you, which level do you normally take it

at?

When people criticise you, which level do you normally take it at?

Notice how people may get into the habit of taking feedback about

themselves, positive or negative, at a particular level - e.g. a

criticism of something they have done (Behaviour) may be taken as

an attack at the Identity level.

What are you going to do differently as a result of this exercise?



Coaching With Neuro-Logical Levels

Timing: 20 minutes (demo) + 20 minutes each way (pairs) +

clear up

Objectives

• Participants experience power of neuro-logical levels as

coaching tool

• Participants gain more clarity about their own identity and

purpose

• Participants solve some problem or feel more resourceful about it

Procedure

Use the “Neuro-Logical Levels” handout.

Demo this first, then have participants work in pairs. They will

need enough room to put the '"levels" out on the floor. Use

"Coaching With The Neuro-Logical Levels" instructions from

handouts.

As coach, stay on the "resource" side of the neuro-logical levels

map.

Participants may take a bit longer than 20 minutes to complete.

Clear Up

What did you discover? As coach? As client?



Remind participants that this is only one way to use neuro-logical

levels – encourage them to be creative.

NB if they encounter emotional problems at any level, as very

occasionally happens, get them to step back down to a more

comfortable level. Frame the emotions as valuable information

and a basis for further exploration.


-Coaching Skills, -Spiritual Development



Neuro-Logical Levels of Teams

Timing: 15-20 minutes each way + clear-up

Objectives

• Re-familiarise with Neuro-Logical Levels model in a team context

• Participants can use this model to analyse a team's alignment with its mission and values, its skills needs, and its ability to learn from experience

Procedure

In pairs – participants talk each other through using the Neuro-

Logical Levels model to analyse a team of which they were

formerly a member (perhaps from the Good Team/Bad Team

exercise previously) or a team with which they are currently

working. Use the questions from the “Neuro-Logical Levels of

Teams” handout, starting from the top.

Clear up

What do you want to ask? What do I need to know? How easy was

that to use?

How will you use this in future?

Alignment is essential – if the team's behaviour contradicts its

stated mission or values, team members and customers will

believe the behaviour rather than the stated mission.



Changes at lower levels may or may not affect the higher levels –

changes at the higher levels will definitely affect the lower levels.


-Team-Building



Whose Meta Program Is It Anyway?

Timing: 20 minutes (a few minutes per participant) + 10

minutes clear-up

Objectives:

• Participants can reproduce (in extreme form) characteristics of meta programs – and hence understand them.

• Participants can identify characteristics of different meta programs

• Participants gain a better understanding of their own meta programs (by experiencing which patterns are easier or harder to do)

Procedure

This is a group activity based on the "Party Quirks" game from the

old TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". You could use music to

enhance the "party" aspect – as long as the participants can still

hear each other.

Each participant takes it in turn to be the "party host". The other

participants are each given a Meta Program card. Each participant

in turn arrives at the party and acts out the characteristics of

their meta program. When the host correctly identifies the meta

program, the next guest comes in.

Repeat until each participant has had a turn as host.



Points to consider • Participants may find some meta program patterns harder to

act out than others. Provided they have intellectually understood the pattern, this may give clues to their own habitual meta program patterns.

• Meta programs can change over time – e.g. one of the aims of Army basic training is to make the soldiers more task-oriented.

• Meta programs can be different in different contexts – a person may be very task-oriented at work and more people-oriented with their friends or family.

Clear up

Which meta programs were easier to reproduce for you? Which ones were harder? Which are easier to recognise? Which are you not sure about yet?

Meta programs originated with patterns noticed by Richard Bandler. Leslie Cameron-Bandler, David Gordon, Robert Dilts and Maribeth Meyers-Anderson expanded the list up to an unwieldy 60 or so. The most widely used model of meta programs today is based on Rodger Bailey’s Language and Behaviour (LAB) Profile (www.labprofile.com), popularised in Shelle Rose Charvet’s very readable book “Words That Change Minds”. Note: many UK NLP trainers refer to ‘meta-programmes’ or similar. Wrong! The metaphor comes from computer programs, which even in the UK are always spelled the American way. Ask any IT geek.

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Meta Program Influencing Language

Timing: 20 minutes + 10 minutes clear-up

Objectives

• Participants practice language to influence different meta program profiles

Procedure

In groups of three. Each group is assigned a different meta

program pattern. Each group is assigned a different meta

program – the task is to produce one-paragraph "brochures" for

the benefits of coaching to suit either end of the spectrum for

each pattern.

When the 20 minutes is up, each group reads their brochures and

explains why they used the language they did – the other groups

can ask them to justify their choices.

Suggested patterns include:

• Adaptive Response: Judger/Perceiver (Procedures/options)

• Frame of Reference: Internal/External

• Motivation Direction: Towards/away

Clear Up

What did you learn?



S.C.O.R.E. Process

Timing: 15 minutes per person plus 5 minutes clear up

Objectives:

• Participants gain experience in using the S.C.O.R.E. model as a coaching tool

• Participants experience the process as a client

• Participants solve some genuine problem

Procedure

In pairs – client and coach. Use some or all of the S.C.O.R.E. model

handouts.

Working on some genuine problem (not a major life crisis) that

you don't mind talking about, coach guides the client through the

problem space using the S.C.O.R.E. model. It's best to start at

Symptoms – you can go in any direction from there.

Set out the different elements on the floor and physically walk

between them.

Swap round after 15 minutes.

Clear Up

What did you find? How do you feel about the problem now? What

will be the longer term consequences?

How do you feel about using this with clients?



Notice how standing on the Resources area allows you to gain a

dissociated view of problems - this can make insight easier.

Point out how this can be used with groups – putting flip charts

in the different locations so the group moves between them.

Note: The SCORE Model was developed by Robert Dilts and Todd

Epstein.


-Coaching Skills, -Team-Building, -Problem Solving



Satir Categories Exercise

Timing: (after you've explained the categories) - 5 minutes plus

clear up

Objectives:

• Participants learn the Satir categories (Blamer, Placater,

Computer, Distracter, Leveller)

• Participants become more aware of how embodying one Satir

category can 'trigger' the automatic adoption of a

complementary Satir category in others

• Participants will be able to notice when they are

'automatically' going into an unhelpful Satir category in real

life

• Participants gain additional self-awareness around which

categories are easy and habitual for them, and which they find

unfamiliar or hard to inhabit

• Participants experiment with behavioural flexibility

Procedure

Use the ‘Satir Categories’ handout. As you explain each Satir

category, model it and have the students try out the physiology of

each category.

Then - have the participants stand up and interact in groups of 5-

9, each in the character of one or other of the Satir categories.

Have them periodically switch to another category - whichever



one feels most natural in the context of the interaction, or just

pick another at random. Continue until everyone has tried out

each Satir category.

If needed, trainer can also intervene in character of one of the

categories to keep the energy levels up and keep it fun.

Clear up

How did you find that?

Which Satir categories came easily to you?

Which were less easy?

How did you feel, and how did you respond when another person

was in Blamer mode? (repeat this question for the other

categories).

What to expect

This is usually a fun exercise. Occasionally a participant will find

this exercise uncomfortable, perhaps seeing it as a test of acting

skills that they don't believe they have. Invite them to consider

the fact that they had this response as useful information about

themselves, and to ask themselves (without having to share the

answer) "What do I need to learn from this?"

Many participants will have a favourite one or two categories, and

may find it hard to adopt others. This again is useful information

for them - remind them that any behaviour is going to be useful



in some context, and so developing their behavioural flexibility to

encompass their least preferred Satir categories is a good idea.

Future pace

When will this be useful? (Examples: when you find yourself

automatically slipping into behaviour from an unresourceful Satir

category, when you notice this happening in other people). You

can also mention the ways in which the different Satir categories

can be used in presentations.

Note: The Satir Categories were developed by family therapist

Virginia Satir, one of the original ‘genius therapists’ that Bandler

and Grinder modelled to create the first patterns of NLP. Her

book The New Peoplemaking is a good place to study the

Categories in more depth.


-Dealing With Difficult People, -Presentation Skills

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Time and Perceptual Positions Exercise


Objectives:

• Gain new knowledge and perspectives on past events

• Deepen self-awareness

Procedure:

In pairs - Explorer and Guide (optionally in 3's with Observer).

Explorer thinks of either a current problem, a past problem that

they would like to learn something from, or a success they would

like to be able to replicate more easily.

Draw a grid out on the floor with Perceptual Positions and Past,

Present, Future.

Starting in the centre of the grid (Self, Present) the Explorer

experiences his/her representation of the issue. Explorer can

describe their experience from this perspective out loud, or leave

it content-free, at their discretion. Guide can move them on to

another position, or ask questions aimed at structure-related

information, if Explorer is getting bogged down in content or

associating too much into a problem or an unresourceful state.



Guide invites the Explorer to step into another position on the

grid (e.g. Other, Past) and explore the issue from there. A good

question is "What is different from this perspective?" The choice

of this and subsequent positions is between the Guide (based on

what if anything has been described by the Explorer).

Continue exploring the problem from different perspectives of

time and perceptual position until some insight is reached.

Clear up

What did you find?


Explorers - what did your guide do that was most helpful?

Guides - how did you know when it was time to move on to another

position?

How did you decide which position to move to next?

Note: I believe it was Robert Dilts who had the idea of combining

Perceptual Positions with Time perspectives - let me know if you

have better information!


-Coaching Skills, -Decision Making, -Therapy Skills



Strategies and Modelling



"Teach Me How To Do It"

Timing: 10 minutes (demo) 15 mins (pairs) Objectives:

• Participants learn how to deconstruct a strategy for having a

problem, while gathering information

• Participants have one of their own problem strategies loosened up – maybe even sorted out

Procedure

Demo this first. Ask for a volunteer with some behaviour pattern

or emotional response that they'd like to change and that they

don't mind talking about (e.g. insomnia, or a feeling of panic

when people are late). Rapport is vital!

1. "Let's say I have to fill in for you. How

do you know when to <have the

problem>? How do you do this? Can you

do it now?"

Elicits triggers for

problem and frames it

as something they do

2. "If I was from a 'temporary agency' and

I'm sent along to be you for a day so

you can have a day off from it… so part

of that is I have to have the problem

<when trigger situation occurs>. But –

you have to teach me how to do it. What

do I do inside my head in order to <have

the problem>?"

"What do I do inside

my head?" frames the

problem as something

they do (and can stop

doing). "Teach me how

to do it" dissociates

them from the

problem and makes

them the "expert".



3. When they answer, act dumb: "OK, so

someone's late and I see a picture in my

mind of them in trouble. Do I see a

small black and white snapshot?" (client

may answer "No, it has to be big and

colourful with horrible sound!")

"OK, so to have the problem properly I

should avoid picturing a small black and

white snapshot."

Client has to try out

the "wrong" version of

the strategy to check if

it works.

4. Repeat for each step of the strategy,

using 'defusing' submodalities on each

step.

Continue until you can reproduce the

problem in yourself.

This creates

alternative pathways

for each step of the

strategy.

Further reading

The key text for this exercise is Richard Bandler's

Magic In Action.


-Therapy Skills, -Coaching Skills

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Eliciting Relaxation Strategy

Duration: 15 minutes each way

Objectives:

• Participants gain experience in eliciting strategy

• Participants learn more about their own strategy for

relaxation

Procedure

In pairs - Exemplar and Eliciter

Eliciter discovers Exemplar's strategy for relaxing. The Exemplar

may be pretty relaxed by the end of the elicitation, so break state!

Then Eliciter feeds back the steps of the strategy, in tonality that

follows that of the Exemplar, and calibrating that each step is

actually happening, until Exemplar re-accesses their relaxed state.

Then wake Exemplar up if needed and swap roles.

As most people's strategies for relaxing are fairly linear, you

could do this without the group needing to know the TOTE model

first.

Clear up

How did that go?

Eliciters - how easy was it to get the strategy?



Exemplars - what have you discovered about your relaxation

strategy?

What did your Eliciter do that particularly helped you to relax?

Future pace

How will you use your strategy elicitation skills in the future?

Exemplars - how will explicitly knowing your relaxation strategy

help you in the future?


-Hypnosis

Note: I believe this exercise originates with Nick Driscoll, from the

early days of the Richmond NLP Group.



"Disney Strategy" For Creativity

Timing: say 20 minutes per round – left to itself it will go on

longer.

Objectives

• Participants gain a strategy for creativity and creative problem

solving

• Participants get some solutions for some problem or options

for a project

Procedure

In pairs, "client" and coach.Use the “Disney Strategy” handout.

Client thinks of some problem they want to solve or project they

want to implement.

Mark out "Dreamer", "Implementer" and "Critic" spaces on the

floor.

Coach guides client through each of the spaces – Dreamer for

ideas, Implementer for how to put them into practice, and Critic

for what could go wrong and reasons why the idea wouldn't work.

Recycle through the spaces as many times as you need to in order

to arrive at some workable solutions.



Variation

For additional NLP-ness you can get the client to access particular

modes of thinking in each stage:

Dreamer - Vc

Implementer - K

Critic - Ad

Clear up


When are you going to use this?

Note: This process was developed by Robert Dilts, who based it

on the way Walt Disney used to organise his creative teams to

come up with ideas. It's detailed in Dilt's book Strategies of

Genius Vol. 1, which also has ideas drawn from the thought

processes, as far as they can be modelled, of Aristotle, Mozart,

and Sherlock Holmes (!)

There is a lot more about using the Disney Strategy on the

Coaching Leaders blog at http://coachingleaders.co.uk/blog/nlp-

the-disney-strategy-for-creativity.html.


-Creativity, -Decision Making, -Problem Solving

http://coachingleaders.co.uk/blog/nlp-%20%0Athe-disney-strategy-for-creativity.html

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Walking In Another's Shoes

Timing: 5 minutes per round, plus clear-up

Objectives:

• Participants experience the world from a different perspective

• Participants add to behavioural flexibility

• Participants gain greater unconscious understanding of each

other

• (If doing this exercise with 'civilians' around) participants

become less concerned about what others think

Procedure

In pairs - 'Exemplar' and 'Modeller'.

NB this is a silent exercise. Best to do this when it isn't raining.

You can introduce this by quoting the Native American saying

that you don't truly understand someone until you have walked a

mile in their moccasins (or if you want to lighten things up, the

variant "Don't criticise someone until you've walked a mile in

their moccasins - that way, when you do criticise them, you're a

mile away and you've got their moccasins"). Or the (apparently)

New Guinea proverb "Knowledge is only a rumour until it is in the

muscle."

Exemplar takes a walk outside the training room, just being

themselves and doing whatever they might do when taking a



walk. Modeller follows a few paces behind (far enough away that

they do not unduly affect Exemplar's behaviour) and 'becomes'

Exemplar - matching as closely as possible the gait, posture, and

actions of the Exemplar.

Swap after 5 minutes, without pausing to unpack the experience.

Come back to the training room when you've gone both ways.

Clear up


What was it like 'being' the other person?

What do you want to keep from the other person's way of being or

behaving?


-Interpersonal Skills, -Emotional Intelligence



Walking In Another's Shoes (with

coach)

Timing: 5 minutes per round, plus clear-up

Objectives:

As previously, plus:

• Modellers get even closer to 'becoming' the Exemplars

• Coaches hone their observational skills

Procedure:

3 people - Exemplar, Modeller, Coach

You could follow this on from the previous exercise (use different

Exemplar-Modeller pairs)

Exemplar takes a walk outside the training room, just being

themselves and doing whatever they might do when taking a

walk. Modeller follows a few paces behind (far enough away that

they do not unduly affect Exemplar's behaviour) and 'becomes'

Exemplar - matching as closely as possible the gait, posture, and

actions of the Exemplar.

Coach assists the Modeller in matching the Exemplar even more

closely.



Swap after 5 minutes, without pausing to unpack the experience.

Come back to the training room when everyone has had an

experience of all three roles.

Clear up

If running this exercise as a stand-alone, use questions from

previous exercise. If following on, use just these additional

questions:

What did you notice as the Coach?

Modellers - what was different after implementing the Coach's

suggestions?

Modellers - what did you get from comparing your experiences of

modelling the two exemplars?



Deep Physical Rapport

Timing: at least 5 minutes per round

Objectives:

• Participants have an experience of gaining insight into

another's experience (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or even

memories) through deep physical rapport


We pick up a lot of information about other people unconsciously

- this can include what they are feeling, what's going on for them,

and even sometimes what they are thinking about. That's been

my experience anyway.

When you match someone's physiology, it opens the way to

making this information available. Would you like to experiment

with a way of doing this?

Procedure

Briefly demonstrate with two volunteers and yourself as Coach.

Three participants: Exemplar, Modeller and Coach.

This exercise is best done standing up. Experiencer and Matcher

are silent to aid concentration.



Examplar and Modeller stand opposite each other at a

comfortable distance.

Exemplar recalls a powerful pleasant experience (I generally ask

participants to stay out of the boudoir area when choosing the

experience). The aim is that the Exemplar associates back into the

experience and relives it. It's OK for Exemplars to close their eyes

as this often helps in fully reassociating.

Modeller mirrors the Exemplar as closely as they can. The Coach

looks at both participants (using peripheral vision at least some

of the time) and assists Modeller to get even deeper into non-

verbal rapport (any verbal instructions to be given very quietly so

as not to disturb the Exemplar).

The Coach can be particularly helpful in noticing aspects of the

Exemplar's physiology that Exemplar would find it hard to see

from front-on - for example, viewing Exemplar from the side and

imagining a line from the top of the head down through the spine

and legs to the feet can be very helpful in noticing the angles of

neck, spine, hips and knees.

When the Modeller has got as much from the visual information

as possible, continue to match with eyes closed (if Exemplar's

eyes are closed).

After at least five minutes of deep mirroring, Coach gently brings

back Exemplar and Modeller and asks the Modeller what came to



them about the Exemplar's recalled experience. What did it feel

like? What was going on for them? What was the experience?

Clear up

(primarily to Modellers) What did you notice? How close did you

get to guessing the experience?

What to expect

In a group of 12, typically you might get 2 people who get

spookily close to identifying the actual experience (e.g. ski-ing,

getting married, lying on a tropical beach), 2 people who don't get

anywhere near, and the rest somewhere in between, identifying

what the Exemplar was feeling or something about the experience

(e.g. high up).

The proportions of success should go up depending on how well

you have taught matching - see if you can beat my usual score!

With practice you can gather a lot of information about what is

going on for a client just by spending a moment in their shoes.

Note: I first encountered this exercise in a workshop at the UK NLP Conference by Eric Robbie - http://www.nlpconnections.com/members/ericrobbie.html is the only website I can find for him!.

http://www.nlpconnections.com/members/ericrobbie.html



"Speed Modelling" 1

Timing: 25 minutes in total

Prerequisites: None, although people will notice more the more

NLP training they've had. People who have had no NLP training

will still get a lot from it.

Objectives:

• Participants tune up their sensory acuity

• Participants get to know each other better

• Participants discover some new information about their own

abilities and how they do something that they're good at

What to say (Whys)

As for objectives above - you can frame the exercise as a tune-up,

or as an introduction to modelling.

Procedure

6 participants, made up of 'Exemplar' and 'Modeller' pairs. You

can have more as long as it's an even number.

Chairs in a triad facing out, 3 more chairs facing in (so pairs)

Inner circle (Exemplars): talk about something you do well for 3

minutes (Modeller can question) – then 2 minutes feedback from

Modeller on what you noticed.



Rotate twice (Exemplars stay put, Modellers move round) – use a

different ability each time.

Clear up

(after each round)

What was it like?

Exemplars – what did you notice about yourself?

Modellers – what works/doesn't work in elicitation?

On 3rd clear up – Exemplars – what did you get from each round?

What was the common thread in each ability?



"Speed Modelling" 2

Timing: 25 minutes in total

Objectives

As for Speed Modelling 1

Procedure

This exercise works best following straight on from Speed

Modelling 1.

(As for Speed Modelling 1 - swap them round so that Exemplars

from the first exercise are now Modellers, and vice versa. Mix

them into different pairs if possible)

6 participants, made up of 'Exemplar' and 'Modeller' pairs. You

can have more as long as it's an even number.

Chairs in a triad facing out, 3 more chairs facing in (so pairs)

The essential difference is that we are modelling the same

ability in each round, rather than three different abilities.

First round: Inner circle (Exemplars): talk about something you do

well for 3 minutes (Modeller can question) – then 2 minutes

feedback from Modeller on what you noticed. (as in Speed

Modelling 1)



Second round: Exemplars stay put, Modellers move round one. As

Round One, plus "how do you know you're good at this?"

Third round: Modellers move round again. As Round one, plus

"What makes the difference between a good or OK session of

using your skill, and an excellent one?"

Clear up

Modellers: how did you know what questions to ask?

Exemplars: what did you get from each round?

Note: This exercise is based on my hazy recollection of one that I experienced in a session run by Sue Knight (www.sueknight.com) at the NLP Conference in London a few years back. Subsequently I've used this exercise as part of the Modelling segment of my NLP Master Practitioner course, plus I've also run it as an NLP practice group session where the participants included many people with no prior NLP training - so it works at any level of experience.



Modelling The Timeline

Timing: 50 minutes altogether

Objectives:

• Participants become more skilled at modelling

• Participants learn more about their own timelines

• Participants experience taking on some of another person's

experience of the world


The timeline is a vital component of how an individual

experiences the world. Would you like to know how to elicit the

submodalities of the timeline, and have an undeniable experience

of 'trying on' another person's way of experiencing time?

Procedure

(Optional, if group is not familiar with timelines): as a group,

trainer guides them through timeline elicitation and 'test driving'

the time line.

In threes – Exemplar, Modeller, Observer

1. Modeller elicits timeline – direction, submodalities etc.

Observer and exemplar feed back on elicitation

2. Observer, assisted by exemplar, installs timeline in Modeller



3. Modeller reports what it was like

4. Observer feeds back what they noticed from calibration.

Modeller checks with Exemplar that their experience was

accurate.

Clear up after each round. Rotate until everyone has experienced

each role.

Clear up

What happened when you tried on the new timeline?

What (if any) aspects of the new timeline are you going to keep?

What works/doesn't work in the elicitation process?



Who Are You When You're At Your Best?


Objectives:

• Participants reconnect with 'best self' and gain an anchor to

reconnect with it at any time


Procedure

Demo this, if you are pretty confident in your own sensory acuity,

or just let people try it out. Can do with two participants

(Explorer and Coach) or add an Observer.

Coach asks Explorer: "Who are you when you are at your best?"

and notices non-verbal responses. Ask the question as many

different ways as you need to in order to keep Explorer focused.

The object is for the Explorer to reach a specific kind of peak

state, connecting with their 'best self' - who they essentially are.

Coach notices non-verbal responses - where Explorer looks,

gestures, indications that Explorer is seeing or touching 'external

representations' in surrounding perceptual space, tonal

variations, particular words or phrases (OK I know that's not non-

verbal), and so on. It's OK for Explorer to go into content -

provided the content is about when they are at their best, it will

help them to associate into their 'best self'.



Coach can replay the non-verbals to help the Explorer to remain

in or recapture 'best self' state, and anchor it using whichever

modality or combination of modalities seems best.

Break state, and test the anchor. Future pace: when will you

reconnect with your best self? When will it help you?

Observer (if present) can feed back on what they observed in the

elicitation process.

Swap roles (the Explorer may need a couple of minutes to 'come

down' from the best self experience).

Clear up

What did you learn from that experience?


learned?

How are you going to be differently as a result of what you have

learned?

This can be a profound experience for the Explorer - depending

on the skill and sensory acuity of the Coach. At the same time, it's

not a risky procedure, as the focus is on the positive at all times

and we're not delving into problems.

Note: This exercise is based on my (doubtless patchy) recollection of a demonstration by Joseph Riggio of his Mythogenic Self process back in the mid-to-late 90s. Joseph's sensory acuity during the elicitation process was exquisite. More information at www.mythoself.com



Modelling Your Future Self

Timing: about 30 minutes altogether

Objectives:

• Participants gain more confidence in their future

• Participants become clearer about their internal

representations of the future

• Participants gain easier access to their own inner resources

Procedure

Two participants: Explorer, Modeller (optionally, Observer)

(Optionally) demo this.

Explorer lays their timeline out on the floor.

Modeller elicits where the Explorer 's ideal future self (as the

Explorer wants to be) is on the timeline.

Modeller guides Explorer to step into the ideal future self and

fully associate.

Modeller elicits any submodality changes in the timeline, any

specific events, how it feels, etc.

"What advice do you have for the 'you' back there in the present?"



Modeller guides Explorer to "Come back to now, bringing

everything you liked about that experience with you, only as

quickly as your unconscious mind learns whatever you need to

learn from each event along the way."

Observer (if present) feeds back on the elicitation process. Rotate

roles.

Clear up

What did you learn from that experience?


learned?

How are you going to be differently as a result of what you have

learned?



Presentation Skills

Use any of the exercises in this section for:

-Presentation Skills



Outcome Focus

Timing: 5 minutes each way - 15 in total

Objectives:

• Participants clarify their outcomes for presenting (for a

particular presentation or in general)

• Participants turn their attention towards outcomes, away

from how they are feeling, and become more confident as a

result

Procedure

In pairs, or just take the whole group through it for quick version

Think of some context for presenting where you are not as

confident and resourceful as you would like to be - this could be

an upcoming event, or a something you would like to do but have

held back from doing through lack of confidence. (NB for

participants who claim to be completely confident whenever they

present, it's worth exploring if they could raise their game and

present to larger or more challenging audiences).

Fully associate into that experience - imagine presenting. Notice

what you see, hear, feel. How do you stand? What does your voice

sound like? What internal dialogue do you have? What's its

tonality?



Come back - how did that feel? How confident did you feel on a

scale of 1-10?

Now think about your outcome for that presentation. What do

you want to happen? What will tell you that your presentation has

been successful? Take a couple of minutes to explore this.

Imagine that you are looking back on the successful conclusion of

your presentation - how does that feel? Any anxiety - or has it

gone?

Come back to now.

Now - staying focused on your desired outcome - imagine doing

that presentation. Fully associate into that experience while

staying focused on your outcome.

Notice what you see, hear, feel as you present. How do you stand?

What does your voice sound like? What internal dialogue do you

have? What's its tonality?

Come back - how did that feel? How confident did you feel on a

scale of 1-10?

Clear up

What happened?



What differences did you notice between the first 'presentation'

and presenting while focused on your outcome?

What was the difference between where you started out on the

confidence scale and where you are now?


learned?



Qualities of a Compelling and Credible

Presenter

Timing: Part 1 - 5 minutes

Part 2 - 5-10 minutes each way

Objectives:

• Participants clarify their internal representation of the

qualities (and hence behaviours) of a compelling and credible

presenter

• Participants gain experience in embodying these qualities (not

just thinking or talking about them)

• Participants become more compelling and credible as

presenters


When presenting to a group (especially in a business context)

there's something even more important than rapport. Before you

establish rapport, you have to establish credibility.

The unconscious minds of the audience will pick up on your body

language and voice tone, as well as other markers like the way

you are dressed in the context, and start making assessments of

your credibility (Is this person to be believed? Do they know what

they are talking about? Should I even bother paying attention?) as

soon as you walk out in front of them. The way you demonstrate

credibility in your physiology and tonality is at least as important



as your qualifications on paper. Would you like to improve your

unconscious credibility as a compelling presenter?

Procedure

In pairs - 'Explorer' and 'Guide'

Part 1 (5 minutes): What does a compelling and credible

presenter look like? Sound like? How do they 'make you' feel? (or

for 'cause and effect' purists - How do you feel when you see and

hear a compelling and credible presenter?)

Part 1 (optional) group clear up: What qualities did you identify?

Write them up.

Part 2 (5-10 minutes each way): Each pick one quality. Guide

coaches Explorer in embodying their chosen quality.

How does <quality> stand?

How does it walk?

How does it look the audience in the eye?

At what pace and pitch does it speak?

Where do you feel that quality in your body?

And if you take that quality and increase it even more, what's that

like? (Guide coaches Explorer in increasing that quality, and

optionally assists Explorer in anchoring the quality - allow some

extra time if you are doing this).



Clear up

What's different now?

What did your Guide ask or say or do that was most helpful?

What changes did you notice in the Explorer?

What are you going to do differently in your next presentation?

Note: this exercise is adapted from one in Alan Mar’s very useful little book Presenter: Be Your Best... and Beyond

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Energy Bubble 1

Timings: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants experiment with an altered 'uptime' state of

awareness

• Participants learn a useful de-stressing technique for paying

attention to all aspects of their experience (rather than

blinkered narrow focus)

Prerequisites: Centering and Peripheral Vision

Procedure

Demo this with volunteer.

Become aware of your centre. Now, would you like to become

even more centred, and even more able to respond resourcefully,

whatever happens around you?

Imagine a bubble of energy emanating from your central point,

like a science-fiction force-field all around you, so that anything

that happens outside, no matter how stressful, just bounces off

and away from you (mime something bouncing off the energy

bubble with your hand). And I don't know how you see it, or hear

it, or feel it... just notice where the boundaries of the bubble are.



I'm not suggesting that you really do have a bubble of energy

round you - but if you imagine you have, your unconscious mind

will behave as if you have something protecting you from

anything that you have previously perceived as stressful.

And notice how it's not just a barrier - it's also where the edge of

your personal space is, so you can notice things all around you,

and let them through the bubble if you wish.

(To the group): I'd like you to stand up, and project your bubble

now. Experiment with walking around the room, only as quickly

as you can maintain your energy bubble. Notice when the edges

of your bubble brush against someone else's, and what else you

notice when you're in this state.

Bring them back after a few minutes.

Clear up




-Stress Management, -Confidence, -Self-Esteem



Energy Bubble 2

Timing: about 2 minutes per participant

Objectives:

• Participants learn technique for making audience members

feel included, and within their 'sphere of influence'

• Participants find it easier to pay attention to the whole

audience and project to the back of the room

• Participants become more confident with standing in front of

an audience, and more comfortable with silence

Procedure

Each participant in turn stands in front of the audience and

notices how that feels (with large groups, you could split them

into audiences of 12 or so).

Trainer guides 'presenter' through becoming aware of their own

'energy bubble', then extending their energy bubble to fill the

room - in front (to the wall behind the audience), all the way out

behind, and above.

Now bring the energy bubble in from that back wall, to 'hug' the

audience, so that everyone feels included, and they are in your

sphere of influence. Just stand in front of the audience and

experience that for a while.



You could treat the first participant as a demo, and clear up after

the first one. Continue until everyone has had a turn.

Clear up

What did you notice when you projected your energy bubble?

(expect increased confidence and awareness of the audience)

Audience - what did you notice before and after they projected

their energy bubble? (often audience members will report that

they felt more included, or that the presenter appeared to have

more 'presence' or charisma when the bubble was projected)


learned?

Note: This exercise, and some of the others in this section, are based on exercises I experienced on NLP Trainer Training with Tad James and David Shephard. You can find many of the Trainer Training exercises as Tad and David code them in their very useful book Presenting Magically.

Andrew Smith

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Awareness Of The Group

Timing: 3 minutes per participant

Objectives:

• Participants practice their group awareness using peripheral

vision

• Participants hone their sensory acuity, becoming more aware

of non-verbal responses of the group


Presenting is not a one-way process like broadcasting - there's a

feedback loop involved, so you need to pay attention to your

audience.

Procedure

In groups of 6-8. This is a silent exercise.

'Audience' stands in a horseshoe shape at a comfortable distance

around the 'Presenter', who goes into peripheral vision.

The task of the Presenter is to point at any audience member who

moves.

The task of the Audience members is to move without being

detected.



After 3 minutes, Presenter rejoins the Audience, and an Audience

member becomes the new Presenter - until everyone has

experienced the Presenter role.

Clear up


What do you want to ask, or share, or say?

NB this is usually quite a fun exercise.



Rapport With The Group

Timing: about 3 minutes per participant

Objectives:

• Participants develop their ability to connect non-verbally with

everyone in the audience


• Participants become more practiced and therefore more

comfortable with silence in front of an audience


You need to establish rapport with your audience, so your

message comes across more clearly - and an audience in rapport

with you are more forgiving. But how do you know when you have

rapport with the audience?

Here's an exercise for both your conscious mind and your

unconscious mind to help you notice when you have rapport with

your audience.

Procedure

Divide into groups of 8-12. This is a silent exercise.

'Presenter' stands in front of audience. Audience members raise a

hand when they feel the Presenter is in rapport with them. If they

feel the Presenter has lost rapport, put your hand down.



Presenter stands still (though you can change your facial

expression and the direction of your gaze).

The exercise ends when every audience member has a hand

raised. Repeat until everyone in the group has been a Presenter.

Clear up

Audience - what did the Presenter do that helped them to achieve

rapport with you?

What did they do that lost rapport? (be prepared for the

respondents to not know consciously what behaviours

contributed to rapport - this is an opportunity to reflect on it)

Presenters - what did you do to achieve rapport with your

audience? NB they may not consciously know - as above. You can

help them out by asking about internal dialogue, where their

attention was, breathing, posture, facial expressions, and so on.

Presenters - how did you know when someone was about to raise

their hand?

Rapport with the group still works around a conference table, or

on a conference phone call or video call.



Hypnosis and Milton Model

Top tip

My big tip for teaching hypnosis is to teach self-hypnosis first.

That way, students are familiar with the trance state within

themselves before they try to induce it in others, are more

comfortable with trance, and are confident they can bring

themselves out of it.

Also, most NLP practitioner students are not going to go on to be

professional hypnotherapists or, heaven forbid, stage hypnotists,

whereas teaching them self-hypnosis gives them a valuable tool

they can use for their own personal development for the rest of

their lives.



Uptime and downtime

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants become aware of the differences between 'uptime'

and 'downtime' states

• Participants become more aware of their own state changes

• This process makes a good preliminary to teaching hypnosis,

as the fractionation effect of switching repeatedly between

uptime and downtime will tend to make participants go

deeper each time they enter downtime

Procedure

Do this with the whole group.

Ask the class to open their eyes and be aware of what they can

see.

Now ask them to close their eyes. What's different? Obviously it's

darker, but what are they hearing? What are they feeling? What

are they tasting or smelling? Notice the differences between 'eyes

wide open' and 'eyes closed' states. What are they?

Tell the group to open and close their eyes as many times as they

need to in order to notice everything that's worth noticing about

the difference between the two states.



Clear up

What differences did you notice?

You may find that some participants tend to go deeper into

downtime each time they enter it.

Explain the concepts of 'uptime' (attention outside yourself, aware

of everything around you) and 'downtime' (attention inside

yourself, aware of feelings).

When might uptime be a useful state? (driving, playing sport,

seeing clients, anything involving other people)

When might downtime be useful? (reflection, thinking time, being

aware of your own emotions and motivations)



Simple Self-Hypnosis Using Breathing

Timing: 5 minutes

Objectives:

• Participants have an introductory experience of the trance

state

• Participants gain a simple self-hypnosis induction that they

can also use to assist others into trance


If using this as part of a hypnosis or self-hypnosis course, you

need to have discovered what the participants think hypnosis is,

so as to address popular fears and misconceptions about

hypnosis, such as:

• "I will be in someone else's power" (no you won't, you can

come out of the trance state at any time)

• "I will be out of control" (when you are in a trance state you

are more in control - cite examples of people who have had

operations using hypnosis instead of anaesthetic)

• "I don't want to let my unconscious mind off the leash

because I'm scared of it" (your unconscious mind is your

friend)

• "I won't be able to be hypnotised" (all hypnosis is self-

hypnosis, so it's up to you - and if everyone is in a trance state

all the time, you are already in a trance anyway, so just notice



whatever changes you notice, since as Milton Erickson said,

going into trance is about noticing that you are going into

trance)

Participants need to understand that hypnosis is a natural state,

that we go through it at least twice a day as a minimum (when we

wake up and when we fall asleep), and in fact, if a trance state is a

state in which we are more focused on some things and less

aware of others, when are we ever not in a trance of one kind or

another?

You can point out examples of supposed "deep trance

phenomena" that happen every day - such as amnesia (missing

your exit while driving on the motorway), analgesia (realising you

have a paper cut but not knowing when it happened), negative

hallucination (not being able to find your keys and sometime later

discovering them in plain sight on the table), age regression

(being reprimanded by some authority figure and feeling like you

are a little kid again), time distortion (time dragging by in the

dentist's waiting room, or whizzing by when you are engaged in

an interesting conversation or a fascinating piece of work).

"Don't expect to 'be hypnotised' or have strange things happen

(although they might), do expect to be pleasantly relaxed. So,

would you like to start to explore trance, only as deeply as you

want to go into trance now?"



Alternatively, you can use this exercise on non-hypnosis courses

and just introduce it as a simple relaxation method - which it is.

Procedure

Talk the group through this induction - use a relaxing tonality

and pause where you see ellipsis (...):

Now just begin to relax, and sit comfortably and symmetrically in

your chair so you can hold yourself upright with a mimimum of

muscular effort (NB model this for them)... and close your eyes...

and be aware of your breathing... and you don't have to change

your breathing in any way at all... although your breathing may

change... all by itself... maybe gradually breathing slower... and

deeper... all by itself... or maybe taking a deep breath and letting

it out... all by itself... and all your conscious mind has to do... is be

aware of your breathing as it flows in... and out... and any time

you may feel your attention wandering, just bring it back to focus

on your breathing... and because you're now more relaxed... you

may notice certain pleasant sensations... and notice things that

you normally overlook... like the way the cool air flows over your

upper lip as you breathe in... and it will feel warmer as you

breathe out... and I wonder if your attention can follow each in-

breath... a little bit deeper down each time... a little bit deeper

down... until pretty soon... your attention can follow each breath...

all the way... deep down... inside...

(pause for as long as you like - then return:)



And it's almost time to begin to come back now... and just before

you do... remember that next time you choose to relax in this

way... you can relax more quickly... more easily... more deeply...

each time you choose to relax in this way... so now... bringing

everything that you've liked about this back with you... just begin

to come back to full waking consciousness... as your energy levels

rise... you feel more alert... starting to move and stretch a little...

and open your eyes, feeling refreshed, alert and fully awake, as if

you've just had a deep, refreshing sleep. And welcome back!

(Note - you can begin to speed up a little from 'begin to come

back to full waking consciousness', to bring the audience back up

to speed with their normal waking experience.

Clear up

NB make sure everyone is back and has their eyes open: "I know

some of you may not want to come back now but come back now

anyway! - because you will have plenty of opportunities to

explore the trance state (or relaxation) as we go on."


What was I saying? (some people may not remember, which is a

sign that they are excellent trance subjects)



When could you use this? (any time you want to relax deeply, and -

depending on the audience and how you have framed the exercise

- any time they want to help others to relax)


learned?

Point out that any self-hypnosis method can also be used to guide

someone else into trance - as you have just done.

Variations

After this exercise, you can invite participants to silently run

themselves through the same process while you shut up. This

demonstrates that they are putting themselves into trance rather

than the effect being due to the "hypnotic power of your voice".

Follow up as before - usually you will find that some people

found it harder without your voice to guide them

(understandably, as it's nearly always easier to have another

competent person guide you through an NLP or hypnotic

procedure), while others go deeper, perhaps because it's the

second time round.


-Stress Management



"That's Right"


Objectives:

• Participants experience trance

• Participants become more aware of signs of trance

• Participants become more skilled in trance induction and

build their confidence

• Participants become aware of the principle of behavioural

reinforcement and how to use it


Talk about the concept of 'everyday trance' and Ernest Rossi's

'basic rest and activity cycle'. Milton Erickson would use this

principle by noticing any signs of trance that occurred naturally

in his clients while he was talking to them. If he wanted them to

go into trance he would encourage them by saying "That's right".

In this way he could assist people into trance without a formal

trance induction.

Saying "That's right" (or using some other verbal or non-verbal

encouragement) whenever you observe a sign of trance provides

behavioural reinforcement to the client's unconscious mind,

encouraging it to do more of that behaviour.



Procedure

Two participants - Explorer and Guide. Guide says "That's right"

whenever the Explorer shows a sign of relaxation. Otherwise, this

is a silent exercise. Continue until the Explorer is in trance. Then

come out of trance and swap.

Clear up

How did that go?

What was particularly helpful or effective about your guide?

Don't get hung up on having to say "That's right". Erickson was a

middle aged to elderly psychiatrist in an age when people had a

lot more deference to authority figures. In some contexts, saying

"That's right" could come across as patronising - in fact there are

ways of saying it that could make it come across as patronising in

pretty much any context. So use your judgement - you could use

any encouraging phrase (or non-verbal expression of

encouragement) as long as it's appropriate and you stick to the

same one.

Note: This exercise is adapted from one in the book Training Trances by John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn. This book is a must for trainers, especially of NLP, and for serious students of Ericksonian hypnosis.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

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Pacing Current Experience


Objectives:

• Experience trance

• Become more skilled in trance induction and build confidence

confidence

• Recognise the importance of pacing

• Practice calibration

• Practice voice matching, timing, and smooth delivery

Procedure

For groups of 5-8 people, seated in a circle with an Explorer

sitting in the middle.

Each person in the circle in turn makes a statement that has to be

true for the Explorer, so it paces their experience (e.g. "You can

feel the chair against your back"). Continue going round the circle

until the Explorer is well into trance. Then bring them back,

someone else goes in the middle, and repeat until everyone has

had a go.

Clear up

It's worth having a clear up session after the first round to help

students improve for subsequent rounds.



To the Explorers: what really helped you to go into trance?

Often we find that statements that pace and utilise observed

signs of trance help the most - e.g. "You may find you want to

swallow", "Your eyelids are fluttering".

And was there anything that didn't help?

NB typical examples might be:

• A statement that did not pace the experience of the Explorer,

e.g. someone seated behind them saying "You can see the

window in front of you", not realising that the Explorer's eyes

have already closed.

• A long pause between one pacing statement and the next

• A jarring change in volume, tonality or rhythm between one

statement and the next.

This gives the students feedback to modify their delivery in the

next round.

Variation: for second and subsequent rounds, try joining the

statements with a simple conjunction: "You can see the wall in

front of you"... "and your breathing is slow and steady"... "and you

can hear the wind in the trees"... and so on.



Generate Embedded Suggestion

Settings

Timing: 15 minutes

Objectives:

• Become more aware of different ways to embed suggestions

• 'Own' and remember this knowledge more completely because

students have come up with it themselves

• Generate material for the Embedded Suggestions exercise that

follows

Procedure

Having introduced the students to the concept of embedded

suggestions (ideally using lots of embedded suggestions in your

delivery), ask them to think of naturalistic, conversational ways in

which they could deliver embedded suggestions.

Adding a bit of content will help some students to relate to the

exercise. So, ask them, in groups of 4 or 5, to come up with as

many different phrases as possible in which to embed

suggestions for (e.g.) confidence. Ask them to write the examples

down as we will be using them later.

Start off with some examples, such as:

"I wouldn't want to suggest that you will feel confident using

embedded suggestions straight away"



"I wonder how you will find this - easy or not?"

"We find most people get confident with this after a while"

Clear up

What have you come up with? Which ones did you particularly

like? What are some elegant examples?

Suggest that each student keeps a notebook to note down good

examples of embedded suggestions as they think of them, read

about them, or overhear them.



Embedded Suggestion Practice


Objectives:

• Become more confident at delivering embedded suggestions

conversationally

• Improve auditory matching

• Improve calibration of signs of trance

Procedure

In groups of 5-8 - Trance Explorer and Helpers. Make sure each

group has examples of embedded suggestion formats from the

preceding "Generate embedded suggestion settings" exercise, or

from other embedded suggestion format examples such as Zebu

Cards or Salad Hypnosis cards.

Trance Explorer sits in the centre of a circle of Helpers (NB

occasionally a student is uncomfortable having someone directly

behind them - the Explorer has the final say in where people sit).

Each Helper in turn delivers an embedded suggestion from their

list, aimed at assisting the Explorer into trance. Continue going

round the circle until the Explorer is in trance, then gently bring

them back.

Repeat until everyone has had a go at the Explorer role.



Clear up

It's worth doing a quick clear up with each group after the first

round.

Explorers - which suggestions, in terms of content or the way they

were delivered, helped you to go into trance?

Did anything not help? (Explorers may mention jarring changes of

tone, or long awkward pauses)

Use the feedback from the first round to improve performance in

the subsequent rounds.

Suggest that for subsequent rounds they use the simple

conjunction 'and' to join each suggestion to the previous one.

When students are reasonably fluent (after a couple of rounds),

suggest that they ask if the Explorer would like suggestions to

help with anything in particular (e.g. confidence, concentration,

sleeping better, etc).

Variation: if using Zebu or Salad cards, you could follow the

suggestion in the card packs and incorporate delivering the

suggestions as part of a simple card game. Personally I have

found that the card games just add an extra level of distraction

and complication, and it's better to just deal out a few cards to

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each person, give them a minute to get familiar with them, and

just pick a suggestion to deliver the next time it's their turn.

Another great product for practising generating Ericksonian

language patterns is Nigel Hetherington’s Hypnosis Language

Structure Mastery Cards, a new product which gets away from the

‘playing card’ concept altogether. It works better for solo study

than as a group game.

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Handouts



What Is NLP? "The study of subjective experience"

Neuro the nervous system - the mind and the sensory organs with which we receive and filter information through our five senses

Linguistic the way we communicate and interpret experience through language, including body language, images, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells

Programming the way we construct personal programs of thought, communication and behaviour Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the study of how we think and communicate, with ourselves and with others, and of how we can use this to get the results we want. The heart of NLP is modelling behaviour - the techniques which are commonly thought of as making up NLP are just the results of that modelling. NLP has been defined as:

The ability to master your own states by running your own brain - Richard Bandler

The study of excellence and how to reproduce it - John Grinder

An attitude (wanton curiosity) and methodology (modelling) that leaves behind a trail of techniques - Richard Bandler

The process of creating models of human excellence in which usefulness, not truthfulness (of the model), is the most important criterion for success - NLP Comprehensive



The Three Pillars of NLP

To get the results you want, you need remember only three things: 1. Know what you want; have a clear idea of your desired

outcome in any situation.

2. Be alert and keep your senses open (sensory awareness or acuity) so that you notice what results you’re getting.

3. Have the flexibility to go on changing what you do until you get what you want.

When dealing with people, this needs to happen in a context of rapport. If you go on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got, so:

If what you’re doing is not working, do something different!

R A P P O R T

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F

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X

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B

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14 Presuppositions Of NLP Presuppositions are statements that you have to accept as true in order to make sense of something. You don't have to believe them, but you will only get good results with NLP when you act "as if" they are true. About people

• The map is not the territory

• Mind and body are one system

• The only reliable information about a person is behaviour

• A person’s behaviour is not who they are

• All behaviour is the best choice currently available

• I am in charge of my mind, and therefore my results

• People have all the inner resources they need to succeed (there are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states)

About communication and assisting others with change

• Respect for the other person’s model of the world

• “Resistance” is only a lack of rapport

• The subsystem with the most flexibility has the most influence over the system (“Law of Requisite Variety”)

• There is no failure, only feedback

• The “meaning” of communication is the response you get

• All procedures should increase choice and wholeness

• Change should be evaluated in terms of context and ecology Adapted from Richard Bolstad’s book “Transforming Communication”, available from www.transformations.net.nz. Used with permission.




Present State and Desired State

One way of thinking about any kind of change is to regard it as a movement from the 'present state' (how things are now) to a 'desired state' (how you want things to be). In a person, the 'state' is the total gestalt of thoughts, feelings, and physical processes (physiology is the term often used for physical state in NLP). In order to get from present state to desired state, we may need to apply resources. These can be new beliefs, new actions, evoking positive emotions, money, a new physical environment - anything that will bring about the desired change. It is important to be clear about what the desired state is, and that we really want it. If we are not sure of our motivation, this may be a sign that the 'ecology' of the desired state (the effect it will have on the whole life of the person and the systems of which they are a part) may need attention.

Present

State

Desired

State

Resource

s

Thoughts Feelings Physiology

Ecology Frame




The Map Is Not The Territory

Your internal filters introduce:

" Deletions (we pay attention to what we are interested in)

" Distortions (we look for patterns and connections)

" Generalisations (we look for commonality and predictability)

F

I

L

T

E

R

S

INTERNAL

REPRESENTATION

STATE

Physiological

Emotional

Mental

Spiritual

BEHAVIOUR

RESULTS



Sensory Acuity - (V.I.B.E.S.) Some of the things you can notice about people's responses Voice • speed • volume • pitch • tone • timbre • modulation • type of words used Inclination (of the spine; general posture and gesture) • slumped or straight • leaning forwards, upright or back • range and speed of gestures • symmetrical/asymmetrical to left or right Breathing • rate • depth • location in body Eyes • movements • pupil dilation • redness • watering • direction Skin • colour • muscle tone • size of areas (e.g. lips) • shiny/dull • goose-pimples



Rapport Rapport - used in English to imply harmony, a feeling of shared

understanding, and of being at one - is the most important

process in any interaction. Without rapport, two people will not

trust each other and probably will not even hear each other

correctly.

We have all created rapport many times - when we’re with an old

friend, or when we meet someone and it feels like we’ve known

them all our lives. People tend to think it just happens, but we

can establish rapport deliberately.

• Rapport is a process, not a thing. Rapport is something we

do with another person.

• There are things we can do to establish rapport.

• Rapport is responsiveness - you don’t have to ‘like’ the other

person.

• Most communication is non-verbal!

• If you don’t have rapport, you won’t get your outcome. In

any conversation, neither of you will get anywhere until you

have established rapport.



How Do We Establish Rapport?

A process called matching. You can match certain behaviours of the other person to establish rapport. People like people who are like them. Things you can match:

• Body posture: You’ll notice other people doing this unconsciously. However, use with care! People don’t like to be mimicked. Matching the angle of the spine works well and is not obvious.

• Breathing: Breathing has a rhythm, which you can match. It also can be deep or shallow, and people can breathe from the chest or the abdomen.

• Voice tone: Including volume, speed, tonality, and speech rhythms. Accent is probably best left alone!

• Movement rhythms (crossover matching): This is a slightly more complicated form of matching. You can match someone’s gestures with a different part of your body. People do things they are almost unaware of - scratching their chin, flicking their hair, crossing their legs - and you can match this subtly by some equally natural-looking movement like tapping a pencil or jiggling your foot.

Direct matching of gestures by doing the same thing can be counter-productive as people can spot it very easily. Rapport the easy way Just ask yourself: “What speed is this person running at?” - and match it. Responding to the other person is also vital - though not emphasised in "classic" NLP. When we respond to another person they feel heard and validated. Usually we do this naturally. Part of responsiveness is that you match (or crossover-match) people's gestures at the appropriate time – e.g. you don't match their gestures while they are talking!



How Do You Recognise Rapport?

1. You’ll feel it. Or get a sense of being at one with the other person. Conversely, if you lose rapport, or put a foot wrong, you’ll feel uncomfortable. We’ve all had that experience. But you can just do some more matching and get back into rapport again.

2. Pacing and leading. ‘Pacing’ is the word from NLP jargon

meaning matching someone, falling into step with them, entering into their model of the world. You can pace someone’s ideas, beliefs and experiences as well as their words and behaviour (you don’t have to share those ideas, you just have to fall into step with them for a while).

Human beings have a natural tendency to fall into step with each other. So after you have matched someone for a while, you can do something slightly different - slow your breathing down, uncross your legs, or scratch your nose - and if you have rapport, the other person will follow you. If they don’t, do some more matching.

3. Skin colour changes. When people feel relaxed, capillaries in

the skin dilate so the skin appears darker (in dark-skinned people) or pinker (in light-skinned people).

Is Pacing And Leading Manipulative?

In the long term, manipulative behaviour never works. Usually the other person will spot what the manipulator is trying to do because they seem ‘false’ or not fully human in their responses. Ultimately it depends on your intention. If you respect the other person and dovetail your desired outcome with theirs, you will get a win-win situation and everyone is satisfied. If not, neither party will achieve their outcome. Rapport works both ways - as you clear the channels of communication between you and the other person, you are opening yourself up to be influenced by them as well. So it’s important that you maintain yourself in a good state.



Practising Rapport

There are a number of ways you can practice and sharpen your rapport skills. If you actually do these exercises you will soon become better than most NLP master practitioners. • Notice examples of people in rapport around you - on the

train, in the pub, at work, anywhere that people gather. • Practise non-verbal rapport with strangers. You can

unobtrusively match someone’s posture or breathing (just as you have done unconsciously many times in the past). Don’t be surprised if they strike up a conversation with you.

• Choose a different aspect of rapport to practise every day,

or even for a week. One week you could do voice tone; when you’ve mastered that you could move on to breathing, then representational system, and so on.

• Watch TV. Notice the type of words that people on the TV are

using. Listen to the representational systems rather than the content. Does the character or presenter use mainly visual words, or mainly feeling, or what? Practise until you can spot the dominant representational system and get the content of what they are saying at the same time.

• When that gets too easy, rephrase what they are saying in a

different representational system. Never again will there be "nothing on the TV tonight".

What else could you match to achieve rapport?



Peripheral Vision Annotated Script

Move off to one side of

the group

You could cheat by

having a black spot

already fixed to the

wall in the

appropriate place

This is pacing their

current experience

but is also a

suggestion

Inviting them to re-

experience common

examples of ‘everyday

trance’

Now this is a visual technique, so I’m going to

get out of your line of sight, and just for a

while I want you to forget that rule of polite

society which says you have to look at

someone when they are talking to you. What I

want you to do instead is to get comfortable

and find a point on the wall which is straight

in front of you and slightly above your eye

level….

And just continue to look at that point in soft

focus, noticing everything about that point….

And after a while you may find that the rest of

the room gets a bit fuzzy or hazy and you get

a kind of tunnel vision….

And this way of looking at things, this tunnel

vision, is the way that we look at a lot of

things in modern society…. When you watch

TV, you don’t really notice the rest of the

room….When you are reading or writing, you

only notice the page…. Or when you are

working on a computer…. Even when we talk

to someone, we tend to look at their eyes or

face and ignore the rest of them…. And this



Embedded command

– they have been

asked to do something

but don’t know what

it is yet, so they are

receptive to the

instructions that

follow

Lift your hands to the

side of your face to

show them what to do

A 180° field of vision

is not unusual –

sometimes more

way of looking at things also goes with a kind

of inner tunnel vision…. With obsession,

fixation, worry, stress, rushing around,

adrenaline…. But there is another way of

looking at things, and I’d like you to

experience that way now…. So as your eyes

continue to look at the same point, your eyes

don’t move, but you can begin to broaden out

your field of vision and notice what’s either

side of that point… and you may become more

aware of people either side of you... and your

field of vision can get wider and wider until

you’re really paying attention to what you can

see out of the corners of your eyes…. At the

periphery of your vision….

And you might be quite interested to find out

how far round your peripheral vision goes….

So if you lift your hands up to the side of

your face and wiggle your fingers – and

gradually move them backwards, you will

reach a point where you can see your fingers

when they're moving…. and not when they're

still…. And that is the periphery of your

vision….

And I’d like you to extend your awareness all



Or am I?

Covering myself in

case it hasn’t

happened yet

Embedded command

the way around behind you…. Of course I’m

not suggesting you can see behind you…. But

just use your sense of hearing or spatial

awareness to be aware of what’s behind you as

well…. 360°…. And you may have noticed that

your breathing has slowed down a little….

Maybe the muscles of your face have

relaxed…. Perhaps especially your jaw

muscles…. And you can help them along as

much as you like….

And it’s probably a bit early for this to have

happened just yet…. But if you were to stay in

peripheral vision for any length of time….

You might find that your hands begin to get

warm…. Or even your feet…. But it’s probably

a little early for that to have happened just

yet…

And the really interesting thing about

peripheral vision…. Is that it seems to activate

the parasympathetic nervous system…. The

part of your nervous system that calms you

down…. And slows your breathing down….

And even your heartbeat slows down…. And

your mind and body and emotions can come

back into balance…. And your immune system



Embedded suggestion

At this point you

could continue on into

trance

is boosted…. So this relaxed state…. Is just not

compatible with adrenaline…. So when you’re

really in peripheral vision…. You can’t be

stressed…. You can’t be worried….

And I don’t want you to go all the way deep

into this state now…. Because you’ll have lots

of opportunities to practice…. At home or at

work…. So I’d like you to begin to return to

normal waking consciousness now…. By

letting your field of vision narrow back

down….. and welcome back!

As the group or person goes into peripheral vision, and all the

time that they stay there, you can anchor the state with a gentle

up-and-down movement of your hand, in rhythm with your voice.

This anchor will serve as a non-verbal cue to assist them into

peripheral vision rapidly next time - you can use it as a

reinforcement of "go into peripheral vision", or even as a non-

verbal suggestion while you are talking about something else.

Of course, you could adapt this script to use as a trance induction

or to teach peripheral vision as a state-change technique to

clients, stress management classes, etc.



Peripheral Vision Desensitisation

For use when the client finds something stressful or uncomfortable to think of (NB for intense traumatic experiences, use some form of timeline emotional clearing such as Time Line Therapy™ for preference). 1. Guide the client into peripheral vision, using a gentle

up and down movement of the hand as an anchor. Calibrate to ensure their state has changed to calm, relaxed awareness, and bring them out.

2. Test by asking them to go into peripheral vision again,

and use the anchor. 3. When you are sure the client can enter peripheral

vision at will, ask them to think of the stressful incident or image. Ask them to rate the intensity of their response on a scale of 1 to 10.

4. Now ask them to think of the stressful incident or

image and at the same time go into peripheral vision (remember to use the anchor). When their state changes, bring them back. Ask them to rate their response again - it should have gone down.

5. Repeat until the response is down to a 1 or a zero. 6. Future pace - what will it be like next time they are in

that situation? The technique of using peripheral vision to come to terms with uncomfortable experiences or images was developed by Amy and Susan Chu.



Big Picture Abstract

The Structure of Overwhelm: Too Big Chunks

Classes & Categories # $

Parts # $

Retrievers Hounds %

Legs %

Tail

Beagles %

Paws %

Snoopy Claws The Structure of Nit-Picking: Chunking Down and Mismatching

Specific and concrete

Details

The Hierarchy of Ideas

Chunking Up

Agreement

"What is this an

Example of?"

"For What Purpose...?"

"What is your

intention...?"

"What does that get you?"

"What are examples of

this?"

"What specifically...?"

"What does that

mean?"

Distinctions

Chunking

Down

In mediation, chunk up to reach agreement. Keep chunking up until you reach the level of abstract concepts. You can match someone's chunk level and lead them to the level they need to get to (with an extreme 'General' or 'Specific' person this could take a while).

Existence

Life

Animals

Cats Dogs Llamas



Representational Systems There are five sensory channels we use to represent our experience - visual, auditory (hearing), kinaesthetic (emotions, touch and bodily sensations), taste and smell. In addition, we can make sense of our experience in words.

All of our memories, imagination and current experience are made up of elements of these six ‘representational systems’. Most of us use one system more than the others. This shows up in the words that we use. These are often referred to as 'predicates' in the NLP jargon.

You can listen out for the dominant sensory words in what a person is saying and use words from the same representational system when you reply. If you use visual words to a ‘visual’ person, it’s easier for them to understand because they don’t have to translate from another system. This is another way to gain rapport, because you will sound more like the other person. Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic picture hear grasp clear clear handle sight music feel see rhythm rough light loud smooth focus in tune slippery perspective sound hurt vision overtone comfortable dark tell hold draw sing warm outlook quiet slap preview voice prickly paint tempo downhill sparkle unheard of rock flash harmony heavy snapshot rings a bell lift dawning counterpoint stuck shine rumble vibration colour rattle push diagram tone sink



Sensory-Specific Phrases VISUAL AUDITORY KINAESTHETIC

An eyeful Afterthought All washed up

Appears to me Blabbermouth Boils down to

In her shadow Clear as a bell Chip off the old block

Bird’s eye view Clearly expressed Come to grips with

Catch a glimpse of Call on Control yourself

Clear cut Describe in detail Cool/calm

Dim view Earful Firm foundations

Draw me a diagram Give an account of Get a handle on

Get a perspective on Grant an audience Get a load of this

Get a scope on Heard voices Get in touch with

Hazy Idea Hidden message Get the drift of

Face up to Hold your tongue Hand in hand

In light of Idle talk Hang in there

In person Inquire into Heated argument

In view of Keynote speaker Hold it!

Looks like Loud and clear Hold on!

Make a scene Manner of speaking Hothead

Mental image Pay attention to Keep your hair on

Mental picture Power of speech Kick it into touch

Mind’s eye Purrs like a kitten Knock it on the head

Naked eye Rings a bell Know-how

Paint a picture State your purpose Lay cards on table

See to it Tattle-tale Pain-in the neck

Short sighted To tell the truth Pull some strings

Showing off Tongue-tied Sharp as a tack

Sight for sore eyes Tuned in/tuned out Slipped my mind

Staring off into space Unheard of Smooth operator

Take a peek Utterly Start from scratch

Tunnel vision Voiced an opinion Stiff upper lip

Under your nose Well informed Stuffed shirt

Up front Within hearing Too much of a hassle

Well defined Word for word Topsy-turvy



Rep Systems Preference Test For each of the following statements, place a number next to every phrase. Use the following system to indicate your preferences: 4 = Closest to describing you 3 = Next best description 2 = Next best 1 = Least descriptive of you 1. I base my important decisions on: ___ gut feeling ___ the option that sounds best to me ___ which way looks best ___ objective assessment of issues 2. In discussions, I am most likely to be influenced by: ___ the tone of the other person's voice ___ if I can see their argument ___ the logic of their case ___ how sincere I feel they are 3. People can tell how I am by: ___ the way I look and the way I am dressed ___ the feelings I share ___ the words I use ___ how my voice sounds 4. I find it easiest to: ___ find the ideal volume and tuning on a stereo system ___ select the most intellectually relevant point about an interesting subject ___ choose the most comfortable furniture ___ select rich, attractive colour combinations 5. ___ I am very tuned in to sounds around me ___ I am very adept at making sense of new facts and data ___ I am very sensitive to the way clothing feel on my body ___ I have a strong response to colours and to the way a room looks This test is an adaptation of a test in Tad James' NLP Practitioner manual (1997). www.nlpcoaching.com



Scoring Your Rep System Preferences Step One:

Copy your answers from the test to the lines below: 1. ___K 2. ___A 3. ___V 4. ___A 5. ___A

___A ___V ___K ___Ad ___Ad

___V ___Ad ___Ad ___K ___K

___Ad ___K ___A ___V ___V

Step Two:

Add the numbers associated with each letter. There will be five entries for each letter.

V K

A

Ad

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

TOTAL

Step Three:

The comparison of the totalled scores gives the relative preference for each of the representational systems. This represents only how you were processing when you took the test - so please don't start labelling yourself at the Identity level- "I'm a visual" or "I'm a kinaesthetic".



Submodalities Submodalities are the qualities of each sensory modality. The submodalities in which a representation is coded tell you how important it is and what response to have - so if you change the submodality codings you can change the response.

Visual 1 2 3 4 Monochrome / Colour?

Near or Far?

Bright or Dim?

Location?

Size of Picture?

Focused / Defocused?

Framed or Panoramic?

Movie or Still?

Amount of Contrast

3D or Flat?

Associated/dissociated?

Auditory

Location

Direction

Internal or External?

Loud or Soft?

Fast or Slow?

High or Low? (Pitch)

Tonality

Pauses

Cadence

Duration

Kinaesthetic

Location

Size

Shape

Intensity

Steady

Movement/ Duration

Vibration

Pressure/Heat?

Weight

This is not an exclusive list - what other submodalities do you notice?



Basic Submodalities Change - “Mapping Across” E.G. COMPULSION INDIFFERENCE

This is useful for changing attitudes to things – for example, a food that the client "likes too much" (present state) can be shifted into the submodalities of a food that is disgusting to them (desired state).

1. Get into a resourceful state. 2. Establish rapport. 3. Identify the two states (or values/beliefs) that you want to

contrast — one desired, one undesired. 4. Elicit the submodalities of each separately. 5. “Contrastive Analysis”. Identify the Drivers - the critical

submodalities that make the difference between the two. (Usually it is good to go for the following as critical: location, distance, associated/dissociated, brightness, or focus.)

6. Let go of the content of the desired state, creating a void.

Change the submodalities of the present state to those of the desired state. Emphasise the drivers. You can leave the content of the present state as it is, although this may change by itself.

7. Test the change using the internal kinaesthetic experience (e.g.

"Does this feel like understanding now?" or "Do you want that food?") and future pace.



Submodality Belief Change Process Note - for each belief you elicit, ask the explorer to state what the belief is.

1. Think of a limiting belief about yourself that you wish you did

not have. What do you see as you think about it? (Elicit the submodalities)

2. Think of a belief that is no longer true. (e.g. Father Christmas,

or 'I go to [name of junior school]'. What do you see as you think about it? (Elicit the submodalities)

3. Change the submodalities of the limiting belief into the

submodalities of a belief that is no longer true.

TEST: Now, what do you think about that old belief?

4. Think of a belief which for you is absolutely true. Like, for

example, the belief that the sun is going to come up tomorrow. (Or, the belief that it’s good to breathe.) Do you believe it? (check for congruent belief) What do you see as you think about it? (Elicit the submodalities).

5. Think of a belief that you want to have, which is the opposite

of the old limiting belief. What do you see as you think about it? (Elicit the submodalities).

6. Change the submodalities of the desired belief into the

submodalities of the belief that is absolutely true.

TEST AND FUTURE PACE: Now, what do you believe? Why do you believe you have this new belief? What will happen next time you are in that situation where the limiting belief used

to affect you?



Key Success Factors In Submodality

Work:

1. Position yourself off to one side of the explorer, rather than directly in front of them, so that they have room to picture their representations and their eyes won't be fixed on you.

2. Elicit submodalities quickly:

“Is it big or small? Colour or black and white? rather than “Is it big?..... or small?”

If you pause or ask slowly, you cross the line between elicitation and installation because the explorer has time for each option in your question to influence their internal representation. This is especially true for visual submodalities.

3. The better you calibrate the non-verbal responses of the

explorer (e.g. where their eyes go when they picture their belief, changes in voice tone which show how certain they are about what they are saying) the easier and more successful the intervention will be.



Meta Model

PATTERNS EXAMPLES RESPONSES

DISTORTIONS

1. Mind Reading

"You don't like me" "He thinks I'm stupid" "He wants to humiliate me"

How do you know…?

2. Lost Performative (a value judgement

presented as a fact)

"She's beautiful" "It's selfish to go for what you want"

Who says?

By what standard do you judge…?

3. Cause-effect (A ! B)

"He makes me sad" "Work bores me"

How does this cause that?

4. Complex Equivalence (A = B or A means B))

"She's always yelling at me, she doesn't like me"

How does that mean…?

5. Presuppositions "Would you rather wash up or tidy your room first?"

Who says/how do you know….?

GENERALISATIONS 6. Universal Quantifiers (all, always, never,

everyone, no-one…or might be just implied)

"Everyone says so" "Things never go right for me" "Dogs are vicious"

Everyone? Has there ever been a time when…?

7. Modal Operators a) Necessity (must, should,

have to, need to…)

b) Possibility (can't, it's impossible…)

"I mustn't say that to him" "It is necessary to do this" "I can't stay now"

What would happen if you did? or (for Possibility only) "What stops you?"

DELETIONS 8. Nominalisations Processes that have

been turned into things

"I'm in a bad relationship" Who are you relating to? How are you relating badly?

9. Unspecified Verbs "Peter made things OK again" How (specifically)…?

10. Simple Deletions "I am unhappy" About what?

11. Unspecified Referential

Index

Where it's not clear what's being referred to

"They don't listen to me" "It's a matter of opinion" "Some people will never get this"

Who or what (specifically)…?

12. Comparative Deletions "It's better this way" "I handled that badly"

Compared with what?



Considerations For Using The Meta

Model

Use it as an inner guide for following what a person is saying to you and recognising the thought patterns that show up in their language, with the option to ask a question where that would be useful. The Meta Model is usually presented as a set of 'violations' and the 'challenges' to use on them. Aggressive questioning will come across as very confrontational. For example, it's best to avoid "how specifically" as it can tend to annoy people - particularly if they've run up against NLP practitioners in the past who are less adept than you. You have two purposes in using the Meta Model:

a) to recover lost information b) to help the client loosen up their model of the world

Ask the questions which are most relevant to these ends. Decide what level of information you are after. Go for the biggest chunk size you can while maintaining rapport. You can use the Meta Model to:

" Clarify your own thought processes and communication

" Check your understanding of what another person is saying

" Help other people to become aware of their own mental

maps, unconscious beliefs and thought processes

" Help them to solve problems by reconnecting their thoughts with sensory experience and identifying gaps in their thinking



Anchoring Definition:

Any time a person is in an associated, intense state, and at the peak of that experience a specific stimulus is applied, then the two will be linked neurologically. Anchoring can assist you in gaining access to past states and linking the past state to the present and the future. The Four Steps to Anchoring:

1. Elicit a powerful desired state 2. Provide a specific stimulus at the peak (see chart below) 3. Change the person’s state 4. Set off the anchor to test.

The Four Keys to Anchoring:

! The Intensity of the Experience ! The Timing of the Anchor ! The Uniqueness of the Anchor ! The Replication of the Stimulus

Applying an Anchor:

Time

Intensity of state Apply

anchor here - as

state changes



The Circle Of Excellence

1. Identify an excellent state that you want to have more of.

2. Set up a 'circle of excellence' on the floor. What colour is it? How big?

3. Access the excellent state and associate it with the circle. a. What does it feel like when you are in that state? b. Remember a time when you were in that state. c. As soon as you start to feel that state, step into the

circle. d. Fully access the state.

4. Step back out of the circle and break state.

5. Test by stepping back into the circle. The excellent state should return.

6. Think of a future situation (dissociated) where it would be useful to have that excellent state.

7. Chaining a. What will let you know it's time to have these resources

available? b. Step into the circle as soon as you start to access the

"problem" state again. c. Notice what happens – the problem state should only

appear briefly and lead directly to the excellent state.

8. Note: you can stack more than one resource state in the circle if necessary.



Frames How we frame events or actions - the contexts against which we set them - will determine what they mean to us. Here are some frames commonly referred to in NLP:

The Outcome Frame

This about evaluating events in the light of the outcomes you have set. These outcomes should of course be well-formed. The Outcome Frame gives you a firm basis to evaluate each event. Essential questions: What is your desired outcome? (or just “What do you want?”) Does this event help you to achieve your desired outcome or take you further from it?

The Ecology Frame

This is about the effect of changes on the wider systems of which you are a part. If you feel incongruent about a proposed action, this is usually a sign that you need to pay attention to ecology. Essential questions: What is the effect of this event or action on the larger systems of which we are a part: family, team, organisation, community, or the planet as a whole? Does it respect your integrity as a human being, and the integrity of others involved?

The 'As If' Frame

This frame is about what would happen if some element of the situation were different. It is a way of exploring possibilities for creative problem solving. "What would Richard Bandler do in this situation?" "Where will we be six months from now, and how did we get here?" "What's the worst thing that could happen, and how would we handle it?" The Contrast Frame is the basis of contingency planning, computer systems testing, and science fiction.

Essential question: What would happen if...?



The Backtrack Frame

In the backtrack frame, you recapitulate what has been said using the other person's key words and tonalities. This checks agreement and understanding of what has been said, helps to build rapport, and is useful to welcome new people to a meeting. It is also very useful to backtrack to the last point of agreement when a meeting gets stuck.

The Contrast Frame

This contrasts a desired outcome, an internal representation, or a proposed course of action to one or more alternatives - a desired outcome contrasted with the current situation, a proposed action with an alternative action or with doing nothing, and so on. You can use this to create choices, get more specific about details of representations, and gain perspective to make better decisions. Essential question: What are the differences between this and that?

The Appreciative Frame

Not one of the ‘standard’ NLP frames, but still useful. The Appreciative Frame explores what is working and what there is to be grateful for in the current situation, and what has been achieved in the past. The Appreciative Frame has several benefits: research shows that people who keep a ‘gratitude journal’ experience better physical and emotional states, and are more likely to achieve their goals. Examining what is already working well in your life also means that any goals or visions for the future that you construct are easier to imagine and more credible, because they are rooted in existing reference experiences. Essential questions: What is already working well? What are you proud of? What have you already achieved? What are you grateful for?



The Agreement Frame Everyone sees things from a different point of view. Expressing a different point of view can easily escalate into conflict if not carefully managed, especially if the other person's opinions have a lot of emotion attached to them. Usually when people disagree with someone, they use the word "but" to preface their own viewpoint. "But" has the effect of negating or erasing the internal representation of what that has been said before it. Not surprisingly, people don't care for having their "truth" blotted out. They may feel disregarded, disrespected and angry. If you want to express your viewpoint while acknowledging another person's right to hold a different view, you can use the "agreement frame" which uses "and" in place of "but". 1. "I agree": If you actually agree with the other person's point, but want to add a different perspective:

"I agree with you, and have you considered that it could also appear like this..." 2. "I respect": if want to show that you find something to respect in what the other person has said, despite disagreeing with it (e.g. the positive intention behind what they have said): "I respect your honesty in saying that, and you may want to be aware of this different viewpoint...." 3. "I appreciate": if you can't find anything to agree with or even respect, you can at least acknowledge the other person's opinion:

"I appreciate the depth of your convictions about this, and I know you will respect other people's right to a different view..."

What not to say:

"I understand..." – this can sound patronising. Note the different internal representations of "but" and "and":

"X but Y"

"X and Y"

X

Y X Y



One-Word Reframing (“Emotive Conjugation”) Look at these well-known quotations from Bertrand Russell:

“I am firm, you are obstinate, he is a pig-headed fool.”

“I am righteously indignant, you are annoyed, he is making a fuss over nothing.”

“I have reconsidered the matter, you have changed your mind, he has gone back on his word.”

(from The Brains Trust on BBC Radio in 1948 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation)

Russell was illustrating how words can have a similar denotation (meaning) but quite different positive or negative connotations (the fuller set of associations and emotions that are attached to the word). NB ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’ are drawn from semiotics and are not commonly used terms in NLP, although they are useful nevertheless. The structure Russell used - “I am x, you are y, he/she is z” - is also known as ‘emotive conjugation’ or ‘the Russell conjugation’. In each case the different terms used for “I, you and he” refer to the same behaviour or quality, but frame them differently so that we feel differently about them. Russell was using this structure to highlight our tendency to judge other people’s behaviour more harshly than our own, but we can equally use the same structure to put a more positive spin on negative self-judgements, to reduce the perceived size of obstacles or transgressions, or to make a goal more motivating. To generate one-word reframes, think of the connotations as a continuum, decide which direction you want to go (e.g from ‘good’ to ‘great’, or ‘distracting’ to ‘creative’), and pick words at different points along the continuum. e.g. Always late -> often tardy, sometimes delayed Overwhelming -> difficult, not easy Good -> outstanding, spectacular More examples of ‘emotive conjugation’ here:

http://worddaze.blogspot.com/2006/05/may-18-denotations-and-connotations.html

http://worddaze.blogspot.com/2006/05/may-18-denotations-and-%20%0Aconnotations.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation



Constructing a Metaphor You can use metaphors to pace and lead the client’s unconscious mind. A metaphor is a story which is analogous to the client’s experience. The events, things and characters in the story are “isomorphic” (equivalent, literally “the same shape”) with the events, things and characters in the client’s experience. The metaphor goes beyond the client’s current (problem) situation to suggest resources and ways of resolving the situation which the client may have overlooked. Because the resources and solutions are described symbolically, the client’s unconscious has to choose its own internal resources and resolution process to make sense of the story. The metaphor does not tell the client what to do, it creates positive internal representations and invites the client to find a solution. 1. Get in a resourceful state.

2. Establish rapport.

3. Specify desired outcome (using the Meta Model).

4. Open up the client’s model of the world. Discover the client’s strategy for having the problem Identify the elements (parts, people, things) that are involved in the problem

5. Design a metaphor.

Chunk up one level by asking yourself “What is this an example of?” Chunk down again to another situation which is an example of the same thing, and devise a story to help the client’s unconscious mind locate resources.

Establish "isomorphism" for all significant nouns (things/people) and verbs (actions/processes) - i.e. find elements in the story which match the elements in the client’s situation.

Find new resources or ways of resolving the dilemma of the story, so the story goes beyond the problem stage to a successful conclusion.

6. Tell the story

Include positive internal representations and embedded suggestions in your wording.

You may want to add anchors - e.g. you could anchor one side of a dilemma to one of your hands, the other side to the other hand, and bring them together when describing a solution that integrates both.

Leave the person to find their own meanings. This ensures ecology has been built into the process.

Metaphors don’t have to be longwinded - as little as one word in the right place may evoke a symbol with a wealth of meaning attached.



“Neuro-Logical Levels of Change”

Level Information SPIRIT

(PURPOSE)

What am I here for? What am I part of that is greater than myself?

IDENTITY

Who am I?

VALUES AND

BELIEFS

What is important to me? What do I expect (in a given situation)?

CAPABILITIES What do I know how to do? What skills do I have?

BEHAVIOUR What am I doing?

ENVIRONMENT Where am I?

One possible use of the pattern:

Problems & SPIRIT % Resources

& IDENTITY %

& VALUES + BELIEFS %

& CAPABILITIES %

& BEHAVIOUR %

& ENVIRONMENT %

Ask which side the client prefers to have the resources - and stand on that side!

Note: Neuro-logical levels pattern developed by Robert Dilts



Neuro-Logical Levels Of Teams

It can be useful to consider teams and organisations in terms of Robert Dilts' "Neuro-Logical Levels" model. Each level should support those above it – if the team's behaviour contradicts the stated mission, which one are team members and customers going to believe?

Purpose

What greater purpose (end goal) does the team or organisation contribute to?

What larger systems is it part of and how does it contribute to them?

Identity & Mission

What is the identity of the team or organisation, and how strong is it?

How unified is it?

What is its stated/unstated mission?

Values & Beliefs

What stated/unstated values/norms does the team organisation subscribe to?

What stated/unstated assumptions does it operate from in practice?

What mechanisms allow these assumptions to be updated by experience?

Capabilities

What skills are needed to fulfil the mission and stated values of the team?

What skills needs does it have?

What skills do its members have that the team is not yet tapping into?

How does the team learn?

Behaviour

How closely do the actions of the team reflect its values and mission in practice:

- within the team

- outside the team, to customers, suppliers, other parts of the organisation?

What should it do more/less of?

Environment

How well does the physical environment of the team enable it to fulfil its mission?

What resource needs does it have?

What external constraints does it face?



The “Disney Strategy” For Creativity 1. Select the problem you are going to deal with. Select three places to

stand: one for the “Dreamer”, one for “Realist” and one for the “Critic”. 2. Think of a time when you were really creative. Step into the Dreamer

space and relive that time. You might want to look up to Visual Constructed. Form a visual construction (dissociated) of the most attractive compelling possibilities. At this point there are no stupid ideas - everything is valuable. Thank your unconscious mind for its creativity.

3. Break state and step into the “Realist” space. Remember a time when you

put a plan into action in an elegant and effective way; when you were going to do it no matter what and determined to find the best ways to make it work. Be associated in the dream - what do you need to do to make it work? What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? What resources would you need? Where would you make it happen? Gather all the necessary information.

4. Break state and step into the “Critic” space. Look for flaws, things that

could go wrong, things you might have missed. Nitpicking is OK at this stage. Offer suggestions for improvement.

5. Break state and go back to the Dreamer space, incorporating your

learnings from the other two positions. Recycle through the positions until the outcome is accepted in all of them.

6. If other people are involved in the dream, discover how it is for them by

stepping into their shoes. If there is anything uncomfortable for them, recycle through the stages and continue to refine the dream until it works for everyone.

7. Associate and future pace. Step into the attractive, compelling possibility

and experience it fully as if it is actually happening. Step back out of it, (optionally put it in your future timeline), and make it happen!



The S.C.O.R.E. Model Origins

Robert Dilts states in the Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP and NLP New Coding that the S.C.O.R.E. model originated in 1987 when he and the late Todd Epstein noticed that they were intuitively using a more effective method than their advanced NLP students for mapping out problems and designing interventions to get to solutions. As they examined their own problem-solving process to find how it differed from that of their students, they found that they were viewing any problem situation as having these five components: Symptoms – these are the immediate signs that tell you there is a

problem

Causes – which may be the antecedent conditions that gave rise to the symptoms, the intentions behind behaviours giving rise to the problem, or current constraints

Outcome – your desired result or goal, where you want to get to

Resources – the qualities, capabilities, reserves and help that you can bring to bear on solving the problem. These can be past, present or future.

Effects – the longer term, systemic and higher level results of the outcome

You can arrange these elements on a time line like this:

Causes

Effects

Symptoms

Outcomes

Resources

Past Present Future



Sample questions to clarify each

component

Symptoms:

• What's not working?

• What do you want to change?

Causes:

• What are the underlying causes?

• What's stopping you from fixing this?

• Who or what is benefiting from not fixing this?

Outcomes:

• What do you want instead of the problem?

• Where do you want to get to?

Effects:

• What will it do for you/your team/your organisation/society for you to attain your goal?

• How will reaching your outcome change things?

• What will you learn from it?

Resources

• What skills/personal qualities/money/equipment/contacts do you have that will help you to solve your problem?

• Have you faced a problem like this before? How did you solve it?

Generally you would start with the Symptoms. After that you can go in any direction. There is no set order or prescribed length of time to be spent in each component - let your interest and intuition, and your calibration of the client, guide you as to when to move to another component, and which one to move to. Further study: "S.C.O.R.E. Model" in The Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP by Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier - online at www.nlpuniversitypress.com



Using the S.C.O.R.E. in practice - with

individuals

To really get the best from the S.C.O.R.E. it needs to be more than a cerebral paper-and-pen exercise. Instead, lay the timeline on the floor and mark out Causes, Symptoms, Outcomes and Effects as spaces along it. Resources should be somewhere off the timeline. The model will have more impact if the explorer physically steps into each location as they investigate it. This helps to physically associate the person into the state and frame of mind of each component of the model, making it easier to access all the information at each stage. By walking through the sequence from Causes, through Symptoms and Outcomes to Effects, the explorer will begin to condition in a metaphorical sequence of moving from 'problem' to 'solution'. They can step off the timeline and gather what they need from the Resource location any time it feels right. The 'Dancing S.C.O.R.E. Format' developed by Judith DeLozier takes this principle even deeper into the kinaesthetic realm, inviting the client to adopt the posture and movement that feels characteristic of each stage. By moving repeatedly through the sequence of postures from problem to solution, the client begins to internalise the direction of change 'in the muscle'. A skilled NLP practitioner will be able to make the process more effective by anchoring the 'positive' stages (Resources, Outcomes and Effects) as appropriate. You could also use embedded suggestion and hypnotic tonality in your questions to help the client associate more fully into these stages.



Using the S.C.O.R.E. in practice - with

teams

If a management team wants to assess where they are now, and where they want to get to - or indeed if they want to draw a line under past failures and set some new objectives - the S.C.O.R.E. model provides a ready-made format. It's best done with an independent facilitator who can guide the process without having an emotional stake in the content. In my experience, most managers are not interested in the intricacies of NLP, but just want something that helps them to move forward. The S.C.O.R.E. model is well suited to the task because it is relatively jargon-free. You don't even have to make the concept of a timeline explicit - just arrange four flip charts in a line to represent Causes, Symptoms, Outcomes and Effects, with another flip off to one side for Resources, and you have an implicit timeline. As the team members move from one flip to another to record the information they get from each stage, they will unconsciously internalise the idea of progress along a timeline even if it's never explicitly mentioned (this tip comes f from NLP business consultant Colin Reeve www.raconsultancy.com). This being the UK, how do you prevent a team problem-solving format that starts with examining 'symptoms' from turning into a morale-sapping whinge fest? Your introduction will set the tone for the rest of the session, so emphasise the desired end result of clarifying the desired outcome and identifying the positive consequences. The more you know about the values of the team, the more you can encourage their 'towards' motivation. If it's a particularly 'away from' team, you can emphasise the consequences of not focusing on the desired outcomes and effects. You can encourage a positive mindset before the session even starts, by asking participants in their invitation to come in with examples of what is already working well in the organisation or team.



The ‘Satir Categories’ Renowned family therapist Virginia Satir noticed that people to fall into four recognisable ways of communicating and body posture when they are under stress. The "Leveller" was added later. 1. The Placater Automatic response is to believe that everything is his or her

fault. The Placater is always trying to please others and always apologising.

Defining posture: symmetrical open physiology, looking up at you, arms outstretched, palms upward and moving up

Language: qualifiers - only, even, just, a little; could, would; “I don’t know”

2. The Blamer

Loud, tyrannical, finger-pointing - it’s always someone else’s fault. Harsh, shouting voice. Feels lonely inside.

Defining posture: In your face, leaning forward, pointing the finger at you

Language: universals - all, every, never; negative questions - “Why can’t you ever listen?”; C!E violations - “You’re always making me angry”

3. The Computer

Dry, cool, super-reasonable, takes a detached view of everything. Stands rigidly, as if cut off from everything happening below the neck. The body is just a means to convey the brain from place to place. Often stands back with his arms folded or one hand raised to his chin. Can rationalise anything, retreating into abstractions to escape his feelings. Intellect is important to the Computer; feelings are not to be trusted.

Defining posture: rigid, leaning backwards



Language: Abstract words, passive voice, nominalisations; "There was an agreement” rather than “we agreed”

4. The Distracter

Always changing the subject, never answering a question directly, the Distracter feels ignored and will interrupt constantly to be noticed. Often has a repertoire of accents and funny voices - anything to avoid being serious or grown-up.

Defining posture: angular, always moving, lopsided.

Identifying language: anything, as long as it’s not relevant; "I don't know", "It's not my fault. Can cycle through elements of the other four categories.

5. The Leveller

Congruent, calm, solid, confident, authoritative.

Defining posture: symmetrical, upright, centred, hands moving downward, palms down and spreading.

Identifying language: "this is the way it is", "this is true".



Values What are values?

• Values are abstract concepts

• Values are what is important to us - they motivate us

• They are also our criteria for determining whether our actions are “right” or “wrong”

• They determine how we spend our time

• They may be different in different contexts

• They are related to beliefs and each other

• They are in a hierarchy - some are more important than others. 1. Discovering Values for a given context

“What’s important about.......?” Keep going until you get an abstract value: “What’s important about <answer>?” “What else is important?” and when they run out of answers ask:

“What else is important?” to get the values they are less consciously aware of (often among the most important)

2. Prioritising Values

“If you could only have one of these values, which one would you have?” “And if you could have one more, which one would you have?” Rewrite the list of values in the order of importance - you may find that some of the values in the list are the same and have merged.

3. Towards/Away From Motivation

“Why is <value> important to you?” The answer may come in terms of what you want (“because I love it”) or in terms of what you don’t want (“because if I don’t have it, it will be terrible”). Watch out for ‘concealed away froms’ which come out as comparisons (“it’s better to have money” – better than what?) or as “should’s”, “ought to’s”, “musts” etc.

4. Check For Clashes

For each value, check that it 'goes with' each other value. They don't have to actively support each other, as long as they can coexist peacefully.



POWERful Goals P - Positive

Always set goals in the positive sense. That is, what do you want, rather than what you don't want.

O - Own it "What can you do to bring this about by your own actions?" "What can you do to influence the outcome?" "What do you need to do to achieve this goal?"

W – What and When

(a) "What date do you intend to have this outcome by?"

(b) "Put yourself in the situation of having it. What do you see/hear/feel when you have it?" Make sure that your image of the goal is sensory-rich, vivid and compelling.

E – "Ecology" (Effects on every area of your life)

This is a 'risk assessment' on how the goal will affect every area of your life. (a) "What will happen when you have it?"

"What won't happen when you have it?" "Are there any downsides to achieving it?"

(b) "How would having this outcome affect each area of your life?" "Who else would be affected by you having this outcome?" "How would you having this outcome affect the planet?" (c) Congruence check:

"How do you feel about this goal?" "Do you want it 100%?"

"Does your energy increase when you think about it?" If not, adjust the goal until you feel enthusiastic about it!

R – Resources and Route

What resources do you have that will help you reach your goal? What additional resources do you need?

It's much easier to work out how to get to your goal once you've got there!

Put yourself in the position of having achieved the goal. What had to be in place immediately before to allow your goal to happen? And what had to be in place before that? And so on – all the way back to the very first step.

The POWER conditions for a well-formed outcome are adapted from a model by Jenny Flintoft of Rock Solutions (www.rock-solutions.com) Used by permission.



Walking A Goal Into Your Future Timeline 1. Lay your timeline on the floor and step onto ‘now’, facing the future.

2. Determine where in the future you want to have achieved your goal and establish where that is on the timeline.

3. Ensure that your representation of the goal is clear and has energy.

4. Carrying your goal walk towards the future and stop just before the appropriate point in your timeline.

5. Let the goal float down onto your timeline.

6. Step into the achieved goal and feel the experience of achieving it. Experience through all the senses (Visual, Kinaesthetic, Auditory, Taste and Smells).

7. Turn up the intensity.

8. Step beyond your goal and look back towards now.

• What plans did you need to develop?

• What skills did you need to develop?

• What were all the things you needed to do?

• Whose help did you need to call on?

• Who did you look to model?

9. What advice would you give to the 'you' back at now?

10. Close your eyes and walk back to now, as you do that notice the events lining up to support you in achieving your goal.

11. Stand at now, take a few moments to reflect on how you feel about achieving that goal now.

WHAT IS THE FIRST STEP YOU NEED TO TAKE RIGHT NOW?



Wall Charts



Present State And Desired State

Present

State

Desired

State

Resources


Ecology Frame




The Map Is Not The Territory

Your internal filters introduce:

• Deletions (we pay attention to what we are interested in)

• Distortions (we look for patterns and connections)

• Generalisations (we look for commonality and predictability)

F

I

L

T

E

R

S

INTERNAL

REPRESENTATION

STATE

Physiological

Emotional

Mental

Spiritual

BEHAVIOUR

RESULTS



Big Picture Abstract

The Structure of Overwhelm: Too Big Chunks

Classes & Categories # $

Parts # $

Retrievers Hounds %

Legs %

Tail

Beagles %

Paws %

Snoopy Claws

The Structure of Nit-Picking: Chunking Down and Mismatching

Specific and concrete

Details

The Hierarchy of Ideas

Chunking Up

Agreement

"What is this an

Example of?"

"For What Purpose...?"

"What is your

intention...?"

"What does that

get you?"

"What are examples of this?"

"What

specifically...?"

"What does that

mean?"

Distinctions

Chunking

Down

Existence

Life

Animals

Cats Dogs Llamas



Alphabet Edit

A B C D E R

L T L L

F G H I J R

T T R L

K L M N O T

L R L R

P Q R S T T

L T R R

U V W X Y L

T R T L

Z

R



Compass for a Well-Formed Outcome

Full representation of the outcome

Context for the

outcome

Resources

What you will lose when you achieve

the outcome

Positively stated

outcome



Index of Applications

Use this index to find exercises for a particular course or

workshop.

-Behaviour Change.......................................................................42, 44, 48

-Bodywork....................................................................................................98

-Brainstorming............................................................................................61

-Coaching Skills 58, 64, 68, 70, 72, 74, 91, 93, 101, 103, 112, 114,

118, 120, 122, 125, 128, 129, 131, 136, 138, 140, 143, 148, 153,

156, 189, 192, 205, 209, 239, 240, 265, 282, 286, 293, 298, 301

-Confidence 44, 48, 53, 56, 79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 187, 189, 194, 197,

199, 205, 207, 212, 224, 331

-Counselling Skills 58, 64, 68, 70, 72, 74, 91, 93, 101, 103, 106,

112, 114, 118, 120, 122, 125, 128, 129, 131, 136, 138, 140, 143,

205, 239, 265

-Creativity .................................................................................61, 109, 305

-Customer Service 101, 103, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 128, 136,

138, 143, 267, 269

-Dealing With Difficult People...................79, 81, 175, 267, 269, 296

-Decision Making.............85, 131, 240, 273, 275, 280, 282, 298, 305



-Emotional Intelligence 91, 93, 101, 103, 112, 114, 118, 120, 122,

173, 175, 205, 260, 263, 265, 273, 275, 307

-Goal Setting..........................59, 83, 85, 180, 192, 218, 240, 280, 282

-Group dynamics........................................................................................40

-Hypnosis ...........................................................................53, 56, 166, 303

-Inclusion .....................................................................................................40

-Influencing 91, 93, 101, 103, 106, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 125,

128, 129, 136, 138, 140, 143, 145, 148, 153, 156

-Interpersonal Skills 91, 93, 101, 103, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122,

125, 128, 129, 136, 138, 143, 175, 260, 307

-Introduction to NLP 40, 42, 44, 48, 58, 59, 64, 65, 68, 70, 72, 74,

79, 81, 91, 93, 95, 98, 101, 103, 106, 109, 114, 116, 118, 120,

122, 125, 128, 129, 148, 153, 156, 175, 180, 187, 189, 192, 194,

205, 207, 209, 212, 222

-Leadership...............................................................................................209

-Listening Skills .......................................................72, 74, 114, 120, 131

-Management..............................................116, 131, 205, 267, 269, 280

-Motivation ............................................83, 85, 180, 192, 218, 240, 282

-Negotiation..............................................................................................143

-Presentation Skills.................................53, 56, 79, 145, 209, 296, 323

-Problem Solving .....................................................................61, 293, 305

-Relaxation............................................................................................53, 56

-Sales 91, 93, 101, 103, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 128, 129, 136,

138, 143, 148, 153, 156

-Self-Esteem 44, 48, 79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 187, 189, 197, 199, 205,

207, 212, 272, 331

-Spiritual Development..............83, 85, 112, 125, 143, 267, 269, 286

-Storytelling..............................................................................................163



-Stress Management 44, 48, 53, 56, 79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 180, 189,

192, 194, 197, 199, 205, 207, 212, 218, 222, 224, 232, 267, 269,

273, 275, 331, 345

-Team-Building ...................................................114, 116, 143, 288, 293

-Therapy Skills 58, 64, 68, 70, 72, 74, 79, 81, 91, 93, 101, 103,

106, 112, 114, 118, 120, 122, 125, 128, 129, 131, 136, 138, 140,

143, 145, 148, 153, 156, 180, 187, 189, 192, 194, 197, 199, 205,

207, 209, 224, 239, 265, 298, 301

-Time Management........................................................................227, 232



About The Author

Andy Smith is an ANLP-accredited NLP trainer, Appreciative Inquiry facilitator, and Emotional Intelligence Coach based in Manchester, UK and Limousin, France. Andy was a badly-trained hypnotherapist before he trained as an NLP Practitioner in 1995. He started running one and two-day NLP-based workshops for stress management, self-esteem and goal-setting, and trained as an NLP Trainer with Advanced Neuro Dynamics in 1997. Andy is a serial NLP group founder, starting the Richmond NLP Group in 1996 with Nick Driscoll, the Manchester NLP Group in 2001, and the Manchester Business NLP and Emotional Intelligence Group in 2005. Organising these groups, along with attending NLP conferences and courses with trainers like John Grinder, Charles Faulkner, Eric Robbie, Joseph O’Connor, John Seymour, Ian McDermott, Sue Knight, Leo Angart, David Gordon, Jonathan Altfeld, Doug O’Brien, John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn, has given him the opportunity to experience hundreds of NLP trainers and presenters. Andy has been running NLP Practitioner trainings since 2000. Visit these websites for more information and tips:

NLP, Coaching and Emotional Intelligence (website and blog): www.coachingleaders.co.uk

Manchester Business NLP and Emotional Intelligence Group: www.manchesternlp.co.uk

Goal-setting and personal development: www.createthelifeyouwant.co.uk

Appreciative Inquiry and employee engagement: www.positive-engagement.co.uk

Follow Andy on Twitter: @practicaleq Contact: [email protected]

Tel: +44 7967 591 313

http://www.coachingleaders.co.uk

http://www.twitter.com/practicaleq

http://www.positive-engagement.co.uk

http://www.createthelifeyouwant.co.uk

http://www.manchesternlp.co.uk



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Exercises.pdfThe Trainer’s Book of NLP Exercises © 2010 Andy Smith - 2 - Contents INTRODUCTION