NLP: The First Couple of Years as a Therapist

By Gil Monin

The first couple of years as a therapist in NLP (neuro linguistic programming) could be tough. Getting clients to come is hard. Dealing with new problems, or old problems in new ways is a major challenge.

In this book, you will find a little more than a dozen cases I dealt with in my first couple of years. The book describes the thoughts and feelings about the clients as well as some of the techniques and skills that were used. Not everything went well, and that is part of the job. But, we learn more from mistakes than we do from successes.

I was part of a non-profit organization that allowed all people to get NLP therapy for free. As a part of the organization, I had the privilege of dealing with many clients as my journey to being a therapist began. I choose the ones I found interesting and displayed them here.

This book is mainly for the new-comers to the NLP world of therapy. It is about gaining experience and all that in entailed by that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gil Monin
• Release date: Sep 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311712950

Book preview

NLP:

The First Couple of Years as a Therapist

By: Gil Monin

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Gil Monin

The Beginning

This is not an explanatory or a teaching book. This book is more of an observation. However, I truly hope that new-comers to the therapeutic NLP world will find some useful information in the following pages.

I first encountered NLP a little over a decade ago. I just finished serving in the army for three years and I was in a kind of a search for a meaning. I was really curious about the human mind and behaviors and I started looking for why and how people do and act the way they do and act. I was kind of a fanatic in my searches on the web and found a lot of interesting information. After reading several articles about the hypnosis phenomena, I came across a link that led me to Milton Erickson. Now, if you know your NLP history, you know that the founders adored and modelled Milton's techniques and method of operation. So, a link led to another link that led me to an NLP site.

Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP) has many different definitions. In general, it is a communication method that is based on the theory that human beings act and react to the representation of reality that they form when contacting reality. Different people may represent reality in different ways and thus behave differently when encountering the same event.

The basis for all the techniques is what is known as Modelling. The practitioner finds a behavior or state of mind that they want to copy, and they use specific questions and behaviors to find out how to do it.

For example: Some people have had phobias as kids, but grew out of them as they got older. The NLP practitioner can interview and Model exactly how the person got rid of the phobia. A technique is formed, and now the practitioner has a technique that might just cure other phobias. Overtime techniques are checked and tested again and again; refining and perfecting the technique. It is important to know that some techniques are faster and better at achieving results than others.

A good basis for Modelling allows the practitioner to enter the representational world of the client. The practitioner can then change certain aspects of the representation and test to see what has changed for the client. This skill can be used in many contexts, such as business, sales, teaching, and therapy.

Most NLP schools teach a lot of techniques that have been tested over and over. Most of these techniques might seem magical or like nonsense. This is because most of these techniques are artificial ways of getting natural results. A technique is a tested modelled way of thinking and behaving, and it does not look or feel natural to think and behave differently than we are used to. But, in spite of the way these techniques seem, they get great and fast results. I will list some of the techniques I used in the following cases in the next section.

The linguistic part of NLP is a huge one. The theory states that we communicate our representations of reality by language. A recent study brilliantly showed that when victims speak about their past events in the present tense, they physically and psychologically experience a lot of negative effects (such as anxiety, increased heart rate, sweating, etc..) compared with victims who speaks about their past events in the past tense. Forming sentences in the past tense can have a distancing effect, thus activating the body and mind differently. This effect can be manipulated by choosing the words we use. This was a short example of the way language changes the way we represent reality in our minds. Using this skill grants the user a lot of communicational power.

Body language is also a big part of communication. Imitating movements and placing mental objects in space using our hands and bodies can change the way we think and act. Certain movements have different effects upon communication. The notion of rapport, which is a state of liking and respecting the person in front of us, can be obtained by moving the same way the other person is moving. Syncing our physical rhythms with one another can make us like and\or respect one another.

About six years after I started studying NLP with books and online, I went to get my certificates. I studied the basic courses of NLP as well as specific trauma courses, timeline therapy and guided imagery. Each course puts its emphasis on different techniques and skills. I stayed as an assistant in some of those courses for a couple of years.

One bright day, a man came to me in one of the classes I assisted in. He asked me if I wanted to help him and his wife with an organization they want to found. The organization will give free NLP sessions to people who cannot afford these sessions privately. I agreed.

We met and discussed some formal matters. About a month later I started receiving clients through the organization. Many clients came and went. Some stayed for a single session and some stayed for a while. At first, I was the only therapist. But as we progressed, more and more clients and therapists joined our forces. Each client had to fill out and sign a form that explained that the sessions are for free and no money will be asked from them. The form also explained what the client should expect from the sessions in general terms. This form has no legal meaning, it is a form that states the therapist’s obligations to the client and the client’s obligation to the therapist.

I picked out