Visiting the UK for the first time to present his LCCH-promoted seminar "Neuro-Semantics - How to Run the Higher Levels of Your Mind", Bobby took us on a lightning tour of NLP Practitioner standards and beyond. It is always exciting to learn NLP skills from a different perspective and the content of this seminar was refreshingly easy to understand and apply, both personally and professionally. For therapists, Bobby had a lot to offer by way of tools of the trade. 

Despite the comprehensive hypnotherapy training provided by the LCCH and other organizations, it is always good to learn a few new disciplines because, just like life, clients can be unpredictable and you sometimes have to pull everything out of the hat to help the client achieve exactly what they want. Basic NLP methodology can provide a framework for creating some personal client interventions. However, it is great to learn some new innovative models from someone with genuine experience 'in the field'.

Having served as a Pastor for over 30 years, Bobby has had plenty of practical experience in dealing with the full range of life experiences by virtue of administering to his 'flock'. He is probably more experienced and knowledgeable about the problems people face than anyone else in the personal development community. When people approach a Pastor for help, it is not because they have seen an advert or infomercial on TV - it is because they genuinely believe that the Pastor can help them. Bobby has been performing his own 'miracles' on people for many years and continues to do so in his NLP Practice and as Pastor of a mission church called Christ Fellowship Community Church. He is also an international NLP trainer and his visit to the UK was long overdue.

While some of the training was revision for NLP Practitioners, Bobby brought something new and refreshing to every aspect of the Practitioner standard. I realized that I knew a lot of NLP but was not always aware of HOW I could apply the knowledge. I also found that I was not always aware of techniques at a conscious level. Personally, I like to have a basic understanding of things before applying them instead of just having techniques 'installed' at an unconscious level. Bobby gave me a 'hook' to hang the new and familiar information on and provided some simple and practical tools to take away from the training. It was like going back to basics - reinforcing everything I knew but adding a little extra 'something' to make things sparkle. 

One thing I did not expect to be doing on this training was to be Dragon-slaying! However, as Bobby explained, "we need to slay or tame our Dragons because we cannot succeed in life until we take care of our internal Dragons." I had never really thought of problems or 'internal conflicts' as Dragons but when you think about it some problems can appear to be as fearsome as any mythical creature. Internal conflicts can sabotage our attempts to deal with problems and prevent us from 'moving on' in life. Luckily, Bobby taught us all we needed to know. It was not an easy fight but most of us won! After slaying your Dragon, you use your power of self-reflexive consciousness to become more resourceful to leave you totally empowered. I have used this model a few times with friends in the past few months and they have been amazed by 'slaying' the very things that were holding them back in life. This clears the way for making significant changes with a renewed confident attitude to tackle their present circumstances and make their plans for a bright future. It is a perfect metaphor for getting rid of unwanted habits and 

Using Meta-Levels you can establish not only what the purpose of a problem is but what the higher purpose for doing anything is. Recently I used this concept when trying to establish a friend’s motivation for learning Reiki. The first reply was "for my wife". Asking him "…but what does that give you?" brought about a significant change and after a few more questions and working through the 'levels' and frames of reference he eventually established the purpose as "because I want to help people”. While not a million miles away from his first answer (because he wanted to help his wife), the process of continually questioning himself until he literally couldn't go any further gave him a significant shift in perspective on his motivation. When evaluating decisions he now uses this concept and recently put it to good use when deciding upon a job opportunity.

Utilizing your own 'state' and influencing the 'state' of your clients is a major component of NLP. Using resource states is recognized as one way of breaking patterns and moving a 'stuck' client. Accessing and utilizing single positive states can be a powerful way to create an 'interrupt' and changing a client’s perspective is a powerful tool. But what about combining two states or more? Wanton motivation? Relaxed alertness? These are all states you can actually CREATE to utilize in whatever way you choose. Inducing these states while in trance can prove to be even more powerful, particularly when future-pacing outcomes. More than that, you can teach your client to use these states consciously to help them get to where they want to be. Everyone has resource states that can be utilized; even long forgotten ones. If you want curiosity and a willingness to learn, you have to access the state of wide-eyed child-like wonder.

A basic Meta-Stating pattern can help you create a new perspective and can sometimes get rid of problems.Try this exercise. Firstly you will need to access a Problem State (something you feel uncomfortable about). Then access a Resource State (powerful and positive!). Next you have to amplify the Resource State to make it more effective and powerful. Now apply the Resource State to the Problem State. Ask yourself this question as an Ecology check - does this serve you well? If so, project this into the future to see how you can utilize it in the future. Just try it for yourself and notice the difference.

On this workshop, Bobby gave us some real innovative and effective 'tools' to add to the box of tricks every therapist needs to help the client achieve their desired outcome. Learning NeuroSemantics is like understanding how the engine works in a car when learning to drive. It is not essential to know how the engine functions but when you DO learn a bit more, that extra knowledge goes a long way to help you become a more proficient driver. With NeuroSemantics once you have a fuller understanding of how your brain works and how it processes information, you can learn to run the higher levels of your mind. This is like the icing on the cake. A little gem of information gained on a seminar like this, combined with the wealth of practical training and experience gained in hypnotherapy training, could help your client achieve their outcome.

I enjoyed the training immensely and learned more in one weekend at a conscious understandable level than I have on other trainings that promise to teach you more. Bobby trains his material with integrity and is genuinely committed to helping people fulfil their potential and become the person they really want to be in life. He imparts his knowledge freely to anyone with an open mind, which makes a refreshing change in the current climate of 'intellectual property' claims. I would thoroughly recommend anyone to train with Bobby whether you just want to learn the basics of NLP or if you are an established practitioner. We are on a journey of never-ending improvement and I look forward to the time when Bobby visits these shores again (hopefully in the not too distant future) so that I can keep my NLP skills updated for the 21st century.