The New Renaissance in NLP

It’s official, NLP is now going through a renaissance that is unprecedented in the many years I have been in the field.  For years, I have tracked the trends in NLP including search engine activity, what NLP people who are interested in NLP are looking for and obviously the level of bookings on courses.  The level of interest from ‘new people’ is at the highest level in eight years.

I am enthralled that interest is on the increase and for a few years it was steadily reducing, especially in the UK.  Neuro Linguistic Programming has now been around for over forty years and has faced controversies, yet despite criticisms it has stood strong and continued to grow and I genuinely believe the renaissance we are experiencing can be attributed to the success NLP trained people are having in businesses and coaching and the new NLP patterns that are being developed.

It is exciting times in NLP, especially for the person who is new to the business and considering an NLP based career either as a coach or trainer.  The opportunities are now greater than ever before, with businesses and the public generally open to person and professional development through Neuro Linguistic Programming and related disciplines.  The world is ready for the renaissance in NLP, are you ready to take NLP to the world?

It was a very different story 23 years ago when I first became interested in NLP.  I attended Tony Robbins’ Unlimited Power Weekend in 1993 and Tony in true character delivered an exciting, highly motivational weekend geared at personal excellence.  I relished in themes of high achievement, high levels of focus and massive action theme.  I heard Tony Robbins talk about how he studied NLP from a guy called John Grinder and it changed his life.  I remember thinking excitedly ‘if NLP works so well for him [Tony Robbins], this is who I want to learn from to be more excellent in life’.  I was ready to embrace NLP for personal and professional excellence.

So I looked around the NLP world, in the mid 1990s in the UK and was sorely disappointed at the levels of mediocrity I found.  Back then the web was in its infancy and the way to find an NLP course was to subscribe to NLP journals and look at magazines where NLP businesses were advertised.  I remember ‘trying’ to get information on courses, I left messages on answer machines and got no reply.  When I did connect with companies, the people I spoke to frequently had poor rapport skills and did not explain their courses very clearly.  They promised information in the mail, which never arrived.  The NLP was staid, the courses mainly theory based and if you did not have a therapy back ground, you were treated as an outsider who somehow had devious intentions for learning NLP.  What’s more the courses were much more expensive in today’s terms.

It seemed to me as if the NLP world in the 1990s had mastered business mediocrity.  I was astounded at the lack of professionalism and lack lustre attitude in the field of NLP.  This seemed so far away from Tony Robbins, CANI (constant and never-ending improvement) mantra and the famous words of Napoleon Hill, ‘whatever the mind can believe and perceive can be achieved’ that had inspired me in other areas of personal development.  I recall thinking where is the excellence in NLP?  I knew NLP had come from modelling geniuses; the focus of NLP had been on making explicit discrete behavioural patterns in high performers, the NLP attention was supposed to be on the difference that makes the difference in a high performer and someone who is average at the same task.

In 1996, I was so excited to attend a course in California with a well known (at the time) trainer whose office was in Hawaii.  This guy had got into practising what he referred to as white magic, he carried a wand and wore the Hawaiian flowers around his neck.  He frequently directed his hands at weird angles to the audience and in his world, he genuinely believed he was channelling magic spells at people.  Whilst I was assured the guy was sending us positive energy, there is something bizarre that an NLP Master Trainer genuinely believes he can use a magic spell to influence his audiences state.

I am still undecided if this behaviour has sinister or positive intentions.  I do know waving your hands Harry Potter style is about as far removed from NLP as you can get and when I told this story to John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St Clair many years later, we laughed at the sheer bizarreness in this behaviour from an NLP perspective and on the serious side pondered what can we do to ensure NLP is taught in keeping with the intentions of the people who invented it.

The good news is, for the most part the mumbo jumbo that found its way into NLP has gradually faded out. The modern NLPer is far more astute to fall for wand waving and magic symbols passed through making unusual hand shapes.  In my experience the person who is now attending NLP courses is already successful and looking for new ways to compliment what they are already doing and/or are seeking new ways to increase their excellence.  The type of person who is coming into NLP in the current day, is looking at ‘real’ ways to explore their personal development and improve personal performance as well as helping others do the same.

There are many different correlations that can be attributed to bringing about the renaissance in NLP, one major factor is the International Coaching and New Code NLP programme I run with John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St Clair.  This in depth learning experience attracts people from all over the world, who when qualified have the skills to conduct the highest level of change work with individuals and corporations.  I am so delighted to say the positive news spreads, that New Code NLP works and the results speak for themselves.  The International Coaches and New Code NLP Practitioners have become multipliers for NLP and Coaching.  The results they get in their communities raises the profile of NLP in general and that is good for everyone and is an example of what happens when the training is of a high standard.

A brilliant example of the NLP renaissance can be seen in Portugal, where ‘Coaching’ has a very positive image which can be directly attributed to the success of Portuguese National Football Team in beating France in the Euro 2016.  This was a major event as Portugal were the underdogs and the goal scorer, Eder was a substitute in the game as he had been throughout the tournament.  Eder had been working with a highly skilled performance coach, Susana Rodrigues Torres, who had taken her Coaching and New Code NLP qualification with the NLP Academy.

Susana had coached Eder for two years, helping him move from a lower league club to the Premier League club Swansea City and then becoming a national hero as he scored the winning goal of the tournament.  After the match Eder dedicated his goal to Susana, the coach that played such a major part in his success.  Susana as a coach who specialises in the use of New Code NLP for high performance.

There are many other examples I could share of coaches who use New Code NLP to get amazing results with their clients.  Susana’s case made the international news and wow NLP in the news internationally in such a positive way.  In the new renaissance of NLP, the patterns in NLP are helping people make a huge difference in their lives.  A key part of this is New Code NLP and to borrow the words of a famous advert ‘New Code NLP reaches parts that other change practices simply can’t reach.’

If you are interested in joining the renaissance in NLP and making a difference in your community, business or even country, we would love to hear from you and help you so feel free to get in touch.