NLPhilia Blog

Doug O’Brien sent me some AMAZING news: Andy Austin is coming to New York City!

IMPROV!: The Use of Improvisation and Drama in Slightly Crazy Environments

April 17th, 2009:

This introductory presentation will outline the “rules” and formula for successful and comedic improvisation.

As readers of The Rainbow Machine — Tales From a Neurolinguist’s Journal will be aware, I often like to utilize the building of humour, tension and drama into his change work sessions and rarely do I rely on any pre-set or rehearsed routines and scripts. Given my client group, often the client will bring their own drama and unique humour to the session and a high level of flexibility and responsivity is needed in such situations.

No previous acting experience is required and no one will be expected to perform in front of the group. Book early and hold on to your hats, because this will be a fun and fast paced evening.

LESSONS FROM THE CUCKOO’S NEST: Further Tales From a Neurolinguist’s Journal.

April 18 & 19th, 2009:

Working with other people’s madness isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always fun – but it can be. Psychological and emotional pain is rarely ever funny but I often question if change really needs to be serious. Far from joking at another person’s expense, during this weekend workshop you will be introduced to, and will explore, some therapeutic patterns and algorithms that I have found useful when working with challenging clientèle and serious mental illnesses.

I’ve learned a lot from Andy over the years, both in e-mail and on Usenet. Now I get to meet him and train with him. If I’m alive in April, I’ll be there!

Update: Here’s the link to sign up! There are discounts for signing up early, so go!

If you’ve yet to sign up for Doug O’Brien’s advanced workshop on altered states, “How Deep the Rabbit Hole: Further Adventures in Neo-Ericksonian Hypnosis,” your time is running out! It’s this coming weekend!

Explore the inner/outer reaches of Ericksonian-based Hypnosis and therapeutic interventions. Discover not only what it has to offer your clients, find out what it has to offer you.

Hurry and sign up at How Deep the Rabbit Hole.

PS: Doug tells me he’s arranged for a Shaman, initiated in Brazil, to personally conduct Shamanic Journeys. It’ll be amazing.

Kevin Creedon and Doug O’Brien have set the date(s) for their 2009 weekend-format NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner trainings:

1. January 17-18
2. January 31-Feb 1
3. February 14-15
4. March 14-15
5. March 28-29
6. April 25-26
7. May 16-17

Register before October 15th for early-bird discounts. The venue is TRS Professional Suites at 44 East 32nd Street in New York City.

I received this back in April, but just found it, neglected, among some other e-mail.

Doug O’Brien and Nick Kemp composed and recorded original music for their 2006 collaboration, “How Deep the Rabbit Hole.” While they were at it, they decided to create some music that anyone could use in their trance inductions. The “license” is as follows:

The music is 15 minutes in length. You are free to use it however you choose. We only ask, if you use it for a distributed recording, please give us a music credit. Thanks.

It sounds really cool. Go get it. If you like, let ’em know; maybe they’ll give you some more.

I got some great news from Doug O’Brien: he’s started a blog, and will be making regular posts on the subject of Ericksonian language patterns. Doug is an amazing trainer, and he’s sharing his expertise with the world for free!

Go to the Web site or subscribe to the feed!

It’s been going on far too long: Doug O’Brien is one of the best-kept secrets in NLP and hypnosis training. So I’m shouting his name from the blogtops. His certification training in Ericksonian Hypnosis is coming to New York City!

Learn the fundamentals of Ericksonian Hypnosis, become certified as a Hypnotherapist and get started in a fascinating and lucrative new field … In just two intensive weekends

Now, just in case you’re saying you aren’t interested in pursuing hypnosis as a career, let me say this: the career part is entirely optional and a brief segment of the course, but the skills you will acquire are mandatory. Wouldn’t you love to be a master of hypnotic language, capturing and leading the attention of others easily and smoothly, creating and delivering powerful stories, no matter what you do?

It’s May 16, 17, & 18 and May 31 & June 1, 2008. Don’t put it off; go sign up straight away!

Doug is also training with Jonathan Altfeld in Tampa in June: Belief Craft and NLP Master Practitioner.

Get more of Doug at http://ericksonian.com and http://ericksonian.info.

Jonathan Altfeld and Doug O’Brien are offering a Master Practitioner training in June of 2008. Interestingly, the first module of this training is their Belief Craft seminar. Take Belief Craft and then stick around for the rest of the training!

Mastery InSight Institute: NLP Master Practitioner Certification

I attended a Belief Craft training a little while ago and was very impressed with what I learned to do. Combine Jonathan Altfeld’s Knowledge Engineering with Doug O’Brien’s Sleight of Mouth and you get an amazing set of modeling and personal change tools.

If people learn to listen well enough to track the larger belief systems, then, they can then use Sleight of Mouth skills to wire completely around a problem belief, without actually attacking the problem belief. Then you can change someone’s mind without them feeling defensive about it, and sometimes, without them even knowing. That represents the most elegant use of Sleight of Mouth possible.

They’re doing it again in June of 2008 as the first module of a Master Practitioner training. Here’s your chance to grab it up before it’s all gone.

Belief Craft – Elegant and Pervasive Belief Change seminar

Doug O’Brien has some really good news: Dr. Stephen Gilligan has submitted an article to his newsletter.

The article contributed today by Dr. [Stephen] Gilligan is an edited transcript of his opening remarks at a 12-day “Trance Camp” held near Hamburg, Germany, in January 2007. (The transcript of the entire workshop will soon be published in a book entitled, “Generative Trance.”) In this article Dr. Gilligan contrasts traditional hypnosis with Erickson’s approach to hypnosis and psychotherapy. He also gives us insight into what he terms “generative trance,” defined as “an opportunity to deeply accept every part of your life in ways that allow amazing new learnings and developments to unfold.”

Go read the Ericksonian Approaches Newsletter.

Master copywriter Harlan Kilstein made an exciting discovery recently: a videorecording of Doug O’Brien teaching his acclaimed Sleight of Mouth training to a group of salespeople. He’s mastered the video to DVD and has released it for sale.

Check out what Harlan has to say about the conversion process:

I decided on the spot to convert these VHS tapes into DVDs and encountered a glitch. The guy I hired liked the DVDs so much he kept inviting his friends over to watch them. What should have taken a week ended up taking months.

Now check out what he has to say about the content:

Most salespeople are happy if they close at a 20 to 40% rate. Most copywriters are thrilled if their copy converts 1% of the lookers into buyers. Even at these numbers, money can be made.

But what if your sales closed at an 80-90% rate? Or your copy converted 17% or more? You know what that would do for your bottom line?

These DVDs are a must-have for anyone who wants to be more persuasive in any every context.

Order the DVDs here.