How to choose a NLP/Coaching Course?

Academic education and qualification are essential nowadays for career. However, universities/colleges do not teach you the other vital side of your life and career success. To be successful, we need to cope with the world constantly and effectively and it requires us to make the right decisions and choices. Here comes the challenge. How do you know what choice to make? Which choice is better, or the best? What do you base on to make the best decision? So, decision-making is always the crucial skill. Yet, it is not the single "decision-making" skill that matters, rather, it is a whole bunch of magic behind.

The whole bunch of magic includes your personality, your knowledge, your experience, your values, your goals, your emotions, your relationships etc. How do you unleash, strengthen and maximize these assets of yours to make the best decisions and choices? NLP is the one you should seriously consider.

When you start looking around for a NLP Practitioner course, you surely want to get what you want and your money worth. Trainers have different niches.Check out who would fulfill your particular needs. Taking the so-called "all-rounded" or "for everything" package will you end up with a wishy washy learning.

Here are some suggestions:

1) Does the course come along with many practices and discussions?

Discussions, sharing and practices are the best learning modes for adults. While intellectual knowledge is important, the ability of the trainers to lead, to facilitate and to guide in discussions and practicum is equally important, if not more. Coaching and NLP is experiential by its very nature.It is a practical, hands-on experience that involves and integrates the skills for effective and elegant communication, awareness, emotion mastery, state management, etc. Your trainers will and should be able to know the skills inside out, both the theory as well as the fine distinctions of minute steps of each skills so that you melt into the process along the learning journey.

2) Is the training effortless?

There is no free lunch. Be mindful of subconscious learning. All learning go through stages of Attention, Retention, Reproduction and Motivation. Subconscious learning only happens when you internalize what you learn and the behaviour becomes autopilot. Therefore, learning by subconscious without putting efforts on understanding, analyzing, memorizing and practising is what you should avoid - no free lunch!

3) What is the trainer’s specialties?

The best trainers/coaches have niches - business, therapy, coaching, health, parenting, counseling etc. In addition, what kind of business? IT, accounting, engineering, sales, or more strategic thinker? What kind of therapy? Psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, or medical? Counseling.Relationship, child care or senior? Check what trainer would help you reach your goal, again, your goal. Ethical trainer will tell you they do not know all.

4) The width and depth of a trainer.

Trainers have different speciality. Good trainers understand the reason, the logic, the theory and the implication behind the skills. NLP/coaching base on behavioral science and psychology. Trainers do not need to be like Confucius(孔子), Mencius(孟子), Aristotle, Plato, William James, Carl Jung or a trained psychologist, yet, knowledge of relevant discipline such as social & applied psychology and organizational behaviour (in business application) are quite essential to facilitate learners to integrate and apply NLP. Knowing both the why and how, you'll then know why sometimes the how does not work.

5) What basic models are covered in NLP Practitioner & Coaching course?

Different NLP society has different approach. Check the one that suits you to reach your goal. Usually you'll see these models in the classical NLP Practitioner level and coaching.

    1) Representational Model
    2) Sub-Modality Model
    3) Meta-Model Linguistic Model
    4) State Model
    5) Strategy Model
    6) Time-Line Model

In Neuro-Semantic NLP (Meta-NLP) and Coaching, we have 2 more models in the training:

    7) Meta-Program Model
    8) Meta-State Model^®

6) How does the training work for you to reach your goals?

The foremost and ultimate aim of the trainings is to enable you to create your well-formed outcomes which motivate you to realize them. If a trainer talked about him/herself instead of facilitating you to understand, design and reach your goals, their “ego” is probably in the way. Do they open for other opinions? Do they appreciate other disciplines? Do they give credit to others? Do they influence by referent power or position power?

7) Has there any benchmark to assess the skills that you learn?