Burgess - The NLP Cookbook: 50 Life enhancing NLP techniques for coaches, therapists and trainers

You are in for such a treat.

This NLP Cookbook will appeal to the NLP diner within you. Whether you are already using Neurolinguistic Programming to explore with friends and family or you are working professionally with NLP as a manager, coach, trainer or therapist, you are certain to discover much here to support your practice. Even if you have just been introduced to NLP, you will find ways to stretch your thinking and extend your skills. How far you take it is down to you.

Why a cookbook? I have been thinking about how techniques are constructed for a few years now, and every time I began to explain what I wanted to do, I would resort to a cooking metaphor as the simplest explanation which is all very strange given that culinary skills are not high on my list of accomplishments!

NLP is known for its techniques. In fact, NLP is often described as a toolkit offering unique tools for different purposes. Whilst NLP is much more than this, it certainly is true that NLP techniques can deliver extraordinarily powerful experiences. You will no doubt have many stories of your own to back this up. Yet the range of tools to choose from is still fairly limited even after 40 years and most are found within the basic NLP repertoire. Few new techniques have made their way to the marketplace. The danger is that this can leave many practitioners with a feeling of what now? before moving off to pastures new.

Now you are about to be spoilt for choice. As a result of a really simple model I devised, I am delighted to offer you this collection of original recipes, with supportive commentary and materials. Your Explorers will have even more opportunity to extend their flexibility , improve their relationships and work towards their goals.

All the recipes have been tested, and modified , as a result of the feedback Ive received. I have also tested each of them myself a fascinating personal journey, let me tell you. In fact, I cant recommend this process highly enough, although I say so myself! The feedback has been really satisfying.

It is great to dip into. There may be a particular exercise I can use for a course, or I may just take the approach and adapt it to what Im doing.
A trainer

I used one of the exercises the next day with a client, and it worked tremendously well. I was really glad I had a copy.
A therapist

There was a particular issue that I was wanting to resolve. I took several of the techniques and worked through them. It was remarkable what emerged and how easy it was.
A learner

We have begun to use these recipes in our practice group as a way of directing our skills. It is refreshing to get our hands on new materials. Whens the next one due?
An NLP practitioner

The recipes on offer deal with different problem areas. Quite a few focus on how to shift state, with some of these targeting specific states like acceptance and anxiety. These are followed by recipes that seek to develop behaviours and skills, and others that address beliefs and identity. You have a wide range of recipes to choose from which deal with goals, relationships and the process of change. The beauty is that most of them can be used time and again for different circumstances and contexts, so they never wear out.

As the Guide, your job is to take your Explorer through the process. To help you, each recipe is prefaced by an introduction which gives some background to its source and evolution. You are then provided with the ingredients: the level of skill required to get the most from the process, those involved the Explorer and/or the Guide plus timings and resources required. For the technically minded, details of the construction are given.

The instructions are written as a script for you to read directly to your Explorer. Sometimes you are offered some additional direction and supportive comment, alongside your Explorers instructions. Some of these techniques dont need a Guide. If this is the case, then the Explorer can work independently , at his or her own pace, keeping the process private and spontaneous.

Where some of the techniques require your Explorer to walk into different spaces, if you have enough room, youll get a far richer experience if you allow them to do this.

I strongly suggest that you follow the structure of the questions as they are written, since they are constructed for a purpose to take your Explorers attention to a particular place. However, if you have a streak of burning independence and choose to go your own way, all will not be lost. You will certainly generate something new and, who knows, it may make for an even more powerful and useful experience.

Novice cooks, like me, tend to follow recipes slavishly, knowing that disaster lies just behind the sloppy measuring or omission of an ingredient. However, there are cooks who earn my undying admiration and envy who can intuitively adapt a recipe, adding a little something here, removing a little something there. This is not magic. They understand the chemistry that underpins the cooking process. They know what happens when you put this with that, now or later a wisdom still to be gained where Im concerned in the kitchen!

And so it may be with you. You might already have lots of NLP experience and are able to adapt processes to address whatever is emerging for your Explorer. If you, as the Guide, want to add a different twist in response to your Explorers awareness, please feel free. If, however, you dont have these skills yet it is wiser to stick with the stages as they appear.

Some of the techniques highlight the need for advanced levels of skill. If, as a beginner , you attempt them then it is unlikely you will attain the desired results. Whilst your Explorer will instinctively know how to protect him or herself from your relative lack of skill, it is best not to put them in that position in the first place. For this same reasoning, I leave making flaky pastry and souffl to the experts there is only so much my friends digestion should be expected to tolerate!

There are some people who can read a recipe and know exactly how the dish is likely to taste. So some of you may be able to skim through this book and already be aware of the potential experiences on offer.

If you have a particular goal in mind, a targeted audience or a specific problem that needs addressing, then you are likely to find at least two or three recipes that will fit your purpose immediately, or ones that can be easily adapted. In Appendix 2 you will find a comprehensive table recording the model type, the delivery method, linguistic and neurological frames used for each recipe, so you can quickly select those that suit your purposes. Who knows, you could find yourself looking at a ready-made workshop! Glad to be of service.

And it wont take long for you to realise that ingredients, models and processes can be chopped and changed. Once you have mastered cooking your model in the Provenal sauce of say submodalities + time, you can opt to place a different model into this mix. Conversely, you may choose to take your model and give it a different treatment , cooking it with triple description and mentors instead. Whilst there are 50 recipes here, you have at your fingertips many more opening the door to a mind-blowing potential repertoire, which is never-ending.

You are welcome to take these techniques out into the wider world there is no point in keeping them to yourself. If you do, and I would be delighted if you did, then I ask only one thing: