NLP Coaching

My Inspirational Encounter with NLP Coaching

It’s been a year of panic, uncertainty and fighting against change, ever since the Covid-19 pandemic reared its ugly head. The world is crying out for change now. ​

People are relying more than ever on social media and mass media for information. There’s an avalanche of information on the internet. More and more of us are venturing into that space with the hope of getting our numerous messages out to the world.

It is the ‘difference’ that makes the difference as we attempt to expand our minds and that of others, to new ways of living. What are we really doing this for? What is the ultimate goal?

As an NLP trainer, I know there is money on the table for our bottom line results. Higher profits and revenues, if only we could make that change collectively to impact “the field of consciousness”. When more people in a specific field do something consistently, we yield stronger and more sustainable results!

When I am asked “what is NLP” I often relate this big picture explanation.

Virginia Satir, in the preface of “The Structure of Magic”, described the NLP co-founders Grinder and Bandler’s success, in observing the process of change over time and distilling patterns, of the “how” process.

This landmark book about language and therapy, published in 1975 is required reading when you learn NLP. It describes “the predictable elements in a transaction between two people that make change happen”.

This    makes    me    recall November    2002.    I    had    spent    an    entire year acquiring  my NLP Practitioner Certification,  all  the  way through to becoming an NLP Trainer.

​There was one final course I had signed up for, after completing at least eight others from January of that year. Fatigued and uninterested, I didn't feel like attending it. But my intuition screamed, “Go! Go! You have to go!”

And so I went. Thank goodness I did because I met my inspiration to take up NLP coaching seriously. I met Thomas Leonard, the founder and grandfather of coaching. He commanded the stage with his presence and held the 500-strong audience like a magnet.

Thomas shared with me over lunch that also happened serendipitously,  that I would make an excellent NLP Trainer & Coach. I was shocked. I had not even started my business. I had met him for the first time. He said he didn’t need years to know a person. He could intuit to feel their strengths.

Today I know, that is how those of us in NLP coaching, operate. Over the years I have aspired to develop Thomas’s powerful coaching qualities. One of my favourite quotes that he shared with me is, “Coaching doesn't make sick people well...it helps healthy people become extraordinary.”

He spoke of coaching as the next big wave to hit the corporate world. He foretold that coaching would take a very different pace and style. He said we wouldn’t recognise it in the years to come.

Thomas was right. Today, in NLP coaching we coach in a variety of ways, informally at cafes and online, basically from wherever we are that’s convenient.

We coach to create effective people, for business, sports, family and relationship. NLP coaching enables people to change mindsets. It helps them see, hear and feel with clarity and more importantly improve their repertoire of skills.

Clients find they’re able to do more in their roles at work and home. This is what organisations need to focus on. When employees learn NLP they get to the core of their identity, allowing them to utilise their strengths, so they enjoy what they do and hence produce outstanding results.

So what is NLP? It is a model of how we know what we know. NLP consists of more than 100 processes, each one for a specific problem. It caters to every type of issue found in an organisation. From resolving team conflict, deepening rapport with clients and managing a state of mind, to achieving targets or understanding how values drive motivation. There is a process for each.

The first step when you learn NLP is the NLP Practitioner Certification. It starts off with shifting mindsets to work with context rather than content.

For example, if you know the Language of Influence and use it’s patterns and structure to negotiate, engage your client and communicate clearly with your teams, just imagine what a load of stress it would dissolve at the workplace.

During my NLP coaching sessions I pick up non-verbal cues from clients that help me deepen rapport with them. As I speak the Language of Influence I listen for words, tonality and most of all, physiology.

I had a client who was extremely restless as she sat in the chair across from me, in her first session. That gave me the hint that she was very uncomfortable with herself.

My ultimate goal is to understand my client’s world and help them expand their boundaries to get rid of limiting beliefs or unhelpful behaviour patterns that are holding them back.

For example, a client came to me saying she was constantly getting herself into trouble. Were others to blame or was she the common denominator? 

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It turned out to be a case of very limited boundaries which prevented her from seeing beyond the context of her situation. She needed to learn how to step into others’ shoes which is where empathy springs from.

NLP coaching helped her see how she processed her thoughts in exactly the same way every single time. She saw how this had eventually created a negative pattern in her unconscious mind.

Once she was able to step out of the context and see her emotional pattern, we were off to some serious NLP coaching, which transformed her life!

Finally, I would like to share my message as an NLP trainer with many years of NLP coaching in the corporate sector. We need to continue learning in order to adapt. The world is not coming to an end but our old ways of doing business and living, are crumbling.

What makes more sense to you? Would you rather spend time preparing and learning how to thrive in the “new normal”, whatever that may be? Or sit around speculating about what could go wrong?

This is part of the exploration journey when you learn NLP. Using this downtime to roll out a company-wide NLP practitioner certification will be the best investment you can make right now.

Previously, I would recommend that you learn NLP face-to-face but in the current Covid scenario, I’ve adapted learning formats that consist of a blended approach.

We start with an NLP online course, then components of pre-study in audio and book formats, and finally a face-to-face session to pull it all together.

​I hope you will join us! 

​Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information.