NLP certification training, following a U.S. professional tradition, (practitioner of law, practitioner of medicine...) are usually named "NLP-Practitioner", however they extremely vary in profile, length, in depth, content and style. Lacking professional and credible standards, the same interestingly enough is true for NLP trainer certificates. So if you meet people who describe themselves as NLP practitioners or trainers it’s not easy to discern what may be expected from them in terms of competence, skills and attitude.

NLP focuses on the structure of subjective experience and its change and development, meaning, thoughts, feelings, and social roles of people and – quite frequently – their spiritual understanding. NLP training partly focuses on knowledge, skills and procedures (mainly Learning I), and partly on values, beliefs and deep personal change work (learning II+III).

Therefore it might pay off to very carefully take a look, whom do you entrust your social, emotional, psychophysical and spiritual wellbeing in a professional and ethically sound way.

NLP courses and books very often promise instant healing and change procedures. So many people seek these courses as "therapy in disguise." More than in many other methods in the field of psychology and human resources the power hungry and needy are attracted by NLP courses both as participants and to quickly become trainers.

Of course many professionals take up NLP as professional training for coaching, consulting, counseling and therapy.

Because of that variety in attendance it might be wise to very thoroughly check out the qualification of the trainers and the specific typical clientele of their course. You may also check out whether and how screening processes are applied.

Some courses may be used within a state education credit system for coaching or counseling licenses or universities.

With some exceptions the rule applies: the shorter the program, the more you pay per day, and the less professional soundness can be expected. Watch out for marketing ploys of "accelerated learning" – as an argument for shorter NLP courses versus longer courses. Any validation for that has yet to be made.

Of course it is possible to profit from every form of NLP training and to have deep and valid human experiences. Following an NLP tradition it may be sad that there is a positive intent of organizing the courses in any specific format.

One of the key positions in NLP culture is to bring out the best in everybody and put emphasis on the good features and the good intentions of behavior.

Incidentally over the last 15 years this attitude has practically blocked a traditional 2^nd position format of evaluation and assessment of different types of training, as it is common standard in other educational settings (grad schools, Science, flight training centers,.., Aikido, Tai chi, sports).

While in the world of lawyers, cardiologists, Airline Transport Pilots, Aikido teachers, clinical social workers, Zen Monks, Judges .... because of tradition, standardized access criteria, length of training, etc. the average minimal knowledge and competence is quite high and standardized, in NLP all these parameters vary much in diversity, and a profound discussion about them is rare.

This has led to quite unfortunate occurrences in several countries, i.e. NLP getting associated with cults like scientology, getting labeled in unfavorable political ways (nazilinguistic programming) and – mainly because of not pacing the established scientific community – not getting respected by them for what NLP could contribute, which actually is quite a lot.

While looking at content and wealth of NLP materials and curriculums it could be expected that an NLP trainer has very high and over and above average levels of personal stability, experience in psychosocial work, proficiency and knowledge in humanities, the current reality does look quite different.

Money hungry quick certification centers are widely available for the status hungry.

Esoteric bankruptees, who achieve their trainer certificates with a few weeks of attending training, are to be seen on one side of the curve, and more often than not create a difficult public image of NLP. Well educated consultants and psychiatrists with a 5 year + >300 day solid trainer education are to be found on the other side of the continuum, however, as most of their work is evidently more on the quiet side, it also is by far not so well known and PR effective.

From a socio-anthropological perspective the following areas in a portfolio of NLP teaching institutes can be described. They do resemble the 4 types of Francis Bacons typology of idols.

A Fragmented esoteric NLP

Length of training varies, dancing, singing and a quite animistic approach are in the foreground. Semi-reflected quasi-spiritual work on self esteem has a much higher emphasis than methodology, occasionally even quite science phobic notions are carried.

B Power guru clubbings ( "soft fascist") NLP

Rather short courses with a happening character, very alpha type leader behavior of trainers. Large to very large groups, emphasis on power and empowerment. Young power male oriented, short term power up, very often targeted to sales persons, scientific quotes out of context are used to legitimize hyping up unecologically.

C Visionary spiritual dogmatic NLP

Usually Block courses over a month, with a lot of structured and sound material, a very positive attitude, and while basically methodical, a lot of emphasis on relationship, values and a structured spirituality, as a basis for growth.

D Scientific pragmatic organized NLP

Courses with longer perspective, orientation on both personality development and evidence based proven methodological competence within a framework of values and a strong emphasis on state of art didactic tools (video), well connected to traditional government and educational systems.

Training styles and orientations may only partly be judged on the appearance of brochures. It usually pays off to research more in depth who the trainers are and what is their profile. With some exceptions of highly experienced and sound trainers it also seems more advisable to seek training led by more than one or two trainers, as the diversity of models and descriptions and the chances of a good resolution of conflicts will probably be richer, and dependency towards one person is not so easy to establish.

The following typologies of training standards are "IDEALTYPES" which of course are rare in their pure form and serve only as an orientation.

Out of track, but a player in the field are correspondence study courses

0.3 * Standard Your certified mail order NLP practitioner. A few manuals, tapes, sometimes a day of course for "certification".

The main phenomenology of NLP practitioner courses

* Standard Speed 5-7 days. Up to 300 participants, large group trance, rock music, motivational business emphasis.

** Standard Quick 130 h (16-18 days), one or two blocks, very often trainers and assistants with no or little grounding in personal coaching/ therapy.

Nice clubbing experience ( DV NLP standard).

*** Standard Commercial 180 h, 24 –27 days stretched over r > 9 months trainer qualification, variety of trainers.

Special form: Standard or Commercial block (holiday camps in USA and Europe). Quality in didactics and experience of trainers, + design vary very much. Rarely creditable in education systems.

Frequently producing short time highs with little follow up and reinforcement possibilities. Medium to large groups. Interesting due to multi-nationality and languages and group dynamic.

**** Standard Solid (ÖBV-NLP 1) 200-250 h (27-34 days), training > 9 months, professional supervision, peer groups established and checked, high demand on trainers education and their supervision, using 3 or 4 trainers regularly.

Emphasis on personality development and methodology , group size limited.

***** Standard Professional (ÖBV-NLP II) 240-28 h (35-40 days), > 9 months training, professional supervision, structured pre-assessment outcome, client video mandatory for certification, real persons testing, group size limited, assessment of 4 days, trainer with > 5 years education before entering training plus sufficient self experience and supervision of trainers, >3 master trainers, who also are fully accredited and qualified psychotherapists, M.D. s counselors.
 

Comments and suggestions for additional criteria are welcome: friendly@eunet.at

Peter Schütz, M.Sc. born 1952 in Vienna. Licensed & teaching psychotherapist (ECP,DG), EMDR consultant, registered health psychologist, licensed management consultant, Mediator & Supervisor,
1984 cofounder and (1989) master trainer of the Austrian training center for NLP,
Secretary general Eur. Association for Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy,
lecturer at Vienna university for med. Psychology, communication training, & NLP , security & police psychologist (ASIS). CEO of Schütz & Co NLP Management consultants, central & eastern Europe, (conflict resolution, negotiations, leadership and presentation skills with NLP)

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