Frequently Asked Questions

Curricula: Why is it 18 days?

Following text by courtesy of Dianne Lowther, NLP Master Trainer, www.brilliantminds.co.uk

In January 1993 I was awarded my NLP Practitioner certificate.  I was very proud of the achievement and equally excited about my new skills and the possibilities for the future.

I didn't want to ram it down the throat of everyone I met so I didn't talk to many people about NLP at that stage.  However, there were a few people who knew I'd been attending the course and were curious.

With them, I shared some of what I'd learned but I found it quite hard to express the value of the eighteen-day programme in snippets short enough for the average attention span.

I'd had a lot of evicence, but...

I also realised quite quickly that I'd had a lot of evidence that, once you know how to do it, it's possible to change habits, ditch old attitudes and see the possibilities of life in a very constructive way.  People who hadn't been with me on the course were much less ready to accept that any of these things were possible.

I remember having a conversation with a woman of about my age who suffered with asthma.  I'd had my own struggles with the condition and had been delighted to discover that I had made a real difference to the frequency of attacks by using one of the NLP techniques.  I offered to share it with her.

She stared at me for a moment, frowned and then patted me on the arm and pronounced, 'no, you see, I really do get asthma. It's not in my mind.'  (There wasn't much to say to that...)

Can't you just give me the main learning points?

A colleague told me, 'I'd quite like to become an NLP Practitioner but I don't want to do a eighteen-day course.  Can't you just give me the main learning points?'

Well....

...no.

NLP is a set of skills

I've said this before, NLP is a set of skills.  The NLP Practitioner training is about learning and practicing the skills.  The theory might be interesting but until you learn to apply it, you're not going to experience any of the benefits.

I also realised early on that it's difficult for most people to envisage that there could be eighteen days worth of material to do with communication and performance that they don't already know.  Let me assure you, unless you've actually studied NLP, you don't already know any of it.

Thirty years on I still get asked, 'why is it 18 days?'

I've been advised by marketing professionals that 'nobody will buy a 18-day course'.  That's simply not true.  You might not buy it on a whim, you'll want to know what you're getting and why.  You'll have to check the dates and find the budget.

One thing I'm sure of...

...if you're tired of sitting in front of a screen and you're craving something real, those 18 days will nourish your soul.  I can't think of a better way to reconnect with yourself, with other people and with the joy of being part of the human race.