July 2015 Masterclass: Theatre Skills! with NLP for Coaches, Therapists, Trainers, Speakers and Leaders
Improvisation, Behavioural Flexibility and Confidence
In the early days of NLP there was a lot of play!
The NLP techniques we know today were once just new ideas about communication, change and learning. These ideas were given life and form by an NLP research group, on the campus at Santa Cruz in the 70’s, who were enthusiastic students, post-grads and university teachers.
This group played and improvised with the amazing new language patterns, state changes, the modelling of excellence, the new approaches to goal setting and problem solving etc . Over time the trialling and testing produced ‘what worked’. Stable processes and sequences emerged and these became the core NLP techniques and principles.
The ‘As If’ - imagine and play - frame was not only central to this extraordinarily creative phase in the early history of NLP, but also a core skill and approach of the excellent communicators – Satir, Perls, Erickson and Bateson – that Bandler and Grinder modelled.
“If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.” William James
Live feedback, sensory acuity, calibration of non-verbal signals, discussions, suggestions, and adventures in communication was the approach that worked. NLP was not to be a theoretical field. The labels, trademarks and certificates all came much later too.
The experiential, interactive workshop was the key vehicle for working with these new models and tools. Being spontaneous, imaginative and generative, within a pragmatic framework, was discovered to be essential to best practice.
NLP was designed to be an embodied, creative and interactive skill set.
In this unique, new Masterclass we will focus on developing more variety, creativity, confidence, fun and spontaneity in your NLP practice.
The programme will focus on 4 main topics;
- Improvisation (‘Improv’) techniques, skills and games drawn from theatre and comedy schools - using the co-operative principle to create new realities
- The ‘As If’ framework – imaginative play to connect to resources, skills and solutions
- ‘Quickfire’ type modelling approaches – using imitation and 2nd position to trigger enhanced performance
- Bringing more lightness, spontaneity, warmth and humour into presentations and client sessions
Taking your NLP practice to the next level in these practical ways gives you more skill with;
- modelling of 'success factors' of excellent performance in others
- accelerated learning in new social cultures and groups
- acting 'as if' in the present, and building dreams for the future
- deeper acceptance of clients' reality and patterns as a starting point for change
- essentialemotional and social intelligence in your practice
- effective, expressive and compelling communication
- imaginative, spontaneous, generative and playful interactions
Clients, audiences, people in life generally don’t come with a pre-packaged set of responses. Our job is to use our behaviour – our words, our bodies, our voices – to help elicit and shape thoughts and experiences in others and to help them access their own resources and gifts when they have have lost touch with them.
Erickson said he never used the same technique twice with any of his thousands of clients. He pioneered the idea, against the common prevailing practice in hypnosis, of treating everyone who came to him as unique and thus requiring a fundamentally open and unique response from him. This was part of the essence of his effectiveness.
We know that smiling makes you happy - changing your physiology changes your thoughts and feelings. NLP leverages these kinds of effects to help people make the changes they want. Developing and extending your range with these types of behavioural choices and variety is the secret to taking your NLP practice to the next level.
Develop your imagination! Use your voice! Move your body! Love your clients!
Come and stretch your mind, emotions, body and voice – get creative and inspired. Join us in a fun day of personal and professional development with Judith Lowe, an extensively modelled NLP Trainer, with a background in theatre and acting.
“Start with a YES and see where that takes you.” Tina Fey
