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Last week I attended a talk in Chichester by Andrew Austin, “Depression: a neurolinguistic perspective”.
I decided to go to the talk because I’ve been reading and enjoying articles on Andy’s web site – www.23nlpeople.com – for years. I also read his book “The Rainbow Machine – Tales from a Neurolinguists Journal” recently and found it to be riotously funny, insightful and a challenge to the self-satisfaction and complacency that seems rather too widepsread in the world of NLP. In short, its just about the best NLP book I’ve read since ‘Frogs into Princes’; get a copy and read it.
The talk itself concerned working with depressives. Andy outlined some simple models of how depressives maintain their state over time and how to intervene. He pointed out the common mistakes made in treating depressives, some of which were painfully familiar to me; for example, eliciting the depressive strategy all too easily elicits the state of misery, tears and a therapist as unresourceful as their client.
Andy’s approach is deeply influenced by provocative therapy. He outlined numerous tricks and techniques for disrupting the emotional games that therapists and their clients play: some of them very funny and some of them almost brutal in their directness.
It was not another training in NLP techniques, but was instead about when and how to use the NLP toolbox for treating depression, and the models outlined provided a rich map of opportunities for making effective interventions. Throughout the need for powerful state control was emphasised, that the therapist needs to maintain a state stronger than their clients’ misery.
Overall, it was a superb talk. Engaging, funny and informative, drawing on years of experience in “the trenches” of the mental health industry. I’d strongly recommend studying Andrew Austin’s work to any NLPer or therapist who wants to improve their game. To top it, Andy even promised to send participants an audio recording and notes from the talk, a refreshing change from most trainers who won’t let you make a recording and then want to flog you an accompanying CD set on top of the cost of the seminar.
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