If you are considering a workshop, classes or private work - in order to get the best benefit for yourself, I'd like to make some suggestions that you can use as guidelines to help you to get the most for your investment of time and money.

Since there are no Universal Standards for training or therapeutic practices, the quality varies dramatically from person to person, or from one center to another. Here are some ways to gather important information that will help you to make a good decision before investing your money:

Client/Therapist Work

Coaching/Mentor

Seminars / Classes / Workshops

Private Training

Energy Work/Practitioner

Client/ Therapist Work:

1. Does your therapist or change agent spend a lot of time gathering information about what has gone wrong in the past? While this may be significant to a certain extent, what went wrong in the past is not real valuable for determining solutions for creating the future. What leads to solutions is to explore and find out how you or other people solve similar problems. An effective practitioner will spend much more time gathering information about your positive goals and your personal abilities and resources.

2. Are you moving towards your goal or outcome? Some goals may be achieved in one session, while others may take more time. Even with goals that take more time, you should be experiencing some movement in the desired direction within at least the first 2 to 3 sessions. If you aren't experiencing change, you may want to consider working with another therapist or change agent. Even if you are working with a skilled person, sometimes it is simply an inappropriate match, something may be missing, or your desired outcome may lie outside their area of expertise. Being able to measure movement towards your goal is the single most important criteria to use in evaluating your process.

3. Does your therapist or change agent give you labels telling you what's wrong with you, rather than spending time helping you to explore new ways of getting what you want?  This is a sign that this person is not a good investment for you. Diagnostic labels are not solutions, provide little direction for your process, and serve little value if any. Focusing you on what's wrong, or what needs fixed, will not get you where you want to be.

4. Make a distinction between feeling good or feeling understood by the therapist, and whether you are getting the changes you want in your life. Ideally you can have both in a counselor. However, some warm and wonderful people do not have the skills necessary to help you get the results you want. If you have a therapist that you really like and think is wonderful, but your not getting the results you'd like, we suggest you use someone else.

5. Check to see if your Counselor, Therapist or change agent has used their own techniques in their own life and produced positive results.  You should interview the therapist as well to insure that it's a good fit. Often therapist use learned techniques that may not produce the desired or claimed change. In order to facilitate your process, they have to know what the process is and what it will produce as a natural effect. If you are using a hypnosis practitioner, inquire as to how they have used hypnosis in their own life and what kind of results they experienced. 

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Coaches & Mentors

1. Make sure that you feel comfortable with your Coach and can relate to them.

2. Check their specific area of expertise and what qualifies them for that position.

3. Check any education or specialty certification.

4. Do they walk their talk? How have they used these techniques in their own life, and how did it improve it or bring about the desired change or outcome?

5. Be clear on what it is that you are seeking help with - is it personal skills, such as organization, planning, positive thinking or perhaps developing and aspect of yourself - to be more creative, flexible, demonstrate confidence. Or is it professionally oriented to be coached on business expertise of some sort. Or perhaps it's help with relationships and communication skills. Be clear on what it is exactly that you are hoping to be able to do, acquire, learn or what improvement you desire when making your selection.

6. Make sure that the Coaches/Mentors expertise in the desired area models and demonstrates the "level" of competence that you are looking for. For example: I am a professional artist, if I sought a coach to help with my artistry - I would require the assistance of someone more accomplished in the area I am seeking help for than I am. Someone who can coach my current level of expertise to the next higher level of competence.

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Seminars / Classes / Workshops:

Here are some recommendation for selecting the training that will offer you the desired benefits:

1. Get the personal Experience of the Trainer. This can happen through attending a free preview, or through video or audiotape. Trust your personal experience more than brochure quotes, endorsements, certificates, or degrees.

2. Staying Power. Does the Trainer have a good track record for repeating seminars over a period of time? Those who have both personal integrity and ability (rather than just flash and charisma) can get results that prove to be satisfying over a period of time.

3. Information vs. Demonstrations. In a good training you'll get live demonstrations as well as interactive processes of the methods being taught, not just descriptions of the methods or the results achieved by others using the methods. Some boast about results but don't actually teach the methods for getting them. Some classes are more about exploring information rather than learning techniques. If this is the case make sure that the teacher has a working knowledge or personal experience of the information being taught.

4. Exercises. After demonstrating, does the trainer provide you with carefully designed exercises that allow you to immediately practice new skills? Observation and practice are what will make new skills apart of you. We only learn what we can demonstrate. You must be able to demonstrate what you are learning.

5. Evidence. Do you learn how to know whether what you've learned is working? A good trainer will teach you nonverbal signs to watch and listen for. You should have a clear idea of what evidence of the process working will look like, sound like or feel like. Ask yourself - what is it that will let me know that this is working?

6. Personal Integrity. Does the trainer act in ways that are congruent with what's being taught? Here are some qualities to look for in good trainers:

 a. An effective trainer will presuppose that anyone can learn - it's more a matter of finding the preferred learning style of each participant. Good trainers will provide a variety of teaching modalities such as visuals, written outlines or notes, as well as verbal techniques that explain things from various perspectives. If a trainer acts like a "guru" who wants to razzle and dazzle you, be cautious. Participants usually learn far less in this type of training (even though sometimes they are more impressed).

b. A good trainer will respect and honor questions and objections from participants without feeling threatened or intimidated.

c. A good trainer will follow-thru on any promises she makes to participants.

d. Effective Trainers can easily admit mistakes and will welcome suggestions to improve the training.

7. Skill. This may be somewhat difficult to detect before going into the training, but it is very important. Some things to check: can the trainer demonstrate getting results? Do you observe nonverbal shifts in the demonstration client? Do you notice your own skill improving, or does the trainer just say it is, or says repeatedly "your unconscious is getting it," or "You may feel confused now, but just give it a month or two and you'll notice a difference." Insist on observable results.

8. Sense of Humor. The single best aid to learning is a sense of humor - the kind that is infectious, laughing with others or at the human condition, not at anyone's expense. If you find a trainer that has this along with other qualities we have listed here, you have found someone you are likely to be pleased with and will probably learn the skills you took the training for.

Some of these seminar recommendations are condensed from an article  "A Consumers Guide to Good Training." by NLP Comprehensive.

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Private Training:

1. Selecting. Make sure the training is specifically what will produce the desired outcome, produce specific results, or will train you on the specific skills you'd like to develop.

2. Competence of Trainer. Make sure that your trainer has expertise not only in the area of training but also in their ability to train. Just because they have knowledge doesn't mean they are good at teaching.

3. Can the trainer demonstrate what they are teaching. Not as a skill or specific technique, have they used these in their own life to produce the results they are claiming it produces. All true teaching stems from self-realization. Have they realized this in their own experience?

4. Do you feel comfortable and safe with your trainer? Is there a feeling of trust? Can you relate to them, do you feel they relate to you?

5. Is the trainer committed to finding what works best for you? Or are they set on their method and are not flexible in their application of techniques. Are they able to experiment with various ways of doing things?

6. Mentoring. Do you want to "be" like the trainer. It's not just what technique is being used that's important, it's the "way about" the trainer. Their personal style. With true mentoring, you study and model (imitate) the way the person is being, their attitude, what they are thinking about, how they are feeling, etc.  All performance stems from "state of Mind."

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Healing Energy Work:

1. Be Cautious of a Practitioner who claims to be overly "sensitive" to the very thing they work with, ie., energy, emotions, spirit attachments, etc. A true master at their craft knows how to handle their medium and is proficient and skilled at it.

2. Make sure you feel comfortable with the person and the process they use.

3. Therapists/Healers - should describe their technique and the process they will use, and give you an idea of how it will work and what to expect. They should ask permission to perform - to make sure that they have your permission and you are "willing." Any resistance on your part with hinder the process and the results.

4. They should be able to answer most questions about their Art. They welcome questions and can explain things from a scientific, logical or rational perspective as well as an intuitive or spiritual perspective.

5. Be cautious of Energy Workers or Healers who give you intuitive information about "what's wrong with you" or what they are sensing in your energy field. Energy work does not diagnose, treat, or try to "notice" information that's in the energy field as a means of healing.

6. Ask the practitioner what their process is as well as yours. If they indicate any kind of diagnosis or recommendations, or advice, check into their expertise, education and qualifications for doing so.

7. Find out what to expect as a result of the treatment or session. How will you know if it worked? What can you expect as a general rule? What will you use for evidence or to monitor progress and effectiveness?

8. What are the qualifications of the practitioner? Education? Expertise? Who did they Mentor with? How long have they been doing it?

9. Fee Structure. Do they seem confident, or wishy-washy? Anyone who offers a good valuable service charges for it. If they undercut standard "professional" fees, it's usually a sign of a non-professional. Price is always a reflection of expertise, education and value.

10. Don't ever seek out "intuitive information" or "Psychic Readings" from a street psychic - or from a non-professional. This experience can be destructive and extremely harmful. This is where the old idea of "curses," casting spells and voodoo came from. Suggestion may be stronger than you realize.

11. Be Cautious of anyone who combines the process of healing with intuitive readings. They are not compatible. They are not the same thing, nor do they involve the same type of process. Good healers, or intuitive counselors will help you develop the ability to discern your own information, simply by facilitating the process, not by telling you what your stuff's about. Only you know that.

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