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A remarkable journey in 11 months – from lost to passionate |
As I stepped off the tube at Olympia last Saturday morning on a bright sunny day, full of nervous excitement for the day ahead, I took a moment to reflect back to a similar bright and sunny Saturday morning less than a year earlier when I visited the Mind Body Soul exhibition at Olympia. Full of excitement that day too, but little did I know just how life changing that day would prove to be. Had my good friend told me that in less than a year I would standing on stage in front of 120 delegates at the Smart School Authentic Happiness Summit sharing the story of my journey to happiness and my tips to help them do the same, I’d have said “you gotta be kidding me!”.
As it was, she didn’t, so she doesn’t have the satisfaction of telling me “I told you so!”
That day changed my life as it was the day I met Paul Kensett from the Smart School. I’d gone searching for something, I wasn’t sure what, but something that would fill the gap created by a job that no longer existed. I was drawn to the Smart School stand as we passed, maybe it was the genuine warmth in Paul’s smile or maybe the very professional look of the stand. Paul spent some time chatting with us and before long we’d signed up for the free Power Day the following weekend.
As it happened my friend couldn’t make it, so I had to go alone. I texted her in the morning ‘I really can’t be bothered, it’s going to be all hard sell, I’m not sure I want it’. Her wise words came back ‘just remember it’s you they are trying to impress, if they don’t then leave at the coffee break’. With reluctance I agreed and off I went. Read more
Filed Under Smart Profile
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The difference between NLP and Hypnotherapy |
In my clinical practice, I very often hear the question “what is the difference between NLP and Hypnotherapy”? It is actually quite difficult to answer as they aren’t easily defined and there are multiple ways to look at hypnosis and NLP.
Hypnosis is a technique that generates an altered state of consciousness in which the unconscious mind is more available to respond. Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic approach that uses hypnosis. I think it is quite important to understand the difference between hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis. The unfortunate reputation of hypnosis comes from the latter, which has got an entertainment purpose. It uses hypnosis in a manipulative way in order to generate some unusual behaviour. On another hand, a hypnotherapist uses hypnosis in an ethical way, within the control, permission and full awareness of its subject. So a client will never do something he doesn’t agree with or doesn’t want to do.
As for NLP, it is a set of great tools that uses language to generate changes at the neurological level. Actually, NLP doesn’t necessarily have to do with therapy. It can be used in coaching (as explained in our expression course taking place every other month); but can also be used to improve communication and finds its applications in business, sales and many other areas.
It is widely recognized that NLP techniques are also very powerful in a therapeutic context. So what are the benefits of combining it with hypnotherapy? Read more
Filed Under NLP & Hypnotherapy
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Building rapport in coaching |
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Not without a fight: How we hang on to limiting beliefs |
About two months ago I started going to the gym regularly, got myself a trainer and started using weights. At the same time, I started to cycle in to work about three times per week.
My aim was to get as fit as I could whilst enjoying the process.
After a few weeks I went to buy a new pairs of jeans and selected a 33″ waist pair to try on. Now, I have had a 34″ waist for years and so thought I was being optimistic that they would fit well. But actually, if anything, they seemed slightly loose! Hmmm, strange. There’s no way I could be less than 33″ and even that was a push for me to believe having been 34″ for so many years! I guess the jeans were designed to shrink in the wash.
That was about two weeks ago and in that time I have slimmed down further. And as I left the gym today in my virtually brand new jeans, I had to confess to myself that they were too loose! I really should have gone for a smaller size. So, why didn’t I? Read more
Filed Under From the Director's Chair|
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What’s your delinquency rate? |
Many years ago as a young bank manager, long before I discovered coaching, my number one priority was to maximise the amount of profit generated from lending money in the branch I managed.
One part of my targets was something rather quaintly called “delinquency rates”. This was the percentage of people my branch lent who were in arrears.
Now, you might expect the ideal result to be a delinquency rate of zero with no people in arrears. I certainly did and I was very proud to see our delinquency rate reducing as I focused on quality lending. But I was in for a surprise.
I was told my delinquency rate was too low! Read more
Filed Under From the Director's Chair
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