Welcome to another day and another chapter in ‘NLP in the world’ with Caroline from Canada. Caroline can be contacted in LinkedIn, or directly on her web site. You can also follow her at Café-Coaching for a daily dose of good thinking.
Talking4Good (T4g): How did you come into contact with NLP?
Caroline: I was looking for some communication training and found that NLP was most suitable for me as it goes beyond basic communication technics and approaches.
T4g: What NLP qualification do you have and who did you train with?
Caroline: I am a Master-Practitioner and I did my training with Isabelle David, a French NLP teacher based in Québec and founder of IDCom International. I am also an accredited Neuro-Semantics coach.
T4g: Which NLP association would your qualifications be endorsed by?
Caroline: A few… <Laughs> ABH, ACPNL, AHQ, ANN, IANLP, INLPTA, INLPF, OCPNN, SOFEDUC, SQPP, TLTA, SICPNL.
T4g: Have you joined an NLP association?
Caroline: I joined the Naturotherapists Association in Quebec to be able to give my clients receipts as NLP associations don’t unable me to do so. I also joined the ICF to get an international recognition.
T4g: What do you expect from those various NLP associations?
Caroline: I would expect them to be part of the ICF (international coaching federation) for us to be recognized as professional coach. I would expect them to be organised as one professional association that gives benefits to its members (insurances etc.) and produces receipts for our clients. I would expect them to insure our credibility and an asset of high professional standards to be respected.
T4g: What do you like best in NLP?
Caroline: NLP uses imagination and enables true communication between the two parts of the brain which is amazing because this is often where psychotherapy fails. It produces great results in a pleasant and effective way. What I like best in NLP is to help people to heal and empower themselves while enjoying myself <Big smile>.
T4g: You are using both NLP and Neurosemantics (NS), could you give a high level of the difference?
Caroline: To me NS is more sophisticated; it has a structure NLP sometimes lacks. Dr Hall made very complex psychological concepts clear; he is a very good populariser. With NS, NLP can stand on its two feet as there are very specific models to handle every coaching situation and an asset of core skills to develop that are clearly identified. NLP is the foundation; NS is the house (still under construction).
T4g: Tell us then about NLP and creativity workshop?
Caroline: NLP clearly develops creative abilities as it constantly links right and left sides of the brain. NLP encourages us to use our five senses and to imagine what could be. It also creates a frame that allows people not to be ashamed of their creativity and productions. In a society where perfection and stress walk hand in hand, this is good to have a space where you can finally let go, do whatever you want without feeling judged. I also happen to be an artist so I experienced the power of art concerning healing and use it in my workshops.
T4g: What about then using NLP in team building work?
Caroline: NLP focuses a lot on values -actualizing them for an individual or a company is quite similar. To really work together, people need to create a vision, a mission and to organise themselves around values that are more than words on a corporate web site. They need to feel and experience those values and that’s where team-building becomes essential.
T4g: Quebec is well known for its bilingualism, French /English? Do you see differences working in one or the other language?
Caroline: I am French (from France) and I can clearly see differences between France and Canada as far as work culture is concerned. But, although French speakers and English speakers are different here, they are still Canadians which means they have a lot of values in common -hard work, respect, commitment etc. To me, English as a language goes straight to the point, French tends to be more elusive, blur, artful, but I would not say that it makes a great difference.
T4g: How is NLP present in your country?
Caroline: My experience is that NLP is not really present in Canada. I’ve been part of the CANLP for a while, as a member of their direction team, and we didn’t have enough time and money to achieve all we intended, we were trying to make things work but didn’t really succeed to expand NLP in Canada.
T4g: What opportunity do you have to meet with other NLP practitioners?
Caroline: There are practice groups organised by NLP practitioners. There are also NS and NLP trainings.
T4g: What about NLP and research?
Caroline: I met an American guy a few years ago who was putting efforts in research to prove NLP efficiency. I haven’t heard from him since. In Canada, there’s no research going on (to my knowledge).
T4g: Any specific NLP research you would like to be involved with?
Caroline: Definitely, I would be involved in researches about the impact of NLP on innovation and creativity!
T4g: What would be your next step with NLP?
Caroline: I consider NLP as a method to create new models, new ways to define the world. So my next step would be to create new effective and systematic ways to empower people in their lives.
T4g: A last comment to conclude?
Caroline: With NLP as a tool, people can expand themselves and live better lives. This is what I stand for. As an organisation, I don’t know what’s going to happen. The NLP community is divided and its standards need to be redefined. I will be glad to help if I can <Big Smile>.
© 2012 Florence Dambricourt – talking4good.com/
talking4good.com 