Anxiety, NLP and the Credit Crunch

Historically around one in five of the clients I see in private practice would be for anxiety related issues. In the last 12 months this has increased to one in two!

The Credit Crunch and Anxiety

I suspect that a raft of issues have contributed to this trend including fuel price increases, banking problems, increased food prices, house price increases and other elements that have all been generalised under the term "the credit crunch" As I write this I can see a caption on Sky TV that proclaims "Consumer confidence falls to its lowest level since 1974"

All of these occurances inevitably affect the financial status of people and cause a big upswing in anxiety levels

I am mindful of a famous line out of Blackadder where Edmund says the following to Baldrick

"I feel like a penguin, everywhere I look there is a bill in front of me"

Talking Therapy and the "How questions"

I work alongside many psychotherapists and other talking therapy individuals and all colleagues report a big increase in client enquiries, most of these being for stress related conditions.

One of the greatest mistakes in treating anxiety is to take the analytical approach, where the therapist relentlessley seeks to dig into the client's past in order to try and find the "root of the problem" My experience from having worked with literally hundreds of clients is that "the why questions" are not as crucial as "the how questions" The key question in working with clients is to consider "How do they do that?" Once the strategy has been elicited, then its far easier to to change the stuck state to one where the client experiences greater freedom.

Provocative Change Works

Many colleagues are surprised that often client conditions are resolved within 3 sessions, whereas with many approaches a client can see a therapist for months on end. I have found the Provocative Change Works approach (see http://www.provocativechangeworks.com/) to really accelerate great results, especially with anxiety related conditions. I was delighted to receive an e-mail from a colleague saying how he had great results using many of the Provocative Change Works techniques with a number of clients with anxiety related issues.

The value of peer group interactions

One of the reasons why I have so much success with clients and in developing new approaches to problems is that I have great contact with some of the best minds in change work. These include Frank Farrelly, Steve Andreas and Andrew T Austin. All these individuals are passionate about helping people and demonstrate a skill level that is uncommon in this day and age!

http://www.nickkemp.com/

Crazies, nutters and stalkers...

I have written extensively about some of the craziness that occurs online, especially in the world of NLP, which can be crazily territorial. Some folks spend literally hours online attacking different trainers. It seems the more pupular the trainer, the more attention that's created. Of course Richard Bandler is the main target and I saw recently in a particular an especially unpleasant individual was once again attempting to drone on and on about his imagined past history!

I too have had a share of crazies and online stalkers over the years and even had one incensed individual posting 200+ posts each month about how outraged they were by various posts I had made online criticising some of the stupidity that passes for advice. The idea that NLP or any other changework approach is a fix all for all of life's problems is of course quite ridiculous. A few years ago I was chatting to a colleague who asked "Have you had your first stalker yet? I was somewhat surprised by the question, but now realise that there are many sad and lonely individuals that are hell bent on fixating onto people in the public domain to the point of obsession.

Many celebrities encounter this kind of problem and some even hire protection for some of the crazier individuals. A number of years ago I even had someone issue death threats stating "I'm coming rund to kills you!" I politely requested - "Please make it between 3pm and 4pm as I'll be in meetings before and after these times...
Needless to say he failed to appear at the requested time!

People who inspire

There are many people who have inspired me over the years. Some have worked in the fields of personal change, others have been writers, musicians and worked in other fields.

Here is an arbitury list in no particular order of people who come to mind

Dave Dobson - a brilliant hypnotist
Frank Farrelly - a great friend and brilliant therapist
Richard Bandler - co creator of NLP
Jimi Hendrix - a genius guitar player
Nick Cave - terrific songwriter and performer
Tom Waits - maverick entertainer and genius
Frank Zappa - suberb musician
Joni Mitchell - ground breaking songwriter
Martin Simpson - the master of altered guitar tunings
Michael Franti - the missing link between Marvin Gaye & Bob Marley
Neil Young - listened to him for over 35 years and still loving it

This is my list for today, tomorrow it may differ!

The Power of Sound and Vision

Thanks to my god friend Andy (The Rainbow Man) Austin I have been alerted to how easy it is to upload material to YouTube. I have therefore started adding a bunch of video clips online which cover a wide range of different projects including "Provocative Change Works", "The Art of Good Fortune" and various NLP, Hypnosis and of course some unique Frank Farrelly material.

These can all be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/ProvocativeChange

In the era of the ipod and YouTube, the planet is really positioned for global sharing of information, especially through the medium of audio and video.
My good friend Michael Ross from NY has sent me some of the most amazing links to numerous YouTube music clips from across a wide range of musical gendres including blues, country, jazz and rock. Another real find online was a series of clips of Frank Tedesso at The Living Room in NY. I saw Frank a few years ago and he is another one of those elusive singer songwriters who will probably never reach the public domain as he is so mercurial and sadly unwell at present.

In the field of change work IMO a lot of the video online is not great, almost as bad as many newsgroup posts. However a careful search can reveal some hidden gems in any field and here are some great musical ones to check out


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP7qI5RVtxw&feature=related - Les Paul who invented the electric guitar and audio multi tracking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJmyrx26Gc The excellent Ani Difranco in full flow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHzRir7K3g&feature=related The charismatic Michael Franti

What's in a name? Absurdity of some titles...

In recent years I have noticed more and more a tendancy for some individuals who work in changework and therapy to present themselves with ever grander titles, in order to try to promote themselves. I have no problem with the use of titles, but it seems to me at least to have got totally out of hand, especially on the internut.


Most of these titles are totally meaningless and really are little more than a means for mutual self congradulation. Many individals proudly proclaim having "qualified" in NLP, Hypnosis or other approaches, when what they are really saying is that they have received a certificate of attendance for what is often a few days training in a large group situation with no actual testing of skills. Hypnotherapists suddenly call themselves "Master Hypnotherapists" and the term "Master" appears IMO all too frequently in adverts and bio wording.

These days a person could feasibly take a few weeks off work to become a Reki Master, NLP Master Practitioner, Hypnotherapy Master and goodness knows what else! Those who do give up the day jobs, often regret doing so, not realising that the public at large are mostly unimpressed by such titles!
Around a year ago a newsgroup owner went so far as to actually fabricate a number of "qualifications" having blatantly never even started never mind completed the 3 year Hypnosis training programme. He was politely asked to remove all logos on his site...

Another familiar pastime is to issue diplomas for NLP and Hypnosis. These are of course not recognised by anyone except the person issuing the piece of paper. Ultimately of course there is no substitute for real experience and research. I agreed to join the ANLP advisory board, because they at least have a code of ethics which sets some form of standard. One of the joys of working with and learning from Frank Farrelly is that he doesn't believe in certifications and we often joke about them. I have however asked if he would make me "a cardinal of Provocative Therapy" and as long as I can obtain the appropriate hat by Nov, I am hopeful that this will happen...

LOL

Nick Kemp
http://www.nickkemp.com/

Running public trainings

I have been involved in running public trainings for a number of years. In the 1980s onwards I ran meditation and altered state events and then in this decade I started to run NLP, Hypnosis and Provocative Change and Therapy events.

Successfully presenting and hosting public events requires spinning a lot of plates. Often people will attend an event and think that this is a sure way to become wealthy without realising all the many elements involved in making this happen! There are many considerations before you even get to the actual day of the event. Such elements include finding a suitable venue, creating a big enough delivery system to attract sufficient numbers of people as well as ensuring that sound and lighting are to a high standard.

In recent times many people have obtained NLP Trainer certficates and considered themselves to be trainers with the intention of setting up trainings so they can pack in the day job. Often they don't realise that just as the map is not the territory, a certificate does not a trainer make...This is one of the reasons why so many events are ultimately cancelled and/or end up with so few attendees. I have even heard of events with one delegate to two trainers!

The reality is that as with all good business, quality of presentation and great marketing will be key factors in creating longevity. Through http://www.nickkemptraining.com/ I recently hosted Andrew T Austin's IEMT event which was a great success. Through http://www.tranceformingnlp.com/ I have been involved in presenting NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner events as well as hosting some of the best minds in communication including Frank Farrelly, John LaValle and Doug O Brien.

Nest year through The Association for Provocative Therapy I will be promoting Frank Farrelly's work in a unique 3 day event in May. See www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com for forthcoming details

As with most things in life, experience makes it easier, but planning public events is like planning a military campaign, there is a massive amount of behind the scenes work. Many newsletter subscribers to http://www.nlpmp3.com/ and http://www.provocativetherapy.info/ receive advance notice and special early bird options on events. Finally for me the best thing about promoting events is that I get to spend time with the best minds in communication and that is priceless!

Frasier

I first started watching Frasier in the 1990s having previously never seen Cheers. Frasier is one of the smartest funniest TV series ever which won

a record 37 Emmy awards during its run, and a poll taken by C4 voted Frasier the best sitcom of all time. Amazingly it ran for 11 years. Last year I saw David Hyde Pierce who plays Niles Crane live on Broadway, who was as superb live as he was on th show.

Both the writing and the acting on this sitcom are excellent and to date I have never seen an episode that is anything other than excellent. Its a great example of use of language, humour and timing. The shows are on constant rotation on the Paramount Channel and I often watch them during the breaks when working at home.