Just over a year ago I started seeing a Life Coach. Six months ago I abruptly stopped seeing a Life Coach. I think enough time has passed for me to get a decent perspective on the events, and to explain how I ended up wanting to believe somebody who was telling me that any problems I have may stem from a previous life.
A year ago I wasn’t having a good time. I was taking two A-levels under a self-study course and by late spring was faltering in a big way. I had no clue what I’d do once the exams were over, nor any real aims in life. Although pretty much over the upset from my break-up, I was still struggling with being on my own. My parents had heard good things about a local Life Coach, and, very kindly, offered to pay. I looked over the aims and benefits of life coaching, and this is the kind of thing that came up:
Coaching is future orientated and although touches on the past, it is predominantly focused on creating a better future. It is very practical in its approach, as it involves proactively planning specific actions, which will enable step changes to be made. Progress is often rapid and hence can be fairly short term.
It certainly seemed to be what I needed, and I agreed to give it a try.
In the first lesson we used some kind of chart to break my life down into various components - friends, health, romance, work etc. - and figured out which areas needed improvement. Self-image and work were the big issues.
For the next few months I saw her on a weekly basis. We’d talk about my week, going over anything that had upset me or I’d found difficult, then move onto ways to improve things. Chief among these was the idea of affirmations - small phrases of confidence such as ‘I am likeable’ that I should say to myself as often as possible. The theory was that after a while they would ’sink in’ and would become my default thoughts, as it were. Another technique was the trigger: whenever I felt particularly happy or confident I should do some action - I used touching a particular knuckle - and then whenever I needed a confidence boost I would repeat the action, which would trigger associated positive feelings. The trigger was undoubtedly the most impressive technique; it really did help on a number of occasions. Affirmations I’m not so sure about.
In hindsight, simply spending an hour talking to somebody was as helpful as anything else. Maybe it played to my bad habit of attention-seeking, but having somebody external who seemed genuinely interested in helping me was undeniably pleasant. She helped me figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. I realised, through talking things out, that the activity I enjoyed above all else was writing. We figured out a plan to help me develop this, while still making money by other means. This was great, and exactly what I needed.
At one point I remember her saying something like “you’re a really likeable chap”. That, I think, was a mistake. Thereafter I didn’t want to tell her anything that I thought would change this opinion. I remember feeling terribly guilty after flicking onto some softcore sex flick on the Sci-Fi channel. It objectifies women, doesn’t it? Did enjoying that mean I was a bad person? At the time, I thought it did (I’ve since resolved this particularly quandary, but that’s another post) but I didn’t mention it as I didn’t want her not to like me. I think the coaching became less helpful after this point.
Although I was possibly backing away slightly, the by now fortnightly meetings were still productive. Then, not long before christmas, I had a bad week for one reason or another - can’t remember why, now - and wasn’t very happy. Towards the end of our meeting, she said something like “do you want to fix this problem once and for all?”. Naturally, I said yes. She explained that the cause of my lack of self-confidence was one particular event. It’s possible I wouldn’t even remember it, but this one event had started off the problem, and problems had spread like cracks ever since.
Alarm bells rang. This sounded a little dodgy. But, then, I’m not a psychologist. Maybe this was possible.
All right, I said. The good news, I was told, was that there was a way to fix this. It’s remarkably powerful, she said, and comes from neuro-linguistic programming.
Blink. I didn’t know what that was, but it sounded impressive. She had a certification in it and everything.
The answer to all my problems was ‘timeline therapy’. She had personally witnessed its amazing effects. Was I interested? I nodded. We arranged we would ‘do’ the timeline therapy the next week, and that I should bring with me a sheet of paper listing everything I disliked about myself.
So I went home. I didn’t know what to do. The skeptic in me was yelling that this sounded hokey, and I should at least do some research. But what if it did turn out to be ridiculous? I didn’t want to think any less of this woman who had helped me for the last six months. I asked Mum what she thought, and she Googled timeline therapy immediately. She read over it, and I saw her frown. She told me that it seemed ok until the last paragraph, which had started talking about past lives. Damn. I looked up neurolinguistic programming, and at the time the Skeptic’s Dictionary entry described it as a psychological technique that hadn’t been proven one way or another (at least, that’s what I remember it saying).
Then I saw a way out. Timeline therapy seemed to involve hypnosis. Great! I knew that hypnosis is still fairly mysterious, but is definitely a valid scientific area. Maybe this technique could really work.
And this is how I, die-hard skeptic, fell for one of the more ridiculous types of pseudoscience / alternative medicine. It was presented by somebody I liked, and claimed to be able to solve all my problems. I simply convinced myself that there could be something to it by latching onto the smallest area of possibility, namely hypnosis, ignoring all other evidence.
The next week I arrived, complete with a detailed list of my failings as a person that had not been fun to compile. I sat down in her office. She was confident, excited. This was going to give me a fresh start, I was going to leave the building with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Ok. I would be open-minded.
She produced various documents. It was important that I understood the basis of timeline therapy. There are, she said, three reasons it works so well. Firstly, there’s the psychological reason. Ok. Then, there’s the metaphysical reason. More alarm bells. The word ‘metaphysics’ is a red flag for nonsense. I remember trying to push this to one side. There was still the possibility that this could work. Then came the third reason: quantum physics. My heart sank. If ‘metaphysics’ is a red flag, bringing up quantum physics is an air-raid siren. Its inherent lack of common sense lends itself to use by those who would have you believe something untrue, and any use of the term outside of a book on science is a guarantee that something is amiss. I was told that the process involved a ‘non-mirror reversal’ and asked, as somebody who’d studied physics, whether I thought made sense? Aside from the fact that A-level physics certainly doesn’t touch quantum stuff, I admitted that it didn’t. I was told that just because I may not have understood it didn’t mean it didn’t work.
Moments later, she explained the process to me. It didn’t involve any hypnosis, and that’s when the last real vestige of hope left me. I tried to bring it back, but the whole thing was too much, too ridiculous.
It was very important that she read out from a script. The conversation, as I remember it, went roughly like this:
LC: Close your eyes, and relax.
ME: Ok.
LC: Everybody has a timeline, which runs through them. This timeline represents your future and your past. I want you to visualise your timeline, and tell me in which direction it is going.
ME: (saying whatever came into my head) It’s going through me from front to back.
LC: Great. At some point in your life, there was an event that sparked off all of your troubles. You do not know where that is, but your subconscious does. We’re going to locate it. Firstly, and I want you to give me the answer that your subconscious supplies, did this event happen before, during or after your birth?
We were now firmly entrenched in woo-woo land.
ME: After.
LC: Great. I’m talking directly to your subconscious, now. What age did this happen?
ME: …
LC: Relax, and let the number come.
ME: …
LC: I want you to give me the first answer that comes into your head, as that will be the correct one. What age did this event happen?
ME: (this number did, indeed, pop into my head, presumably because that’s what happens when people tell you to think of a number) Five.
LC: Ok. Visualise yourself on your timeline.
ME: Ok.
LC: Float up and above your timeline, and move backwards along it, until you reach the age of five. Have you done that?
ME: (visualising it, and wanting to go home) Yes.
LC: Move to five minutes before the event. Feel the emotions.
ME: Ok.
LC: Move to five minutes after the event. Feel the emotions. Analyse them. Let them go.
ME: Ok.
LC: Move to the event itself. Release the emotions.
ME: Ok.
LC: Now, rise up into the air again, and come back to the present.
ME: Ok.
LC: Open your eyes.
Did I feel better, she asked. I said that I didn’t, really. She asked whether we should go through it again. I was noncommital, so we went through the whole routine once more, but much faster. Again I was asked whether I felt better. I said that I couldn’t really tell any difference. That was ok, she said, beneath the surface everything was much better, and I’d feel the effects eventually.
I tried to put up a pretense, but have never been any good at that. I was crushed, and it showed. We arranged to meet again the next week, and I left with neither spring nor smile.
That was a bad evening. I’d spent the morning writing down everything I hated about myself, and after realising that the whole thing was a con, I felt awful. My parents had paid, I kid you not, £40 a week for the life coaching, and I felt like I’d let them down. They’d spent all this money and I should have realised that it had been a waste of time.
If my life coach thought that timeline therapy was a reasonable thing to do, had everything else made any sense? The whole episode was swiftly undoing all of the good that had come before. In hindsight there had been advantages, even if they were just talking to somebody for an hour. It had helped. Confidence triggers really did work. But the whole timeline therapy thing was so far off the scale of reason that it threatened to invalidate it all.
I went back the next week, had a slightly awkward session, and she told me to see how it went from thereon, and contact her if necessary. I haven’t seen her since.
I’m in two minds about this rather sudden end: it’s entirely possible that she believed me fixed, and honestly thought I’d be fine. Or, it could be that I was clearly uninterested in her techniques, so she cut me off. I think it’s probably the former, but unfortunately can’t discount the latter.
I’m not claiming that life coaching as a whole is a con, and I don’t want to say that my life coach was a fraud. That’s clearly unfair. Much of the help she gave me was founded in psychology, and some of it was effective. My life coach gave every impression of caring deeply about helping me, and believing fully in what she was doing. It’s just that she’d been seduced by NLP, which is a real shame.
The event has made me far more aware of how easy is it to be taken in. I wouldn’t have expected that something so crazy could get in under my radar, but it did. Somebody I liked was telling me something I wanted to be true, and I actively worked against reason to convince myself that it could work.
I’ve since learnt that neurolinguistic programming is no more than a money-making scheme that has been roundly debunked in terms of both method and effectiveness. It remains a popular tool used by business, but is in reality just another con. Training costs thousands of pounds, and once you’re a ‘qualified’ practitioner you can charge large amounts of money that people will happily pay. The Skeptic’s Dictionary updated their entry, and their conclusion is:
It seems that NLP develops models which can’t be verified, from which it develops techniques which may have nothing to do with either the models or the sources of the models. NLP makes claims about thinking and perception which do not seem to be supported by neuroscience. This is not to say that the techniques won’t work. They may work and work quite well, but there is no way to know whether the claims behind their origin are valid. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. NLP itself proclaims that it is pragmatic in its approach: what matters is whether it works. However, how do you measure the claim “NLP works”? I don’t know and I don’t think NLPers know, either. Anecdotes and testimonials seem to be the main measuring devices. Unfortunately, such a measurement may reveal only how well the trainers teach their clients to persuade others to enroll in more training sessions.
A little knowledge of the techniques of pseudoscience did at least alert me to the potential quackery, even if I then ignored those signs until they became overwhelming. I certainly learnt a great deal, and am now more sympathetic to people taken in by alternative medicines.
If I ever need help again, I’ll talk to somebody scientific. Whatever a doctor would recommend.
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29 Responses to “Life coaching, and how I was seduced by nonsense” 
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Surprise you stuck for so long! What were you looking for when you sought this help? For information, a good life coach will have you evaluate after a course of 6 sessions perhaps. Whatever future therapy you’re receiving, please give yourself a time limit and evaluate if the sessions are productive and concrete i.e. you’ve got answers to your seeking. From your blog, all you need is a good friend to listen to…your mum sounds a good choice (pardon if I’m wrong). Andrew, the world is at your feet. Have the dare to explore. Do not be afraid to fail. Remember failure is the pillar of success…but you must work hard…be persistent and be resilient…listen to your own heart. I wish you success in forthcoming days.
Sometimes I just want to come over there and give you a big hug.
Hi U
I am a life coach and really upset about your experience. I agree with Lee and Lauren. I hope that this will not put you off self development which is really what life coaching is about. I am a non direct life coach, which means you are the one in change of the time and the subjects not me. My work is to encourage you to move forward and not to look at what has happened. If a life coach can not achieve that in max 6 x45 min sessions then its time to look for another life coach. Have fun with your life and I can confirm, you do have the answer my friend, it just needs the right person to bring it out.
This “timeline” stuff sounds like Dianetics with a paint job, what with the file clerk and the time track and the past lives and all that stuff. It made L.Ron Hubbard a very rich man, and if NLP has ripped this off and rebranded it, it’s not too surprising.
I’ve come to this late but followed a link from Dr. Charles to this post.
I want to say that if anyone needs ANY type of counselling, they visit a Psychologist and NOT a life coach. A life coach, unless they have a psych degree, is a con artist. They are not trained or educated fully on psychological processes. They use psych techniques they’ve read about or experienced, without knowing the ramifications of providing a partial treatment. Because that’s what life coaching is - a mishmash of info, theory and techniques pulled from a combination of legitimate and illegitimate sources.
Don’t put your life in the hands of a quack. But if you ever need guidance again, find a good psychologist.
Who’s to say that psychology isn’t steeped in almost as much pseudoscience? (I’d say that it probably is)
How do you define a “good” psychologist, by the way?
Um, scientists?
Cute, Andrew, but not really an answer. What scientists? Where? Using what evaluative criteria, and what data?
I’ll give you that cognitive psychology may have a shot, but that distinction was not made in Carrie’s comment, and “psychology” thus includes all sorts of wacky schools of thought, such as Freudian, geshtalt, etc.
When “therapy” consists of revealing your innermost thoughts to someone else for $50 a pop, once a week, for years on end, how can one say that its “effectiveness” is attributable to the fact that you’re talking to a “trained professional”?
Is it more effective, say, than just getting stuff off your chest with a friend over a beer after work every day?
Where are the scientists, Andrew, since you’re being so helpful, who’ve answered this question one way or the other?
Fair enough - I see what you mean. Apologies for being snippy - I quickly typed it while cooking, expecting that you were another anti-psychology nut who turn up occasionally on my scientology posts
I should have checked out your site first.
I expect that Carrie was using ‘psychologist’ in the modern sense of somebody with the scientific method backing them up, and it’s certainly how I’d use the term. You’re right that if the definition included Freudian etc. theories then there would be no reason to expect it to be any more helpful than life coaching.
I don’t know whether ‘therapy’ has any kind of scientific basis. I’d be interested to see studies into that. You’re right that cognitive behaviour therapy does seem to have something going for it in terms of evidence that it works, and that seems to be the discipline to go for.
Good post, by the way.
I found NLP interesting because it seemed to have at least a couple things in common with what I knew about cognitive therapies (which basically consists in what I learned in my psych 101 class, plus reading Martin Seligman’s “Learned Optimism”).
I, a bit like you, I suppose, was very disappointed to learn that NLP is just a bunch of bald assertions with no real data behind them.
I was referring to proven, successful psychology techniques. Cognitive particularly but there is more than that. I also think if anyone questions the value of psychology, they look into research of how PTSD (for example) affects the brain. In any case, NLP is not something I would recommend either. It’s manipulation and all sorts of other garbage. Not at all safe.
Carrie, in a non-trivial sense, isn’t all of psychology about manipulation? Isn’t that its very intent, after all? Of course the connotation of the word “manipulation” includes concepts like coercion and deception but it need not. Doesn’t the psychologist want to manipulate a “defective” mind back to “health”?
Your comments raise a number of questions in my mind. You seem to believe that NLP can actually have effects on a person’s psyche. Are these effects necessarily bad effects? If so, why? If not, why then disparage NLP wholesale? If it contains worthwhile techniques (that are unique to it and not simply borrowed from other techniques) then why not put them to use?
How does one determine the comparative safety of a given technique?
How does one determine the comparative effectiveness of a given technique? How does one even measure such a thing reliably? What is your criterion for success?
I realize my questions go way beyond a reasonable scope for this comment thread, but then again, these issues bear directly on the topic. Maybe all the BS Andrew describes works–in spite of being based on erroneous theory–if only you’ll believe with all your heart! In the absense of data either way, who am I to say?
Einzige, you don’t have to take my word for it. As for responding to all your questions, seems this is more about disproving what I said by engaging in analysis well beyond the scope of this post. I’m not interested in the debate. I’m comfortable knowing what I know.
I’m out.
Did I come off as if I wanted a “debate”? I’d sincerely like answers to my questions, and you seem to know them, so I’m asking! Maybe you could point us to some online resources?
I apologize for seeming confrontational. I certainly wasn’t advocating for a particular position (although it seems I didn’t make it clear earlier that I’m skeptical that NLP [and much of the traditional techniques of psychotherapy along with it] does anything, good or bad, other than what talking things out would do. I’m not close-minded about this, though!).
Oh well, there is a distinct downside to the narrow bandwidth that blog comment threads afford our communications!
My knowledge about this stuff comes from such a circuitous route of con artists and legit professionals, it would take a blog post of it’s own to explain. And it’s not the sort of thing I share because inevitably, someone will attack me on credibility or any myriad number of things. It’s personal experience and a ton - almost literally - of reading and research to figure out what is good, what’s substituting for legit, what isn’t safe for people and what is, etc. Years of stuff.
As for the PTSD/brain stuff, I can’t think of the man’s name but he’s the doctor who first diagnosed PTSD in vietnam vets. Prior to vietnam, their trauma was referred to as shell shock. This doctor (an American…wish I could think of his name) studied the vietnam vets, diagnosed their shell shock and built a therapy for it - which works. The way the brain works is astounding to put it simply. I think if more people knew about the effects of stress on the brain, and cognitive therapies, a lot of us could avoid health and life problems down the road. There’s also something called EMDR which works extremely well. As for proof, high resonance MRIs do prove the changes in the brain as a result of stress. But those machines are few and far between and hard to get to for the average person. But it has been fully tested and proven by the medical community.
As you said, therapy can also be questionable but it comes down to finding someone who has a set plan for the individual, a schedule (to avoid 10 years of treatment that’s unnecessary), and most important - medical training and qualification. The brain is nothing to mess with. That’s why I get so irritated by life coaches. They are not nearly equipped as well as they should be (unless they are doctors too) and it can create adverse consequences for people. I just find that very irresponsible. I’ve known a few too and I literally worry about the people they “counsel”.
Hope this helped. And I do apologize if I seemed confrontational too. Just trying to avoid arguments online
I have learned, when my blood pressure starts rising as I’m typing a comment (on a blog, on Usenet, on email, or whatever the discussion flavor of the moment is…), that it’s probably time to start making friends and clearing the air!
I think it’s only after all the participants know that the goal of the discussion is not to see if you can beat everyone else down that a real search for truth can begin.
I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious!
I don’t think it sounds pretentious. I do think you have much more patience than I do LOL
Hi all
You\’ve inspired me to action
There are so many misconceptions spread by NLP and NLP salespitchers. It really is a kind of new age religion now, just look at the presuppositions.
I wanted to look up some of the facts on NLP and found a superior source on wikipedia. I checked out the facts and they are utterly solid. But recently the guys posting these facts (against a lot of resistence from NLPbrains) were booted for sockpuppetry or some such charge. Sockpuppets or not, their facts are brilliant. This is what they produced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neuro-linguistic_programming&oldid=56954129
and this is what the NLPers have done after the scientists were banned:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
(they removed the central criticisms from the opening and are reversing the criticisms)
and here is what they are planning to write:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FT2/NLP_new
Basically its a big NLP reframe for promotional purposes.
Anyway, I\’m going to do my best to maintain the original facts (because as far as I have read from the literature, they are exact and perfect). The science results are extremely solid.
Its bad enough that NLP is damaging reputations, but spreading mind myths and raising feelings of insecurity whilst creating cults is seriously bad news. If they are dictating what goes into encyclopedias, it is also a huge disservice.
Anyway, if anyone wants to pitch in, (just to agree with the facts presented) I\’m sure some good will come of this and even wikipedia will benefit.
Cheers
Chris Fairweather
I have worked as a counsellor for the last ten years and have a mental halth background.I am also a trained life coach and have been following this blog with interest.In all fields, we come across people who are admirable in their profession and those who bring it into disrepute.I have a few comments I would like to make.
The criteria for accepting clients for counselling and for life coaching is very different.
If you go to buy any type of product whether that is a product or a service, it makes good sense to shop around. Know about the supplier, check the persons credentials and if you can get feedback from someone else, do.
Be aware of what it is you want to achieve, what you are willing to spend, what will tell you that your needs are or are not being met.
Give the “Therapist” feedback as this will also help clarify issues for yourself regarding their techniques/ practise.This is acollaborative endeavour.
Take more personal responsibility for making the changes in your life if it is the process of lifecoaching that you embark upon. A coach is there to help you generate solutions for yourself. After the talking, drawing up of goals and strategies, it is really up to you to take action.Nothing else will improve your quality of life.
Hi Mary
I agree, shopping around is very important. But good knowledge of the field is also very important. There are good studies now that point out most unvalidated methods and raise the important issues. Basically it is unethical in psychotherapy, education, and related areas to use unvalidated methods. It is indefensible because there are perfectly good validated ways of doing things (backed up by controlled studies).
Here is a great site that raises awareness of the research-practitioner gap. It is quite an eye opener, but also points out some fairly obvious dubious snakeoil (eg Rebirthing, etc). http://www.srmhp.org/0101/raison-detre.html
A huge amount of time, money, and care goes into making rigorous research designs to actively falsify every therapy. The ones that survive the testing are valid. The one’s that fall are bunk. A lot of them nowadays are not even tested as reviewers and researchers will not see any reason to test pseudoscientific theories. A lot (eg NLP) have fallen by the wayside but have been re-packaged in various forms (eg TIR (Traumatic incident reduction) and NLP have been found to be simple re-packaged versions of Dianetics (scientology).
So the research-practitioner gap is pretty wide now. Charlatans are getting better at conning public bodies, and postmodern (new age) ideas are very comforting but grossly misleading in real terms. But with higher levels of education, and bodies such as SRMHP raising awareness of dubious therapies and the issues involved, that gap may reduce in time.
ATB
Chris
Hi Andrew,
What a shambles! There are a lot of well meaning people out there who are persuaded by others into parting with a great deal of money for hokey training.
It takes just two weekends to become a Master Practitioner in NLP! and about £5000. It takes about a decade to get mastery in anything else. I have worked in the field of therapy, counselling and coaching for 10 years and still wouldn’t call myself a master.
Seems to me, from reading your blog, there’s nothing much wrong with you, you just need to focus on being a great writer.
Very best of wishes with your dream.
This thread is interesting. I had a good scout of the Wikipedia NLP site and it shows some pretty wierd culty stuff going on. Firstly it seems to be run by NLP practitioners. There’s an NLP company going by the name of Comaze.com (Comaze) run by a certified NLP trainer from Australia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Comaze
http://www.comaze.com/biography.html
http://www.nlptrb.org/nlp/trainers/directory/
who also works with a company called inspirative http://www.comaze.com/links.html
endorsed by John Grinder
http://www.inspiritive.com.au/
Comaze seems to be working hand in glove with another NLP trainer called Greg Alexander (username: GregA). The leader seems to be a user called FT2, who upon close examination seems to be promoting zoophilia (bestiality) on Wikipedia also. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/FT2
They seem to be showing the sort of censorship attempts that are common on the Scientology Wikipedia site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
Professional accountability seems to have gone completely under the radar with NLP. I think its too much of a commercial pusher to be just down to “true believers” promoting their cult. I think the activities of Comaze.com and collaborators shows pretty much how unethical NLP companies can be to promote their interests.
Halliburton
I would make the following commments about timeline therapy and NLP.
1 NLP has been in existence for 30 years. Many respected therapists and hypnotherapists have trained in NLP. I am not aware of any who are critical, and many use it some of its techniques. The co-creators of, NLP, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, created NLP from watching leadin therapists, such as Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls.To my knowledge, all of these worled closely with Bandler and Grinder, and were favourably dispossed to them.
2 There is not much in the way of quality control in NLP and there have been many feuds between different factions, often related to marketing. Timeline therapy is one offshoot of NLP, which has been promoted by Tad James.
3 The central claim of NLP is that it is possible to make rapid therapeutic changes-curing phobias in a few minutes. This seems to annoy other types of therapists, who instead say that many sessions are required.
4 My own experience of NLP is that highly skilled experts can indeed do this-I have seen this done in front of large audiences many times.
5 I would also add,that many techniques require a fair degree of skill from the therapist/practitioner (or life coach). This is not so much in using any given technique but in watching the subject closely and making sure that you have done the job. If the subject is uncomfortable, reluctant or feels that the process isn’t working, he/she should know.
6 It sounds to me like your coach didn’t have the skill to notice that you weren’t getting it and do a proper job.
7 If you want to find out about NLP for yourself, I would watch a DVD of someone like RIchard Bandler or Paul McKenna working with a demonstration subject. When you see someone’s problem disappear in a few minutes, it is hard to be sceptical.
8 You might also care to research Ericksonian hypnosis, one of the majjor influences on NLP.
Sure, but that all seems to be anecdotal / an appeal to authority, and doesn’t really answer the criticisms from the Skepdic’s Dictionary and elsewhere…
I think you had back luck and should not judge all coaching the same.
I went to see Anthony Robbins last year and he was amazing, so much so that it changed my life. I believe Coaching and NLP to be a very strong tool to improve your life. Sounds like you just had a bad experience that has made you think the way you do but take it from me its good stuff.
Please think about seeing someone else to help yuo on the right path or if you are willing to transform your life fully go see Anthony Robbins when he is in the UK this June, you will never look back.
All the best
Kaz
Hi all. The battery of controlled studies into NLP in the 80s showed that it is ineffective, especially for influence purposes. There is still serious research into NLP, but nowadays its conducted by social psychologists and cultic studies researchers. Their view is that NLP is an archetypal pseudoscience that spreads misconceptions about the brain. The kindest view is that NLP is a new alternative religion or cult. Perhaps a more realistic view is that the Scientology scam makes people big bucks, so NLP and similar have followed suit. Unlimited potential, the map is not reality, you create your own reality - they all help you suspend critical thought and allow the pseudoscience to flourish. What keeps it working is confirmation bias (proponents filtering out disconfirming evidence and hyping assumed successes), and cognitive dissonance (because you paid for the book/seminar, you have to justify it), and a collection of other non specific effects. Psychologists and some human resource researchers are pretty worried about the likes of NLP. It spreads misconceptions about the nature of learning, the brain, and behaviour in general. Workers are also rebelling against being “tranformed” at work. It is becoming clearer to the public now that NLP is basically rehashed scientology, with all its timeline - inner demons. The cult of NLP will most likely continue. But more obviously as a cult. Doc Green
Here is a blog on a full on scammer.
http://www.blogtext.org/aurorab/article/13121.html
Itseems that nlp is quackery
Perhaps a warm bath for lost souls, you see when we had to work the land we did not have the time to indulge in the luxury of crisis. It is only since we have become fat and bloated that we indulge in ourselves
It cannot be overlooked that it is only recently all these therapies have come about. As nike says ‘just do it’. If yoi don’t think about it it can’t bother you.
Take a pill if your that bothered certainly don’t entrust your life to someone who became a ‘master’ for a thousand quid in a hall with loads of other converts.
Nlp pah, surely no one can be that dumb…
Everyday in everyway I’m getting stronger and stronger…repeat after me