Lucas Bright NLP Coaching - Relocated to East London

It's official!!!!

I have finally relocated to London. I am now living in Bethnal Green, London E2 and am available for NLP coaching and training across east and central London.

I will be announcing more news of new developments in London very soon. Meanwhile please feel very welcome to contact me if you would like to see me for a one-to-one NLP coaching session in London or if you would like to arrange for me to visit your workplace to deliver some practical training.

You will find more information about my services on my London NLP website by clicking on the following link: NLP in east and central London

You can also read about the hypnotherapy services, which I also now offer in Bethnal Green and east London, by clicking here: Andy's hypnotherapy services in east London

The Money Mind

Many of the world’s leading figures in coaching and personal development have drawn similar conclusions about the key steps to financial success. They have observed and modelled millionaires and billionaires. And they have used this knowledge to train and inspire people from all walks of life to achieve greater wealth.The coaching I offer my clients is based on this knowledge.


Beliefs about yourself and money

One of the biggest barriers to financial success can be holding limiting beliefs about yourself, about your capabilities or even about your worth. You may already be aware of these beliefs and perhaps you would like some help overcoming them, or maybe the beliefs have been there so long that you are barely conscious of them. It is as if they operate as presuppositions at an unconscious level undermining your efforts to make more money.

Having a coach, even for a brief time, can really help you tackle your beliefs in a constructive way. So you can uncover what it is that has been holding you back and so you can replace them with useful beliefs. Many coaches now offer that kind of practical support.


Is this just affirmations

This isn’t just about saying a few affirmations, this is about designing the right kind of beliefs for you, supporting those beliefs with compelling evidence and then making the beliefs feel strong and sustainable. So you feel motivated to express these beliefs with real conviction, because you have made them absolutely true for yourself. You make them so true that you can easily imagine the consequences of these beliefs as you design your future and work towards it naturally and comfortably. I sometimes call them "felt beliefs", because you don't just think them you actually feel they are true too.


Hypnotising yourself

When you use coaching and NLP for this kind of work you effectively become your own hypnotist, because you design your own hypnotic programming. You will have designed the new hypnotic suggestions yourself based on your own unique values, so it is easy for your unconscious mind to adopt these suggestions, especially as you will be reinforcing them with your imagination. And this feels good too because your unconscious and conscious mind will be working in harmony, moving in the same direction towards predetermined goals, predetermined by you.


When you become your own hypnotist you create powerful effects on your own mind, probably a hundred times more powerful than the world’s greatest hypnotherapist could ever achieve.


Motivating yourself

When you have performed this kind of transformation at the level of beliefs it is then much easier to give some attention to your motivation. There are some terrific techniques in NLP for you to install powerful motivation strategies, so you get a boost of energy and willpower at those key times and places or during those important tasks.


Having a useful attitude

Through coaching you can also learn some useful attitudes towards money. It will be your choice whether you adopt them or not. They are based on the attitudes observed in many successful wealth creators, so we know they work.


Some of the attitudes offer you a major shift which can generate changes very quickly and surprisingly easily, and without undermining any of your important values.


Other attitude changes can be more subtle and yet they still have a powerful effect when adopted and sustained, for example have you considered the difference between “loving money” and “acquiring money”. Successful wealth creators are familiar with this distinction. They are very comfortable acquiring large amounts of money without any need to love or worship the stuff.


Making the connections between money and everything else

As you adopt useful beliefs, motivation and attitudes and generate greater financial success and freedom, you will naturally want to develop greater flexibility in your behaviour and habits.


Any kind of financial success is produced from some kind of creativity. You might want to explore your unique skills and abilities to make sure you are using them to good effect. Wealth can naturally flow from creative and productive activity, especially when you are flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances and as you recognise the variety of ways you can meet other people’s needs and desires with your unique skills. Any good coaching programme will offer you tips and techniques to maximise your creativity and ability to generate wealth for yourself by offering something useful to the world.

These are just a few ideas to stimulate your mind and imagination. There are many excellent books and websites about this subject, so it is worth doing some research or you are keen to make these changes for yourself. You could start with Paul McKenna's book "I Can Make You Rich"

Meanwhile you are also welcome to contact me by commenting here or by visiting my webpage - Coaching to help your Financial Properity.

May you prosper with abundance :-)

NLP and Conflict Resolution

What might NLP and coaching offer to Conflict Resolution

I wonder if you have noticed some of the common characteristics of conflict, whether it be a momentary disagreement or something that has lasted a while.

The "Conflict State"

When you have been in conflict with somebody, and especially during the peak moments of that conflict, emotions were probably running high, you were in a different state to normal – maybe tense, anxious, angry. Maybe you were aware of the emotions at the time or maybe you were more aware afterwards when you calmed down and were able to reflect.

At some point, during or after the dispute, you realised your emotional state undermined your ability to resolve the issues with the other person and it probably impaired your reasoning at the time. The other person might have noticed you were in that state too, or maybe not. Maybe they were so absorbed in their own particular state they were unaware of yours. But, either way, they were probably effected by your state and they were responding accordingly.

The "Conflict Trance"

These kind of states share the characteristics of a trance. They involve fixed attention on one thing, closing down awareness of everything else and an ability to shut out a whole load of “unhelpful information” by a kind of selective reasoning. And, like a trance, you can go deeper and deeper ignoring more and more of what is going on around you. But, unlike meditative and therapeutic trances, the altered states in a conflict limit your choices, your imagination and your ability to communicate. In fact, in these states, you might have age regressed, generating behaviour reminiscent of childhood, like a tantrum or a sulk.

So most of the time you would prefer to be in a calm state, seeing things clearly, reasoning easily with the people around you. Then you feel relaxed and confident, smiling and enjoying the responses of other people as you get pleasure from a natural and easy connection. And you can think clearly and rationally, making agreement more achievable.

The "Resolution State"

This is where NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and coaching can really make a difference. Because you can learn to have greater control over your emotional states when dealing with other people. There are a variety of ways to do this, including a method called anchoring, a kind of “on/off switch” for resourceful states, such as calmness, confidence, focus.You can use anchoring, and other useful techniques, to help those around you too.

Maintaining rapport and preventing conflict

You can also prevent conflict by learning to elicit and maintain rapport with other people, even strangers and even people you don’t particularly like. This is very useful in the workplace where you sometimes meet people you don’t particularly like. You still have to do business with them so it really helps to create rapport, and you might end up liking them too.

With a small amount of coaching or training you can spot patterns of unconscious, non-literal and non-verbal communications and explore how the differences at these levels of communication are often the cause of misunderstanding. If you have ever felt like you were speaking a different language to somebody, even though you were both speaking English, you will have a greater awareness of how that occurs and how you can prevent it in the future.

By learning about communication at these levels, by understanding these patterns you can match them. This enables you to state your point of view in a way that is comfortable and familiar to the other person, so they understand you easily. You will be in rapport and speaking the same language. Even when you are disagreeing you will seem reasonable to one another and feel in accord, especially because you will be maintaining a resourceful emotional state too.

There is a wealth of information about this subject and the potential for developing these skills. Here is one website where you can read more about the subject written by leading NLPer Michael Carroll:

Michael Carroll (NLP Academy) on Conflict Resolution

If you would like individual coaching, or for me to visit your workplace, you can contact me on my website as follows:
Lucas Bright Coaching - NLP and Conflict Resolution
Lucas Bright Coaching - Home Page

Confidence & Assertiveness

Getting in the right state emotionally and mentally
I have a feeling social confidence and assertiveness are not nearly as unobtainable or tricky as some believe. Maybe it starts from how you feel, what you say to yourself and what you imagine about others. And perhaps you can change these things so they work better for you. I reckon there are a few core attitudes for creating and maintaining assertiveness.

Here is a list of those core attitudes
Replace fear of upsetting others with eagerness to communicate
Be willing to "get it wrong" sometimes
Challenge and defeat your feelings of inadequacy or inferiority
Build useful beliefs about yourself instead
Create a good emotional state in yourself when dealing with others
Trust yourself
Have fun
Feel good about what you are doing
Imagine a constructive outcome
Be flexible in your communication
Focus on the person (not your thoughts about the person)
Build and maintain rapport
Acknowledge, understand and utilise "unconscious communication"
Make people feel good
Develop your non-verbal communication
Be persuasive
Embrace your charisma

You can find many useful NLP books and articles about each of the above. Alternatively you might enjoy NLP coaching or attending a reputable NLP course, where these skills will be a core part of what you learn.

Here are some useful websites:
Richard Bandler
John Grinder
NLP Seminars
NLP Connections (and forums)
NLP Training (near London)

What exactly is Confidence

I often see people who want more confidence. They naturally assume I know what they mean by "confidence". Even though we talk about confidence as if it's an actual thing (we use a noun to name "it"),  we know it isn't tangible. It's not something we can touch or hold in our hands. So what is it?

The internet is abundant with websites and articles about confidence. You can even feel more confident when you read those articles. It can be very encouraging to read the story of somebody who has changed their life, starting with self doubts and low self esteem, gradually turning things around and growing in self belief and confidence, doing things differently, nurturing more positive ideas about self, feeling better, pursuing goals, maybe getting a new job and developing fulfilling relationships. Sometimes reading a success story can be enough to start you on a similar journey, because that other person's story becomes a model for how you can achieve similar results.

Those successes arise not necessarily through acquiring this thing called confidence, though it can certainly feel that way, but by modelling what confident people do.

In my next blog I would like to explore what we might mean by confidence, what we might really want when we say we seek confidence and how we might know when we have it.

Meanwhile, if you have any ideas about confidence or inspiring success stories, feel free to comment.

West Sussex County Council: Spread the word about better, faster broadband

If you live in West Sussex, you may want to pledge your support for faster broadband by clicking on the link below.

West Sussex County Council: Spread the word about better, faster broadband

NLP Book Review - Sleight of Mouth (Dilts)

I am often asked by clients in Brighton to suggest books on the subject of NLP. There are many on the market and the choice can be overwhelming. So where do you start?

What is the right NLP book for you?
It seems to me NLP is a vast subject and there is much to study, whether using it for yourself or to help others. Your choice of literature depends where you want to focus. Are you interested in practical techniques such as anchoring and submodalities? Do you want to develop some coaching models? Or are you  interested in what NLP says about hypnosis?

Tackling Beliefs
If you are interested in self help or coaching you will know the importance of beliefs. You might reasonably wonder how best to shift limiting beliefs and how to nurture more useful ones.

You might even wonder if it is possible to do anything about beliefs at all. Sometimes they can seem entrenched and immutable.

SLEIGHT OF MOUTH by ROBERT DILTS
Assuming you, or your client, have decided to change some beliefs, you will probably enjoy the work of Robert Dilts. He has written a practical and thorough guide to the subject of beliefs, from an NLP perspective, in his book Sleight of Mouth - The Magic of Conversational Belief Change.

The book is neatly divided into sections covering a wide array of methods and insights for belief change.

Dilts makes it easy to learn with practical techniques throughout the book, so you can try each method for yourself and gain a greater understanding of each process.

I used the techniques as I went along which helped me remember the material, as well as letting me test its effectiveness.

If, like me, you don't immediately read a book from cover to cover, but dip in and out when you have a spare moment, you will like Dilt's style. It lends itself to "dipping". The length of chapters and sections is nicely bite sized.

Sleight of Mouth is not a definitive book on NLP, nor does it try to be. However, it is a great addition to the resources of any NLPer, coach, therapist or self helper. It is loaded with practical material. Not only will you find it hard to be disappointed you will probably read it over and over, and make it part of your core skills.

Enjoy.

What does NLP offer for Social Skills

NLP can teach us how we speak to people at every level of consciousness

Okay maybe this NLP stuff might sound a bit strange, the idea of speaking at every level of consciousness. Actually, it's very simple because NLP is very logical.

Most of the time, we socialise in automatic ways. People who have difficulties socialising have been doing the same things in social situations for years, or avoided those situations completely. Meanwhile people who are excellent at socialising have also learnt habits. But their habits work more effectively making them feel good when they're mixing with other people.

Another Successful Workshop

Thank you everybody who came to last Saturday's meditation and NLP workshop at The Shoreham Chiropractic Clinic in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. It was great to see familar faces and new ones too and I was delighted to hear everybody's positive feedback at the end of the session.

As promised I will send an MP3 to all participants very soon, so you can practise the "pocket rituals" and metaphor trances at home.

NLP, Metaphors and “Pocket Rituals” - Workshop, Sussex

Just a quick reminder that my NLP and meditation workshop is this coming Saturday 26th November from 10am to 1pm at Shoreham Chiropractic Clinic, Shoreham-by-Sea. You can book your place now by calling reception on 01273 461155.

The workshop is called "Meditation and Pocket Rituals for Self Realisation".

New Premises for NLP & Hypnosis in Brighton

Earlier this month I moved into my new premises. My new room is beautifully furnished and designed to create a luxuriously comfortable space for you to totally relax during your sessions with me.

Public Speaking - How NLP Can Help

The challenges of public speaking

Many people ask me for help with public speaking. Some want to overcome nervousness or be more confident when they speak publicly. Others want to make more impact on their audience, get their point across more clearly or be more persuasive.

Thinking Yourself Organised

Being organised
Have you ever wondered what makes some people more effective than others? Have you met somebody who calmly gets things done with no fuss, while those around them run about like headless chickens.

It seems to me the state of people's heads determines their ability to get things done smoothly and easily. You can probably recall times when you have been efficient, on top of things and at your most effective, because of the way you were thinking.

Or you might remember a time when somebody you admire impressed you with their organisational skills. Maybe you noticed how calm and steady they seem to be. They are organised from their thoughts through to their decisions, choices and actions.

Your great big filtering machine
Okay let's agree for the moment that when you are calm, focused and relaxed you can do things more efficiently. And let's pre-suppose you can only do things in an organised way when you are thinking in an organised way.

Organised thinking is important, because every waking moment of every day your senses are bombarded by vast amounts of information. Your subconscious mind manages all the information by selecting some stuff and ignoring other stuff. This is how your mind helps you get things done. It works like a "filtering machine".

You started deciding how to do this filtering a long time ago. When you were just a child you taught yourself how to filter (with a bit of influence from your parents). You created an automated system in your mind to choose which bits of sensory input to notice and which to ignore. And this is still being taken care of now by your subconscious mind.

What's the big idea
Fortunately you can learn to change some of your filtering systems from time to time. You can decide what you prefer to ignore and what you want to focus on. So the next time you experience chaos, confusion or stress you might reprogramme some of your mind's filtering systems - just an idea.

Even though your filtering system operates outside conscious awareness, you can change and adapt it so you have more useful choices.

Changing your filtering
Our internal filtering is thorough. It creates shortcuts to get things done. One of the most significant shortcuts is your system of beliefs. These beliefs can be the big ideas or the little notions. This is the key to how your filtering works. It is easy for you to eliminate or ignore certain "data" when you believe one thing and not another. Because you do not pay attention to things which contradict your beliefs. Similarly you really tend to notice things which conform to your beliefs. This is how people with phobias keep being scared and how people with optimism keep being lucky.

You can think of your system of beliefs as a mental map of your environment. Having the map is useful so long as you remember "the map is not the actual territory".

Seeing is believing is seeing
Did you know, when explorers first crossed oceans in their great ships and appeared on the horizon of remote islands something very curious happened, or didn't happen actually. The indigenous people on the beaches didn't see the ships on the horizon. How could they?

The indigenous people had no preconceived idea of anything like a ship, so it was impossible for their filtering mind to give them that information. Ships failed to fit their system of beliefs. They weren't on the mental maps.

However, shamans were different. As they studied the horizon they saw the ship. It was possible for them because they believed in more remarkable things, like the idea of gods or aliens crossing oceans in mysterious vessels. They could see the ship on the horizon very clearly, unsurprisingly. They had a very different set of filters. People often regarded their shamans as "seers" because they saw things which were invisible to everybody else.

"To filter or not to filter" - that is the question
We all need these filters, we all need beliefs. Otherwise we would constantly re-invent every experience in every moment. We would never have a concept of anything. Every time we saw a rectangular piece of wood in a rectangular hole we would have to rediscover the door. Subjective experience depends upon mental filtering, internal maps, beliefs.

Sometimes it can be useful to adjust your filters, to adapt your beliefs sufficiently to generate new perceptions, to re-organise your mind.

Creating your beliefs
You always have a choice. You can feel like a passive observer of an imagined world produced by old established beliefs or you can experiment from time to time, try believing something new and see what it feels like. You can always change it back again if it doesn't work.

Using your brain for a change
"Using your brain for a change" is the title of one of the early books written by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the creators of NLP. The title of the book seems to be a clever play on words. Using your brain to create a change in your thinking is a big opportunity for you, the opportunity to be more organised inside out - starting from the inside and effecting the outside.

Getting results
Learning to challenge your own filters and beliefs can feel a little strange to start with, maybe a bit confusing. That confusion can be a sign of changes being made to your filters allowing you to re-organise the way you think and do things. Doing this can allow you to remove obstacles and find more of a flow in what you do.

When you create and adapt your beliefs and thinking as an adult it can be very different to when you did this as a child, because this time you are making a conscious decision about how you organise your mind to work for you.

You can read more about how I can help you organise your mind by visiting my website: Using NLP to be more organised or you can contact me for further information

Brighton Meditation Classes with a bit of NLP

In October I am teaching a new meditation and Yoga Nidra workshop in Brighton, designed to help you meditate more easily. The workshop is more than just meditation, it is based on a technique known as Yoga Nidra and incorporates some powerful NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) techniques to revolutionise the way you meditate.

What has Yoga Nidra to do with meditation

Yoga Nidra is a unique practice incorporating relaxation, meditation and the actual state of Yoga Nidra itself i.e. “conscious sleep”. Unlike other styles of yoga, such as Hatha, there are no stretches, no postures and no movement. The whole practice is performed lying on a mat.

How I use NLP to teach meditation and Yoga Nidra

When I teach Yoga Nidra and meditation in Brighton, I use a unique approach to guide the practice, incorporating techniques from the Bihar School of Yoga and from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), to accelerate the process of relaxation and meditation, so you develop a routine to use for the rest of your life.

The system of Yoga Nidra, as developed by the Bihar School of Yoga, is extremely effective and NLP helps you get started a little more easily. That's why I combine the two techniques because it will help you overcome some of the typical obstacles to relaxation and meditation.

There is another reason I use some NLP when I teach Yoga Nidra in Brighton, because it helps you develop your "sankalpa". The word sankalpa roughly translates as resolve or resolution and it helps you set-up a strong intent whenever you practise Yoga Nidra. In fact, you will always repeat a specific resolution phrase, or sankalpa, to yourself three times at the start and again at the end of each practice. Using some very simple NLP you can make sure you really experience the full intention behind your sankalpa, thereby giving it more power, more than just words, much more.

I am a qualified NLP trainer certified by Richard Bandler (co-creator of NLP) and licenced to train by the Society of NLP, so you can enjoy peace of mind knowing I will be using the very latest knowledge to enhance your experience.

You can find more information about Yoga Nidra, meditation and my Brighton classes and workshops on my new website http://www.spiritspace.co.uk

Meanwhile here is some more detail about what my Yoga Nidra workshops are all about.

What you will learn in my Brighton Yoga Nidra workshops

Unlike regular Yoga Nidra classes I am offering a full three hour workshop to give you a chance to explore some of the specific elements of Yoga Nidra in a bit more detail, to utilise some great NLP techniques and to combine other consciousness teachings. So you get the best benefits from the practice. Each workshop is unique because I adapt the way I teach to meet the requirements of the group I am teaching.

My aim is to help you develop skills way beyond relaxation, skills you can use in your everyday life to improve your emotional well being, your mental effectiveness and your general health.

The workshops are always very practical. I remain focused on the experience itself throughout the Yoga Nidra workshop to ensure you enjoy a positive learning experience. I encourage practical questions rather than theoretical ones, though I will make sure you have some basic theory to support your understanding.

During the first two hours of the workshop I help you develop some useful skills by tackling key elements of Yoga Nidra, supported by some useful NLP. Then, during the last hour, I guide you through a compete Yoga Nidra practice.

Dates & venue for my Yoga Nidra workshops in Brighton

- Saturday 9th October 2010, 10am to 1pm

- Saturday 30th October 2010, 10am to 1pm

Venue: The Studio, Aloka, 14 East Street, Brighton BN1 1HP

Booking your place on a Yoga Nidra workshop in Brighton

You can contact me by telephoning 07771 823651, e-mail info@springtomind.co.uk or message me on Skype, username lucasbright.

NLP Book - NLP at Work by Sue Knight

NLPer Sue Knight has published the third edition of her book NLP at Work. So what is new about this edition?

Sue has been modelling Frank Farrelly, creator of Provocative Therapy, for several years. She now feels comfortable in presenting the way she and Frank work with Provocative Therapy and humour. She wants the book to help ensure Provocative Therapy gets the recognition it deserves.

Sue also believes David Grove (who sadly died suddenly in January 2008) deserves to be known the world over for his work with Clean Language and Metaphor.

Sue has introduced the work of Frank and David in the third edition of her book and, in particular, she seeks to demonstrate how their work can be incorporated into the way we all negotiate our way through the winding pathways of life.

Sue has also added a chapter about the impact of how we represent time and how we can use that representation to enrich our experience in the present.

Most importantly Sue wants to tell us how she now views the topics covered in the first two editions with the benefit of age, faith and experience. Sue says “I have appreciated applications and nuances that were limited by my immaturity when I wrote that first draft all those years ago.”

In her comments about the new edition Sue acknowledges the changes in the world and increased alarm for the future of the planet and reflects on the only certainties in the world - uncertainty and mortality. Sue believes NLP has given her a means to live with both. Sue says “If I were to prioritise the learning that I encourage in my students, it is the ability to embrace a state of unknowing, to live in the present and to open themselves with every pore of their body to feedback.”

NLP - Word Games (1)

Words
Have you ever noticed that there are certain words that always make you feel good? Maybe you can think of such a word right now. I wonder if you hear yourself saying that word more often on a day when things are going well for you. Or have you felt really good just because somebody else has used this word in a conversation?

There are all kinds of words that make me feel good. Some are just names of places, countries I've visited, landscapes I've seen where I've been transformed into an amazing state of happiness and wellbeing. Then there are words about actions, ways of doing something or just descriptive words that resonate. Some of my favourite words are "laughing", "exhileration", "freedom" and "bliss". I have a friend who really likes the word "guacamole".

A Game You Can Play with a Word
Well here's a game you can play, but only play this game if you want to feel good more often. You might want to follow the procedure very carfefully so you complete the whole game and get the really good feelings or you might like to explore the different ways you can play it to get the best results.

The rules of the basic game are very simple.

All you have to do is pick one word at the start of the day, the kind of word that always creates extremely good feelings in you. If you want to make sure you have chosen the right kind of word, just say the word to yourself a few times and notice what kind of feelings it creates. This isn't the same as affirmations, so I don't want you to pick a phrase or a sentence. Just pick one word.

Then, during the course of the day, see how many times you can deliberately, introduce the word into conversations. Use the chosen word at least ten times in the day to get the best kind of results.

And I wonder what you notice about how good you feel at the end of the day just by letting the sound of this word do its magic at a deep and unconscious level.

Ways to Win
One tip on getting the most out of this game is to remember "it's just a game". I have met some people who read a lot of great self help books. They practise exercises and techniques very seriously. Their brow furrows, they screw up their face in concentration, like they are constipated. I guess some people enjoy trying very hard to do things, to squeeze out a positive result. However I have a hunch the best way to practise any kind of self help technique is to adopt the right attidude, the kind of attitude you have when you're just playing. So things flow easily and automatically as you have fun.

Do you remember playing games as a child? I am reminded of being at school. I am there in my imagination right now, sitting in class listening to my favourite teacher. She always seems to invent great games to play. It is much more fun than doing lessons. Then, as time passes, I find I have learnt so much from these games and the learnings have just integrated into my life without any effort at all. And the more fun the game, the more I learn.

Some very inspiring people seem to take this playful attitude into adult life and achieve incredible results. I guess Einstein and Newton spent a lot of time playing.

You could decide to play this game every day. Some people might say why run before you can walk. Then again most of us were taught to walk a long time ago. So why just walk when you can run? The great thing about playing as an adult is nobody is going to tell you to stop running in the corridor are they.

Have fun.

Author - Andy Lucas, Spring to Mind NLP Brighton

My New Office in Brighton and Hove

Just a quick announcement:

I have now secured new premises in Brighton and Hove. This is great news if you live in the Brighton area and would like NLP and hypnotherapy for stopping smoking, weight control, exam nerves, public speaking, confidence, tackling anxiety, managing stress, pain control or just for some coaching to make your life even better.

The address is:

Unit 21, 98 Goldstone Villas, Hove BN3 3RU

The therapy room, based in premises in Goldstone Villas, Hove is easily accessible by bus, train or car.

• Immediately outside Hove railway station.
• Regular number 7 buses stop outside the office.
• Parking available in the station car park.

If you arrive early for your appointment there is a very pleasant pub nextdoor called The Station, which serves food and hot drinks.

Clinic Hours

Monday to Friday -10am to 7pm subject to availability

Author: Andy Lucas, Spring to Mind Advanced NLP Therapeutic Specialist, Brighton & Hove

NLP Resources

I am often asked where you can find good resources on all things NLP. Well there are many sites out there with lots to offer. However my favourite place to find up-to-date information, stimulating discussions, brand new techniques and news of the best events and training is NLP Connections.

Meanwhile, in this blog, I continue to share many of the insights and techniques I have gathered over the years of studying, and as a result of practising as an Advanced NLP Therapeutic Specialist (licensed by the Society of NLP). In fact there a no more than 50 people with this most advanced certification in the whole of the UK. And one of the things I have discovered is, as my knowledge has become more advanced and deeper, the amazing power of language and the remarkable changes that can occur. Even by reading something creates a major shift in thinking better.

It can very curious reading articles by advanced NLP therapists, such as myself, because sometimes it seems like there is a grammatical error and yet it is this artfully vague and sometimes seemingly ambiguous use of language that can lead you to the most amazing realisations especially when you let the learnings reach deep into the unconscious triggering a kind of freedom from old patterns as a new pathway seems to open up before you creating all kinds of opportunities just because you allow yourself to think more flexibly now.

Meanwhile if you would like to learn how you can immediately adopt some very effective changes in the way you think to yourself now, you can visit my website for information on one to one coaching to help you use NLP to change your mind for the better or to quote Richard Bandler's book title "to use your brain for a change".

Andy Lucas - Advanced NLP Brighton

NLP - Anchoring

I wonder what situations you would like to see yourself being more focused or feeling more relaxed and calm. Perhaps you like the sound of being a confident speaker or meeting new people with self assurance. And I guess there are many other situations where it would be great to be able to switch on a resourceful state of mind at will even before you've thought about it because it's just happened automatically. Maybe you have always wondered how you can quickly achieve and sustain these kind of improvements.

I enjoy using NLP to help my clients make instant and lasting progress in their ability to get into a good state. And one of the first things I do is teach you how to use "anchors".

I have often been asked to explain exactly what we mean in NLP when we talk about anchors. I guess the easiest way to understand it is to think about it literally. You know how an anchor keeps a ship in port. It is small yet very strong and solid and it can be found sitting very deep under the surface. A rope attaches the small anchor to the big ship holding it safely in position on the surface.

Now I don't like to explain everything, because I know your unconscious mind learns better when it works stuff out for itself. So I'd rather suggest you consider how the analogy of the anchor and the ship would help your ability to be in a useful state for some situation such as public speaking, sitting exams, socialising or something else.

And maybe you could be aware of how there really is nothing new about anchors at all. They exist anyway. So you can reflect on your ability to sometimes stay in a very useful state of mind already. You might remind yourself of such situations now as you ponder. Yet you might also find something exciting about the prospect of being able to use this natural ability more often by actually creating some of your own anchors and practising using them at chosen times.

So I could explain to you some very easy to learn techniques for developing anchors and yet I can't help thinking you can work this out for yourself and start teaching your unconscious mind to do the things it does well more often and in more situations now, wouldn't you.

Andy Lucas - NLP Coach Brighton

NLP - Habit Change

I often receive enquiries about whether NLP and/or hypnotherapy can help with giving up an unwanted habit e.g. biting nails, thumb sucking, picking the face, smoking.

There's Giving Up

I don't know about you, but I have never liked "giving up" anything. It just sounds like sacrificing something good.

I guess this is a reminder of how NLP has you take care about the words you use, pay attention to what you hear yourself saying or just watch out for those sneaky phrases.

When you truly decide to stop doing something, you have already decided it no longer serves you, haven't you. So I don't suppose it's really a sacrifice at all, is it. Can you imagine our ancestors making sacrifices of something unwanted to the gods? So that phrase "giving up" seems a bit redundant, doesn't it.

And if you are still in two minds about whether you want to stop this habit or not, the phrase "giving up" is not going to make that decision any easier, is it. You can carry on using that mantra if you like - "giving up, giving up, giving up". It's a wonderful piece of self-hypnosis for having you continue the old habit. Or you can take control of the things you say to yourself and others to make the change you want to happen more easily now.

And There's Giving Up

There's another meaning to the phrase "giving up". Sometimes it means "quitting"...... Oops.

I must admit I have a bit of pride. I really don't like quitting things at all. It just sounds like something I might do if I didn't think I could succeed, like quitting an exam, quitting a challenge, quitting a competition.

It's all about language again, isn't it. After all, there are times in life when it is a good thing to "stop" something. It can be decisive, prudent, wise or even courageous, certainly not the action of a quitter. And there are times when it's best not to quit, when you need to be determined, persistent, motivated. It's funny how people who talk about "quitting smoking" seem to prefer "stopping quitting" and end up feeling like a quitter anyway. It's not their fault. Nobody ever told them about the power of language. I'm glad somebody told me.

I wonder

I wonder what you notice first about how much easier it is to change a habit when you finish quitting and start changing, or you cease giving up and start stopping instead. You might want to read that again or you might like to let it sink into your unconscious where it can begin to make a difference for the better now.

I think that's all I have to say about the subject right now. I could give up typing anything else in this particular posting, however I don't really like giving up, so I'll just stop instead.

Author: Andy Lucas, Advanced NLP Therapeutic Specialist