Nick Kemp Blog

When I first came across NLP in the 1990s I was (and still am) impressed by what could be done with these tools. I was however not impressed by the constant references to all the infighting between different factions of NLP, which reminded me of the behaviour exhibited by rival football clubs. I live in Leeds and for as long as I can remember Leeds United football fans always referred to Manchester United fans as “scum”.  Eric Cantona was the darling of the Leeds team before he defected to “the scum” and I remember his first match at Leeds playing for the opposition,when those who had previously cheered him, then hurled abuse at him…The tendency to “disparage the competition”(rather than work together for a common goal and achieve professional recognition) which seems to be a feature of some newsgroups, is a tremendous waste of time and achieves little that is productive.

I originally trained with The Society of NLP (Richard Bandler’s SNLP) and heard regular references from some folks putting down ANLP (The Association for NLP) . This always seemed to me to be a bit odd, as ANLP promotes professional ethics and behaviour , and especially as NLP is a field that preaches the building of rapport!  I am very grateful for all the trainings I received over the years and I recommended many others to attend these events, yet this seemed rather incongruent. I was happy from 2004 – 2009 to run certificated SNLP events at practitioner and master practitioner level and to pay the obligatory monies required for each “certification” Over time I became less pleased by the license agreement all attendees had to sign and this is one of the reasons I am far happier these days to run my own trainings and focus on presenting my own work.

I was a member of SNLP for well over a decade and was a few years ago invited to be on the advisory board of ANLP. This appealed to me as ANLP has a code of ethics, professional standards, is UK based and crucially is not aligned to any commercial business as a CIC concern. I also noticed that ANLP did not have a policy of disparaging other NLP trainings and had a range of different trainers on their board from many schools of NLP. I was for a few years (and I believe the only one ever) the only SNLP approved trainer on the ANLP board, until I received an e-mail stating that these two positions were effectively incompatible! It was an easy choice especially as my work in private practice meant I would be better served by being part of a professional body that is UK based and has a set of professional standards. Although I couldn’t see any conflict of interest, apparently some in the SNLP seemed to perceive it as one. For a few years prior to this all students who were “certified” by myself and my co trainer at Practitioner and Master Practitioner level also received ANLP membership. None of us felt there was any conflict of interest and I still co train with a number of SNLP approved trainers as well as non SNLP trainers.

After many years of running certified SNLP events to my surprise I discovered that the SNLP was not owned by Richards Bandler alone, but apparently jointly owned by Christina Hall. Who on earth is Christina Hall I wondered? A bit of research revealed her to be the joint owner of SNLP and a trainer who also issued SNLP certificated trainings and created SNLP trainers and Master Trainers.  Of course NLP has a history of legal battles over who owns what and for many this makes interesting reading - http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm

The tragedy in all of this is that in my opinion all the politics and bickering will actually contribute to the decline of the field and result in it not being taken seriously by other professions. Many in NLP have taken delight in bashing the medical, psychotherapy and educational professions and then are wholly surprised when the exact same professions’ don’t embrace their ideas and behaviours. In fact in recent years many NLPers have attempted to cozy up to such professions with very mixed and mostly poor results. I have never been a fan of personality style cults and gangs and can appreciate skilled football players from any team or nationality. I wonder what it would be like if all the self proclaimed Master Trainers, et al actually worked together to develop the field rather than being so concerned with who owns what and who is “licensed” (as opposed to qualified) to do what?

(Graphic from the brilliant Richard Stine, see http://richardstine.com/)

STOP PRESS - Within 24 hours of this blog post appearing, once again more examples of personality bashing appear on the net, once again based on over active imaginations and having way too much diposable time. This is what happens when there are no professional standards and accountability...