In some ways the goal of a psychologist involves moving the client from their current state
to a desired state. State can be in the form of obtaining an emotional goal, or even moving
towards an external state, where the client physically knows when they have obtained their
goal. Achieving a state of fulfilment is an example of an emotional goal, while reaching a
specific financial target is an example of a physical goal.
Mental skills techniques and strategies fit somewhere in the middle working as a bridging
mechanism to bring about positive change. It is often the cumulative impact of using a host
of mental strategies that facilitates the actualisation of the client’s goal.
Through the regular application of the mental techniques the client will then start observing
a positive progression towards their goal.
Hard work never killed anyone
Individuals that recruit the services of a psychologist often have misconceptions about what
they can offer them. Many advocates of self-help psychology believe that recruiting a personal
coach will suddenly magic away all of their problems. Unfortunately personal coaching does not
work like this.
Positive change will always require a certain level of commitment and determination from the
client to habituate the techniques and strategies the psychologist prescribes, no matter how
good the psychologist is.
Personal fitness trainers for example can only get results with the clients who are prepared
to make the commitment to go the gym regularly. The same applies with mental coaching, with
regular training being paramount to its success.
Is NLP the answer to all your problems?
Over the last ten years or so, NLP has swept the self-help industry like an infectious cult.
Has NLP had its day though?
Are we coming to the end of the contagious movement of NLP, waiting for the next mind engineering
fad to hit the markets?
There is no doubt that the framework of NLP will remain a highly effective skill set to accelerate
the process of positive change. However like all frameworks, and methodologies there are always flaws.
In my opinion a critical observation about the practice of NLP is the oversimplification of how easy
it is to change long-term behavioural patterns. Making the choice to change can be a fairly rapid
process, but installing and implementing permanent change is not so straight forward. Here is one
reason why:
A number of studies have shown how behaviour is context dependent. In other words learning how to do
something in one setting is not necessarily transferable to all other life settings. For example
learning how to stop smoking in a seminar room, does not automatically transfer to the skill of
learning how to stop smoking in a pub. All environments have their own unique set of cues which work
to activate different behaviours.
Considering this NLP has not paid enough attention to the transference of behaviours across different contexts.
I will always use the versatile set of tools that NLP provides to help my clients, however at the same time I
refuse to accept the framework as gospel, and the only way to obtain positive results. At Mindsport we have
formulated a collection of tools and methodologies that takes all the best bits from the vast expanse of
self-help techniques that are out there. That way our clients only get the best.
I always try to adopt an objective level of scepticism whenever I am introduced to new personal and self-help
strategies. This helps me to constantly maintain a well-balanced stance in the growing field of self-help psychology.
