A New NLP Book is Published

Looks like there's a new NLP book out. Stan Rockwell has reviewed the recently published, NLP: The Essential Guide to Neuro Linguistic Programming at the @PsychCentral blog. You can read the review here. I trotted along to Amazon.co.uk and found the book on sale for £7.58, which is pretty good value for a 464 page book. Conveniently I only remembered my self-imposed moratorium on book purchases after the thing was bought and leaving the Amazon depot.

Rockwell gives a pretty positive review; he does comment on the amount of jargon filling the pages and that can't be denied; but he he goes on to say that he's been using the techniques described in the book and doing the exercises and they've been working for him. My criticism here is that yet again we have a book re-packaging NLP as an easy guide. 

What we actually need is someone developing new models, researching the effectiveness of what we already have or applying NLP in new and interesting contexts - as my friend and colleague Chris Mitchell does in her excellent Behaviour Management Toolkit reviewed by me here. I seem to remember John Grinder, one of the co-founders of NLP, talking in a YouTube clip of the need to 'replenish the well'. It's a good metaphor, as you would expect from Grinder, because of course if everyone draws water and the well is not replenished then eventually the well runs dry.

I've been having a fun time with NLP at the moment. I'm teaching the principles of NLP and drawing on my experience of using NLP as a therapist to groups of psychology students at the college where I work. Teaching this stuff has really helped me reach an even better understanding of NLP. In particular I'm really appreciating the 'explanatory power' of the approach when, for example, the class and I explore the psychology of negative emotional states - often called 'disorders' - though 'differently ordered' might be a better term; and I'm appreciating the creativity of NLP and the strengths based approach to therapeutic work: helping clients to access resources and creating choice about how they'd like to feel.

Suicide Prevention in Blackburn with Darwen

I attended a mini conference on suicide prevention at Blackburn Town Hall yesterday. There were representatives from a range of health and social services. I was there with a couple of colleagues from Blackburn College. I noticed that my old employer, The National Probation Service, was missing, which was a shame given that the workshop I attended was on reducing the risk of suicide within the criminal justice system.

The aim of the event was to consider how Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and our own organisations might respond to The National Suicide Strategy. In workshops we discussed how we could work together to reduce the number of suicides in our town and the dreadful impact that each of those has on our community.

The first speaker was Chief Superintendent Bob Eastwood, Lancashire Constabulary Divisional Commander responsible for policing in East Lancashire. He spoke movingly about a colleague who had committed suicide and the impact of their death on family, friends and colleagues. It was pretty clear that Chief Superintendent Eastwood had been deeply affected by this and by the numerous incidents he'd attended at which someone had taken their own life. The impact of suicide ripples out across society. The other startling point made by Mr Eastwood was that sometimes all of his on-duty officers are engaged looking for or attending to suicidal people. He explained that suicide is traumatic and preventing suicide has significant resource implications for his organisation. 

The next speaker was Emma Thompson, the Borough's population health analyst. She gave a presentation on suicide as a global, national and local problem. In Blackburn with Darwen there were 18 suicides across the Borough in 2010 - thirteen of those were male and five were female. On examining the figures for suicide in Blackburn over the last ten years a number of features emerge. She said that most were under the age of 45, 75% were male, 27% were single, 34% lived alone and 70% could be defined as 'white British'.

In the workshop I attended on suicide and the criminal justice system it became clear that the police are struggling to cope with their role as first responders. Often their appearance exacerbates the situation. A Chief Inspector said his officers really struggled with non-statutory offenders specifically and with distressed and suicidal people in general. He said there was a pressing need for speedy assessment and for a referral pathway. We thought there was a place for volunteers in supporting suicidal people, but the work would be complex and challenging.

Living Works talked to us about the suicide prevention training they offered. They offered three major programmes:

• suicideTalk - awareness raising,  one or two hours duration, groups of 30 to 50
• safeTalk - a step up from suicideTalk, a programme designed to give people the confidence to talk about suicide with people at risk.
• ASIST ... a two day course involving role play, designed to give people the skills to work with suicidal people based on the principles of connecting, understanding and assisting.

The aim of Living Works is to create a network of helpers in the community. They said 'help seeking' is encouraged by open, honest and direct talk about suicide. They also said that the relationship between the helper and the suicidal person is key! The presentation ended on a positive note: 'No matter how despairing someone feels there is always a reason to live'.

The final speaker was Shirley Goodhew, Public Health Development Manager for NHS Blackburn with Darwen, speaking about risk factors for suicide: job loss, debt, social isolation, bereavement (especially for older people), family breakdown and imprisonment. Clearly a key risk factor for suicide was LOSS in its many forms. She said stigma and bullying are aggravating factors.

I left the conference feeling that agencies in the Borough had a long way to go if they were ever to work together effectively to safe-guard those at risk of suicide; but I left feeling that I had a part to play and I intend to book myself onto a Living Works training programme as soon as possible because, as the Chief Inspector said, 'Every life matters'.

Some thoughts on Leon Benjamin's 'Building brand me?'

How do I build brand me? from Winning by Sharing

Leon Benjamin, a blogger at Winning by Sharing has posted an excellent presentation, How do I build brand me?, on Slideshare. It contains some very useful and (for me) timely advice on social media networking and prompted me to add the following (now, slightly edited) comment:

Thanks Leon, seeing your blog and Slideshare has been timely for me. I spend a lot of time sharing links, writing posts and creating resources for my students and to build my reputation as a counsellor who is passionate, committed and knowledgeable about the profession of counselling. I have evidence from students, clients and colleagues that this is successful, but your blog and presentation has helped me to be patient, focus on the process rather than the outcome and to remember that influence cannot always be measured by immediate reactions and change. In fact these principles apply as much to client work in counselling as they do to my involvement with social media. And the fact that I am now thinking, 'This could make a good blog post' shows how much I have begun to think in terms of creation, curation and sharing. Best wishes, @MarsdenTherapy

So, here I am creating the very post I mentioned in my comment. I think this is an example of why I like social media and its networking potential. I'll make a list:

• I have Tweeted the link to Leon's blog on my Twitter feed to alert my followers to something interesting I've found on the Web. I'm particularly thinking of those followers who are also colleagues at the University Centre, Blackburn College and interested in developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) and using social media to engage learners.
• I have followed Leon on Twitter, 'liked' his Facebook page, added his blog to my feed, added his blog to my newsletter on Scoop.it and subscribed to his Slideshares. So I'm now 'connected' and have expanded my network. He may or may not subscribe to any of my social media sites but either way I'm going to be notified whenever he uploads content.
• Finally here I am embedding Leon's content in my own site and adding my own reactions. For me this is fun but it's also learning.

So, I shall continue giving time and attention to my social media accounts. It's fun to create and curate; it enables me to connect with colleagues from across the world; I'm able to engage with different opinions and experiences, new ideas and research; it develops my writing and critical thinking skills; and builds my reputation as a counsellor, supervisor and teacher who is working at being authentic and is certainly passionate about his work ... 

Now ... I need to add this to my blog and post a link on Twitter ...

David Rennie's Approach: Meta-Communication in Person Centred Counselling - Screencast 2/3

Second of my screencasts highlighting the work of David Rennie. In this presentation I briefly describe the use of meta-communication in person centred counselling.

New Term Excitement!

Next week I begin another term of teaching at my local HE college - the University Centre, Blackburn College. I'll be teaching a course called Contemporary Psychotherapies to two groups of BA(Hons) degree students. The course looks at Motivational Interviewing, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and evaluates what they offer to those working with difficult to engage young people and unmotivated adult clients. I'll also be teaching counselling skills to 'eager for knowledge' first year students on the Foundation Degree in Positive Practice with Children and Young People. All the sessions are written, with the resources ready and printed, so they'll be an absolute joy to teach!

Just as exciting are the two new foundation degree courses we are running in Counselling with Coaching and Mentoring and Counselling with Brief Therapies. I am mainly involved in facilitating the personal and professional development modules and I'll be a personal tutor too. In the second year I'll be teaching modules on Motivational Interviewing, Solution Focused Therapy and Group Work Skills. I can't wait for the teaching to start!