By Beth Hand

NLP Comprehensive in Boulder, Colorado, founded by Connirae and Steve Andreas, holds Summer Residential Practitioner and Master Practitioner training in Winter Park, Colorado. It is currently under the leadership and ownership of Lara Ewing and Adam Reynolds. Following is an overview of the Practitioner training I attended last summer, 1996.

NLP Comp's Practitioner program can be characterized by its excellent organization which resulted in a professionally done, well-rounded training experience. Prior to arriving I received a complete package with training calendar, lodging and transportation information, a questionnaire to return and even a reading list! The first evening we had an orientation and the next eight days were spent covering the basics. Our daily training sessions which ran weekdays from about 8:30 to 4:00, were conducted by a mix of trainers: Gerry Schmidt, Tamara Andreas, Charles Faulkner, Lara Ewing, Kelly Gerling, Tim Hallbom and Suzi Smith, and Tom Best.

The training began with the basics: developing sensory acuity; pattern detection; rapport; perceptual positions; and anchoring. The training then moved to: meta-model; outcome frames; strategies; submodalities; the language of influence; small reframing and ecology; six-step reframing; metaphor, and finally, several days of integration and a closing. I enjoyed all of the trainers and give them high marks for their clarity and style with the exception of one trainer who used a lot of traditional lecture, a style that doesn't appeal to me.

Throughout the month the trainers were very responsive to the class not only in terms of what was happening at the time, but also by making adjustments, e.g., increasing the pace or by being more explicit, based on the written feedback we provided after each trainer. Now that is responsiveness particularly when the information was collected one afternoon and applied the next morning! My one criticism of the training has to do with that ever present challenge of trying to meet the diverse needs of a large group--that I wanted a faster paced learning experience in the daily sessions. I attribute that to my personal preferences and to having already attended 4 or 5 NLP seminars.

In addition to the organization of the program and the caliber of trainers, the quality of the training experience was enhanced by the use of assistants throughout, and by the use complementary learning formats. Assistants did just that--assisted in the training exercises; were each responsible for small groups of participants; headed up the study groups; and did a myriad of other tasks to keep everything running smoothly. They were pretty much on-call 24 hours a day and I can bet they enjoyed their days off!

In addition to weekday classroom sessions, we had study groups which met two nights per week, and a video night. We were grouped by our area of interest, e.g., business, education, therapy, etc., which became our primary study group one night a week. Each group determined what to focus on and how to spend that time. It was a great opportunity to practice the same or related exercises and increase our skills, to stimulate ideas about how to apply NLP to a specific area, and to get to know other people. The second study group night we had the option of staying with our primary group or joining another. The videos shown one night per week added a wonderful and important dimension. The videos exposed us to the foundation of NLP--the excellence of Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, etc., and the founder Richard Bandler, and to the mastery of Leslie Cameron-Bandler.

The training facilities at the Winter Park ski resort were very nice--spacious, comfortable, with several eating options. Winter Park is a ski resort that is delightful in the summer. I stayed in the nearby Beaver Condos which ran about $600 per month with a room-mate, private baths and bedrooms and preferred them to the more sterile Snow Blaze. You can walk by a stream to and from the training facilities or take one of the buses provided for NLP participants. If you're inquiring about walking distances to other locations be forewarned: almost every distance is "about two miles." I assure you, it can be a very long two miles. Despite the easy local transportation, if you are flying in, seriously consider renting a car in Denver for the month particularly if you want to leave Winter Park on weekends. The train and bus schedules are not convenient, and there are only a couple of cars for rent Winter Park at peak season rates.