Finally back home in Bloomington!

Now certified:
Woohoo! After studying for the last 6 months, I am officially certified as an NLP Practitioner approved by American Pacific University and also certifiably acknowledged by the Association of Integrative Psychology. Although I was already a certified clinical hypnotherapist, I went ahead and renewed my Hypnosis certification for the next two years by completing the test again (this time a level higher). And I am also now certified as a Time Empowerment Life Coach using Time Line Therapy in accordance with the Empowerment Partnership.

My score:
I scored 96% and ironically one of the two questions missed was, “What is NLP?” because I stated what it can do versus what it is. Out of ALL the questions, it was surprising to see such an easy answer was incorrect. Class was very informative and the knowledge there was immeasurable and extremely valuable. Many of the questions on the test were VERY hard considering nothing was multiple choice and most involved several paragraphs to answer. How could I have missed such an easy, basic question? Oh well, I know the answer now. haha

Master Practitioner level in November:
I learned so much and want to know even more about NLP, that I’ve decided to become a Master NLP Practitioner. It’s a level higher than my current status and I’m convinced the things I’ll learn at that stage will be life changing. Wow it would be so cool to be certified as a Master. So in November, I’ll be traveling to Kona, Hawaii and will be in class for two full weeks (I’ll probably take slave m with me so when class gets out every day, there will be a sexy slave waiting in my hotel room to massage my sore back).

Talking differently:
One of the drawbacks with finally learning all this NLP is that whenever I spent time with my family, my speech started to change. It wasn’t even like I was purposely trying to, it just came effortlessly. Even when we ate at Red Lobster and other places, it seemed I was constantly trying to “fix” them or give motivational advice or in some way contributing my newfound knowledge in hopes they would apply it to their relationships or problematic situations. My family (mom, aunt, and a few others) said I sounded like a counselor and could see me being a successful therapist because every question they threw at me, I seemed to have just the right answer. Just thinking about that makes me laugh because in the past, most of the conversations I had with my mother turned into arguments. But this time, she kept asking me for more and more advice. NLP has taught me to think before I speak and be very aware of how words are phrased because they can impact people’s patterns and behaviors. I try now to put thought into the words I speak in hopes to be able to read people better.

Most of the training involved hands-on training which improved my ability to read people IN PERSON (eye patterns, language patterns, body movements, etc). We were also taught how to hypnotize on a deeper level using Ericksonian methods - including matching my words according to someone’s breathing patterns. Unfortunately stuff like that requires hypnotizing someone in person so I can watch their breathing patterns. My current occupation relies on hypnotizing people via recording or on the phone (therefore impossible to watch breathing patterns in person). When I hypnotize someone on the phone, I pretty much rely on auditory patterns to try to match and mirror people (speech tones, audio tempo, voice pitch). I’ve now learned to incorporate kinesthetics, visuals, tastes and smells, among other things. Wow I could go on forever about this.

Time Line Therapy:
While in class learning Time Line Therapy (the info not provided in books), we were told that successful practitioners are only successful if they themselves believe in the product (in this case, the therapy). I had been skeptical for nearly 6 months about this type of therapy and thought applying it to others would be a piece of cake but had no intention of using it on myself.

While in class, we were told that we had to participate FULLY in the time line therapy for many techniques as both a client AND a practitioner. This meant I had to experience it myself as the client. I was very nervous because truth be told, being a client is kind of weird for me. I feel much more comfortable being the practitioner giving instructions than being the client receiving them.. I had always hated the idea of following someone else’s instructions, because it made me feel in a way… submissive. But I did it and am grateful for doing so.

In time line therapy, we had to remove EVERY one of our phobias (I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE), remove limiting decisions, negative emotions (I had a lot!), and then…. we had to remove all of our anger, then sadness, then fear, and then guilt from our entire lives. Now think about that for a moment. Removing all of our anger? From the time we were born to now? You can see why I was hesitant about it working. But I did it… and when the anger-removal therapy was done, I burst into tears like a sobbing baby. Little did I know, when people remove all their anger from their lives, they usually experience great sadness. Crying is something I rarely do, ESPECIALLY in front of another person… much less in front of a group of people, so for me to sob like a baby in front of everyone felt extremely embarrassing. To get rid of my newfound heavy sadness, my practitioner used the Sadness Removal therapy and then I started to feel scared for some reason. I don’t even know what I was scared of, I just felt scared of everything (fear of failure, fear of acceptance, fear of just being), so he used the Fear-Removal therapy. Instantly, I felt the emotion release and started to feel extremely guilty for having allowed myself to feel fear in the first place. Notice the pattern? When one emotion is removed, another buried one begins to service and becomes stronger! So he used the Guilt-Removal therapy and I felt cleansed. Much better!

Learning:
I learned that when doing this with a client, it is important to always remove Anger (stimulant emotion) first, then Sadness (depressant emotion), then Fear (stimulant emotion), and then Guilt (depressant emotion). And ALWAYS in that order. Those four emotions are extremely hard-pressing strong emotions that people keep buried in themselves for years. Once they are removed, it feels absolutely amazing! I felt as though I could do anything in the world without ever being held back!

In the hot seat:
Then of course, it was my turn to perform it on the practitioner. We switched seats and he became the client. My teacher and all the teacher’s aides watched while I began his therapy. I was no longer nervous or scared or angry or sad or whatever… it felt like a huge load was lifted. I began with the Anger-removal and as soon as the emotion was lifted, he began laughing hysterically (oh my, and I had cried???) and I was VERY confused. Why was he laughing? Was he laughing at me? Had I done something wrong? I felt this overwhelming sense of confusion. My teacher informed me that everyone experiences emotion releases differently - some laugh and some cry. This relieved my confusion and I continued with his therapy. I talked him through Sadness-removal, Fear-removal, and finally Guilt-removal. A success! He walked away feeling the same way I did and for the rest of the week, he said it felt like, “The great wall of China has been removed off my back.” That made it all worth it.

I can’t even go into all the details of things I learned because it would take me weeks to write it all. But needless to say, I feel better emotionally. I didn’t think I felt bad before, but now that those negative emotions have been released, my whole body feels 150% better!

Ok enough for now lol, I’m gonna post some pics in my next posts.

Love
Isabella
xoxoxoxox