NLP Community Service Projects

Do you want a career that creates a life worth living? Imagine waking up each morning and knowing that the same work which earns you money actually helps communities across the planet who desperately need new directions.

NLP is a field with much to offer the world in terms of education, health care, organisational and community development and psychological healing. Transformations has a vision of a world transformed by the availability of these skills. Richard Bolstad, principle trainer for Transformations, is committed to providing NLP training where it can be useful for the advancement of the world community. Following are four examples of projects which he has done free of charge, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia, New Zealand and Samoa.

2022: Online Trauma Recovery Training for Emergency Workers in Ukraine and Support Training for Refugee Support Workers in Poland/Romania/France/Australia

In response to the brutal invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022, Richard Bolstad and Julia Kurusheva ran Trauma Recovery and First Response training for NLP Therapists in Ukraine, and Refugee Support training for Therapists in Poland, Romania, France, Australia etc.

2020: Trauma Recovery Training for Emergency Workers in Lebanon

On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths and leaving 300,000 homeless, in a country already suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic and economic collapse. Richard Bolstad ran a Trauma recovery training online for 26 Emergency Services workers, organised by local NLP Trainer Roni Matar. “As usual, an unforgettable experience. Thank you Richard” – Roni Matar.

2011: Trauma Recovery Training for Trauma Response Workers in New Zealand and Japan

The Japanese Tsunami Walls are breached, 11 March, 2011

In early 2011, a devastating earthquake in Transformations’ hometown, Christchurch New Zealand was quickly followed by one of the most destructive earthquake events in history, as the tsunami following the Tohoku East Coast earthquake hit north Japan. In both cases, Richard Bolstad ran trauma recovery training for workers going in to the devastated areas. A team of Japanese translators quickly produced Japanese versions of the manuals that Richard used in New Zealand. The New Zealand Association of NLP set up a national phone hotline to provide free trauma recovery help, and counselling services in Christchurch were funded through arrangements with the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development.

2010: Trauma Recovery Training for Government and NGO Workers in Samoa

The Samoan Prime Minister at Richard Bolstad’s Trauma Recovery Training in Apia, 2010

On the morning of September 29th 2009, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake in the south Pacific ocean generated four tsunami waves of up to 14 metres in height. These waves crashed into the south coast of Samoa, obliterating villages and killing over 100 people.

After the initial physical aid supplies had begun reaching Samoa, a group of New Zealand NLP Practitioners, The Trauma Recovery Team, was set up to respond to this disaster. The team included Richard Bolstad, Elena Kostyugova, Charlotte Hinksman, Karen Ross, Lisa Gibson, Rachel Papaconstantinou, Des Shinnick, Mal Winnie and Asenati Toilolo-Meijn. Handouts were translated by Asenati into Samoan and Elena and Lisa went to Samoa to plan a training and coaching system to support Samoan people learning and using the NLP Trauma Cure. In March 2010, the team went over and Richard Bolstad ran a training followed by coaching for individual helpers from Samoa.

Aggie Grey’s Hotel and Bungalows, Des Shinnick’s Vivachi NLP and Transformations provided funding, and team members fund-raised as well as paying their own fares. The training had 40 participants including heads of the Samoan Police, Lifeline phone counsellors, Samoan Victim Support and heads of the United Nations team in Samoa. The training was opened by the Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Aiono Sailele Malielegoai, who stated his support for NLP in this and many other areas. Click here to download a movie of this opening event.

2009: Training for Greenpeace New Zealand Staff

In 2009 Richard Bolstad ran training for the staff of Greenpeace New Zealand in Auckland. The training focused on communication skills and self-management skills for workers dealing with the public.

Greenpeace New Zealand is a non-profit organisation which relies on voluntary help such as this and whose work includes:

• Promoting the use of renewable energy and the phasing-out of fossil fuel use in order to stop climate change
• Defending our oceans and marine life from destructive fishing methods, overfishing, whaling and pollution
• Protecting ancient forests and the animals and people that depend on them
• Eliminating toxic chemicals, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and preventing the dumping of toxic waste
• Preventing the release of genetically engineered organisms into nature to protect the health of humans and the biodiversity of the planet
• Protecting future generations and the environment from the effects of nuclear power, its accidents, contamination and waste
• Promoting world peace and disarmament

2005: Training for Psychologists Working in The Caucasus Region (around Chechnya) in Russia

Richard Bolstad with staff and students at Pyatigorsk Linguistic University, Russia, 2005

In early September, 2004, Chechen terrorists, under attack from Russian special forces in the town of Beslan, engaged in a fight which killed 344 civilians, including 186 children in the Beslan Number One School. Partially in response to this, the Psychology degree program at Pyatigorsk Linguistic University, 150 kilometres from Beslan and 100 kilometres from the Chechen border, decided to initiate a training specifically for working with children and young people in traumatic situations. They invited Richard Bolstad to design a paper based on Richard’s NLP model “RESOLVE”, for working with children and young people.

The course, titled “The Psychological Consultation of Children and Youth Using NLP” is required for all Psychologists training there from 2005. It is run by Psychologist Natalia Doroshenko, the Russian translator of several of Richard’s books. Richard met with Ms Doroshenko and Psychology students in September 2005 to initiate the program of study. The staff of the Psychology Department, headed by the Dean, Ms Irina Byazhitova, also attended this introductory training.

1999: Trauma Recovery Training for Psychiatrists and Aid Workers in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Richard Bolstad at a Trauma Recovery Training in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1998

Between 1992 and 1995, after declaring itself independent of Yugoslavia, Bosnia/Herzegovina experienced horrific civil war between the Moslem majority and the Croatian and Serbian minorities. This war began with Serbian moves to clear Moslems from eastern Bosnia (“ethnic cleansing”) and unite these Serb areas with Serbia itself. The capital city of Sarajevo was besieged by Serb militias, and for three years was kept under a reign of terror as building after building was destroyed, and person after person shot by Serb snipers. The story of this siege is told in the Miramax films production “Welcome To Sarajevo” based on reporter Michael Nicholson’s book of the same name (1997).

NLP Trainers Margot Hamblett (who died in 2001) and Richard Bolstad were invited to Sarajevo by Red Cross worker Stephanie Perrot in 1998 and 1999 to run a training course for health professionals coping with clients with PTSD (Emotional Trauma) problems. They taught a group of thirty people each time, most of whom were Psychiatrists, some of whom were Nurses and Aid Workers who then went into the Kosovo situation in 1999. The courses were run at the Kosevo Clinic, Sarajevo’s central Psychiatric Hospital. Their course materials were translated by a number of people in New Zealand and in Sarajevo, and Dubravko Vanicek was their interpreter on the training.