What Is An NLP Training Assistant?

If you have completed a full NLP Practitioner or Master Practitioner training with Transformations, you may apply to assist on a Practitioner level training. If you have completed a full NLP Master Practitioner training with Transformations, you may apply to assist on a Master Practitioner level training. If you completed one of these trainings with another organisation, we may ask you to attend an introductory weekend as a participant before assisting with us. Assisting on these courses is a requirement for ultimately being certified as an NLP Trainer, and is a separate learning experience from actually participating. Being an assistant is a highly skilled task requiring you to be in a very different role to course participants, and giving you the chance to experience the training from a very different viewpoint. Trainings can be reviewed as a student for a half fee. Assisting is usually free and is a valuable opportunity to:

• review the NLP content of the training from the observer/trainer perspective and practise NLP skills
• model the process of NLP training and group facilitation skills
• have specific questions answered by the trainers and obtain feedback from them
• enjoy the excitement of watching people transform their lives

To apply to assist on a specific course, email us at learn@transformations.org.nz. The following Assistant guidelines are ones we have found help the training run smoothly.

1. Attention to Your Training Assistant Role

The day begins with the first participant that you see and ends with the last that you see. During that time the participants will be interacting with you as an assistant and you will be influencing as an assistant. We ask you to model the NLP Presuppositions as you assist, especially being resourcefully in charge of your own state of mind, and speaking positively about the NLP model.

2. Time Commitment

Places in the assisting program are in demand, and arranged well in advance. We require a definite commitment to be present for the full training, especially for the Assistant meeting the evening before the training and for the first morning when group introductions occur. Days off as prearranged, in advance, will be able to be taken by organising with the trainers/assistants at the course. Please discuss with us any special needs you have for specific time off as soon as possible. We ask you to give us 2 weeks notice if you decide not to attend. We are planning our training based on your committment as much as we plan based on the trainer turning up.

3. Trainer-Assistant Daily Review of Progress

Directly at the end of each day’s session we have a meeting lasting approximately half an hour, during which we value your feedback about how the training is going for participants. Each assistant is assigned a number of course participants to pay special attention to. The assistant has a progress form (a list of the required tasks from the Certification training) for each participant assigned to them. At the end of the day, tasks achieved are checked off, and participants who have not completed a task from the day are noted. The assistant assigned to them is responsible for following up and ensuring that the task is completed, and checking what extra support they may need to complete it.

4. Assist with Logistics

We have an informal team approach to logistics, and appreciate assistants’ help with:

• Purchasing and stocking extra food during the course
• Arranging and clearing food and drinks at breaks and helping with dishes (in some venues)
• Pinning wall charts up at the end of the day and keeping the venue tidy

While both Trainers and Assistants help with logistics, the focus of Assisting is the training. Where we provide lunches, our aim is to provide healthy vegetarian food and to keep it simple but abundant.

5. Give useful Feedback using Positive Internal Representations

a) Be aware of the language you are using. Use positive internal representations as much as possible. If you notice yourself saying a negative, simply follow it up with a positive, straight away. eg “Don’t forget to futurepace”… “By which I mean, Remember to futurepace!”
b) It is extremely important that any suggestion you make for change or improvement be delivered in the feedback sandwich format. eg “You’ve kept rapport and elicited the state well, and it would be good to remember to test the anchor at point seven. Overall you’re doing great!”
c) Assistants are asked on each 9 day course to identify and deliver at least one piece of specific positive feedback to each of the participants assigned to them. eg “I really like the way you check so carefully with people that the exercise is working for them.”
d) Monitor participants achievement of the course objectives.

6. Keep Input In The Large Group To A Minimum

The most useful time for you as a Practitioner to ask trainers questions is at the daily meeting. If you need to add information (for example if you have experience working with the process described) please do so in the Post-exercise discussion. When you add in extra information or perspectives, always use the agreement frame (“…and…”). eg “What Richard said is one way to solve that…and…I’ve found another way is to use Time Line Therapy”.

7. Preserve the Integrity of the Material

The sequence of the training has been planned. Avoid explaining what has not been taught yet. Support the participants in being on track with what they are learning in the training.

8. Take Care In Small Exercise Groups

a) When people are working in small groups or pairs, move carefully around the room and aim to create rapport as you gently enter a group. Encourage nonverbally by smiling and nodding.
b) Keep in mind that it is the first time that the participants are doing the exercises, so it is more important that they have the experience of doing it themselves, rather than getting it perfect. Intervene only if it seems that the “client” is not safe, or that the process cannot reach its outcome.
c) If you are a “participant” in a group, remember that you are still being perceived as an assistant.

9. Protect The Trainer

It’s helpful for trainers to have their short breaks relatively free, and it can be useful for you to assist participants to have their questions answered so the trainer can continue preparing their next session.

10. Individually Assisting Participants

At times we will ask an assistant to work individually with a participant. You can decide whether this is okay for you in each case. This is an educational training, and the aim of such individual sessions is to empower participants to be able to learn comfortably. The emphasis of your work individually will be to help the person take charge of their own state and use their developing NLP based flexibility to keep resourceful themselves. As you are modelling NLP, assist people to resolve emotional issues using NLP techniques only, rather than using or recommending other “healing modalities”.

11. Respect Participants Positive Intentions

At all times we ask you to remember the NLP presupposition that all behaviours have a positive intention. This means that where you guess at the internal processing of a participant, you will assume they have a higher positive intention for any action, and refer to that in any discussion of the person.

12. Maintain Professional Relationships Only With Course Participants During The Training

Participants depend on you for support while they are training, and sexual relationships between staff and participants run the risk of undermining that feeling of unconditional and professional support. Even where such relationships are proposed by participants, we ask that you maintain a role as professional staff during the training dates. If both you and a participant were interested in meeting after the training non-professionally, we would suggest you invite the participant to contact you, after the training. The exception, of course, is where a sexual relationship was established before the beginning of the training.

13. Assistants are asked to familiarise themselves with the Health and Safety Manual

The Transformations Health and Safety Manual (below) sets out policies for the safe handling of food, management of safety hazards etc. Please read it before beginning assisting.

14. Certification Requirements and Evaluation

Participants are certified when they have achieved the NZQA approved performance outcomes and complete the IANLP curriculum. They cannot be held back from certification because a staff member does not believe they are “good enough” in some abstract personality-diagnosis sense. In order for a participant not to be certified, we need sensory specific evidence that they have not met criteria. This evidence must then be given to the participant and they must be given an opportunity to achieve the outcomes they are failing to achieve (to “re-sit” the assessments). The focus of your work as an assistant is on how each person will be best able to reach the outcomes required, not on whether the participants are “good enough”. At times participants will be unable to reach the outcomes within the time of the training. In such cases they will be given feedback on their performance, and an opportunity to repeat exercises before the end of the training. They will then be given a conditional certification and a written description of the further work required.

The Transformations Health and Safety Manual

1. Atmospheric Conditions and Lighting

Room temperature, humidity, air velocity, radiant heat and fresh air availability will be controlled to ensure participants are comfortable. Heaters and fans will be hired to assist this where deemed necessary by trainers or by feedback from staff or students. Window openings will be used to enable cross ventilation. Lighting will be provided throughout the entire training/work venue, including exits and amenities consistent with NZS 6703:1984.

Feedback on comfort and conditions will be invited at the beginning of each training course and at other times as seems needed, and will be accepted at any time during a training. Written feedback is given twice during each training.

2. Drinking Water

Clean safe drinking water will be available on all trainings.

3. Seating

Comfortable seating will be provided in all venues. Where suitable chairs are not provided by the venue, these will be hired.

4. First Aid

A first aid box will be kept stocked with first aid equipment and kept close to washing facilities in each venue. It will be cleaned, tidied and replenished by the director before each training. The director is a Registered Nurse. If control of the first aid box is assigned to another person, that person will be someone trained in first aid.

5. Food handling

All staff involved in food preparation will be trained in the safe handling of food.

The dining area used for meals, and for morning and afternoon tea will be well ventilated, and near an area equipped with a sink and hot and cold running water. A refrigerator will be available. Seating will be provided.

These guidelines for food handling will be followed (Reference: Food Handling, Protection and Storage, Christchurch City Council).

• Food storage areas will be kept clean and tidy.
• Food will be stored safe from vermin and dust.
• All food delivered will be checked for freshness, temperature, colour, odour, contamination, packaging integrity and labelling. All food served will also be checked. Potential problems will be notified to the trainer as soon as identified.
• Canned food will be removed from cans for storage in the refrigerator.
• Food to be refrigerated should be placed in the refrigerator as soon as it is cool, or as soon as possible after preparation.
• Food which needs refrigeration will be kept in a refrigerator while not in use.
• Raw food and high risk food (rice, dairy products, eggs, other animal products) will be prepared with separate equipment.
• Raw food will be washed in a sink separate from that used for washing utensils.
• Spillage and waste food will be cleared away promptly.
• Any food kept hot before serving will be kept at a minimum temperature of 70 degrees centigrade.
• Crockery and utensils will be kept clean, dry and safely stored.
• Time between preparation and eating of food will be minimised.
• All staff involved in food presentation will wash their hands thoroughly and dry them before handling food, after going to the toilet, after sneezing, blowing their nose, touching their hair, handling waste food or rubbish.
• Staff will not handle food if they have suffered from diarrhoea in the last 48 hours.
• Food handling and handling of the food contact surfaces of cutlery and crockery will be kept to a minimum.
• Tea towels and cloths will be used only when clean.
• Staff with cuts or sores on their hands will cover these with a bandage and use gloves.
• Food which has been presented for consumption one day will not be presented again on another day. Exceptions to this guideline include condiments and spreads for bread.

6. Toilets

At least one toilet per 15 people will be provided. These will be readily accessible, private, well-lit and ventilated, and separated by at least two doors from food areas. Hot (at a temperature low enough to prevent thermal injuries) and cold running water, soap and cloth towelling or paper towels will be provided in an adjacent wash area, which will be kept clean and tidy.

7. General Safety

Fire and emergency egress exits will be clearly identified and kept clear at venues and at the office. The trainer will keep a list of all students and staff at the training venue, so that in the event of an evacuation of the venue they are able to check that all persons have been evacuated.

Work and training spaces will be kept clear of materials and goods not being used in the course of work or training. Staff will act with care in all duties doing nothing likely to endanger themselves or other persons. They will report any hazards identified to the director. Equipment will be stored in such a way that it does not constitute a hazard, either in daily eventualities or in the event of an earthquake.

8. Portable Electrical Equipment

Portable electrical equipment such as CD players will have connections of a type that cannot be rewired. They will be connected directly or via power boards which are suitable for the purpose, and any extension cords used will not exceed 50 metres in length. Extension cords will be placed out of the way of employee/student movements.

9. Assessing Health and Safety Needs

The director has a background in Occupational Health. Consulting as needed with others in that field, and with staff members, he will conduct an annual review at the first staff meeting in February each year, to ensure that Health and Safety practices are in accordance with this manual, and that all hazards are being identified and dealt with adequately. At this time, any health and safety related goals for the year will be set, including training, and identification and reduction of hazards.

Staff will report in writing any health or safety hazards identified and will report in writing any health or safety related problems identified on the Health and Safety Report Form. All such forms will be reviewed as part of the annual review of Health and Safety policies.

10. Occupational Overuse Syndrome

Staff will use correct posture when operating equipment such as computers. Staff will take a quarter hour break before working beyond a two hour period. Staff will not work at a computer for more than an hour at a time without taking a five minute break to stretch and relax. Staff will be alerts for any signs of discomfort such as back pain or recurrent physical discomfort, and adjust behaviour to eliminate these.

11. Psychological Health and Safety Issues

As Transformations trainings sometimes remind people of issues related to psychological health, staff and students will be asked to report any previous history of psychiatric or neurological conditions, or any current condition of dependence on drugs or alcohol. This information will be treated in accordance with the Privacy Act. All teaching staff are trained to recognise and deal with such issues and with stress related conditions, using NLP, counselling and relaxation processes. Where an incident involving any such condition occurs at work or in a training, or where such a condition is considered by staff to influence training outcomes for a student, staff will report in writing on the Health and Safety Report Form.

12. Serious injuries

In the unlikely event of any serious injury at a Transformations training or office site, medical assistance will be sought immediately, and the Occupational Safety and Health service will be notified on phone 0800-63-63-64.