By Pam Rigden (United Kingdom)
In this series of articles – ‘NLP for Coaches: How to enhance your coaching practice with NLP’ Pam Rigden BSc, MA, NLP Coach and Trainer will be explaining how Coaches can use NLP in their practice to create value for their clients.
In this, the first article in the series, we will be covering six key NLP strategies that Coaches can safely use to support clients who want to give up ‘bad’ habits. However, before looking at the strategies in more detail, it is important that you understand from an NLP perspective, what habits are and how they develop.
So what is a habit?
Habits are learned patterns of behaviour which we have developed because right back when we first tried the habit, it either made us feel good or simply enabled us to feel less bad. People feel the need to move away from pain, discomfort and unhappiness and more often than not choose to go about this in ways that invariably leave them feeling worse, for example by using excessive alcohol and drugs. The problem is that in the here and now many of these habits have simply gone past their sell by date. However, because the unconscious mind wants us to feel good, it is difficult to override the old patterns even when we would like to.
Source: iCN Issue 12 (Personal Coaching); pages 10-12
About Pam Rigden
Pam Rigden is a Lead Trainer and Coach at NLP for Coaches
After qualifying as an NLP Master Practitioner, Coach and Trainer, Pam designed NLP Training for Fitness Professionals, the first course of its type in the world. Subsequently recognised as one of the world’s leading experts in the application of NLP and Coaching to health and wellbeing, she has presented at conferences in both the UK and internationally in the USA, Australia and Canada.
Pam has since moved back to the UK to be closer to her family and is living in Lymington, Hampshire. As well as managing ‘NLP for Coaches’, Pam mentors students with mental health issues at Southampton University and Winchester School of Art on a part time basis.