John White

How did I get to be an NLP Coach?

John WhiteWell, I used to be a first line manager and found it was not my niche. So I went off into the area of person centred counselling. However, call it a "man thing", because much as I enjoyed listening to people, I used to jump in with the solution!

It was then I met a new friend whilst studying IT part time. He was also studying coaching with the Open University and needed a coach, which is how I became hooked into coaching. This was my first step on the road to becoming a certified NLP Coach. I started by studying Life Coaching at Newcastle College. I was awarded a certificate in the subject of Life Coaching from them. I then went on to gain a diploma in coaching from the same college.

It is here that my chosen path turned towards NLP. I had met another friend at a self-development seminar and he told me about the NLP Conference taking place in London. Having heard about NLP I went along out of interest. Many workshops were taking place at this weekend event and one of them was being presented by Ian McDermott on the subject of coaching and NLP. I was very impressed by his style of presentation and his ability to connect with his audience. After looking at his website and speaking with his office staff, I signed up for his one-day Essential NLP workshop. At the end of this Essential NLP workshop, I spoke with Ian about his NLP Practitioners course. This was in November 2004 and shortly afterwards I enrolled for his 5 month NLP Practitioners course which commenced in February 2005, which in reality was five long weekends spread over 5 months. I found it a great way to learn because as you covered each module over the long weekend, you had the month to let it all sink in!

Towards the end of the practitioners course, I and a few others made the decision to continue our training with ITS, International Training Seminars, the name of Ian's company. Therefore in October 2005 we started the European Coaching Certification Programme with Ian McDermott and Jan Elfline co-presenting this course, again, set over 5 months with 1-month intervals. I forgot to mention when we signed up for the European Coaching Certification Course we also signed up for the Master Practitioners Course, which overlapped with the coaching certification course by one module. Still they say the devil makes work for idle hands but he did not make any work for me. So that is how I got to where I am now. I currently coach on a part time basis and present workshops on the subject of NLP and Coaching. Did I say part time? Yes, I did, I still work for that firm I mentioned at the beginning. Therefore, I have my own career goal, moving from one job to the other!

I enjoy being involved in voluntary work. In November 2007, in conjunction with South Norwood Country Park I organised "Spirit of the Community", a weekend event to show how my