How do you know you're serious about NLP?
For many people, it's when they decide to become certified.
It's one thing to read about NLP on the web.
It's another thing entirely when you're willing to dedicate time, money, and effort to take your knowledge and skills to the next level.
Becoming an NLP Practitioner was a defining point in my life.
At the time of this writing, I'm a certified NLP Practitioner, however, my ultimate goal is to become a certified NLP Master Trainer.
In order to get certified, you have to go to an NLP training school, and that school should be recognized by a certification board.
There are 5 main NLP certification boards that exist.
We'll cover each one, along with their standards for each certification.
Let’s dive in.
SNLP
The first certification board to exist is The Society of NLP or SNLP for short. They were founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the co-founders of NLP, and they're still active to this day.
Unfortunately, Richard Bandler and John Grinder are no longer together but that’s a story for another time.
They are the only certification board whose standards are not publicly available.
IBCP
The International Board of Coaches and Practitioners, or, IBCP was founded by NLP Master Trainer Michael Stevenson, who is also the founder of Transform Destiny, a prominent NLP training school.
His certification board is reasonably priced and comes with a host of benefits such as a digital certificate with clickable verification of your credentials, listing on the NLP, Hypnosis, and Coaching referral directory, one ticket to the annual IBCP convention, and much more.
Here are IBCP's standards for each certification taken from their website:
Practitioner of NLP, Hypnotherapy, TIME Techniques, Success and Life Coaching, EFT
Duration of training: Minimum of 120 hours of training in the basics of NLP, hypnosis and/or TIME Techniques patterns taught by a Certified Master Trainer or a Certified Trainer, with exercises under the direct supervision of a duly certified Master Trainer, a Trainer, or a Master Practitioner under the Master Trainer's or Trainer's guidance required. The three trainings and hours can run concurrently.
Method of Training: Training is either to be held live, in-person with direct supervision and evaluation of students in exercises, or through online, recorded video training with verification of hours and direct supervision of the student doing exercises, either through recorded exercises with a volunteer, or live evaluation by the trainer over video chat.
Demonstration of ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques, patterns, and concepts of NLP and to utilize them competently with self and with others.
Behavioral integration of the basic presuppositions of NLP, including:
Outcome orientation with respect for others' models of the world and the ecology of the system
Distinction between map and territory
There is only feedback (cybernetic)-no failure
Meaning of your communication is the response you get
Adaptive intent of all behavior
Everyone has the necessary resources to succeed
Resistance is a signal of insufficient pacing
Law of requisite variety
Rapport, establishment and maintenance of
Pacing and Leading (verbal and non-verbal)
Calibration (sensory-based experience)
Representational systems (predicates, and accessing cues)
Meta-Model
Milton-Model
Elicitation of well-formed, ecological outcomes and structures of present state.
Overlap and Translation
Metaphor creation and delivery
Frames; contrast, relevancy, As If, Backtrack
Anchoring (VAK)
Collapse Anchors
Chain Anchors
Ability to shift consciousness to external or internal, as required by the moment's task
Dissociation and Association
Chunking
SubModlities
Verbal and non-verbal elicitation of responses
Accessing and building of resources
Reframing
Parts Integration
Strategies; detection, elicitation, utilization, & installation
Demonstration of behavioral flexibility
Hypnosis induction (Hypnosis)
Deepening techniques (Hypnosis)
Direct suggestion (Hypnosis)
Timeline elicitation (TIME Techniques)
Discovery of root cause (TIME Techniques)
Eliminating negative emotions(TIME Techniques)
Eliminating limiting decisions (TIME Techniques)
Changing direction of the timeline (TIME Techniques)
Putting a single SMART goal into the future (TIME Techniques)
Master Practitioner of NLP, Master Hypnotherapist, Master of TIME Techniques, and Master of Success and Life Coaching
Prerequisite: Successfully passed NLP Practitioner in accordance with the above standards.
Duration of Training: Minimum of 120 hours of advanced training taught by a Certified Master Trainer or a Certified Trainer with exercises under the direct supervision of a duly certified Master Trainer, a Trainer, or a Master Practitioner under the Master Trainer's or Trainer's guidance required. The four trainings and hours can run concurrently.
Method of Training: Trainings are only to be held live, in-person with direct supervision and evaluation of students in exercises. Virtual, distance-learning, or home-study courses are not approved under any circumstances.
Demonstration of the ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques patterns and concepts of NLP and to utilize these competently with self and with others.
All practitioner-level skills, singly and in combination
Design individualized interventions (generative and remedial)
Ecological change work
Shifting easily back and forth between content and form, and experience and label.
Specific Master Practitioner Skills/Techniques:
Quantum Linguistics or equivalent
Meta Programs, elicitation, and utilization
Basic
Complex
Criteria (Values):
Identification and utilization
Criteria ladder
Elicitation of complex equivalence and adjustment of criteria
Values adjustment and installation
Spiral Dynamics values
Installation and utilization of strategies
Advanced use of submodalities
Advanced use of Anchors (Sliding Anchors)
Advanced Parts Integration
Deliberate multi-level communication
Negotiation
Advanced communication skills
Modeling with output
Utilization and transformation of beliefs and advanced use of presuppositions
Logical Levels of Therapy
Sleight of Mouth patterns
Compulsion Blowout
Allergy Model
Godiva Chocolate Pattern
Designer Swish Patterns
Family Therapy model
Advanced Strategies
TOTE Model
Design
Installation
Utilization and transformation of beliefs and presuppositions
Advanced ideomotor response, such as pendulum (Hypnosis)
Modeling
Detailed Personal History (TIME Techniques)
Personal Breakthrough Session format (TIME Techniques)
Emotional chains (TIME Techniques)
Timeline regression (TIME Techniques)
Trainer of NLP, Trainer of Hypnotherapy, Trainer of TIME Techniques, Trainer of Life/Success Coaching, Trainer of EFT
Prerequisites: Successfully passed NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner in accordance with the above standards
Duration of Training: Minimum of 120 hours of advanced training taught by a certified Master Trainer.
Method of Training: Trainings are only to be held live, in-person with direct supervision and evaluation of students in exercises. Virtual, distance-learning or home-study courses are not approved under any circumstances.
Satisfactory demonstration of the following behavioral competencies:
Complete behavioral competence in all Practitioner and Master Practitioner level skills, ability to do any and all practitioner and master practitioner techniques simultaneously both overtly and covertly
Demonstrate facility to shift between content and form (IE: between experience and labeling)
Ability to demonstrate the behavior of what one is teaching and to teach what one is doing — and to label it linguistically (IE: Model Self)
Demonstration of Presentation and Teaching skills:
Pacing and leading
Respect for audience (i.e. at least keeping separate your and others model of the world, and responding to these congruently; considering and responding ecologically to others; conscious and unconscious processes.
Ability to answer questions, (including discerning the level and intent of questions and generating level-appropriate responses)
Design of presentation: At the least, setting opening and closing frames, setting outcomes, chunking and sequencing of information and experience, balancing information–giving and occasions for discovery, facilitating generalization of in formation and skills across context and time
Design of exercises: At the least, providing for both overt and covert learning in each exercise, including previously learned material for cumulative learning, specifying outcomes of exercises, providing a task for all involved persons insuring behavioral learning, including a future pace
Explanation of exercises including the ability to explain an exercise behaviorally without the use of notes or printed aids
Use of deep and shallow metaphor
Utilization of multi-level feedback: ongoing re-evaluation and incorporation of overt and covert information from individuals and group
Graceful intervention in groups: at the least maintaining rapport and giving specific sensory grounded feedback, via questions that directionalize appropriate search to facilitate people's discovery for themselves, demonstration, or if necessary, overtly telling them what to do
"Tasking": creating a task that presupposes that a person behaves in a different way that expands his/her model of the world
Ability to do demonstrations
Demonstration of a personal style, and artistry (indicating that the new trainer is integrating skills into his/her own behavior)
Demonstration of an understanding of the process of NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner training
Ability to demonstrate and teach all certification requirements for Hypnotherapist, Practitioner of Hypnotherapy and Master Practitioner of Hypnotherapy levels (Hypnosis)
Demonstration of an understanding of the process of Hypnotherapy, Practitioner of Hypnotherapy and Master Hypnotherapy training. (Hypnosis)
Ability to demonstrate and teach all certification requirements for Practitioner TIME Techniques and Master Practitioner TIME Techniques training. (TIME Techniques)
Ability to lead groups through all TIME Techniques processes, with the exception of Emotional Chains (TIME Techniques)
Demonstration of an understanding of the process of Practitioner TIME Techniques and Master Practitioner TIME Techniques training (TIME Techniques)
Master Trainer of NLP, Master Trainer of Hypnotherapy, Master Trainer of TIME Techniques, Master Trainer of Life/Success Coaching, Master Trainer of EFT
Prerequisites: Successfully passed NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner, and NLP Trainer in accordance with the above standards.
Duration of Training: Variable, depending on the development and progress of the subject
Satisfactory achieve the following, as mentored and evaluated by a duly certified Master Trainer of NLP:
Complete behavioral competence in all Practitioner, Master Practitioner, and Trainer level skills, ability to do any and all practitioner and master practitioner techniques without scripts simultaneously both overtly and covertly.
Adequately, competently, and clearly be able to teach NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner, and NLP Trainer Training content.
Embody all of the NLP Principles both consciously and unconsciously and use NLP in your own life (walk the talk).
Read and demonstrate competency in the 12 foundational books of NLP:
The Structure of Magic Vol 1
The Structure of Magic Vol 2
Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson MD Vol 1
Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson MD Vol 2
Frogs into Princes
NLP Vol 1
Reframing
Using Your Brain... For a Change
Tranceformations
Magic In Action
Change Your Mind and Keep the Change
Heart of the Mind
Assist and receive hands-on training in the following trainings (post-Trainers Training)
Minimum one NLP Practitioner Training
Minimum one NLP Master Practitioner Training
Minimum three NLP Trainers Trainings
Successfully train at minimum 100 students in NLP Practitioner (over at minimum three separate trainings) and 50 students (over at minimum two separate trainings) NLP Master Practitioner following all the standards set forth by the IBCP
Create and demonstrate on original NLP technique created by the subject, either by:
Modeling and creating a new pattern from the model
Synthesizing NLP principles into a novel technique.
ABH-NLP
ABH-NLP was founded in 1982 by Dr. A. M. Krasner as the California Board of Hypnotherapy. Due to its rapid growth, it went on to become the American Board of Hypnotherapy with members all across the globe.
They later expanded to include NLP and their members are globally recognized for maintaining a high standard of excellence in their training.
Here are their standards for each of the main certifications:
NLP Practitioner
Duration of Training: Minimum of 120 hours of training in the basics of NLP patterns taught by a Certified Trainer, or a certified Master Practitioner under the supervision of a trainer.
Demonstration of ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques, patterns and concepts of NLP and to utilize them competently with self and with others.
Behavioral integration of the basic presuppositions of NLP, including:
Outcome orientation with respect for others’ models of the world and the ecology of the system.
Distinction between map and territory.
There is only feedback (cybernetic)-no failure.
Meaning of your communication is the response you get.
Adaptive intent of all behavior.
Everyone has the necessary resources to succeed.
Resistance is a signal of insufficient pacing.
Law of requisite variety.
Rapport, establishment and maintenance of.
Pacing and Leading (verbal and non-verbal).
Calibration (sensory-based experience).
Representational systems (predicates, and accessing cues).
Meta-Model.
Milton-Model.
Elicitation of well-formed, ecological outcome and structures of present state.
Overlap and Translation.
Metaphor creation.
Frames; contrast, relevancy, As If, Backtrack.
Anchoring (VAK).
Anchoring Techniques (contextualized to the field of application).
Ability to shift consciousness to external or internal, as required by the moment’s task.
Dissociation and Association.
Chunking.
SubModalities.
Verbal and non-verbal elicitation of responses.
Accessing and building of resources.
Reframing.
Strategies; detection, elicitation, utilization, & installation.
Demonstration of behavioral flexibility.
NLP Master Practitioner
Duration of Training: Minimum of 120 hours of advanced training taught by a certified trainer. A minimum of 15 hours of direct trainer supervision.
Demonstration of the ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques patterns and concepts of NLP and to utilize these competently with self and with others.
All practitioner-level skills, singly and in combination.
Design individualized interventions (generative and remedial).
Ecological change work.
Shifting easily back and forth between content and form, and experience and label.
Specific Master Practitioner Skills:
Meta Programs.
Criteria (Values).
identification and utilization.
criteria ladder.
elicitation of complex equivalence and adjustment of criteria.
sleight of mouth.
Installation and utilization of strategies.
Refined use of submodalities.
Deliberate multi-level communication.
Negotiations.
Presentation skills.
Modeling.
Utilization and transformation of beliefs and presuppositions.
NLP Trainer
Duration of Training: Minimum of 120 hours of advanced training taught by a certified Master Trainer. A minimum of 15 hours of direct trainer supervision.
Satisfactory demonstration of the following behavioral competencies:
Complete behavioral competence in all Practitioner and Master Practitioner level skills, ability to do any and all practitioner and master practitioner techniques simultaneously both overtly and covertly.
Demonstrate facility to shift between content and form (IE: between experience and labeling).
Ability to do (demonstrate the behavior of) what one is teaching and to teach what one is doing — and to label it linguistically (IE: Model Self).
Demonstration of Presentation and Teaching skills:
Pacing and leading.
Respect for audience (i.e. at least keeping separate your and others model of the world, and responding to these congruently; considering and responding ecologically to others; conscious and unconscious processes.
Ability to answer questions, (including discerning the level and intent of questions and generating level-appropriate responses).
Design of presentation: At the least, setting opening and closing frames, setting outcomes, chunking and sequencing of information and experience, balancing information–giving and occasions for discovery, facilitating generalization of information and skills across context and time.
Design of exercises: At the least, providing for both overt and covert learning in each exercise, including previously learned material for cumulative learning, specifying outcomes of exercises, providing a task for all involved persons insuring behavioral learning, including a future pace.
Explanation of exercises including the ability to explain an exercise behaviorally without the use of notes or printed aids.
Use of deep and shallow metaphor.
Utilization of multi-level feedback: ongoing re-evaluation and incorporation of overt and covert information from individuals and group.
Graceful intervention in groups: at the least maintaining rapport and giving specific sensory grounded feedback, via questions that directionalize appropriate search to facilitate peoples discovery for themselves, demonstration, or if necessary, overtly telling them what to do.
”Tasking”: creating of a task that presupposes that a person behave in a different way that expands his/her model of the world.
Ability to do demonstrations.
Demonstration of a personal style, and artistry (indicating that the new trainer is integrating skills into his/her own behavior).
Demonstration of an understanding of the process of NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner NLP training.
NLP Master Trainer
Duration of Trainings: A minimum of 5 years as lead trainer in Practitioner and Master Practitioner Trainings taught as a Certified Trainer. A minimum of 5 consecutive years, member of ABNLP at the NLP trainer level. A minimum of 5 (five) Trainers Training coaching and assisting under direct trainer supervision by a Master Trainer approved by ABNLP. An evaluation of the candidate’s student is also necessary. A copy of your course curriculum and course manual at Practitioner, Master Practitioner, and NLP Trainer level. A copy of Master Trainer program from your school and/or Master Trainer.
Satisfactory demonstration of the following behavioral competencies:
A video of you teaching an NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner course, along with exercises
Teaching at least 10 Practitioner and 10 Master Practitioner trainings
Immediate and flawless recall and teaching of any NLP subject from memory without notes
Being able to conduct on request and without notice a Demo Day during the NLP Trainers Training and Evaluation under direct Master Trainer supervision.
There are additional requirements that are more subjective, and which can be discussed with your Master Trainer.
To be certified as a Master Trainer, the Trainer must be approved by 2 Master Trainers from different organizations who are current and approved members of ABNLP to provide NLP Training.
INLPTA
The INLPTA was formed in 1993 by 3 NLP Master Trainers: Wyatt Woodsmall, Marvin Oka, and Bert Feustel. It is an international cooperative association of NLP Trainers and Master Trainers who have agreed to abide by and uphold INLPTA's standards of quality, professionalism and ethics in their NLP accreditation trainings and in the conduct of their NLP business.
They have trainers in over 50 countries and on all 5 continents.
Here are their standards for each of the main certifications:
NLP Practitioner
Duration of training: Minimum of 130 hours (excluding breaks longer than 30 minutes) and a minimum of 15 days of formal course training. 18 days is recommended.
The most critical factor in evaluating practitioners is their ability to:
Work within an outcome frame
Establish and maintain states of resourcefulness
Sort by others
Establish and maintain rapport
Respect and pace other people's models of the world
Do effective and ecological change work
Certification requirements are the successful completion of the following:
Written examination for intellectual competence
Behavioral examination for behavioral competence
Case study documentation or personal/professional application project report
The assessment criteria of an INLPTA NLP Practitioner is based on Attitude (embodiment of the presuppositions of NLP), Content Knowledge (frames, principles, techniques, and distinctions) and behavioral skills (demonstrated integration of learnings)
NLP Master Practitioner
Training Structure
Trained by an INLPTA registered NLP Trainer
The certification training meets INLPTA training structure requirements
Minimum of 130 hours of formal course room training. (excluding breaks longer than 30 minutes)
Minimum of 15 days of formal course room training
The attended training meets the INLPTA accreditation competency standards and guidelines
The candidate has successfully met the competency standards of INLPTA of NLP Master-Practitioner, as assessed by the registered INLPTA Trainer
The certificate needs to be signed by at least one INLPTA NLP Trainer. 2 is ideal.
The certificates need to have the starting and ending dates, as well as the numbers of hours and dates written on them. All certificates need to ordered by the international or national INLPTA coordinator and be numbered and sealed with the official INLPTA seal
Certification Requirements
Behavioral competency in all Practitioner level skills and the demonstrated ability to do several patterns simultaneously
The ability to identify, utilize and demonstrate one's integration of the Master Practitioner content, skills, frames, concepts, principles, processes, techniques and distinctions. (see INLPTA Master Practitioner Assessment Criteria list)
The ability to do individualized interventions
Demonstrated ability to operate from an ecological framework and philosophy, and to do ecological change work with self and others
Advanced development of flexibility with ones' own representational systems and perceptual filters
Demonstrated capacity to shift back and forth between content and form as appropriate to context
Ability to track shifts in different logical levels of internal processing and logical types of descriptions
Ability to facilitate one's own learning processes at the appropriate logical levels
Embodiment of the Presuppositions of NLP
Multi- tracking abilities
Ability to maintain resourceful states for intellectual, emotional, and physical choice
Ability to process one's own modeling of the world and to re-organize one's processing as appropriate to the context and outcome
Assessment Criteria for NLP Master Practitioner
Degree of integration, mastery, and elegance with all NLP Practitioner Skills
Degree of integration of NLP Master Practitioner Process Skills
Conscious/Unconscious Embodiment of the Legs of NLP
Conscious/Unconscious Embodiment of the Presuppositions of NLP
Conscious/Unconscious Multi-tracking:
Multi Layered Outcomes
Multi-Level Calibration Skills
Multi-Level Conscious/Unconscious Processing
Ability to Be At Choice With the Process of Identification and Self Evaluation
Precision Resourcefulness Through All Representational Systems
Scope of Sensory Flexibility
Perceptual Sorting Flexibility (Metaprograms and Perceptual Positions)
Ability to Track One's Own Epistemological Processing
Ability to Track the Epistemology of Others
Epistemological Flexibility
Ability to Track Logical Levels and Logical Typings
Ability to Process Learning from Achievement
Ability to Establish and Maintain Multiple levels of Rapport
Ability to Separate Process from Content About Process
Ability to Deliver Deliberate Multi-Level Communications
Ability to Deliver Deliberate Multi-Level Communications
Ability to Generalize and Contextualize the NLP Master Practitioner Content and Skills to Other Fields of Personal Interest
Degree of Integration of NLP Master Practitioner Content Knowledge and Skills
NLP Trainer
Training Structure
The Trainer's Training is/was conducted by an INLPTA Master Trainer authorized to do so by the INLPTA Board of Directors
The certification training meets INLPTA training structure requirements
Minimum of 150 hours of formal course room training. (excluding breaks longer than 30 minutes)
Minimum of 19 days of formal course room training
The attended training meets the INLPTA accreditation competency standards and guidelines
The certificate needs to be signed by at least two INLPTA NLP Master Trainers
The certificates need to have the starting and ending dates, as well as the numbers of hours and dates written on them. And all certificates need to ordered by the international or national INLPTA coordinator and be numbered and sealed with the official INLPTA seal
General Criteria for NLP Trainer
The candidate is of INLPTA NLP Master Practitioner accredited status
The candidate has attended and successfully completed an INLPTA Trainers training
The candidate has successfully met the INLPTA competency requirements for an INLPTA Trainer, assessed by at least two authorized INLPTA Trainer Trainers
The candidate has successfully completed the following:
Written assessment of intellectual integration of Practitioner, Master Practitioner, and Trainer content (at least 85% correct)
Behavioral Assessment of presentation and training skill levels
At least two (30 min.+) evaluated NLP presentations before an audience with feedback from the audience and the INLPTA Trainers Trainer
An unannounced impromptu presentation and/or demonstration of an NLP content piece or technique before an audience
Assessment of competency in training design
Demonstrated attitude based on ecology, learning, and the living embodiment of the presuppositions of NLP
It is strongly recommended that the candidate has either reviewed and/or assisted with a Practitioner and Master Practitioner program since their original training at those levels as a student
It is strongly recommended that the candidate has received 20 hours of either personal coaching, supervision, or therapy by a certified INLPTA NLP Trainer
Intellectual and Behavioral Competencies
An INLPTA NLP Trainer is expected to demonstrate intellectual and behavioral competence in the following areas at appropriate levels of frames, principles, techniques, and distinctions:
Excellence in attitudinal, behavioral, and intellectual competency in all Practitioner and Master Practitioner level skills and the demonstrated ability to do several patterns simultaneously at multiple levels
Demonstrated ability to design a complete INLPTA Practitioner and Master Practitioner accreditation training
Demonstrated ability to design and conduct the delivery of NLP content chunks
Demonstrated ability to facilitate within students the learning of NLP content and the development of NLP skills and attitudes
Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain excellent levels of rapport with all participants, colleagues and trainers
Demonstrated ability to design and facilitate group inductions overtly and covertly
Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain rapport with groups
Demonstrated ability to work ecologically with groups
Demonstrated ability to pace and lead a group in ecological directions
Demonstrated ability to model the learner
Demonstrated ability to pace, lead, incorporate and utilize the differences in world views between students-students and trainer-student(s)
Demonstrated ability to utilize Satir Categories as applied to group communication
Demonstrated ability to design, facilitate and debrief exercises
Demonstrated ability to deliver instructions for exercises
Demonstrated ability to demonstrate all Practitioner and Master Practitioner patterns overtly and covertly
Demonstrated ability to establish and utilize stage anchors
Demonstrated ability to design and deliver nested loops
Demonstrated ability to answer questions and facilitate unconscious processes in an open frame
Demonstrated ability to coach by facilitating unconscious learning processes
Demonstrated ability to utilize environmental influences to facilitate optimum learning at conscious and unconscious levels
Demonstrated ability to facilitate learning at different logical levels and of different logical types
Demonstrated ability to design and conduct trainings that facilitate different adult learning styles
Demonstrated ability to appropriately assess and evaluate students at Practitioner and Master Practitioner levels
Behavioral demonstration of being able to "walk what you talk and talk what you walk"
Excellent state control, emotional stability, stress resistance and self management
Demonstrated ability to know and process your own model of the world and to adjust yourself congruently, ecologically, and respectfully to another person's model of the world
Demonstrated ability to handle and resolve conflict, and to make effective and ecological decisions as appropriate to context
Basic understanding of common knowledge models from psychology, physiology, brain research, therapy and other related areas to NLP
Demonstrated ability to design, deliver and utilize metaphors in training
Demonstrated ability to give and receive feedback in educative and self evolutionary ways
Demonstrated ability to design, deliver and facilitate educative tasking
Demonstrated ability to handle hecklers, under achievers, "problem" cases, ecological and/or ethical issues
Demonstrated ability to calibrate groups and to respond accordingly
Demonstrated ability to alter one's own training style as appropriate to context, audience and outcome
NLP Master Trainer
NLP Master Trainers are recognized as having attained a superior level of training excellence in the domain of NLP Certification trainings. The request for entry to the assessment process must be accompanied with a personal voucher from the NLP Master Trainer with whom the applicant has trained.
General Criteria for NLP Master Trainer
The candidate is an accredited INLPTA NLP Trainer
The candidate has attended and successfully completed an INLPTA Master Trainer's Training as authorized by the INLPTA Board of Directors
The candidate has successfully met the INLPTA competency requirements for an NLP Master Trainer, as assessed by the INLPTA Board of Directors
Training Excellence
Have fully conducted as the principal trainer a minimum of 5 NLP Certification Trainings consisting of at least one Practitioner and one Master Practitioner Certification Trainings. to INLPTA standards.
Dates of conducted trainings to be submitted to the INLPTA Board of Directors along with the signatures of the students who have attended those specific programs.
Have trained and accredited to INLPTA standards a minimum of 50 NLP Practitioners and 20 NLP Master Practitioners. This is to be monitored by the process of the NLP Trainer submitting to the INLPTA Board of Directors signed acceptance forms from each of their certified students for receipt of their Certificates, which are to be correlated to the number of INLPTA certificates and seals that have been requested by that NLP Trainer
It is strongly recommended that the candidate has assisted and co-taught in an INLPTA Trainer's Training at least once (separate from the tasks encompassed within the Master Trainer's Track), and have received successful evaluations from a minimum of two INLPTA Board of Directors based on the degree of training expertise, content knowledge, and attitude.
Contribution to NLP
The contribution constitutes a new technique or model of intervention for change that allows NLP to do something it could not do before, or could not do as easily, elegantly, or generatively.
The contribution is able to be operationalized in a practical form
The developer is to conduct a presentation of their contribution at an INLPTA International Conference if requested to do so
INLPTA is given the rights to publish the contribution, with all due credit to the developer, for dissemination to the NLP community in the most appropriate form as determined by the INLPTA Board of Directors (with input from the INLPTA Board of Advisers)
AIP
The Association for Integrative Psychology, or AIP for short, was founded in 2005 by Matthew B. James, Ph.D. Its purpose is to promote awareness and acceptance of complementary, alternative, and integrative approaches as viable ways to facilitate change. A variety of disciplines is represented in the field of Integrative Psychology such as acupuncture, hypnosis, NLP, naturopathic medicine, and others.
Here are their standards for each of the NLP certifications:
NLP Practitioner
Duration of Training - Minimum of 120 hours of training in the basics of NLP. Taught by a Certified Master Practitioner of NLP under the supervision of a Certified Trainer of NLP, or a Certified Trainer of NLP, or a Certified Master Trainer of NLP.
Demonstration of the ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques, patterns and concepts of NLP and to utilize them successfully with self and others.
Presuppositions of NLP
Rapport
Sensory Acuity
Representational Systems
Meta-Model
Milton Model
Elicitation of well-formed, ecological outcomes and structures of the present state.
Metaphor Creation
Frames
Anchoring
Dissociation and Association
Logical Levels of Thinking
Submodalities
Reframing
Strategies
Parts Integration
NLP Master Practitioner
Duration of Training - Minimum of 120 hours of advanced NLP training. Taught by a Certified Trainer of NLP or a Certified Master Trainer of NLP. Minimum of 15 hours of direct trainer supervision.
Prerequisite: Must be at the Practitioner of NLP level.
Demonstration of the ability to identify the following basic skills, techniques, patterns, and concepts of NLP and to utilize these successfully with self and with others.
All NLP Practitioner-level skills.
Design individual interventions.
Master Practitioner Skills
Meta Programs
Criteria (Values)
sleight of mouth
Installation and utilization of strategies
Refined use of submodalities
Negotiations
Presentation skills
Modeling
NLP Trainer
Duration of Training - Minimum of 120 hours of very advanced training. Taught by a Certified Master Trainer of NLP. Minimum of 15 hours of direct trainer supervision.
Must be at the Master Practitioner of NLP level.
Satisfactory behavioral demonstrations of the following:
Successfully complete behavioral demonstrations in all Practitioner and Master Practitioner level skills, ability to do any and all practitioner and master practitioner techniques simultaneously both overtly and covertly.
Demonstrate ability to shift between content and form (i.e. between experience and labeling).
Ability to do (demonstrate the behavior of) what one is teaching, to teach what one is doing, to teach what one is doing and to label it linguistically (i.e. model self).
Demonstration of Presentation and Teaching Skills:
Pacing and leading
Respect for the audience (i.e. at least keeping separate your's and other's model of the world, and responding to these congruently; considering and responding ecologically to others; conscious and unconscious processes).
Answers questions that include discerning the level and intent of questions and generating level-appropriate responses.
Design of presentation - At the least, setting opening and closing frames, setting outcomes, chunking, and sequencing of information and experience, balancing information - giving information and allowing occasions for discovery, and facilitating generalization of information and skills across context and time.
Design of exercises - At the least, providing for both overt and covert learning in each exercise, including previously learned material for cumulative learning, specifying outcomes of exercises, providing a task for all involved persons ensuring behavioral learning, and including a future pace.
Explanation of exercises including the ability to explain an exercise behaviorally without the use of notes or printed aids.
Use of deep and shallow metaphors.
Utilization of multi-level feedback - Ongoing re-evaluation and incorporation of overt and covert information from individuals and group.
Graceful intervention in groups - At the least maintaining rapport and giving specific sensory grounded feedback, via questions that directionalize appropriate search to facilitate peoples discovery for themselves, demonstration, or if necessary, overtly telling them what to do.
"Tasking" - the creation of a task that presupposes that a person behaves in a different way that expands his/her model of the world.
Performs successful demonstrations.
Demonstration of a personal style and artistry (indicating that the new trainer is integrating skills into his/her own behavior).
Design in writing, a Practitioner and Master Practitioner NLP Training.
NLP Master Trainer
Duration of Training - Minimum of three (3) years as lead trainer in Practitioner and Master Practitioner NLP Trainings. Must be taught by a Certified Master Trainer of NLP.
Must be at the Trainer of NLP level.
Demonstration of the following behavioral competencies:
Practitioner, Master Practitioner, and Trainer level of NLP knowledge and techniques.
Lead Trainer in at least five (5) Practitioner of NLP Trainings. Proof of trainings necessary.
Lead Trainer in at least three (3) Master Practitioner Trainings. Proof of trainings necessary.
Documentation of direct supervision by a Certified Master Trainer of NLP doing the training. The result of these evidentiary procedures would be that the Certified Master Trainer of NLP would "know" the candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities as an NLP Trainer and would be able to attest to those areas. Documentation would include:
Immediate and accurate recall and teaching of any NLP subject from memory (without written notes).
Assisting and teaching at three (3) Master Practitioner of NLP Trainings that are taught by a Certified Master Trainer of NLP. Topics of instruction should show variety of material. Quality of instruction should be at satisfactory or higher. Proof and quality of instruction must be signed by the Certified Master Trainer of NLP.
Assisting at three (3) consecutive Trainers Trainings for NLP. Proof of assistance with a listing of areas of responsibility that were performed and signed by the Certified Master Trainer of NLP.
Able to think and discuss at least two (2) logical levels above the content of Trainer level of NLP.
During this process, demonstrate a willingness to learn how to improve his/her knowledge, skills, and abilities in NLP Training by having meetings/discussions with the Certified Master Trainer as needed.
There may be additional requirements that are more subjective and may be discussed with your Certified Master Trainer.
Must be approved by two (2) Master Trainers of NLP from different organizations.
Other NLP Certifications
In each of the certification boards, we only covered the 4 main certifications, however, some certification boards have standards for other NLP certifications besides the main 4.
For example, INLPTA has standards for an NLP Coach as well as an NLP Master Coach. These particular certifications place a strong emphasis on the coaching aspect of NLP.
Some NLP schools have an NLP Business Practitioner Certification, which was originally pioneered by Sue Knight. She was also the first person to write a book about using NLP in a business setting called NLP at work.
Closing Thoughts
When it comes to getting an NLP certification, there's a lot you have to consider.
You have to not only pick a training school, but you also have to see which certification board your training school is affiliated with.
Depending on your ambitions, you could settle for an NLP Practitioner certification, or you can go all the way up and become a Master Trainer, which in most cases means making a significant contribution to the field.
If you want to use NLP in a business setting, then you might want to consider getting an NLP Business Practitioner certification. Or if you're passionate about coaching, then becoming an NLP Coach or Master Coach might make sense for you.
There are countless opportunities that await you if and when you decide to get certified.