One thing that has interested me in the field of NLP training is the idea of specialized, in-depth programs which take a particular topic and look at it in perhaps greater detail or from a different perspective (or both) than might be used in a more general NLP training environment like a Practitioner course.

Seeing that this is the case, you can imagine that I was excited to hear that Jonathan Altfeld, a person who I consider to be a notably excellent trainer, was releasing a DVD series based around just that idea.

Jonathan was kind enough to provide me with evaluation copies of his NLP Skills-Builders DVD series.

The series consists of 3 2-disc collections, Building Hypnotic Rapport, Sharpening Your Influence and Unbridled Motivation.

Who is this for?

Like many of Jonathan’s products, I find that his approach to NLP skills is accessible to non-NLPers whilst still being a valuable new perspective to even a fairly advanced NLPers. It seems to me that this collection is no exception to that and therefore I would feel comfortable recommending this to NLPers or non-NLPers of any skill level.

The packaging

The package design is clean and crisp with professional looking covers, although I would’ve preferred to see slicker printing. Obviously, that’s a minor quibble.

Another nice thing about the packaging, I thought, was the clear table of contents covering exactly what’s covered on the disk. This makes it quite easy to pull the disk off the shelf and quickly see which disk has the exact material you wanted to see. A useful feature.

The content

All the discs are broken down into chapters ranging anywhere from a couple of minutes to just short of 20 minutes per chapter. The chapters are clearly named and easily accessible from the chapter menu, facilitating quick access to specific content.

As an aside, I think it speaks well of Jonathan that he was able to deliver material in such a logical and methodical manner so that this kind of organization was possible. Of course, not all material is designed to be best presented in that sort of manner, but all of this material, in my opinion, is conducive to that style of structure.

All six discs were recorded during the same seminar. Therefore, I’ll describe the commonalities first before getting into the content of each set.

The video and audio quality are very good with both Jonathan and his audience being easy to hear and understand.

Of note is the fact that most of the exercises are explained and demonstrated so that someone using this as a home study course with a friend or two can make use of the material including practice, without which, the material would be, I think, much less useful if competency in the skill set is one’s goal.

I think it’s also interesting for experienced NLPers to take note of Jonathan’s unique way of delivering the material. His multilayered teaching style which manages to be both simultaneously humorous and content laden is, I think, impressive.

Before I go on to the sets individually, I will also mention that I think it can be valuable, if one owns all three sets to watch all six discs in the context of one another. I found that each set was nicely self-contained and that they stood well on their own, but I think the material might be even more effective when viewed and thought of as a whole.

Building Hypnotic Rapport

This is about three and half hours of material on rapport building and its use in various situations, with a focus on social and business situations.

Jonathan incorporates some of his own work into the mix, stressing the importance of matching rhythms and tonality in addition to all the usual rapport builders.

Personally, I found the material comprehensive and comprehensible. However, I do know a little bit about NLP so I wondered how this material would be like in the experience of a relative neophyte. Therefore, I recruited an innocent bystander (for the sake of this article, we’ll call him or her Pat) to serve as a guinea pig.

Pat was impressed with the material and found both Jonathan’s delivery and the exercises engaging and easy both to understand and to do. Pat was also able to demonstrate an ability to use the skills with a reasonable per level of proficiency, considering Pat’s level of training (or lack thereof), after engaging with the recording and practising the exercises.

Sharpening Your Influence

Here Jonathan broaches the gentle art of persuasion by choosing to focus on the elicitation and use of values as well as Dilts’ ‘Slight-of-Mouth’ patterns (modelled from Richard Bandler). Jonathan then wraps up with 12 minutes on ‘hypnotic language tricks’.

Here again, I felt that Jonathan covered relatively complex material in an easy-to-understand manner. His multilayered teaching approach really pays off here, I think, in his ability to both use and demonstrate what he’s talking about in a way that allows for easy retention.

Pat, my guinea pig, found values to be a relatively difficult concept to understand at first. It was here that I ran into one of my limitations in that I had to restrain myself from barging in and clarifying. Luckily, I know this thing called NLP, so I was able to control myself long enough to realize that Pat was catching on just fine as things went on.

Good thing I didn’t corrupt the experiment because I would have hated to have had to have Pat euthanised in order to prevent him/her from contaminating the control group...

Again, Pat demonstrated both an understanding of and an ability to use the material after viewing the material and doing the exercises.

Unbridled Motivation

The final set in the series, Unbridled Motivation uses, well, motivation as its theme. This is probably what I would consider the least focused of the three sets as it goes through a wide range of NLP concepts, skills and techniques. However, Jonathan skilfully weaves them into what I think is a cohesive and coherent presentation.

Here again, Jonathan has some unique spins on the material and his delivery is world-class. I think that this could easily become a hodgepodge in the hands of less skilful trainer and I have indeed witnessed some other trainers attempting to cover similarly disparate material with far less success than Jonathan brings to the table here.

Again, I think that advanced NLPers would do well to take note not only of Jonathan’s unique distinctions but also of the expertise and techniques he uses to weave the presentation together.

Pat told me that s/he found this material to be the most challenging of any of the sets. However, s/he once more demonstrated both an understanding of and an ability to perform the material after watching the set and doing the exercises.

I think this last set would probably be even more useful if one has some NLP experience. However, that didn’t stop Pat from profiting from the material, or so it seemed to me.

Final Thoughts and Summary

I personally find that this DVD series and each of the 3 two-volume sets within it are of a high standard of quality, both in terms of production and, most importantly, of content. Frankly, I would be hard-pressed to find anything other than minor quibbles about the DVD boxes by way of negatives. Jonathan handles his material with a deceptively easy skill, charm and wit which makes both his performance and the learning experience seemingly effortless.

Recommended

-Michael Perez