....is something of an exercise in irony.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I might just be dabbling in reconnecting with current trends in NLP here - we'll see.

I first encountered NLP when The Structure of Magic was on the reading list for a course I took while undertaking my Social Work training in Edinburgh in the early 80's. Then in the mid 80's I discovered that there was actually someone in Scotland running courses in this stuff. Cue my introduction to John McWhirter and Sensory Systems. Eventually I went on to do my Practitioner Training with Sensory Systems in the early 90's and subsequently assisted on some further trainings.

I haven't really remained up to date with developments in NLP or, indeed, John McWhirter's DBM® borne out of the application of modelling skills to NLP and a variety of other models including systems theory, family therapy and the work of Milton Erickson MD. However, I like to think that I have integrated much of what I learned into my Social Work practice. To some extent that thinking has been verified by the results and positive feedback that I've received over the years in my role of working with young people, chairing the review meetings of young people who are Looked After by the local authority and chairing multi-disciplinary Child Protection Case Conferences.

For a number of reasons, I'm now at a bit of a crossroads and looking to the next move in my life. That may be part of the reason why I've joined here. The other reason is that I'm something of a forum junkie - hence the irony. I'm to be found on a number of motorcycle forums, indulging my passion for stamp collecting.

Hello,

you'll find that a few of us here have experiences overlapping yours. In my case, I spend some of my week working with mentally ill homeless people. A system so problematic, in my perception at least, that I'm planning on getting the hell out of it to concentrate on other areas of interest.