I'm going to review Andrews book, but first, I have to make a personal confession, because there's something I've got to get off my chest...

I love the idea of NLP books although I tend to hate NLP books.

There, I've said it. And I imagine you may be wondering what the hell that has to do with this review. Read on just a bit more and I think you'll understand how this inner conflict is germane to what I think about this book.

First of all, I love books. I not only love reading them, but I just love the whole idea of books. I live for that magical moment when you open a book and suddenly, magically, someone else can bring their voice and their ideas into your head in order to mingle with your own. It's a transcendent thing when it's done by a really good writer.

Secondly, I love NLP. I love doing it and I love talking about it. Sometimes, after I do a training, I'll go out and have a meal with people from the course and if someone asks me an NLP question, very often, another kind soul will go 'but he's been teaching NLP all day long, he doesn't want to have to talk about it here!', but in fact, I'm still happy to talk about it because human beings fascinate me and I'm glad to talk about all the wonderful ways in which we do things, which is the way that I look at NLP.

And then we come to NLP books. And while there are a number of really fantastic NLP books, too many of them are essentially restatements of the same basic group of facts. You'll get a little bit about rapport, a little bit about goal-setting, a scattering of techniques, various and myriad presuppositions, complete with explanations and perhaps the occasional chart or form to fill out.

And while these things can be useful, I'm not sure that I ever want to see another rehash of that and I'm almost certain that three more will come out next week.

So when I run across something about NLP which takes advantage of the special relationship that we have with our books, the privileged access that we give to an author, to allow them to become a voice inside of our heads and to share their views of the world with us for awhile, I get interested. And if an author can follow through on that promise and take me on a journey to learn and experience life from a really worthwhile perspective, then I get grateful.

Andrew, I'm grateful.

In his book, subtitled ‘Tales from a Neurolinguist’s Journal’, Andy takes us on a number of wonderful, scenic, sometimes hallucinogenic and occasionally dystopic walks through his world.

The book is divided up into short passages where he shares stories from various times in his life, slogging away under the NHS trying to actually help people who are only supposed to be warehoused or bringing a little joyful chaos to sick children in dire need of such, running an experimental hypnosis group with an emphasis on the word experimental and a streak of mad scientist running through it or his later work as a therapist using NLP to help people be happier and more functional in their lives.

And he brings together two important things in all these little passages in his life. The story is in and of themselves are worth telling and Andy's skill as a storyteller is powerful. He's a good writer telling stories that are worth the telling.

Here Andrew manages several things that would unhorse a lesser writer. He manages to be touching without being sappy or melodramatic. He manages to be funny and sarcastic without being artificial or slapstick. He manages to convey both skill and fallibility without coming across as either elitist or condescending. This is really well-written stuff, I think.

To that important mixture, which would really be enough to make the book worthwhile, Andrew adds an important third thing. He uses each of these stories to bring out insights into NLP that come from a place of both deep learning and study as well as a place of real experience.

And that's what I love about the NLP of this book. This isn't about step-by-step breakdowns of how to perform this or that technique. Rather, this is about distinctions, about differences that make a difference and about ways of thinking about things which can make anything more effective or more insightful.

To be sure, the book focuses a lot on Andrew's experience using NLP in a therapeutic context, but I hallucinate that anyone who's interested in NLP at all will find some important distinctions to take away from this.

And if you work as a therapist, counsellor, coach or change worker, this book is a must-have! You're going to see situations that you've been in, I hallucinate, and if you've not been in them yet, this book will be good practice for you, because this is the stuff that does happen sooner or later! By his own admission, Andrew didn't always handle things optimally (who does?), and the fact that he's willing to talk about those experiences as well and what he's learned from them make the book just that much more valuable.

One last thing I'll mention is the last thing in the book.

If you never quite got your head around submodalities and how to sort for them conversationally, Andrew presents a few pages on submodalities in which you can learn or at least be reminded of just how easily you can track for these things and how simply a few words can change them with nary a bit of 'guided imagery' to be found.

To reiterate, if you like NLP, you like stories and you value something a little more conversational than yet another description of the swish pattern, do yourself a favour and let Andy tell you the story about the time he told a little girl a story about how there was this secret rainbow machine...

Andrew's book is published by Real People Press.

Be Well,

Michael Perez