ISNS Standards

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director of the ISNS
International Society of Neuro-Semantics

The following are the Standards of Competency for NLP and Neuro-Semantic Trainings which those NLP/ NS Trainers under the auspices of the ISNS (International Society of Neuro-Semantics) follow.

To be certified as a Neuro-Semantic / NLP Trainer, a person has to been trained and certified in the following studies. The trainers have further applied for the NS/NLP Trainers Training, passed the competency levels in Presentation and Training Skills, and continue to maintain their status in ISNS.

  1. NS- NLP Practitioner Training
  2. NS- NLP Master Practitioner Training
  3. Meta-States Certification Training
  4. Neuro-Semantic Certification Training

NS/NLP Trainers provide training in NLP Prac. which we call Meta-NLP and NLP Master Prac. which we call Meta Masters. Minimum required are as follows:

  1. Meta-NLP: a minimum of 56 classroom hours, 60 hours of prerequisite reading and/or viewing of CDs.
  2. Meta Masters: a minimum of 122 hours of classroom hours, 60 hours of prerequisite reading and/or viewing of CDs.
  3. Testing and assessment: competency testing in the basic skills and knowledge of the NLP model. Such testing and assessment may occur through paper and pencil tests as well as through experiential challenges, homework (i.e., case studies, modeling projects, etc.).

For Competency of the basic Practitioner Training of META-NLP (the NLP Practitioner Training):

  1. Able to know and behaviorally integrate the NLP presuppositions.
  2. Able to quickly get rapport with a person and to maintain that rapport by pacing them verbally and non_verbally, and to then lead.
  3. Able to calibrate another person’s inner states by using exquisite sensory acuity experience. Such calibration such include the ability to note a person’s use of predicates in their language and eye accessing cues as they speak.
  4. Able to create well_formed outcomes for self and elicit one from another.
  5. Able to help a person overlap to other representational systems and to translate out of their system into other systems.
  6. Able to identify and use the Meta_Model in communicating and information gathering. To be able to ask challenging Meta_Model questions for any presenting surface statement. This presupposes recognizing the linguistic distinctions of the Meta-Model.
  7. Able to identify and use the Milton_Model so as to take a person into an altered state and allow them to experience the resources that are a part of that state. Able to generate the language patterns as well as the behavioral flexibility of voice to facilitate trance states.
  8. Able to identify the frame of a person, to expand the frame, de_frame, reframe and to use alternative frames for doing change work: the “As If” frame, the First, Second and Third Position frames, the Relevancy frame, a contrast frame, etc.
  9. Able to anchor in V.A.K. systems and then to be able to fire off an anchor and have the person to re-experience the state anchored.
  10. Able to shift one’s own state of consciousness from external (uptime) to internal (downtime) according to the task’s need.
  11. Able to step into a state and fully associate in that state and then to step out and experience more of a witnessing or observing state (to experience so-called “dissociation”)
  12. Able to “chunk up” and to “chunk down” in handling various sizes of information, to move up and down the scale of specificity and abstraction.
  13. Able to detect, elicit, and shift the cinematic features of a person’s movie representations (the so-called “sub-modalities”) when working with various patterns.
  14. Able to elicit responses both verbally and non_verbally, and to amplify the state or response that’s elicited.
  15. Able to access, build, and amplify resources (resourceful states) in self and others.
  16. Able to show a wide range of verbal and non_verbal flexibility with the basic models (Meta-Model, Sub-Modality model, Meta-States model, Time-Line model).
  17. Able to select when and where to use the basic NLP patterns; able also to explain reason behind one’s choice.
  18. Able to step back and ask questions about ecology in order to check on the ecology of an intervention or response.
  19. Able to think through (critical thinking skills) ethical questions using the Meta-Model questions and the basic premises of Neuro-Semantics and NLP.

For Competency of the basic Master Practitioner in NLP, called Meta Masters in Neuro-Semantics (not to be confused with trainings by Bandler).

  1. A good working knowledge of the 4 meta-domains of NLP:The Meta-Model of Language
    The Meta-Programs
    The Meta-States model
    The Cinematic Features of our mental movies (“sub-modalities”)
  2. A good working knowledge and skill with the Matrix Model. To follow the “energy” of a client as he or she respond and to track using the Matrix.
  3. Integrate practitioner level skills to effectively identify and utilize a person’s model of the world for change and empowerment. Able to effectively pace, gain rapport, and enter into another’s reality.
  4. Pace at conceptual or meta-levels as well using meta-programs, meta-frames, etc. Ability to detect and use meta-programs.
  5. Elicit a strategy and work with the basic strategies of learning, understanding, decision_making, and motivation.
  6. Think in terms of patterns and able to run patterns. Design individualized interventions both remedially and generatively to enable that person to be more resourceful.Check for ecology in the new designs and constructions of strategies and patterns.
  7. Move into meta_positions to move above content to form or process, able to transverse the different “logical levels.”
  8. Identify a person’s value frames in a conversation and to then use them in communicating.
  9. Elicit the structure of magic (cause-effect, complex equivalence, and identity statements) and then conversationally reframe them using the Mind-Lines model (the old “Sleight of Mouth” patterns).
  10. Identify, map over, and work effectively with a client’s mental movies using the so-called “sub-modalities” distinctions.
  11. Elicit states, recognize, and engage in trance states for relaxation, healing, and learning; use hypnotic and multi_level communications in such.
  12. Effectively use the basic frames of agreement, as if, relevance, ecology, etc. when communicating.
  13. Work with modeling and profiling experience identifying supporting beliefs, meta_programs, meta-states, movie representations, strategies, etc.
  14. Identify, utilize, and facilitate the transformation of limiting beliefs and presuppositions.Think systemically about the 4 meta-domains, recognize and understand feedback and feed-forward loops in the communication process.
  15. Begin to develop the attitude or spirit of NLP: curiosity, playfulness, non-judgment, resilience, willingness to learn, to be corrected, etc.
  16. Effectively question in interviewing and communicating, able to use the meta-questions for exploring the Matrix and the meta-model questions for precision and clarity.
  17. Able to demonstrate the ability to select an NLP or NS pattern in relationship to a person and to explain reasoning using Meta-Programs, the Matrix Model, and/or Meta-States.
  18. Fully able to step back from onself, run “ecology questions” and quality control checks, and access or maintain resourceful states for handling challenges and conflicts.

Content information required for Certifying Participants:

1. Basic NLP communication model

Representation systems
Meta-representation system of language
Levels of referencing and representing
States: Mind-Body, Neuro-Linguistic, Neuro-Semantics
Calibrating states
Rapport building
Anchoring in all systems
Recognize and detect “sub-modalities” (Prac.)
Elegant use of the editorial features of our movies (Master Prac.)

2. Meta-Model

The 12 linguistic distinctions (Prac.) and the 21 distinctions (Master Prac.)
The corresponding questions for each distinction.

3. Milton Model

The linguistic distinctions that create trance
The tonal distinctions that make for a hypnotic voice

4. Basic NLP Patterns (Prac.)

Swish

Circle / Sphere of Excellence

Movie Rewind

Collapsing Anchors

Eliciting States

Chaining states

Time-Lining

Re-imprinting

 Well-Formed Outcome

Know about 6-step reframing

Belief Change

Threshold

Visual Squash

Content Reframing

Decision Destroyer

Change History

The 77 patterns in SourceBook of Magic (for Master Prac.)The 77 patterns in SourceBook of Magic (for Master Prac.)

5. Meta-Programs

20 basic MP (Prac.) and 60 MP (Master prac.)
Ability to detect and use meta-programs in communicating

6. Meta-States

The meta-stating process (5 or 7 A’s)
Distinctions of states: primary, meta, and gestalt
Basic Meta-State patterns, the 12 MS patterns (Master Prac)

7. NLP Presuppositions

Know 15 of the Presuppositions by heart (Prac.), know all (Master Prac.)
Know and explain the presuppositions in depth (Master Prac.)

8. Strategies

Recognize, detect, and begin to unpack (Prac.)
Elegance in one’s use of the Strategy Model (Master Prac.) by being able to
Elicit, change, and install Strategies
Modeling Project in group