• All people are unique and individual, with their own criteria for recovery, happiness and desired outcomes.
• Positive change utilises the resources of the unconscious mind so that processes of growth are ‘internally driven’ - motivated by the beliefs and values of the individual making the changes.
• People are often not so much affected by the things that happen to them but more by the way in which they respond, process and make meaning of the things that they experience.
  
• Human beings are resourcefully and flexibly equipped to deal with the experiences that they have and the challenges that they face. They are able rather than disabled.
  
• All behaviour has positive intention - the personal yearning that drives behaviour is for something good, even though the behaviour used to fulfil that yearning may be destructive or unsuccessful.
  
• Effective therapy empowers us to adjust and utilise our individual resources, patterns and processes and enables us to grow authentically as we engage in life’s challenges and gifts.

The Principles of Contemporary Psychotherapy and NLP 

Contemporary Psychotherapy offers a unique combination of the disciplines of Ericksonian Hypno-Psychotherapy and Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy and an integrated foundation of traditional wisdom and latest discoveries.  From day one of the course you will recognise the principles and practices offered as natural, human and humane. Systemic Neuro-Linguistics affords the practitioner a set of skills and understanding that facilitates the informed adoption of ‘what works' with each individual client. Drawing first on the client's unique map of the world and personal resources, the practitioner stimulates these through therapeutic alliance, to promote healing of the past, development of lifeskills and meaningful achievements in well being and greater happiness.

Written by Pamela Gawler-Wright 

Dr Ernest L Rossi provided the scientific basis and clinical method for not only much of the influence of NLP on health but also many of the more credible advances in complementary therapy during the 1990s. He is a walking treasury of first hand experiences, having studied directly with Fritz Perls, Franz Alexander and, most famously, Milton H. Erickson, whose papers he edited after Erickson's death. Pamela interviewed him at a workshop in the Lake District.

Written by Pamela Gawler-Wright 

Stephen Gilligan is the world's foremost modeller of Milton Erickson. A member of that hallowed circle of individuals who were in the original Bandler/Grinder set at UCSC, he soon departed from the pure structuralist approach of fledgling NLP to study with the man himself. Having received five years of free hospitality in Milton's house, he never paid a penny for the tuition he received. Milton Erickson asked for just one thing in return; "Pass on what you have learned here". Pamela was there when Stephen was doing just that.