• 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.

Some of the key principles of Contemporary Psychotherapy are...

• All people are unique and individual, with their own criteria for happiness and desired outcomes.
• Positive change utilises the resources of the unconscious mind and must be ‘internally driven' motivated by the beliefs and values of the individual making the changes.
•  People are usually not so much effected by the things that happen to them but generally more by the way in which they respond, process and make meaning of the things that they experience. 
• The past, present and future exist for us in the way in which we process our memories, beliefs, perceptions and imagination, which in turn influence our emotional and physiological states. These determine the way we behave and communicate in our environment and relationships.
• It is more important to ask ‘how?' is this person processing unsuccessful patterns of thinking and behaviour and ‘how?' they can develop more fulfilling processes and solutions, than it is to ask ‘why?' did they develop problems.
• All behaviour has a positive intention - that is, the value that drives behaviour, the internal personal yearning, is always for something that is good, even though the behaviour used to fulfil that value may be destructive or unsuccessful.
• 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. They may just need the opportunity, safety and know-how to recover from past pain and to discover how to apply their personal resources in more effective ways to bring about more of the values, relationships and results that they want.
• Effective therapy empowers us to utilise our individual resources, patterns and processes and enables us to adjust effectively and authentically as we engage in life's challenges and gifts. 

These presuppositions may now have entered into the mainstream of therapeutic thought but there was a time when they were considered to be deeply radical. The inspirational figures who pioneered these approaches, among them Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson, won credibility because their therapeutic approaches bore results where more orthodox schools based on pathology had abandoned hope of personal recovery and fulfilment. We now are enjoying a ‘post schoolist' era in psychotherapy, when the wisdom and common ground in different models is recognised and embraced.

Contemporary Psychotherapy is an attempt to encapsulate the practice and principles of all effective psychotherapies in such a way that they can be flexibly mastered by other therapists, who themselves come from their own unique and authentic personhood.        

Contemporary Psychotherapy is a generative methodology that supports the creation of further models to successfully and respectfully facilitate positive change.

In this pursuit we must acknowledge the academic movements of the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's and Constructivist theory reaching back into the 18^th century and even Ancient Greece. The theory and skills of "modelling" central to NLP were developed within the emergent frameworks of research and theory offered by the Social Sciences, particularly the interdisciplinary thinking of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. The founders of NLP, Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Robert Dilts and Judith De Lozier, combined the fruits of Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, Cybernetics and Systems Theory to encapsulate the work of effective facilitators of change into behavioural, communicational and evaluating patterns that other practitioners could adopt and utilise.

Traditional, or Classic Code NLP, remained firmly within a procedural or ‘structuralist' framework and has been widely adopted in the business world to enable the pursuit of "personal excellence." This however lead to proceduralised applications at the expense of modelling personal, individualised process and in response to this a second phase known as Systemic NLP reviewed it's practices and priorities, retracing the elements of humanity, individuality and relationship building that had been left behind in the first analysis. Systemic NLP is a widely recognised influence in the fields of management and leadership, effective communication, creativity, education and mental health. Third Generation NLP, carried forth by Robert Dilts, Judith DeLozier and leading psychotherapists such as Stephen Gilligan, centralises the primary relationship of cognitive and somatic intelligence in individual, group, community and society. On this progressive training you will explore skills and principles of all these perspectives to ensure your own synthesis of understanding and maximum flexibility in application.

Contemporary Psychotherapy is a continuation to broaden and deepen, incorporating recent developments in Neuro-Science, Systems Theory, Ericksonian Psychotherapy, Cultural Studies and the common inter-denominational wisdom of Spiritual Practice.

Defining Contemporary Psychotherapy

Whenever we speak of psychotherapy we have to ask  "which psychotherapy?" as the numerous and divergent modules of theory and practice are confusing even to the professional practitioner. Leaders in the field of psychotherapy, from Alfred Adler to Jeffrey Zeig, have reached beyond the confines of their subjective perceptions and specialisms, to flexibly combine and build upon their treatment practice and principles with the benefit of other complementary and contrasting schools of psychotherapy, attempting to integrate divergent theories (Lazarus, A. A., 1985). The last two decades has seen a greater integration of various denominations of psychotherapy, resulting in a "post-schoolist" movement where positive similarities are embraced more than negative differences are fought over (Balick, A. et al, 2004). For the purpose of this document, Contemporary Psychotherapy shall be referred to as a product of this movement, defined generally below.

The word "con-tempo-rary" means literally "with time" or "moving in time". There are many ways in which this title can refer to some of the defining features of Contemporary Psychotherapy.

• For psychotherapy to be described as moving with time, or in the times, it must show a flexible yielding to the progression of knowledge over time, acquired within its own field and a variety of related fields from philosophy, the arts and cultural studies, to social politics and psychobiology (Varela, F.J., Thompson, E. Rosch E. 1991). In this post modern era, psychotherapists need to display a willingness to build on traditional wisdom and experience with new developments in thinking, practice and appraisal, harnessing a confluence of development from European, American and Eastern models (Fenner, P. 1995). Therefore, Contemporary Psychotherapy is such that is aware of and responds to most useful current advances in the understanding of and practice with individuals, families, communities and organisations, while bringing a multiple perspective to assessment and treatment protocols. To this end, Contemporary Psychotherapy teaches the advanced modelling skills from the work of Albert Bandura (1977), developed further by Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Robert Dilts and Judith DeLozier (1976), whereby practitioners may observe and absorb from the most successful approaches to psychotherapeutic treatment, resulting in a model of psychotherapy that is constantly evolving, and a practitioner's self attitude as life-long learner.
• A psychotherapy that is with, and in, its time is a psychotherapy that is sensitive to the moving historical and cultural influences that shape the challenges and resources of the users of psychotherapy, namely, individuals, families, organisations and society. Contemporary Psychotherapy seeks to adapt itself to best serve the most pressing needs of society and individual. Therefore a Contemporary Psychotherapy embraces challenges and needs experienced by people through current prevalent circumstances as providing focus to its methodological and theoretical aspirations. Current examples at the time of writing may be considered as increasing prevalence of addiction, work-related stress, non-conformist family units, gender-influenced challenges, minority group experience such as racism and cultural displacement and various political perceptions and anxieties such as global instability and conflicting positions resulting from wars and other major political conflicts. At the place of writing, East London, 2005, there is a greater experience of neighbourhood tension and post traumatic shock following the 7/7 bombing in Whitechapel and across London.
• A psychotherapy that is "with time" works with the full life trajectory  ("timeline") of the subject and the internal representation of past, present and future that is present within the human mind. This promotes attending not only to past analysis and etiology, but focussing especially on motivational factors present in current experience of life - decisions, behaviours, stresses, resources and health - reaching progressively into time by attending to recovery outcomes through expectations, plans, future challenges and goals (Erickson, M. H. 1954). Therefore Contemporary Psychotherapy focuses not just on causation, but especially on the immediate needs of the client and their short and long term well-being, concerning the client's management of their condition or situation, recovery and personal development, for now and in the manageable future.
• A psychotherapy that is flexibly responding "with time" observes that people and their conditions are never static but in constant process. Therefore a person's identity is an evolving entity, for better or worse, and a condition, situation or circumstance is seldom constant, but moving either further to or away from health and equilibrium. A person is as they are in this moment and locating and accepting the client's experience of "this now" is a key skill operating from the practitioner's trained acuity and authentic personhood. Psychotherapeutic activity nurtures this acuity in both client and practitioner, engaging them in a co-created process of emergent possibilities through ever-changing states These processes often follow patterned cycles, with these states under constant redefinition. Contemporary Psychotherapy must be equally fluid in its response to the client's progression, especially where progressive states require different approaches necessitated by evolving priorities, evolving dangers and evolving realistic possibilities. Similarly, recovery and personal development are not single events, but a series of events that may go through several stages over time. Treatment is likewise required to be responsive, appropriate and synchronised with the client's progress. The Cybernetic Theory of Mind of Gregory Bateson offers the key body of theory in support of these goals of Contemporary Psychotherapy, but they are by no means confined to this. The Contemporary Psychotherapist is trained in the practical skills of cognitive, linguistic and behavioural modelling offered through the work of Robert Dilts and Judith DeLozier in Systemic Neuro-Linguistics, to enable them to be accurately adaptable to the unique experience and functioning patterns of the client, constantly evolving their model of the client's world according to the client's progress and communication.
• A psychotherapy that is responsively pacing the development over time of the client, is aware of the "biological timepiece" that is the human body and the crucial engagement of the somatic intelligence in affecting positive psychotherapeutic change. Effective treatment is sympathetic and sensitive to the innate circadian and ultradian rhythms of the human biological and affective systems that are observable to the trained practitioner who is able to synchronise to and utilise these cycles, also called "trance", "hypnosis" or "altered state", to facilitate the client's process of change (Rossi E.L. 1982, 1986). Therefore Contemporary Psychotherapy approaches treatment with a consideration of psychobiological components of distress, recovery and development. Treatment recognises and utilises the natural biological and behavioural cycles of the client, such as the rhythm and sequence of affective and somatic experiences, the pace set by behavioural routines and the utilisation of naturally occurring altered awareness states (Rossi, E.L. 1992). This therapeutic utilization of psychobiological cycles is a way of accessing and facilitating the new neuroscience of gene expression and brain plasticity to optimise the client's health and well-being at the most fundamental molecular-genomic levels of mind-body healing, memory, learning, consciousness, and creativity (Rossi, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007).
• Contemporary Psychotherapy responds flexibly to the time requirements and time restraints pertaining to each case and the clinical context that provides the environment for treatment. Therefore, frequency and duration of treatment are determined through discussion and agreement with the client, considering the client's needs and resources, and clinical context, to best achieve the agreed outcomes of therapy. Therapeutic projects may usually be brief (up to 12 sessions), sometimes mid-term or, less commonly, long-term (over one year) according to needs, co-created choices and available resources.