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NLP Can Help You Find Happiness and Self-Confidence

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Mindfulness, NLP, Somatic Coaching.

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” ~ Thomas Merton

Daily we use verbal language to communicate thoughts and feelings. If we’re observant, we can also understand others by the body language they use. If you’re good at it, it’s almost as if you can read someone’s mind.

Could it be that you’re actually tapping into their brain language?

Does the brain really have a language? Think back to a time when you were extremely happy… Did you consciously tell your lips to spread into a wide smile, your eyes to shine and your body to relax? Of course not. Your brain is sending signals, or speaking to those parts of your brain in response to the situation you’re in. Its chemical and electrical interactions are telling you how to position yourself. That’s a powerful language skill! And people who can read your body language can also read the language of your brain. They know, “he’s bluffing” or “she won’t back down”.

What if you could teach your brain to speak differently to your body, so you could choose to be happy and confident all the time? NLP and Somatic Coaching can help you achieve that.

What is NLP?

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is an approach to communication and personal development created in the 1970’s. The name refers to a connection between the neurological processes (“neuro”), language (“linguistic”), and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience (“programming”) and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life. NLP Coaching services aim to find ways to help people have better, fuller and richer lives. By paying close attention to the language we use, as well as becoming more aware of the nonverbal patterns in our environment we can become more deliberate and purposeful in our thinking and actions.

NLP presupposes that the mind and body are part of the same system. I spoke about the integration of mind/body/spirit earlier in connection with Somatic Coaching. When you recognize this connection, you can use NLP’s set of guiding principles and techniques to change, adopt or eliminate behaviors as you desire. It also gives you the ability to choose your mental, emotional, and physical states of wellbeing. It teaches you a new mind/body “language”.

Sometimes you may feel like something is broken inside. Yet NLP reveals that nothing is ever broken or wrong. Instead you just need to find a process that enhances your strengths. All humans come equipped with an exceptional sense of inner intuition, a sense of knowing that is intimately linked to your physical experience.

Unfortunately, due to upbringing and life experiences we often disconnect from that in order to adapt and survive in our environment. When we have a ritual, which NLP and Somatic Coaching can teach you, you can reconnect with your own inner experience embracing whatever arises within, with peaceful awareness and clear intention. Then you can fully experience and process each emotion – joy, grief, anger, amusement, pain, energy, etc. And often, you’ll discover the strength of developing and cultivating an attitude of patient, loving presence that allows the emotions to flow according to your own natural rhythm.

Are you ready to discover new ways to update yourself and function at higher levels in relation to your surroundings? My approach is best described as integrative. Contact me and I’ll bring together a number of therapeutic approaches, one of them being NLP, and unify them into a unique working model just for you.

Discover a Creativity Model That Makes Magic Out of Chaos

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Creative Thinking.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” ~ Walt Disney

“I never finish what I start!” “I’m not creative!” “I am a big procrastinator” – does this sound familiar? If those beliefs stop you from pursuing your dreams, it’s time to adjust your thinking.

Many people stop themselves from dreaming big, or dreaming at all, for fear of failing or finding out that they aren’t good enough. But giving up on the creative process is a mistake because self-expression is known to reduce stress, boost the immune system and increase happiness and personal satisfaction.

You are already a creative genius. The trick is to translate untapped creativity into methodical implementation!

One of the main co-developers of NLP, Robert Dilts studied the creative thinking techniques of Walt Disney. He noticed that Disney had three distinct phases in his creativity strategy – Dreamer, Critic and Realist. By modeling Disney, Dilts developed a simple but powerful process to help individuals and teams create and implement new ideas.

I’ve found this strategy very useful not just in my own personal and professional accomplishments, but in coaching people as well. It’s helped me understand that, in following their dreams, people are not ‘unrealistic’, ‘indecisive’, or ‘skeptical’. They simply lack key perspectives on the creative process.

Often the biggest block to creativity is the tendency to shoot down new ideas before they get off the ground by pointing out all the reasons why they couldn’t work. Internally we have an inner critic whose job is to protect us from failure. If you’ve ever tried to do something new, you will be familiar with how the inner critic rapidly shuts down your imagination and your willingness to move forward.

Of course, when imagining new ways of doing things, there are no bad ideas. The apparently least practical idea may, by association, inspire the eventual solution. If new ideas are criticized too soon they can’t develop, and creativity is stifled.

The Disney Creativity Model involves exploring new ideas from three different perceptual positions: the perspective of a Dreamer, the perspective of a Critic, and that of a Realist, and then integrating these three different perspectives into one practical, successful plan. When each of these three different kinds of thinking is understood as crucial, utilized, and blended together at some point in the overall process – it works! This was one of the important aspects of Disney’s brilliance: To create magic out of chaos!

The Dreamer
This is the part of you who dreams big and is not afraid to do so. Everything is possible, and anything goes. There is no censorship and the sky’s the limit.

The Critic

This is the part of you who is considered the downer, always shooting down plans and ideas. But essential because she knows how to spot the holes in the plan so you can fix them. She takes everything apart and points out anything that might not work or might go wrong.

The Realist

This is the part of you that gets things done. She knows how to get everything planned and scheduled, she’s the organizer who understands the details and can implement by creating small methodical steps.

So, are you ready to let go of any fear and dare to dream big? Just as Walt Disney mentored a great team of artists, I’m here to mentor you and give you a new perspective as we use these creative thinking techniques and more. Contact me and together we’ll explore the hidden possibilities that are right in front of you.

Marketing Your Private Practice to Create a Steady Stream of Ideal Clients

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Spirituality.

“Where do I start? What do I do first?” Have you been asking yourself those questions as you think about marketing your private practice? I remember how thrilled and apprehensive I was when I began. There is so much about running a practice that we’re not taught in schools, especially marketing.

Your private practice will only grow if you get the word out that you’re available. I’d like to share with you some key ways to market your practice.

Successfully marketing your private practice begins with the proper mindset.

Marketing is all about being open to the possibilities before you and being intensely interested in the people you want to serve. When you approach it with a feeling of abundance and can use every event and experience in a positive way, you’ll naturally attract your ideal clients. So more than anything, you must create within yourself a safe place to receive the attention that marketing will bring you.

Remember, without marketing you won’t have clients and without clients you won’t have a private practice for very long. It can be hard getting your foot in the door when you’re new to a community. In all likelihood, if you don’t have a sound marketing strategy, you’ll be spending most of your time calling doctors and community centers looking for clients, trying to pull them in. What I suggest is that you create a strategy that ATTRACTS your ideal client to you. How can you do that?

Marketing Your Private Practice through Community Connections

Reach out to your community by creating collaborative relationships with schools, community centers, religions organizations and the like. Some ways you can do that are:

Offer educational classes or speak publicly to showcase your professional skills. Think deeply about what you have to offer. Can you present classes on creating the ideal work/life balance to business owners and professionals? Can you provide a workshop that trains either staff or members of the community about mental health issues or services where you live? Is there a community college that you could teach a class on stress management or communication skills? Can you speak on a local issue such as drug and alcohol abuse, compulsive disorders, domestic violence and so forth? Even if you start by providing these services for free, it’s a powerful way to market your practice, gain name recognition and get client referrals.

Offer expert advice in trade magazines, newspapers, and online websites such as PsychCentral.com and Psychology Today. Writing a professional article that is interesting to readers is another good way to market your practice. It increases your name recognition and establishes your professional credibility when prospective clients see you contributing your expertise to publications and websites that they trust. These venues often list their writing requirements on their website.

Start an online or community group. Have you thought about starting a support group at a local community center, church or business so you can share with them non-therapy life tips? You can also start an online group via Meetup or Facebook.

Become a business consultant. Many businesses would welcome ongoing training in non-therapy topics such as stress management, productivity skills, communications skill, life/work balance, and so forth. Think creatively and offer specialized consultations to specific trades. Perhaps offer relaxation methods to tax preparers at tax time or meditation tips at a weight loss clinic. Look around your community and see what is needed and offer it. The beauty of it is that you can tailor it to showcase your strengths.

Marketing can create stress, especially when you’re new at it. Are you ready to address the self-limitations that are holding you back from building a successful private practice? Often it helps to have an objective coach who has already been there, done that, and can guide you through it. Feel free to contact me and we can discuss one-on-one coaching options so you can build a strong and healthy practice.

Branding Your Private Practice by Clearly Defining Your Personal and Professional Identity

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Private Practice Advice.

‘We act in accordance with our self-image.” ~ Moshe Feldenkrais

As healing professionals, I’m confident that you have a clear self-awareness of who you are as a person and as a practitioner and expert. However, when you start branding your own private practice it gives you a unique opportunity for major growth as you exercise self-awareness of who you want to be in business.

What image will you portray to your clients, colleagues and in your community? What is your mission? Your purpose? How do you feel about money, success, power, leadership? And how will you work through beliefs when they are standing in your way of creating a successful private practice?

It will be most helpful to define these concepts based on YOUR needs and values. This will have the largest, positive impact on your practice. Here are a few areas to give thought to as you begin to define your brand…

Build a Good Support System. As I mentioned in an in an earlier post, when I began, people said some very discouraging things to me. So I recommend you, first of all, gain positive support as you build your practice. Can you turn to your family members for support? Or will you need to join a professional group or find a coach who can provide the encouragement you need as you hold true to what you value as you’re branding your private practice?

Define your Specialty. What clients do you want to work with? What mental health issues will you treat? What services will you provide? What treatments will you offer? What are the professional goals, interests and skills that make you unique? When you narrow down your specialty, you’ll attract the people you want to work with and discourage the ones that you don’t want to work with. Remember, it’s okay to let them go to another healing professional.

Develop a Private Practice Business Plan. How many days and hours do you want to work? How many clients do you need? How much income do you need coming in to pay for all your expenses plus have enough left over to enjoy life? What processes will you use in your practice to schedule clients, collect fees, record transactions, and provide follow up? Will you hire a bookkeeper, office manager, janitorial service and so on? Will you rent or buy office space or work out of your home? So many things must be considered in running a successful practice including keeping track of your finances. And properly branding your private practice means that all of these must be in alignment with your values.

Create an Inviting Office Space and Web Presence. Your professionalism can be greatly enhanced by a well-designed office and website. People will make immediate judgments based on whether they feel comfortable with what they’re seeing, even before they speak with you. Everything that represents you, your business cards, flyers, letters, should look professional and inviting, while displaying your unique style. This will ensure your prospective clients will recognize you and come to trust you as they see your identity revealed in everything you put out there.

Not quite sure how to integrate your personal and professional identity into branding your private practice? Then contact me and we can discuss one-on-one coaching options so you can see all the possibilities that are before you.

Focus on Excellence to Build a Sustainable Private Practice

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Private Practice Advice.

Are you a psychologist, therapist, life coach or other healing professional who is thinking about opening a private practice? Are you wondering what you’re letting yourself in for? Well, let me share with you my story and how personal development, along with a lot of hard work and determination, led me to a thriving private practice. I hope it will help inspire you to see that you can do it too.

Being a psychotherapist and life coach in my own private practice is a way of life that I love. I opened my own practice after becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) over 10 years ago. When I started out, I had dreams and hopes about what I wanted to create. At the time, however, there wasn’t a lot of information to help me know how to open a private practice and make it successful.

In fact, the information I did get wasn’t very helpful at all. When I began to ask around, I got a lot of personal opinions that were very discouraging. Since I had just begun studying NLP, I was aware that people use their map of the world, so I tried to stay clear of downers and began my own journey of discovery.

Instead, I asked myself: What do I want? Why? What will I get by having that? What is my mission?

These are questions that every professional should ask as they begin their own private practice. You’ll find that your personal development will go hand in hand with the development of your practice. It did for me. I had to clear my history, identify and change limiting beliefs, build confidence through specialized trainings and certifications, and finally choose business methods that have a similar philosophy to what I adhered to. Excellence has been my focus, believing that in order to succeed I had to stand out, offering that je ne sais quoi that would make people come back over and over and make them want to refer their friends, too.

As John W. Gardner says, “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

If that sounds like a lot of work…it is. But it’s crucial if you want a good foundation for when you build a sustainable private practice.

You’ll find that it’s an ongoing process of taking deliberate and consistent actions. It also involves being able to tolerate failure and use it as feedback for continual improvement. You’ll also find the need to continually adjust as you set long-term and short-term goals. The long-term goals for your practice will need to satisfy your big picture. You won’t ever want to lose sight of that big picture. You’ll also need to keep short-term goals that give you daily tasks to work on as you build your practice. There is a difference between working in your business – helping your clients – and working on your business – doing all the things a private practice requires so that it remains profitable and successful.

For me, my deliberate practice included immersing myself fully in trainings like NLP and Feldenkrais, with long-term commitments to developing inside and out as a person, as a therapist and as a business owner. Sometimes these commitments have been four to five year intensives, but it’s been worth it. In addition to seeing my private clients, I enjoy helping other practitioners who are eager to build their own business, integrating personal excellence, core values and originality. And if you’ve been in practice for a while already, I’m eager to help you bring life and enthusiasm back into your practice. If either of these sounds like something you’re looking for, contact me and we can discuss your one-on-one coaching options.

In my next post, I’ll share with you two main aspects that are essential in developing a successful private practice.

Blog

Continually grow as a person and find your work/life balance

NLP Can Help You Find Happiness and Self-Confidence

Discover a Creativity Model That Makes Magic Out of Chaos

Marketing Your Private Practice to Create a Steady Stream of Ideal Clients

Marketing Your Private Practice through Community Connections

Branding Your Private Practice by Clearly Defining Your Personal and Professional Identity

Focus on Excellence to Build a Sustainable Private Practice

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