Evandara I am not sure in your purpose in writing your post. It is clearly stated in the links page on this site that John and Carmen do not offer any endorsement for their international sponsors' products or courses. Secondly if you do your research you will discover that The NLP Academy does NOT offer a stand alone 7 day certification. The purpose of this post is to clarify the following points from my perspective 1.The association John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St Clair have with The NLP Academy is purely one of sponsorship where The NLP Academy act as hosts for seminars that John and Carmen choose to run in the UK 2.John and Carmen are sponsored by NLP companies around the world. These companies host Grinder/Bostic trainings in various countries. You will see on the links page on this site - it clearly specified that association through sponsorship is not in any way an endorsement of the sponsor company  or its products 3.The NLP Academy does NOT run a stand alone 7 day Practitioner training I will now provide more detail on the points I have clarified above 1.Non Endorsement I have never sought implicit or explicit endorsement from John Grinder or Carmen Bostic St Clair for any NLP Academy training, nor have I implied an endorsement has been given. John and Carmen likewise have not offered any endorsement. It would be foolish of me to seek such an endorsement as they have not witnessed me training NLP application (although they have seen people I trained in the UK). To be honest public endorsements do not mean that much to me - personal feedback and learning is what gives me a buzz.  The NLP Academy offers what I would call mainstream NLP trainings in the field of NLP application. (We also host specialist trainings e,g the New Code with John and Carmen) In Whispering the authors state the product of NLP application does not represent what he (Grinder) as the co creator set out to develop with Bandler. John and Carmen state again in Whispering the main domain of NLP is modelling and that if NLP application is to constitute as a member of the set known as as NLP it is important that we are strong swimmers (metaphor). Using that metaphor I consider myself a strong swimmer in 'application waters' and developing my swimming skills in 'modelling waters.' You will note, even when John Grinder writes a forwards or introduction for books, (written by other authours) he chooses his words carefully. In all cases I have seen he adds a caveat along the lines that the book, usually on NLP application is not necessarily an accurate reflection on what he (Grinder) deems to be NLP to be or what he set out to create with Richard Bandler. (my words) Now I move on providing you with some clarification on The NLP Academy certification trainings for the purpose of clarifying that The NLP Academy does not offer a stand alone 7 day Practitioner training. The NLP Academy has three levels of training over total of 22 days live training PLUS  90 hours of home study and project based learning. The classes are small in size with about 20 participants. I will describe in detail, the first level (practitioner) as this is the training you incorrectly referred to a 7 day certification. Level one: Practitioner Training: This course is 125 hours long and combines 60 hours of home based study and 65 hours of live training. Yes the 65 hours of live training occur over 7days. The training is application based, and consists of the Classic Code patterns taught from the New Code perspective i.e. working with the unconscious mind using involuntary signals to verify selection of resource state. The course framing uses the terminology of Whispering to describe epistemology. The home study part of the course is on multi media CD ROM, which has a full video track edited from a live NLP Practitioner training, including metaphor, lecture, and demonstrations of the patterns and effects of the patterns. There is 28 hours of video on the CD. The CD ROM video also has a full transcription of the training and over 800 power point slides. The learners work through the CD ROMS twice in the comfort of their own home (60 hours). They see and hear the course and watch the patterns and effects of the patttern. In the first viewing people are encouraged to be content in a  not knowing state -  and not even attempt to understand  what they are watching, reading and listening to.  The second viewing it is suggested they seek a level of conscious understanding.  While I agree that this type of pre course learning, is not in keeping with one recommendation made in Whispering i.e. that people are to experience a pattern in action first (inductive) and then explicate it, I am satisfied that the CD ROM is about as sensory rich home learning tool as you can get, and through the use of demonstration and metaphor used within the product experiential learning is present. When the learners come to the course they experience the patterns in action through lots of exercises.  The live training (over 7 days) induces the patterns first through games, inductions and exercises satisfying experiential learning. So why do I use a home based learning product as part of a 125 hour course? Well most people, who come to NLP practitioner trainings in the UK, have experienced NLP through introduction courses, evening workshops, and courses in their work place as well as having read books and listened to tapes.  This means through previous exposure, the learners have a conscious map (learnt elsewhere) of some of the patterns.  This conscious map may not be well formed. I decided if people are having a conscious map, they might have well have a reasonably in depth conscious map through a home based learning tool I developed. The advantage of this home study learning tool, is the learner gets a huge portion of the content at his/her leisure in the comfort of his/her homea and experiential learnings at the course. The live course is intensive and very active. On day one; the people learn inductively the three perceptual positions through a game. (they have a very powerful experience of PP 2) setting up the later sessions on modelling). Also on day one the people learn how to go into know nothing states and experience unconscious signals. With these experiences and armed with the content of epistemology the learners move onto experience the classic code patterns. They learn NLP epistemology Sensory acuity Rapport Rep systems Eye patterns Submodalities – mapping across, swish, belief change Strategies, elicitation , utilisatation and installation Anchoring, setting, stacking, collapsing and chaining Six step reframe Parts integration VK dissociation – phobia model- NBG Milton Model Meta Model (original patterns) and suggestions as stated in Whispering Logical levels and iconic hierarchies as stated in Whispering The use of linguistic presuppositions (calibrating to clients presuppositions and using presuppositions to direct change) Content/ context reframing Metaphor The learners are tested. They demonstrate competency that they can utilise and work with the change patterns, using rapport, acuity, and NLP language models. The learners also have to write a written review of the course answering 60 questions. If people cannot demonstrate competency they are tasked and invited back to our offices (at no extra charge) to demonstrate competency. All learners have the option of coming to our practice group to further develop their skills. Very few people who attend this course have an objective of doing pure NLP work in the context of change. Many are coaches, managers, hypnotherapists,  sports trainers seeking to integrate patterns of NLP excellence into their existing frame. People seeking to use NLP as a specific medium of change attend the next courses – ‘Practitioner advanced skills’ And ‘Master Practitioner’ ********************************************************************* Level two; Practitioner Advanced Skills –four days (for existing practitioners) This course is designed for practitioners who want to get a deeper experience of doing one to work with people. Participants learn How to refine sensory acuity and calibration More in depth use of Ericksonian patterns for change Use of time lines both visual and special High performance states through games Tasking….(belief change) More in depth metaphor formats How to work with secondary gain ********************************************************************* Level three Master Practitioner This course is 125 hours long, and combines home study with live training with an 11 day training course. The home study is not yet on CD ROM. It is presented on audio tape The course offers participants a more a higher logical level experience in the NLP Patterns and includes sessions on modelling using the format documented in WITW. The learners conduct a mini modelling project in groups. At the last course one group modelled a professional golfer the other a specific karate move. This exercise sets them up for another project where they present to the group, as part of their certification, their own mini modelling project.  They are encouraged to follow the steps in whispering for this project. They use a specific format to present the modelling project i.e. they can do the behaviour, and explain the code and teach others. This sets up the learners to be able to conduct larger projects after the course. I am aware that both the time and skill development of modelling falls short of John and Carmen’s specifications in Whispering and falls short of what is necessary to motivate individuals to go out and become modellers. During the rest of the Master Practitioner  course, the learners learn business applications, how to achieve powerful change through language, i.e. collapsing anchors using the semantically packed words that the clients use. The people also learn a process for designing their own change work patterns This is much more to explain, but this is not the place to do it.  I never stop learning. I have updated the trainings to be in line with certain recommendations in Whispering particularly the use of know nothing states, unconscious signals and the content of epistemology. These updates are my interpretations and do not imply any endorsement from the authors. At the end of the day you can only measure training on the results of that training. Evandara, if you can get to Bromley come to our Practice group and see what you think. The wider issue here is about how trainers operate in a field where no formal documented protocol of expected standards or curriculum is documented and agreed.  In The UK, the ANLP has now removed itself from recognising standards.  In the field of NLP, we are now even more subject to market forces, often dominated by price not quality. These bigger picture issues are worthy issues for discussion and are more in keeping with the focus of this forum than the specifics of the NLP Academy courses or whether John Grinder endorses or not endorses a training course. Regards Michael Carroll