Find out about NLP Training courses, certification levels and certification criteria.
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SNLP Certification Criteria (Practitioner and Master Practitioner)
SNLP Certification Criteria (Trainer)
SNLP Practitioner License Agreement and instructions for completing the form
SNLP Master Practitioner License Agreement and instructions for completing the form
NLP Certification
There are a number of SNLP certification levels available, however there are a great many more types of course available from various training providers, some of which are a little misleading.
1. Practitioner
Practitioner is the first level of NLP certification, enabling you to practice NLP but not teach it. At Practitioner level, you must demonstrate competence with the core syllabus of NLP techniques. The focus of certification at this level is on your ability to maintain a constructive working relationship with your client, identify the structure of a presented issue, apply the appropriate technique, test for the effectiveness of your work and close the session, keeping overall control of the outcome.
2. Master Practitioner
Master Practitioner is the second level of NLP certification, also enabling you to practice NLP but not teach it. Building on your ability to apply NLP's core techniques, as a Master Practioner, you must demonstrate your ability to improvise and adapt the techniques in order to more accurately and elegantly target a presented issue. Once again, a Master Practitioner must demonstrate the ability to maintain control over the client session in order to reach a planned outcome. A Master Practitioner cannot train NLP.
3. Trainer
Trainer certification enables you to train and certify Practitioners and Master Practitioners.
4. Master Trainer
Master Trainer certification enables you to train and certify NLP Trainers.
Different 'flavours' of Practitioner certification are available from some training providers. They are not a different certification level, simply a way of positioning the course content to appeal to a particular audience.
Business Practitioner, Coaching Practitioner, Health Practitioner etc.
Many training companies advertise courses which don't fit the four certification levels described above, usually for two reasons. Either the company wants to offer an 'entry level' course to students who are not sure they want to commit to Practitioner training, or the 'trainer' is not actually certified to deliver NLP training and therefore shouldn't be delivering any kind of NLP training.
Diplomas, Certificates and Foundations
Since the Society of NLP does not produce a course syllabus for any course other than the four levels above, any 'Foundation' modules or other starter courses will not be transferrable between training providers. Therefore, whilst the trainer may sell you a 'Foundation' or 'Diploma' as a starter course which you can then convert to a Practitioner, since you're tied into them, it's really just a sales technique.