About Toni
Toni McGuinness has been involved in self-development and personal performance since the early 1980s. She developed her coaching career by training in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), becoming an NLP Master Practitioner (with Richard Bandler and Paul McKenna).

She has also qualified in Clinical Hypnosis and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and is a full member of The British Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

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Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

NLP is the study of the structure of our every day experience and the inter-relationship between the mind, language, emotions and patterns of behaviour. Developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder who studied how outstanding people managed to achieve their successes. They developed a way of 'modeling' that successful behaviour into a series of steps, so that other people are able to excel in their chosen field.

When used as a therapy or coaching tool NLP helps the therapist/coach to communicate more clearly with the client, so as to achieve the changes the client wants in their life. Helping them to adopt more constructive behaviours and stop their destructive habits.

Neuro Refers to our nervous system/mind and how it processes the information taken in by our five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) and then translates it as memory inside our body and mind. So our experiences are inputted (like putting information into a computer) and then our mind and nervous system orders and processes it as memory to be accessed when needed.

Linguistic Is the study of how our cognitive or thinking mind relies on language to sort out our experiences and how we then explain them to ourselves and others. The language we use to describe our experiences is often limited e.g. the description of the flavour of an orange cannot match the actual experience of eating an orange. Listening to the way in which someone describes their experience, noticing the meaning they give to their words, expressions and metaphors, can give us a true indication of what they are telling us about their experience of the world.

Programming Refers to our how we then organise our sensory-based information (sights, sounds, feelings both outer and inner, smells and tastes); the way in we process it, within our mind and body; and how we translate it into the behaviours we use to achieve our dreams and goals. This can be called our 'patterns' of behaviour and thinking which propel us through our life.

When used as a therapy or coaching tool NLP helps the therapist/coach to communicate more clearly with the client, so as to achieve the changes the client wants in their life. Helping them to adopt more constructive behaviours and stop their destructive habits.

Some of the basic ideas behind NLP are:

• Be clear about the direction you want to go in; with a clear idea of your desired goals in any situation.
• Be aware of what is going on around you and keep your senses open so that you notice what is impacting you on all sensory levels.
• Have the flexibility to change your habits and behaviours until you achieve your goals; if you keep doing what you've always done, you’ll always get what you always got!

One of the ways in which NLP can help in every day situations is by helping you create the emotional state you would like to be in, in any situation; just follow the instructions below and notice what you experience! It's better to read through the instructions first before doing the exercise.

1. Close your eyes and imagine a time when you were really enjoying yourself, you felt relaxed, easy, on top of the world.
2. Notice where the picture is in your mind's eye.
3. Now make the picture bigger, bolder, the colours brighter, draw it closer to you, make the sounds louder, double the feelings and double them again.
4. Send those feeling all the way down to the tip of your toes and all the way back up to the top of your head, feeling your toes and fingers tingle.
5. Now open your eyes and notice how good you feel!