NLP, Sleight of Mouth podcast transcript

Discussion with Doug O'Brien, NLP Master Practitioner and Certified Hypnotherapist - September 2007

Doug explains the benefits of his 'Sleight of mouth CD set' and how it can be used for belief change, how he became interested in 'Sleigh of Mouth' (SOM), what 'SOM' has enabled him to do differently and what listeners will get out of it

http://www.ppimk.com/nlp-podcast/doug.mp3

Sleight of Mouth in- listen on iTunes

You can buy Doug's CD's from this link: Sleight of Mouth CD's

Michael: Hi Doug. Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking part in this call.

Doug: It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

Michael: Can you please introduce yourself and say a little bit about your background? 

Doug: I have been an NLP trainer since 1987. I started doing NLP back in 1985, so I am getting little long in the tooth here!

I'm living in New York City. I started back in '85 when I first took a Tony Robbins seminar and learned to walk on fire. Very cool. I was intrigued to find out that Tony hadn't actually made up that stuff and that NLP started before him, so I stared taking trainings from other people as well. The more NLP I took, the more I was hooked. And I also got interested in where NLP came from and started studying more and more Ericksonian hypnosis, so it's been a long and interesting ride. Been doing it now for all this time, and pretty much a as a full time thing since 1990. 

Michael: If we can move on to "sleight of mouth," what would you say it is, and how did you become interested? 

Doug: In very much the same way. Back in 1987 when I was becoming a master trainer for Tony Robbins, there was a fellow named Wyatt Woodsmall at one his trainings who knew sleight of mouth. Everybody said, "Wow, that's cool," but the way he taught it, and he was an amazing teacher in many ways, made it fascinating, but totally impossible to learn. He just kind of went through all the patterns, and everyone said, "Oh my God that's great!" but no one could duplicate it from there. So I went to the source.

I went to Robert Dilts. I took a master practitioner training program in which sleight of mouth was part, and he taught it in a way I could really get it. Then when I came back I was determined to really master it because I saw the potential of it, and I figured what better way to learn it than to teach it.

So I got some people together and said "Hey, do you want to learn what I learned out there in California?" and they said sure, so I taught my first sleight of mouth training back in 1988, I think it was. 

Michael: If someone asked you what sleight of mouth training is, what would you say? 

Doug:  I would say it is a system for changing belief systems conversationally. I used to call it "elegant re-framing" and I think that's a pretty good title, because it helps people to reframe an idea or a thought or a belief in a very elegant way. Elegant meaning in the shortest number of steps necessary to get the change to happen.

Michael: What's learning about sleight of mouth enabled you to do differently yourself? 

Doug: Well, it's interesting. I use it in a whole variety of ways.  I used to be sales manager for Robbins Research so I used it for sales, obviously. I use it all the time in therapy with people because people are needing to be persuaded that: (a) there is a different way, that (b) that they can do it, and (c) that they can do it now. 

So sleight of mouth helps me to persuade them of that before we even get started. A lot of times the therapy is almost done before we do any specific therapeutic interactions for changing their phobia or changing their allergy response or what ever it might be; it's almost done before we start because I've done so much sleight of mouth.

Michael: Can you give an example -- without going into full details? 

Doug: No (laughing)… I would have to really stop and think…Well just an example with weight loss clients. I do a lot of that because when people think of you as a hypnotherapist, they think 'smoking' or 'weight loss.' 

Many times people who come into a weight loss session will have been on diets many times before and they have this notion that they have tried and failed before, so that means they can't do it. And that's just a belief system. If this, then that. It's just a perfectly stated belief system.

So my first job is to convince them that it can be done. So I will say something to them like, "the fact that you've been on diets before and that hasn't worked, doesn’t mean that you can't do it, it means that the diet doesn't work." And I talk about all the times that diets don't work and why they don't work and convince them of that. Then they are open to the idea that something else could work. 

Michael: So it’s the diet that don't work... 

Doug: It's the diet and diets in general that don't work, not them. 

Michael: How do you think the CD and work book turn into a good learning medium? 

Doug: Well you know what, I think it's almost ideal. Because I have taught the class so many times and I recorded it probably two or three dozen times trying to get a home study program where people could learn by listening to the recording of the seminar. And it never worked! Because there was so much interaction between the people in the classes, so it didn't make for a good recording. So finally, 15 years ago I sat down and recorded a tape -- a couple tapes. And I created a work book for the first time, thinking, I am just going to pretend that I am teaching my brother, or teaching someone I know personally, and sit down with them and go over the book and teach it to them one-on-one.

So I created two tapes and a program for that and it turned out to work great. People really got it, they really wanted to listen to it, they were like, "Oh yeah!" And then over time, as people gave me feedback about it, and tapes weren't so much in demand and  CDs were, I decided to take some of the feedback I had been given and re-do them. I also included some new things I had learned over the years about sleight of mouth because I continue to teach it, and I continue to make refinements in it. So I think the CD and work book are great. I think it's one of the best ways of teaching when you can't do a live program, 

Michael: what do you expect people to get from your CDs? 

Doug: Well again, it's about persuasion. In my book everything is persuasion, whether  you are doing sales, or doing therapy, or raising kids, or you're in a marriage or a relationship, anything you are doing-- it's persuasion. Sales is all about persuasion and it's all about belief change. When people have an objection to a sale they have a belief. So how do you change the belief? 

Sleight of mouth is about noticing what the structure of the belief is, so you can really define for yourself exactly what their belief is, and then how to interact with that in an effective way, so that you can change it rapidly. 

Michael: Before I ask you for your contact information, is there anything else you would like to say about sleight of mouth or anything else you would like to say about what you do?  

Doug: Only that sleight of mouth works best when it’s in a sense -- a sincere thing -- when you are trying to help the other person, or you are sincerely working with them.

In other words, I have found for sales, for example, if you believe in your product or your service, and you really do think it is the very best product or service for this particular customer, then all the techniques and things work seamlessly. Whereas if you don't really believe it, you just want to sell it to him because you want the money, for me at least, the sales techniques don't work so well.

Maybe for other people that's not true. But for me that is true. And I found that it's true for sleight of mouth as well. That when I really truly think that they have a belief that this means that, and it doesn't, and by their holding that belief they are damaging themselves one way or another, it's my mission to help them find another way of looking at it. And sleight of mouth is a very effective tool to help me do that. 

Michael: Excellent. If someone wanted to contact you, can you give your contact details? 

Doug: Sure, you can reach me through my website, www.Ericksonian.com , so my email is Doug@ericksonian.com  My phone number in the US is a toll free: it's 877-362-7463.

Michael: Excellent. Thank you very much.

You can buy Doug's CD's from this link: Sleigh of Mouth CD's

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