NLP for Doctors

Medical NLP: The Language of Healing and Health

Advanced Communication and Leadership Skills with Patients,
Peers and Allied Health Professionals

This seminar is intended specifically for Doctors and Doctors in training and is lead by Garner Thomson, Training Director, The Society of Medical NLP and is supported by Sesmu Arbous, MD PhD NLP Master Practitioner, Carlos Elzo Kraemer, MD NLP Master Practitioner and Joost van der Leij, NLP Master Trainer.

Overview

The Problem

Today’s healthcare environment is facing challenges on an unprecedented scale. An estimated one in 10 patients admitted to hospital in the EU is a victim of medical error. A isproportionately large percentage (a further one in 10) of these accidents results in serious injury or death.

Figures from the elsewhere are even more worrying. According to a report by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, medical errors – iatrogenesis – may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States, following cancer and heart disease.

The solution

Numerous studies, as well as a growing body of clinical experience, show clearly that communication reaches beyond simply transmitting information from one person to the next. How we communicate – verbally and nonverbally, consciously and unconsciously – can impact the listener’s physical and psychological health and well-being, and directly affect the clinical outcome for better or worse.4,5,6 The informed and experienced speaker may be as much as 75% more responsible for successful outcomes, including both the physical and emotional functionality of the listener, than the treatment itself…whatever that might be.

Since 1998, The Society of Medical NLP, an independent, selffunding organisation, has been serving the specific needs of doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, dentists, medical students and associated health professionals of all specialties. The Society and its members are committed to reviewing the growing body of research and developing non-pharmacological, non-invasive and integrative treatment options. To date, it has provided accredited professional development training, student education, practice-development and consultation in Medical Neuro-Linguistic Programming™ and advanced communication skills to hundreds of health professionals from the UK, continental Europe, North America, Canada, Australia, China and India. This programme has been designed, by Garner Thomson, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer and Training Director of The Society of Medical NLP, with the specific needs of clinicians in mind.

Throughout the three days, participants will be introduced to evidence-based principles and practical techniques that will allow them to harness the power of language in healing and health.

Since many of the elements and approaches of the Medical NLP communication model are equally relevant to exchanges between doctors and their patients as well as with their colleagues and peers, this dynamic and experiential course will focus first on essential commonalties of effective communication practices, including the management of conflict and dealing with “difficult people”.

It will then move on to nine communication skill requirements in three professional relationship domains, doctor and patient, doctor and nurse, and doctor and doctor. Finally, it will suggest directions in which participants can take these learnings into their fields in the future.

Programme

Day One

The elements of communication and leadership:

• More than advising, persuading or, instructing. Understanding eight ways in which we communicate
• Mastering the foundations of effective communication; ensuring you are ready to communicate and your listener is ready to receive
• The origins and objectives of a “language of healing and health”
• Moving from problem-solving to solution-orientation (helping the patient vs curing the disease)
• The first 30 seconds; how initial impressions can contaminate a new relationship
• Creating agreement, concordance and adherence
• A formula for successful communication

Day Two

The mechanics of communication and leadership:

• How to achieve real empathy and involvement without burnout or “emotional contagion”
• “Reading” the person you’re dealing with and avoid trouble before it begins
• The value of “story”; why the right kind of listening matters
• Accessing and stabilising positive resources
• Orientating towards successful outcomes; auditing for change
• Thinking in time; temporal language, permanent change
• A formula for problem solution

Day Three

The importance of language:

• Words that harm, words that heal
• Acquiring quality data; the art and science of effective questioning
• Direct and indirect influence
• Three tools of indirect persuasion
• Designing, making and maintaining change
• Putting it together. The three-part communication model with patients, peers and other health professionals
• When time is at a premium; how to get more done in less time
• Managing conflict and dealing with difficult people
• The way forward; applying the language of healing and health to nine communication domains in three communication relationships: Doctor-and-Patient, Doctor-and-Nurse, Doctor-and-Doctor
• Q&A Session