Successful Communication Through NLP : A Trainer's Guide
Sally Dimmick
0-566-07579-2
Despite the title, this book has virtually nothing to do with NLP as such.  Apart from some passing references to Bandler and Grinder in the first few pages, and to Frogs into Princes and The Structure of Magic II in the references you could be forgiven for wondering why anyone thought it worth mentioning NLP.

What we actually have here is a rather second rate book on training and presentations, with the second part of the text split into sections on Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic trainees.  The division of the material in these three sections seems to be totally arbitrary, if not downright misleading, and removing these false divisions might actually have made it a slightly better book.

If think you've already discerned a degree of coolness on my part as far as this book is concerned then you're right.>BR> Although there are indeed occasional nuggets of truly useful information they are few and far between, and certainly do not compensate for the poor quality of the majority of the text.

My first serious doubts were aroused by the bar chart on page 24.  According to the chart, 7 percent of our communication is accounted for by the words we use, 23 percent is down to Tone (of voice) and a whacking great 70 percent is due to body language.  Since we aren't given any reference for the chart we have no way of knowing where this information comes from.  It does seem a little strange, however, that results which are so significantly at odds with the Mehrabian and Argyle findings (both of which pointed to a 7%-38%-55% split) has not received more public attention.

Further misgivings were triggered by the curious lack of definitions of key terms.  I am no wiser now than I was when I started the book as to what exactly is meant (in this context) by "learning", "transfer of information" or "strategy" (especially "learning strategy").  Neither do we get a definition of "modelling" - one of the most basic, essential elements of NLP - but that is hardly surprising since modelling is never actually mentioned!

Add to this the frequent implication that the only form of learning is conscious learning, the total failure to understand the value of stacking unclosed stories/trainings (everything must be totally sequential or auditories won't be able to make sense of it!), and the graphically crude and generally pointless illustrations, and you have a book which neither explains nor utilises NLP.

As for it's value as a straightforward trainer's guide to training, I will select just one quote:

"When changing from one overhead to the next, turn off the projector to eliminate the white light of an empty screen.  Any visual pictures that have been created in the mind will be obliterated with the last visual image of a blank screen.  Turning off the projector also eliminates out of focus information as you slide the overhead in and out, which will detract from the learning process of a trainee with a visual primary preference."
(page 59)

Creative Choice in Hypnosis
The Seminars, Workshops and Lectures of Milton H. Erickson Vol. IV
E. Rossi and M. Ryan (eds.)
1-85343-421-3
Like the other books in this series, the text is divided into several parts.  In this case there are six sections taken from Erickson's presentations (dating from 1954 through to 1967), plus a a seventh section by Ernest Rossi and Patrick Jichaku.

The first six sections are back to the standard of the first two volumes in this series.  We get Erickson on top form, plenty of teaching, plenty of transcribed dialogue, plenty of information that really counts.

The central theme of the text is Erickson's use of what became known as the 'double bind':

For example - "Would you be more comfortable going into trance in this chair or in that chair?"
Implication/bind: Whichever chair you chose you are accepting that you will go into trance.

As Rossi explains in the Introduction:

"... Erickson was a transition figure: Personally, he was still imbued with the directive and authoritarian ideology of the past, yet his own innovative brilliance was to be found in his accessing and utilization of the patient's inherent potentials to function in his/her own way.
Nowhere is this authoritarian-permissive paradox more evident than in Erickson's use of the double bind ... as illustrated in this volume.  He claimed to have been using double and triple binds on subjects long before Bateson's group ... coined the term.  Erickson spoke with great relish about the double bind and used Kubie's psychoanalytic concept of "illusory choice" to define it.  In this conceptualization, the double bind was a way of giving a subject the illusion of choice: Erickson would arrange the situation so that whatever choice the patient selected would further his or her therapeutic goals."
(page xi.  Italics as in original)

The final section is described, in the Closing Comments, as an "[attempt] to clarify the difference between logical and psychological double binds", as well as "[exploring] Zen koans as transpersonal double binds that facilitate the experience of Enlightenment."  If you like academic-type analysis then you'll probably love this stuff.  I personally didn't find much more than a convoluted expression of the idea that Zen koans are a great way of putting an arm-lock on the logical, sequential elements of your brain whilst the creative, free-wheeling elements let rip.  With all due respect to Messrs Rossi and Jichaku, I'm afraid I'd have much preferred another 25 pages of Erickson.

My reservations on Part VII aside, this is 225 pages of solid Ericksonian material.  Yet again I have no doubts that this volume belongs on the Strongly Recommended list: * * * * * *
(Add a seventh * if you're studying this material from a therapeutic perspective.)

The Magic of Satir
Practical Skills for Therapists
Sharon Loeschen
0-9627501-7-4
At 98 pages in the main text, plus 8 pages of Appendices, this is hardly the sort of volume you could use as a doorstop.  It does, however, provide yet more evidence that the best things often come in small packages.

In the brief Preface, Loeschen explains:

"The opportunity for people to learn [Virginia] Satir's methods by watching her at work or by experiencing her workshops was lost with her death.  Because of this, I decided to write The Magic of Satir.

It is the premise of this work that much of what Satir did can be successfully learned and used by others.  ...  You may be surprised to learn that her philosophy and many of her skills are applicable to working with individuals as well as couples and families.

Having said that, the author does include a number of quotes that show very clearly how closely the two schools of thought are related, as in the following examples:

"At the moment we do something, it's the best we know how to do or we would do something different."

"So you are feeling scared about speaking up?  How are you scaring yourself?"

"You are encouraged by your progress.  What specifically are you doing that is pleasing you?"

"I'm wondering if the two of you would be willing to close your eyes and see yourself being this new way with each other the next time you encounter a difference?"

Satir Step by Step
A Guide to Creating Change in Families
Michele Baldwin and Virginia Satir
0-8314-0068-4
The main text of this book is some 250 pages long, divided into two parts:

Part 1 (140+ pages) is the annotated transcript of a demonstration session with a family of two parents and 5 children.
Part 2 (100+ pages) is a general review of Virginia Satir's ideas, the beliefs and values that underpinned her approach, and so on, authored by Michele Baldwin.

If you aren't particularly familiar with Satir's work and you're exploring her role as one of the key contributors to NLP (and, I suspect, to 'Core Transformation'), or are simply interested in her legacy to the field of Family Therapy, then I thoroughly recommend this book.
I would, however, point you to Baldwin’s suggestions on how to approach the text:

1. Read Part 2 first, then go back and read Part 1;
   
2. The first time through Part 1, read the left-hand pages only (that is the transcripyt of the video) to get an overall view of how the session develops.  Then read it through again, including the commentary on the right-hand pages.

If you already have a good grasp of Satir's ideas and techniques then I suspect that you will find very little that is new here.
We are told, on the back cover blurb:

"For the first time we have a description of many of Virginia Satir's basic concepts and techniques including the Seed Model, Family Reconstruction and Parts Parties."

"Rather than writing a step-by-step description of the techniques, I have explained the context in which they are used and what they try to accomplish."

The Secrets of Satir
Collected Sayings of Virginia Satir
Sharon Loeschen
0-9627501-6-6
Is this the book that exposes the nifty techniques and arcane knowledge that underpinned Virginia Satir's success as a family therapist?  Not exactly.  As the author explains in the brief introduction:

"The book is a collection of Virginia's sayings - or as I prefer to call them, her 'secrets'.  Virginia discovered many of the universal principals of how and why people behave the way they do. and she shared these during her trainings.  The opportunity to gain her 'secrets' firsthand was lost with her death, so I decided to share the ones I have collected through this book."

The sayings, none longer than a sentence or two, are grouped under five headings:

1. Families (27 quotes)
2. Self Worth (10)
3. Communication (12)
4. Feelings (10)
5. Change (13)

"You don't have to completely let go of one thing to gain something new.  We can add rather than discard."

"How we got to be a certain way is important for our understanding, but it doesn't fix us."

to the totally unoriginal and banal

"The only real certainty in life is change."

The Creative Trainer
Michael Lawlor & Peter Handley
0-07-709030-6
This book is primarily concerned with Accelerated Learning (about which both authors obviously know a great deal).  Unfortunately they also claim to have integrated some degree of NLP into their system (page xviii), "unfortunately" because NLP is a subject about which they seem to understand very little.  Sweeping oversimplification ignores the possibility of any difference between 'matching', mirroring' and 'pacing', for example, whilst the description of 'anchoring' on page 123 verges on the ludicrous.

A key element of the approach used in the book is the attempt to weave the various learning points into a hypothetical story about the introduction of AL training methods in a pottery manufacturer - Glospot Ltd.  This starts with a seven page potted history of the company and an even briefer CV of the AL trainer.  Chapters 1-17 each start with a short extract from the training process - designed as an intro to the subject matter of the chapter.  I personally found these pieces too short and poorly written (especially the dialogue) to be of any value, and eventually came to dread facing yet another piece of stilted and vaguely patronising prose.

To my mind the 'Aha!' for the whole book is to be found on page 132:

"There are a number of other memory techniques which can be useful when studying.  These include the 'Loci System', the 'Chain of Links', the 'T for I' system, and creating sentences in which the initial letter of each word stands for words which are to be remembered.  They are described in Michael Lawlor's book 'Inner Track Learning'."

Is it unreasonable, I wonder, to suggest that if a writer refers to a certain technique as being particularly relevant or useful then they should describe the technique in an appropriate amount of detail.  And if they do not intend giving these details then maybe the reference should be omitted?  I can see no justification for using such references as a 'teaser' to advertise another book by the same author.

I was equally non-plussed by the choice of the HBDI (Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument) as the preferred tool for determining someone's learning style (Chapter 8).  The HBDI is a very closely guarded product and (as indicated in the text) only the staff of the Ned Hermann Group(UK) are authorised to score the questionnaires - at £35 (approx. $55) each.  That's nearly enough to purchase the highly acclaimed and, in my experience, far better known Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Manual, complete with questionnaire and scoring details and a licence for unlimited personal use.

The problem, I suspect, may have something to do with the fact that both of the authors (at the time of writing the book) ran, and made their living from, organisations which teach precisely the skills covered in the book.  I'm afraid I couldn't help feeling that the text might have been a whole lot richer and more detailed in it's descriptions of the various techniques if the authors hadn't had to deal with this potential conflict of interest.

Given the backgrounds of the two authors, this book should have been an absolute knockout.  But it isn't.
Not Recommended.

Time for a Change
Richard Bandler with Janus Daniels and Robert Dilts
0-916990-28-1
Another edited transcript of a Bandler seminar - this one having apparently taken place in London in the early 1990s (the copyright date is 1993) - and a very well edited transcript at that.

I don't know whether this book quite matches the later volume Persuasion Engineering, but if it doesn't then, as the Duke of Wellington allegedly said of the Battle of Waterloo: "It was a damn close run thing".

What exactly is the book about?  Well, there's some stuff about the 'NLP attitude', changinging attitudes and beliefs, quite a lot about hypnosis and some thoughts on time line therapy.
There's also a 25 page appendix by Robert Dilts on the Meta Model, a complete list of the Linguistic Presuppositions (very handy if you don't have a copy of The Structure of Magic, something that looks suspiciously like a 7-step reframe process, a page or two on eye accessing cues and submodalities, and a useful Glossary.

At just under 250 pages all in, this obviously isn't an "in depth" study of any of the topics it covers - as compared to Tranceformations, for example.  Having said that, however, I suspect there's enough 'sideways' information to repay a second and third reading - or more.
Moreover the book is well written (not that common in NLP circles) and a highly enjoyable read.

I don't think this is an ideal book for complete beginners, but for readers who know and understand a little about NLP and/or hypnosis this is a good way to dig deeper into both subjects.
Strongly recommended * * * * *