Bruce Grimley

I am super proud to be associated with the ANLP and the professionalism and attention to standards that they embody in every part of their organisation. As an Ambassador for the ANLP in the Cambridgeshire region I aspire to talk about the practical benefits of NLP to the local community and how being a member of the ANLP can extend those benefits even further through access to multiple resources, fellowship, support, and all of the latest national and international NLP news.

My NLP journey started back in 1995 when I did a diploma, in Ericksonian hypnosis & NLP with British Hypnosis Research. I also started my company Achieving Lives Ltd at this time too. It was a tough 40-day course, along with home study as well.  We had written exams to pass, we were also assessed by practicing what we were learning on volunteers from the public, and we had to have tutorial days and personal coaching / psychotherapy. I went on to do an Advanced NLP Practitioner course, followed by an NLP Master Practitioner, and then also a train the NLP trainer with John Seymour associates. I finally became accredited as an NLP trainer with ANLP in 2008, and started training others in NLP. As a psychologist my area of specialisation back in 1995 was one to one work and the British Psychological Society, (BPS), did not have a register of psychologists specialising in psychotherapy at that time, and coaching psychology did not exist. They advised me to join an organisational member of the UKCP, which I did and that was the NLPtCA. I remained a member till 2020, when I then decided to join the BPS register of Psychologists specialising in Psychotherapy. I was honoured to be appointed a co-director of NLPtCA just before leaving, (3rd June 2017- 9th September 2020), and feel they, along with other NLP trainers do a wonderful job in supporting NLP in the context of psychotherapy within the UKCP. I allowed my accredited trainer status with ANLP lapse in 2013, as I had other fish to fry.

Being a psychologist, (Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society in 2005), I was interested in the many branches of psychology which NLP drew from, and of course I was interested in how NLP was evaluated. I took an academic route and began to write about NLP academically and have 2 books, 9 chapters and many academic papers all about NLP. You can see these by going to my Amazon author page, and also by clicking on Grimley in the NLP research data-base compiled by Drs Hammer & Hucker.  I attended the 1st and 2nd NLP research conferences in Surrey and Cardiff, (2008 & 2010), and started a PhD at Surrey University in 2008. I took up the dropped reins of my PhD when I was invited in 2012 to talk at the 3rd NLP & Coaching World Congress conference in Croatia (2012). I had been a member of this recognised NLP organisation, (International Association of NLP Institutes) since 2011, and had been awarded Master trainer status in both NLP and Coaching. (I was one of the first Accredited Master Executive coaches in the well-known U.K organisation, “Association for Coaching”). In Croatia we discussed the idea of NLPsy, with the P standing for Psychology rather than rather Programming. I discovered Karl and Nandana Nielsen were Professors at the school of psychology at the State accredited University of Central Nicaragua, and they invited me to finish my PhD, a year of which had been completed at Surrey under Dr Paul Tosey and Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith in 2008. I gladly took up the offer, completed my PhD and published my findings, which asked the research question “what is NLP?” in the International Coaching Psychology Review, (Grimley, 2016).

I continue to practice NLP in my professional and personal life because I find it works. Now what that means is a complex topic of debate, however when learning NLP at a basic Practitioner and Master Practitioner level, delegates usually discover simple, practical patterns which they can put into place straight away. What is super nice is when they share what they learn with their extended contacts outside of the training room those extended contacts benefit too. I always remember a delegate, (he was an Olympic Judo Player who had represented Moldovia, and actually did a throw on me!), who handed me a note after an NLP practitioner course. It was from his wife and simply read: “I would like to thank you, because of so short period of time, you have made better understanding between me and my husband J (sic). Thank you, Julia”. I have kept this hand written note, because it always reminds me that the ripples we start when we run an NLP course often travel far into the world in a way we often cannot imagine.

Currently I am using behavioural modelling to learn from Masters athletes. I have represented England in Athletics and G.B. in duathlon multiple times. Having broken my hip and shoulder in a very bad cycling accident whilst competing in Portugal 2024, I am hoping to medal at international level in 2025.

View the membership profile of Bruce Grimley