Why Doesn't the IBCP Approve Live Virtual Trainings (i.e., Zoom) for Certification?

One of the most common questions we have been getting from prospective members and trainer members is, "Why doesn't the IBCP approve live virtual certification trainings?"

This is an important question to answer, especially as the world seems to be moving more virtual for just about everything after COVID.

Some people perceive that we are recently "clamping down" on virtual trainings, but our Standards for Certification have never allowed for virtual trainings.

Unfortunately, there are many trainers in the field who hold profit as their highest value who are cutting corners to increase their bottom line (for example, running three-day Practitioner trainings, five-day Master Practitioner trainings, 30-hour Udemy courses, even online/virtual Trainer's Trainings, none of which are valid for certification or accepted in the field). Because of that, it becomes even more and more important for us to have, to protect, and to enforce high standards in the field. This is not an attempt at being "old school," but rather out of a need to protect the integrity of the field, to keep the field at a high level of competency and efficacy, and to retain the level of respect we have earned as a field over the last 50 years.

There are several reasons why we do not accept live virtual trainings, and I will illustrate them here:

What is Sales, Really?

Somebody posted a question on Facebook that said, "How many days of vacation did you take last year?" And he defined days of vacation as working less than an hour per day.

A few people that put three or four days. A couple of people put four or five weeks. Unfortunately, it made me really sad that many people put zero days. Zero days vacation in a whole year.

I'm thinking back to a time in my life when that was me... when I took very few days of vacation. When I really worked extremely hard and I felt like I was sacrificing for a good cause.

A lot of times we feel like if we give up our own joy, or if we postpone our own joy, or if we take care of other people first, that we're really doing a good thing. And I gotta tell you, in my life, I learned the hard way, that it's not necessarily a good thing to put everyone else first, even as a healer.

I do consider myself a healer. And a lot of times, we healers are the people who put ourselves out there first for everyone else. If you keep doing that you're going to end up drained.

We've all heard the metaphor that if you're in an airplane and there's a drop of cabin pressure, you've got to put the mask on yourself before you can help other people.

But there are a lot of people who think that's selfish. You know, they think, "don't take care of yourself first, you need to take care of other people." And it brings up an issue that we hear a lot in the healing fields, which is what I call the "passion paradox."

Solving the Problem: "NLP Anchoring Doesn't Work For Me"

One of the most common complaints I get in this field of training and practice is, "anchoring doesn't work on me."

People look at me with desperation and say, "I just can't imagine a stimulus, like a touch, creating such a strong response like that."

I say, "Really? Have you never been at the club when the song "Don't Stop Believing" comes on? How do you react? You and your friends immediately light up and being dancing, right?

What about smelling a food that takes you back to your mom's kitchen. Mmmmm.

Or seeing a show from childhood, and you feel 15 years old again, don't you?

That's right!

So what's the difference between these anchors that work "in the wild," versus the anchors we try to set and trigger in a session, or in a training room?

Confidence or Competence?

One of the things I often hear from brand new practitioners is that they feel they lack the confidence to practice with clients.

This is a bit of a "catch 22," because many people believe the only way to get confidence is to practice something until they feel comfortable doing it. So, if you never do it because you're not comfortable, then how could you get comfortable so you can feel confident?

The problem is that most practitioners are confusing two words which sound alike but have very different meanings: competence and confidence.