NLP Training, NLP Consulting, NLP in Schools

Get a Life! Program

About the Get a Life! Program

Based on ground-breaking research 

This program is the result of 4 years’ groundbreaking research by The Lifeworks Group here in Perth, Western Australia, culminating in a clinical trial of the methodology at Clarkson Highschool in 2001.  Following is an abstract of the trial paper: 

A bmsa Approach to Improve Behavioural and Academic Performance in “At-risk” children

Abstract 

The efficacy of a brief, 5-week neuro-somatic and neuro-linguistic intervention with a group of “at risk” adolescents attending a 3-hour group program, followed by 4 1-hour weekly group meetings, was investigated.  Ten students took part in the program, and a further 12 students formed the control group with no exposure to training.  The neuro-somatic interventions employed in the trial were BMSA (Brief Multi Sensory Activation)^1,2,3, Be Set Free Fast ^4,5 and Neuro-linguistic Programming ^6,7,8.  Post-treatment results indicated a clinically and statistically significant increase in academic and behavioural performance of students taking part in the program, and a small reduction in academic and behavioural performance in the control group.

Perhaps of greater significance were the reported qualitative effects of the program, as recorded by students, teachers and parents.  Some of these are included in Appendix A of the full paper.

Introduction

Clarkson Community High School is a feeder high school for families which are primarily of low socio-economic status.  We deliberately sought out such a school in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods even with students with significant behavioural and academic dysfunction.

We were fortunate that Clarkson High has a strong ethic of care in the school community and that this formed such a supportive basis for our work.

Schools have in general become a cause for concern in the community, and are trying to deal with issues of conflict, vandalism, drug use and violence, and the subsequent effect of that upon the children’s academic performance, child and teacher safety, and the integration of leavers into the community ⁹.  Youth suicide overlaps these issues and is of particular concern to The Lifeworks Group.

As part of an integrated approach to prevention of youth suicide, and the building of resilience and resourcefulness within youth and within the community in general, Lifeworks trialled a brief school program utilising its innovative approaches, researched and developed in Perth, Western Australia.

Because of the very brief nature of the trial and extremely short exposure of children to these methods, it was expected that qualitative behavioural evidence might precede quantitative evidence.

Method

The children were primarily taught BMSA, BSFF and a few high-level neurological skills from NLP (state management, rapport and calibration, persuasion/influence). 

Rather than “treating” the children or their problems, the children were taught to self-treat, and this is in line with research by Gomes ¹⁰ and Sutherland ¹¹ which demonstrates clinical efficacy of treatment selected and run by the client, rather than being “prescribed” by the “therapist”.

The measuring instrument which the children were taught to use for themselves was the Subject Units of Discomfort Scale ^12,14.

A further scale was developed by Clarkson Community High School in conjunction with Lifeworks, an 11-point list of behavioural and academic scores with an intended positive focus:

Satisfactory academic performance
Works independently
Works as a team member
Completes classwork tasks
Completes homework tasks
No parental report of difficulties
Demonstrates self resilience
Satisfactory organisational skills
No student reporting of home issues
No reports of being bullied
No reports of bullying other students

Each category was rated 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 points depending whether the item was assessed as never, sometimes, unable to comment, often, consistently.

Problems which the children chose to work on were:  hatred/dislike of particular people or races, school subjects, situations; anger; trauma.

In the course of this work, attention was also given to the development of social skills and issues in family dynamics.  These topics were not taught separately, but were background topics, addressed as appropriate.

Results

At the end of this 5-week period 70% of the study group, compared to 42% of the control group, had held or improved their results according to school monitored data.

The study group had significant gains in academic performance, reduced parental reporting (phone calls to school) and reduced incidents of being bullied.  Interestingly, both groups had reduced incidents of bullying others.

Although these results are statistically significant, the behavioural reports of students, teachers and parents provided equally compelling evidence for the effectiveness of the techniques taught for dealing with explosive anger and various types of emotional distress. 

The Task Ahead

There is a huge task at hand in our schools right now.  Many children have to face violence or the threat of violence every day of their school lives, not just bullying, but actual physical assault, often racially motivated.  Many children do not have demonstrations of competent adult behaviour in their homes, do not have the luxury of being parented, and even find themselves in the role of parent to their own parents and siblings. 

It is estimated that 1 in 3 children see or experience violence in their homes and the effect of violence upon children is well documented ^15,16.  The most distressing effect to the whole community is youth suicide.  In 1995 WA had more than 870 youth suicide attempts resulting in hospitalisation, and 50 adolescents who died due to suicide ¹⁷.  Depression has been identified as a large factor ^17,18.

Plainly, we cannot quickly educate and train existing parents into being better parents.  We cannot overnight solve the terrible financial and social situations many people find themselves in.  We can, however, give our children and teachers the strong resilience to not only minimise the effects of these painful situations, but to rise above them and experience themselves as powerful individuals in a world of their own creation.  This type of resilience has been identified as a key factor in suicide prevention by the Government of WA Office of Youth Affairs ¹⁸.

For the first time, we may be able to literally strip away the painful emotions of negative experiences, freeing up the resources of the child to build competence and take his or her place in the world.  This is illustrated in the stories included in Appendix A of the complete paper, which is available in the research section of www.lifeworks-group.com.au.

The power engine at the core of the Get A Life! Program

The “power engine” of the program is a comprehensive array of neuro-somatic and neuro-linguistic processes which can easily be taught to teachers, children and parents, or anyone involved in the direct care of children and young people, and which our research has demonstrated provides highly significant increases in academic performance and behavioural competence.  The most exciting aspect of this work is that changes appear to occur naturally and easily.  No willpower required.  Children do not need, for example, to be taught coping mechanisms to deal with anger.  Because anger is a conditioned response, it can now be quickly and easily eliminated, giving the young person better access to the full range of resources he/she possesses. 

Children and young people enjoy using these methods because they give them the ability to choose their behaviour instead of being merely reactive. 

An integrated program for empowering school communities 

We believe this program is best instituted as a strategic, integrated program which is a collaboration between the school and the wider community.  To properly address the serious social problems that are currently costing so much economically and personally, requires wide social change and that cannot occur quickly or easily with an isolated, stand-alone program. 

We also believe that this program must be integrated into schools in such a way that the school takes over ownership, development and evaluation of the program as soon as possible.  Whilst Lifeworks would wish to maintain a warm association with every school we work with, we have no desire to graft ourselves onto the school system in such a way that we build dependency.  Our message is one of empowerment, not dependency. 

Therefore although this program strongly addresses behavioural and academic issues for teachers and students, it also focuses strongly on the complete elimination of bullying and put-downs, the building of “kind” schools and communities, and the ways in which the school can impact on the wider community.

Avoiding added burden for teaching and administration staff 

At Lifeworks we are very much aware of the increasing burden of administration on teachers and other school staff.  Over the last 10 years this has added enormous stress and emotional pain to the school community. 

We believe our systems must be simple, realistic, self-maintaining and self-monitoring, reduce the workload of teachers and staff, and generally empower the school and the community to make effortless change in a resourceful way.  

The Structure of the Get a Life! Program 

Simultaneous Phased Introduction of this Multi-Pronged Approach 

The three main prongs of the Get a Life! Program are: 

• Building resourcefulness and resilience through teaching of neuro-somatic and neuro-linguistic self-application processes
   
  
• Incorporating a comprehensive anti-bullying, anti-put-down process
   
  
• Incorporating a “kind school” process

Each of these impacts on the others, gaining exponential effect. 

Stage 1 

In-service training for key staff and parents in the neuro-somatic and neuro-linguistic interventions used in the program, as well as in the implementation and structuring of anti-bullying and “kind school” processes.  A committee is selected to oversee the introduction of the entire Get a Life! Program into the school.  Staff set outcome measures and method of analysis/evaluation. 

This stage, as well as others, is supported through open access to the on-line Lifeworks Peer-Mentoring Program, available completely free of charge to anyone who has completed our training.  The URL for the on-line program is www.lifeworks-group.com.au/forum.  Simply click on “Register” and fill out your complete details, notifying us that you have done so.  Your name will be checked against our graduate list and you will be immediately authorised for access. 

Stage 2 

School assembly announcing the Get a Life! Program and briefly detailing the flow of events which will take place to incorporate the program.  It is important to place the program within the existing ethos of the school.  For example, if your school has a strong ethos of “caring for one another” then clearly this program allows us to do that for one another even more effectively.  It is important that teachers and children view the program as an opportunity to dump stress and enjoy a better school life.

Stage 3 

Trainers from Lifeworks visit the school to teach groups of children, together with their home room teacher, the neuro-somatic and neuro-linguistic interventions used in the program, and follow this up with 1-hour per week sessions for 10 weeks to further refine and develop the application of those techniques.  Teachers are encouraged to make full use of the peer-mentoring program. 

Stage 4 

Concurrent with Stage 3, Lifeworks works with the Get a Life! Committee to commence a classroom approach to the anti-bully, anti-put-down process and the “kind school” processes.  Child representatives are selected to assist in monitoring and evaluating progress and these children are inducted onto the Get a Life! Committee. 

Stage 5 

Lifeworks assists in the integration process over a period of 10 weeks, which period includes the first formal evaluation of the program, and analyses and reports on quantitative and qualitative data. 

Stage 6 

Lifeworks is no longer an integral part of the Get a Life! Program in the school, but is available, on a consultative basis, if and when required.  While not active within the school any longer, we hope to maintain a warm association and to act as a resource for schools into the future. 

In particular, students, parents, and schools are invited to make use of Lifeworks services, and to avail themselves of free resources such as our monthly electronic journal and monthly electronic newsletter for parents, as well as the on-line peer-mentoring program. 

The Aim is Prevention¹ 

For any wellness model to be successful, it must act effectively on the school community in the following ways: 

Primary Prevention 

The entire population is targeted to prevent problems arising in the first place.  This stage extends to parents and/or guardians, who must be informed and educated about the program, its philosophy, and their own role in it. 

Secondary Prevention 

Specific populations are identified as “at risk” and appropriate action taken to give more concentrated assistance to self-treat and/or problem solve.  Liaise with appropriate resources. 

Tertiary Prevention 

This stage targets children or adults who have actually been assaulted or who have an addiction or other serious behavioural problem.  Case management approach liaising with appropriate others:  police or justice department, faith communities, psychologists, community organisations, foster families.  Parent or caretaker training about delinquent or at-risk adolescents. 

Importance of Evaluation 

In modelling responsibility and accountability to our children, it is appropriate that we demonstrate those qualities in ensuring the continued effectiveness of any program through objective assessment over time. 

Therefore the program should: 

• Be evaluated using an experimental or quasi-experimental design with random assignment or a matched control group.
• Be evidence based.
• Be implemented consistently over time.
• Meet measurable goals and objectives.
• Be re-evaluated periodically.
• Provide evidence of a statistically-significant deterrent effect on delinquency, drug use, and/or violence, lasting at least one year following treatment.
• Use a collaborative-participatory model that addresses links among community systems and constituencies.
• Use material and methodologies that are culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate.

How to Book

You can book your group for this training program by telephoning Lifeworks on 61 8 9246 1977 (Western Australia) or emailing us on info@lifeworks-group.com.au. We are available to travel anywhere in the world to deliver this training.

Fees

Fees are negotiated in each case dependent upon associated costs.  As an indication of the fee payable, for a group size of 20, fees are $2500 per day plus venue, travel and accommodation where necessary.

(1)  US Government, Commission for the Prevention of Youth Violence, December 2000

Duty of Care, Warnings and Contra-Indications 

There is always a danger that in equipping non-clinicians with powerful interventions for mental health that those interventions may be inadvertently mis-applied and therefore lead to further disappointment (or worse), or may be selected inappropriately given the condition of the client, or that an underlying pathology may be missed and the client fail to be referred to appropriate care. 

Duty of care issues should be part of the training of anyone involved in providing care and support for others.  Such training should have covered a delineation of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, as well as rights and obligations, both ethical and legislative.  Privacy issues are an important aspect of duty of care, but it is worth mentioning, because it is so often not sufficiently appreciated, that safety takes precedence over privacy.  In a life-or-death situation, the privacy or even dignity of the person under threat comes a poor second.  Every carer of people who are at risk should have a protocol to follow in the event of such a situation, and this will include agreements, contingency planning, and documented flow of information. 

Warnings:  It should not be assumed that difficulties are always behavioural.  There are many physical disorders that mimic mental health problems, in particular disorders of the endocrine system, but also including serious nutritional deficiency, heavy metal poisoning, and a range of others.  Sparing yourself the illusion that you may be diagnosing your client, simply pay careful attention to the physical appearance of your client, especially eyes, hair, skin, nails (the obvious signs that someone may be unwell) and do not hesitate to recommend a visit to the family doctor.  Likewise ask the obvious questions about dietary habits, lifestyle, sleep, stress, activity levels, and levels of social engagement.  You may need to refer your client to expert help in these areas.  In no case are these techniques able to replace proper diagnosis, treatment and supervision by a qualified health professional or health team.