More than 100 Mersey Care staff are now taking a critical look at their work/life balance after attending a creative and wellbeing course run by life coach and former British kick boxing champion Terry McElhinney.
Learning and development administrator May Somers who organised the indigobased course said: liThe short and long-term benefits for staff are less stress in work and therefore at home which will have a positive effect on sickness and stress related problems. The training also provides the ability to self monitor dayto-day stresses and apply neuro-linguistic programming tools as required.
"Staff were also provided with the skills to make better choices around their own lifestyle, giving them the opportunity to improve their own health and wellbeing."
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is recognised as an effective means to improve performance in many areas
of life, including business management, sales, education, therapy and personal development, according to Terry who has been studying the subject for more than 35 years.
NLP plays an integral role in his work and provides a framework for changing beliefs, behaviours, thoughts and feelings in helping individuals, companies, sports performers and teams to achieve their desired goals.
Terry said: "We already possess the most powerful tool known to mankind the human mind. Unfortunately, it didn't come with a set of instructions and NLP is the instruction manual.
"Using tried and tested techniques, NLP allows you to unlock the 'secret code' to your mind's potential, giving you more control and command over your thought, feelings and therefore your outcomes and enable you to achieve goals you may never have believed were possible.
Terry believes his courses have been so successful because he meets each delegate in a one-to-one scenario which allows him to elicit information on what stresses they experience so he can establish personal needs and tailor the course more specifically. He removes jargon and 'corporate speak' from his courses as this can turn off people's learning. The tools and techniques are very simple yet work immediately and are very powerful.
My aim is to cover most of the elements we face in life that can cause us stress, worry or a feeling of helplessness as change, anxiety and the inability to switch off work affects the mind and body that impacts on our home life, said Terry.
Feedback from the courses has ranged from comments such as 'having the tools available to you is one thing, but being taught how to use them takes things on to another level'; 'I believe the tools learned helped me run the whole 10 mile distance of the BUPA Great South Run without stopping and will benefit me in both my professional and personal life', and 'I'm now doing physical exercise five times a week and have so far lost more than 12 pounds.'