Training Director Andy Smith is a certified trainer of NLP and co-founded the Richmond and Manchester NLP Groups. Currently he organises the North West Business NLP and Emotional Intelligence Group.

Andy has been running workshops and working one-to-one with clients for the last 12 years. In the corporate sector he has worked with clients such as Sony, Mintel, GlaxoSmithKline, BP, the UKAEA, True North Design, the Cabinet Office, Lancashire County Council, and the NHS.

He has appeared on Radio 5 Live's The Jab and has been interviewed by the Guardian, the London Evening Standard and Zest, Time Out and Marie-Claire magazines. He has written for The Journal of Primary Care Mental Health, NLP World, Rapport, Stress News, the National Council for Hypnotherapy Journal, Aromatherapy and Natural Health, and The Therapist, as well as the Rough Guide to Rock.

Andy is the principal trainer on the NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses. Feel free to contact Andy on 0845 83 855 83 or andy@practicaleq.com if you have any questions about this or other courses.

Andy says:

My vision is of a world where we take responsibility for our emotions and for our actions, where people have the skills to communicate better with themselves and others, and where everyone is aware of their own motivations for acting as they do. In short, a world in which people feel they can act from love rather than from fear.

Working in the IT industry for twelve years I saw and experienced poor communication, constant compromises, a long-hours culture, and people being treated as resources to be strip-mined rather than as individuals to be nurtured and developed.

Subsequently, as a therapist, coach, and stress management trainer, I heard countless stories of wasted human potential, overwork, stress, lack of connection, and emotional pain. While some of this may be part of the human condition, a large part of it is unnecessary - caused by ignorance of what human beings need and how we work best. We can change this, starting now, at minimal cost.

The insights and attitudes of NLP provide the most effective methods I have found to enhance emotional intelligence in individuals, organisations, and the world. NLP is not rocket science. It can be applied and understood by anyone. My mission is to make available the practical applications of NLP to everyone, so as to bring about a more emotionally intelligent world.

Associate Trainer Kirsty Jackson BSc (Hons), MCOptom, ANLP & ABNLP member is an Optometrist, a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a certified trainer of NLP; a Master Hypnotist and a Master Practitioner of Time Line Therapy™ she also holds other qualifications in life coaching and other areas of personal development.

After graduating with an honours degree in Optometry Kirsty has worked in optics for 13 years. She has a broad range of experience in the multiple and independent sectors and has also worked in the laser field. During this time she was a member of the co-management team presenting courses and induction seminars including at Optrafair. She took an active role in the training of new Optometrists as well as authoring training materials. 

Kirsty has always had a fascination as to what makes people tick, working with the public only fuelled this curiosity and she was regularly found with her head in psychology books or on various courses which might offer some glimmer of understanding. In 2002 she discovered NLP whilst on a drug and alcohol awareness certification. NLP was achieving phenomenal success in this area and a random comment made by the lecturer prompted her to investigate NLP. She was inspired and has never looked back.

Kirsty met Andy Smith via the Manchester NLP Group. After assisting on numerous trainings for Coaching Leaders, she is now our preferred guest trainer for certification and assessment.

In 2004 she joined forces with Contact lens optician and Life coach Gary Mallam to form ORA Consultancy Ltd, a management coaching consultancy, primarily founded as a means to help Optical practitioners develop new skills outside the normal technical optical competences normally associated with optics.

Together they organised a unique series of accredited management and communication development workshops aimed at the optical professional. They have brought together the skills of marketing with that of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and plan to take this into other areas in the future.

© Coaching Leaders Ltd 2005