This company is ME -

Larry Westenberg, hanging out my "shingle" to do my private counseling and coaching practice as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker utilizing NLP with clients. I have had the license to do therapy for some time now, but waited until I felt I was truly ready to provide services that would warrant charging people money for therapy.

Much of this company and the services provided grew out of my total frustration with traditional types of therapy and traditional therapists. I was tired of watching therapy clients not getting better, and the solution always being to recommend more treatment sessions. When I discovered NLP in 1990, I knew I had found something I had been searching for my entire life! Here was a method of therapy that got results quickly and consistently. I studied and assisted at NLP training programs around the country, practicing and learning the background intricacies of how this system could be applied to therapy. I went back to my job at the State hospital, and had fantastic success with my clients, many of whom had schizophrenia. I taught them to manage their symptoms so that hearing voices was not a horrible experience, but simply an "inconvenience." This often resulted in them needing much lower doses of medication, but more importantly, it taught them that they had the power to control their internal experiences and thus their lives to a much greater extent than they previously believed possible. I then went to work in Forensic (legal/criminal) psychiatry, and studied how to change beliefs. My motivation for learning this was that I had clients who thought it was "cool" to kill people. (I am not exaggerating or kidding.) My goal was to change that belief, whether they wanted it changed or not. Some people would consider this unethical - I was deliberately changing people's beliefs! I considered it unethical for the patient to just say the right things, take their medications, and get released from the hospital - only to go out and kill somebody else. This happened on numerous occasions. I wrote a book on how to change beliefs called, "The Structure of Beliefs and Prejudice," which is based on the experiences I had practicing belief change processes.

About this time I was so excited about what NLP could do, that I went to school to get my degree and license to become a legally authorized therapist (an MSW - a Master's degree in Social Work, and then LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker). I was hoping to teach NLP to therapists, and needed the credentials to "prove" to them that I had enough education to possibly teach them something worthwhile. This desire to effectively teach NLP techniques led me to get another degree, this time in Education - an M.S.Ed.

I believe that there are many wonderful human beings with loving hearts who provide good therapy to their clients. I am very convinced of this. Unfortunately, I also believe that there are also a huge number of much less competent people (in my opinion) who have NO right to be doing "change work" with ANYBODY, and many who have never worked out their own "screamingly-obvious issues" to a point where they can work on somebody else's issues. I know of two female therapists who have been "burned" by men in a divorce, and pressure every female client to get divorced and live a more "full life." I also know a number of therapists who have a history of being sexually abused, and therefore ASSUME that every client has been sexually abused, and force the client to "dig and dig" until they find "their repressed sexual abuse," which has actually been hypnotically installed by the therapist - without them (the therapist) even realizing they were doing hypnosis! I wish there was a way to let people know and warn them about these types of therapists.

On the flip side, I have a friend who is a very caring person and who I believe will make an excellent therapist. He once said to me, "I don't want to get my therapist license until I work out all of my own issues first." I replied, "You don't have to work out every one of your OWN issues in order to be a therapist - you just have to be able to put YOUR issues ' in a box' long enough to focus on the CLIENT'S issues while you do therapy with them." He has such integrity that he is VERY concerned that he might do some "damage" to someone in therapy, and so he is waiting until he feels confident about being able to keep his issues OUT of a session. I find this very noble and honorable.

Sadly, many therapists have admitted to me that they went into counseling because they wanted an easy job where they get paid to "talk to people." I have also had many therapists tell me, "Nobody has to get 'better' in therapy. They just have to keep coming for more therapy." I find this absolutely revolting and infuriating!

When I began offering training to therapists in rapid change technology via my training company (go to www.expandingenterprises.com), many of them scoffed. Even when they saw the techniques work when they did them for themselves, they would refuse to use them in their counseling practice! Most often I heard, "If my clients get better in one or two sessions, who the heck am I going to see in the second month after all my clients get better?! I'll be out of business!" I told them, "If you help people get better quickly, your happy and improved clients will get you referrals." They would skeptically reply, "Yeah... right. Sure. "

My passion is to share my NLP knowledge with others. My clients get MUCH more than what they bargain for, as they do not know how much can be accomplished using very basic NLP techniques.

Note -

There are some "branches" of NLP to which I do not subscribe:

1.) Some groups claim to use NLP to help people get in touch with their, "Higher Self" and then the therapist leads them on a "Spiritual Journey." I do not involve myself in this at all. This is a mis-application of NLP. It is simply not what NLP is designed to do.

2.) In a similar vein, others claim to have used NLP to model "Spirituality" and religious experiences including Shamanic practices. I do not involve myself in this either, and I consider it like trying to use a hacksaw to cut a diamond. It is the wrong tool for the job! NLP is about the mental plane. You can help change people's thinking, behavior, their sense of identity and self-worth, enhance capabilities and change beliefs with NLP. You can give them the ILLUSION of having a spiritual experience, but that does not make it a genuine spiritual experience.

3.) I do not do the same "tricks" as Derren Brown or David Blane - both of whom use NLP. I like what Derren Brown does very much and appreciate his skills, but that is not my goal or area of work. I'm just letting you know so that if you want a session of "NLP and Spiritual Growth," or you want to learn to manipulate people, please look elsewhere. And no, I won't provide any referrals in these areas.

If you are looking for a more traditional therapist, I know some excellent ones, and am willing to provide referrals.

It would be my honor to share NLP-based counseling and coaching with you, and I challenge you to call for a session and just find out how much better life can get when you begin to take control of your thoughts and emotions and use them to guide your life in the directions you truly want to go.

Call me at:

630-663-8914