Thanks Steve, there was much useful information for me there.

I had the pleasure of working with and being trained by Steve Andreas (and Connirae) back in 1993 when I received my first NLP certification from NLP Comprehensive. I have often thought about the oddity of the situation whereby many people with no formal training at all (and no common sense) take an NLP course and instantly think they are ready to go out and save the world. I have met several people with a very negative opinion of NLP due to their very unfortunate interactions with other "certified" practitioners who had, as far as I can determine, no idea of what the material was about. So I do recognize your concerns. What has spurred me on, beyond just the amazement of the accounts of Milton and others in action, was learning what I did from the NLP model, and then seeing that it was just the tiniest tip of the iceberg of what was available to genuinely influence people's lives in healthful and life-affirming ways. Having read some 15 to 20 books (I have a very large library of material- not just on Erickson's work) by or about Erickson's methods (especially the older ones, like Hypnotic realities, Hypnotherapy, Healing in Trance, Collected Papers 1-4, etc), and observing many, many hours of his available video... I find that so much more exists that I have yet to learn- I seek to aspire to that level of artistry. Someday...

Thanks again, I am very grateful for your input here. This after years of reading your books!

Best regards,

Dave

PS (added 7:52pm EDT): After viewing USIU (now Aliant), NOVA and Fielding, I sent for more info from Nova. Then, on a hunch, I checked out the colleges in my own back yard- and discovered that Smith College, in Northampton, MA seems to have a very robust psych degree program. My wife and I spend a lot of time in Northampton- mostly at the restaurants- so the location is convenient! Do you know anything about the reputation of the Smith psych programs?