Paul McKenna (NLP) - Multiple books & CD's at once.

Whatsyourface

Hey I'm thinking of starting a few of Paul McKennas books/ebooks.

Instant Confidence (book and CD),

Change Your Life in 7 Days (book and CD),

I Can Make You Thin (book and CD).

Supreme Self Confidence (audio Book).

Easy Weight Loss (audio book)

Since this is a psychology forum I'm assuming someone knows something about Neuro-Linguistic Programming. If its not the right forum, I apologise.

Would it be okay to use all of these at once - or would the use of multiple CD's and stuff jeopardise or slow down my chance of success?

Whatsyourface

Apologies for the double posting- my internets screwed up...

hotspur

Short answer is no it won't harm your chances of success if you use them around the same time.

If you are buying these products rather than acquiring them by other means then you can spend your money in a better way to get what you wish, particularly in respect of confidence.

While hypnosis can be efficacious it is not something which ought to be presented in CD form in the first instance. As for NLP it is a pseudoscience and without an evidential base. Why choose it when you can buy self-help books from cognitive behavioural therapists which present a genuinely scientific and evidenced grounded approach to change?

Well regarded self-help CBT books by therapists include:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Over-Mood-Change-Changing/dp/0898621283/
http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Therapy-Revised-Updated/dp/0380810336
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Low-Self-esteem-Behavioural-Techniques/dp/1854877259

Valmont

Whatsyourface wrote: »

Since this is a psychology forum I'm assuming someone knows something about Neuro-Linguistic Programming. If its not the right forum, I apologise.

Well, NLP is not an evidence based approch to anything really. The foundations of the theory are tentatively based on a right/left brain dichotomy that has become more of a myth than anything. So from the viewpoint of proper scientific psychology, it to be taken with a grain of salt.

Whenever I hear of books such as "Instant Confidence" and "Change your Life in 7 days" I am immediately skeptical. Frankly, I find it disturbing that these self-proclaimed psychologists can dumb down the importance of changing one's life or of improving one's confidence to the extent that it can be done in a week or "instantly".

I know that maybe you don't want to hear any negative comments as you're clearly trying to proactively better yourself, which is always a good thing. I found this book very helpful in dealing with stress, frustration and general college anxiety. Good luck either way.

Odysseus

From my viewpoint I'm sure these type of books may help some people, but like Valmont I'm very skeptical. I find they cause more harm than good if some one is in therapy with me. It a case of "well X say ..." and it can be use to avoid there subjective material.

Those books that deal with giving up addictions in x many steps really get to me, I would love love to send around some of my chronic patients to the authors and say show me how you are going to "cure" these people. In general Ifind self help books cause more problem if a person is in therapy, though I must admit if they are not maybe the do help people.

Del 2.0

Hi Whatsyourface,
This is my first post on Boards, so plese take it as such.
I'm guessing some of the other posters here are qualified in the area of psychology and as such I wont even try to argue with them. So let me tell you my own personal view on the matter. I've had an interest in the area of Hypnotheraphy & NLP for about 5 years now. On a personal level it's been hugely beneficial to me as I think anything that makes you take a bit of time out to get to know yourself better can only be good for you. If you're not someone who is in need of therapy for serious personal issues, then a few audiobooks etc can be a great start to getting to know yourself better and understanding what makes you tick.
With regard to your specific question, I've listened to a few of Paul McKennas CD's. He's great on audio as he started out as a Radio DJ so he's very easy to listen to. As for listening to several CD's at the same time I wouldn' recommend it. Firstly because each CD usualy requires that you listen to it every day for 7 days. But more importantly, if you look at your list of CD's / books, they are all going to tackle the same issue for you i.e Self-image. So my own view, and I'm open to correction, is to try and take a bit of time to yourself to figure out what it is about your own self image that concerns you e.g Is it physical, or is it lack of fulfillment of some sort etc.
If you can get anywhere with that, then you're already off to a great start. Once you do that, then pick one of the books / CDs and try it out and see if it's for you. If it's not for you then try something else....At least you're being procative which is more than most people ever are. Good luck