In many cases of where neuro linguistic programming is taught, most focus on teaching the techniques. For instance, you might learn the technique of curing phobias, building confidence and enhancing good feelings. I'd like you to consider that NLP is not just about those techniques. Patterns and formats (the step-by-step process of using a technique) do not necessarily add value to you. You might learn a technique only to realize that it falls flat on its face when you can't apply it to certain people. It happened when I was testing this out while I was still in the university. someone asked me about "submodalities" and I thought it would be a good way to test submodalities out on this person. It so happened that the way I used it was a technique I had picked up in NLP 101, and it had no effect on that person whatsoever. I had attempted to use a technique called the "Swish Pattern", which was devised by Richard Bandler several years ago, but it didn't 'work'. Or shall I say "I" didn't work. You see, I had the mindset that I could treat anything using submodality patterns. However, I realized later that these are not tailored to suit the client. I did not explore what was going on inside the mind of the client first, and jumped to the conclusion that the swish technique could work on him. This is a common problem with beginners in NLP. The techniques taught are taken to be the gospel truth, but they are not used properly with effective meta modeling and exploration. If you want to develop mastery in NLP, you must learn how to apply the principles of NLP at the foundation level, and develop this foundation well. Once you have this, you can proceed to devise ANY technique you want, and it will work.