MID SOUTH INSTITUTE OF NLP:

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About Us-Edna &Clint.

 Edna Clay, cofounder and president of the Mid-South Institute of Neuro Linguistic Programming was born and raised in California.  She attended the University of the Pacific where she received her Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education, and then taught second grade in Bakersfield,


Following  her  marriage in 1954 to Clinton Clay, she moved to Alabama and taught school in the Gadsden School System. The Clays were to make a number of moves during the next few years as Clinton competed his MSW and advanced through transfers and promotions. Edna continued teaching schools,  directing church choirs and doing volunteer work.

She taught in elementary schools in Jacksonville, Florida; Andalusia, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, and was given a contract to teach in Decatur, Alabama, only to have plans changed by the adoption of their first child. The next several years were spent in caring their two children, doing volunteer work and in directing church choirs. She began singing  in the Huntsville Community Chorus in 1967, while still living in Decatur, and has continued active in that organization through the years, having been elected  to the Board of Directors and serving two terms as president. She continues to sing in the alto section and has chaired the long range  music planning committee for a number  of years.

She became interested in NLP in 1984 upon accompanying Clint to a seminar offered by the Southern Institute of NLP. The featured speakers were Linda Sommers and Joseph Yeager of the New Jersey Institute of NLP.  Linda shared her experience of using NLP in the classroom as an elementary teacher and later  of the benefits of rapport skills as she and Joe worked with business corporations. Until then Edna had been impressed with Clint’s enthusiastic reports of his work with clients and had believed that NLP was  therapy tool and had seen no value for NLP in teaching. In 1985 she attended the practitioner training program at the University of London, in England. This was the first of the Trainings offered  in Europe by Ed and Mary Ann  Reese.

Edna subsequently got her Master practitioner certification and her NLP Trainer Certification through the Reeses’ International NLP training, having participated  in training  programs  offered in Zermat,  Switzerland and  Titesee,  Germany. She also studied extensively with Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein at the NLPU in Santa Cruz, CA. s well as  participating  in  training  programs that the Mid South Institute  of NLP was sponsoring  in Huntsville.  These  included  weekend workshops conducted by Ed Reese,  Mary Ann Reese, Carol Erickson, Connie Rae Andreas, Robert DIlts, Todd Epstein,  Tim Halbom, Francis Wiggins, William O'Hanlon, Paul Sheely, and others.

In 1993-94 Edna completed the NLP in Health training offered by Robert Dilts, Tim Halbom and Suzi Smith in Salt Lake City, Utah. She continue participating in the annual training over the next several years, serving as a coach and then as head coach. She was active in the organization of IASH, Institute for the Advanced Studies  in Health. She was an avid advocate for the biennial  conferences  of IASH and  being a recognized organizer and accomplisher,  she served on the planning and  program  committee and was instrumental in contracting with hotels for conferenced, chairing  committees and other crucial issues that made the conferences  a success.

Upon completing  her  practitioner training in London, Edna contributed her  services  to the community and the State of Alabama in offering training  programs on rapport  skills, interviewing  techniques, resources for teachers and educators, training of volunteer groups in better   carrying  out their responsibilities. She taught seminars for the  state nurses association,  the Vocational Rehabilitation Services, the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers and was ever responding to requests  from schools,  PTAs, local agencies, for several church programs. etc to teach some  aspect  of NLP. She volunteered at the local center for children with learning disabilities,  worked with Cerebral Palsy volunteers  and  made a significant contribution to   the training of CAJA  volunteers. (court appointed juvenile advocates). In the early 1990s a  Family Court Judge in Huntsville was  greatly concerned about the sparsity of services to attend to the needs of juveniles who were coming through  the court system. Being a friend of the Clays, he asked  Clinton and Edna to present  training to a group of volunteers he had recruited to serve as court advocates for the youth, each volunteer was to work extensively with one juvenile assigned  to him/her.  The program was a success and Edna continued to be one of the primary trainers over the next several years

Clinton is a licensed social worker having received his MSW from Florida State School of Social Work in 1956.  He began his career as a social case worker with the Marshall County Department of Public Welfare in 1949, and has had more than fifty years experience, including public agencies, private not for profit agency, the US Army, a private practice in a psychiatric group, and finally, the past seven years in private independent practice. Always interested in new, innovative, and effective treatment approaches, he moved from the psychoanalytic approach to Rogerian client centered therapy, Behavior Modification, Rational Emotive Therapy, Transactional Analysis-Gestalt, and since 1980, has been extensively involved in Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis, EMDR and Energy Therapies.

He completed several levels of NLP training, becoming a Practitioner, Master Practitioner, Associate Trainer and Trainer.  He also completed a special NLP program in Health and Wellness, and served as coach one year in that program. Having received his advancing certifications through the Southern Institute and NLP International with Ed and Maryann Reese, he was deeply interesting in a diversity of training programs and had significant periods of training with Steven and Connie Rae Andreas, Todd Epstein and Robert Dilts, Tad James, and others.
      
Hypnosis has been a profound part of his life and practice for twenty years.  He has studied hypnosis with some of the world’s most highly recognized authorities, among whom were:  Ed Reese, MSW, author lecturer and trainer; May Ann Reese, MS, therapist and international trainer; Robert Dilts, internationally known as an author, teacher, and developer of NLP therapy techniques; Stephen Lankton, MSW, international trainer, author and member of the ASCH (American Society of Clinical Hypnosis) Board; Ernest Rossi, PhD, author and internationally famous teacher; Carol Erickson, MA, daughter of Milton Erickson, teacher and therapist; Richard Bandler, co-founder of NLP, international trainer and developer of new therapies.  Others include Michael Yapko PhD; Carl Hammerschlog, M.D.; William O’Hanlon, PhD; Jeffrey Zeig, PhD; Stephen Gilligan, PhD:  Betty Alice Erickson, MS, LPS, LMFT.

Active in his professional organization, The National Association of Social Work,
he has served as president of the Alabama Chapter, has represented the Chapter to the National Delegate Assembly of NASW, and was named “Chapter Social Worker of the Year” in 1972.  He is currently serving on the Chapter Board of Directors, representing the Huntsville Unit.  He has also served as president of the Alabama  Conference of Social Work.

 

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