Mind over matter

4:49pm Saturday 12th January 2008

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A MAN with a once fiery temper is giving up teaching Thai boxing to become a life coach.

Vinnie Shoreman said he planned to use a technique that helped him to straighten out his own life to coach others.

The technique, neuro-linguistic programming, has been described as a powerful antidote to life in the 21st Century.

Last week Mr Shoreman told how it had stopped him from feeling insecure, angry and aggressive.

"Without it I could have got into trouble because I just didn't listen to anyone," he said. "I had an untrained mind and a distorted view of the world."

NLP - as it is commonly known - is based on the discovery that by changing how one thinks it is possible to change what one thinks.

"It's all about talking to that little voice in your head that gives you the wrong direction," said Mr Shoreman, who has taught Thai boxing at Egerton Youth Club in Knutsford for more than 22 years.

Mr Shoreman, 38, first met a life coach at a seminar two years ago.

He then began to read books about the techniques, started to apply them to his own life before eventually studying in Manchester to become a qualified NLP coach.

The technique - used by TV hypnotist Paul McKenna - focuses on the sights, sounds and feelings that a person links to a problem.

Rather than simply talking to that person, a life coach responds to thoughts expressed in their body language..

Those subconscious ideas - such as an irrational fear of spiders - can then be accessed, altered and even erased.

"You give people neurological stimulus to make them think they can do things," said Mr Shoreman who is now setting up his own business Light Finder.

He said irrational thoughts could be eradicated within hours.

"If I can't change it I can give them their money back," he said.