Our response to the NLPAA’s listing of Elizabeth Anne Walker Training & Coaching

What the NLPAA published

On its “Find a Trainer” page, the NLPAA lists training organisations whose training it does not recognise. Most entries give a standards-based reason, commonly, that the association does not recognise online delivery. The entry naming us reads:

“Elizabeth Anne Walker Training & Coaching — This training is not recognised due to breaches in NLPAA Trainer Code of Ethics.”

What the NLPAA told us in writing

On 8 April 2026, Elizabeth Walker wrote via email to the NLPAA asking which standard had been breached and what evidence supported it, so that any issue could be addressed to their satisfaction and the listing removed.

The NLPAA replied the same day. Its reply included the following, quoted exactly:

“As you have noted, you are not a member of the NLP Association of Asia Pacific, and as such you are not bound by our Trainer Code of Ethics. Our role is not to regulate non-members, but to provide guidance to the public based on the information available to us. In these circumstances, the Association does not undertake formal engagement or remediation processes with non-members…”

“To protect the confidentiality of individuals who have come forward, we are not able to provide specific details of individual reports.”

Three things follow from the association’s own words:

1. It accepts that we are not bound by the Trainer Code of Ethics, the same Code its website says we breached.
2. It confirms it does not engage with non-members before publishing about them. We were given no notice, no particulars and no opportunity to respond.
3. It will not tell us what is alleged, when it is said to have happened, at which training, or by whom, so there is nothing we can investigate, answer or correct.

We replied the same day asking what steps would be required to resolve the matter. We received no response. We wrote again on 17 August 2026 asking for the listing to be removed. The listing remains published.

Our position

We have never been a member of the NLPAA

Elizabeth Anne Walker Training Company has never held membership of the NLP Association of Asia Pacific Inc. (formerly the NLP Association of Australia, and prior to that the Australian Board of NLP), has never applied for membership, and has never sought or been granted recognition by it.

Our courses have never been assessed by the NLPAA

It has never reviewed our curriculum, our training hours, our delivery, our assessment methods or our trainers.

A code of ethics ONLY binds the paid members of the association

The NLPAA is an incorporated association registered in New South Wales. Under section 26 of the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW), an incorporated association’s constitution “binds the association and its members to the same extent as if it were a contract between them”. NSW Fair Trading states it plainly: the constitution of an incorporated association is a contract between the association and its members. We are not, and have never been, a party to it, as the NLPAA itself confirmed to us in writing.

On the concerns the NLPAA raised with us

The NLPAA’s email referred to concerns it alleges were reported by people it would not name, at trainings it would not identify, on dates it would not give. We have not been able to investigate them, and we do not accept them.

The association attached its Trainer Code of Ethics to that email as the standard it says we fell short of. We have read it carefully. We believe despite being non members we meet all of the points in this code of ethics effectively.

About the NLPAA

We say this without hostility. The NLPAA serves its members, and reasonable people hold different views about NLP training standards.

The NLPAA is a private membership association, NOT a government or statutory regulator. On the public record:

• It is an incorporated association registered with NSW Fair Trading under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW), operating under ABN 62 549 236 410.
• It is NOT a National Board under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and is not part of the AHPRA scheme.
• It does NOT hold an approved scheme under Australia’s Professional Standards Legislation. The Professional Standards Councils list 18 associations with approved schemes, accounting bodies, law societies and bar associations, surveyors, valuers, building surveyors, the Australian Computer Society and Strata Community Association (NSW). No NLP or coaching association is among them.
• It is NOT a Registered Training Organisation and holds no accreditation authority under the national VET system regulated by ASQA.

Its membership standards, its code of ethics and its directory listings are its own private standards for its own private members. They carry no statutory force over anyone — and, as it told us itself, no force at all over a non-member.

About regulation of NLP and coaching in Australia

Neuro-Linguistic Programming and coaching are unregulated professions in Australia. There is no register of NLP trainers or coaches, no protected title and no licensing scheme.

Australia regulates 16 health professions through 15 National Boards administered by AHPRA. Section 113 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law sets out an exhaustive list of protected titles; “NLP practitioner”, “NLP trainer” and “coach” are not among them. For context, even counselling and psychotherapy are self-regulated: the Commonwealth Department of Health confirmed in October 2025 that “the professions of counselling and psychotherapy are self-regulated in Australia” and that “no regulatory body has oversight of the delivery of counselling and psychotherapy services”.

What does apply to us, and to every training provider in this field, is the Australian Consumer Law, enforced by the ACCC and state fair trading agencies. We take those obligations seriously.

What our certifications are

There is no NLP training package and no NLP unit of competency in Australia’s national VET system. We are not an RTO. We do not represent our certificates as nationally recognised training, and they do not carry the Nationally Recognised Training logo. Our certifications are however widely recognised and allow our graduates to access multiple insurance products globally due to our exemplary training standards.

What we have asked for

We have asked the NLPAA to remove the entry, and if in existence to identify the provision said to have been breached, the conduct alleged and the process by which it reached its conclusion. We have had no substantive response since 8 April 2026.

If the NLPAA corrects or removes the listing, we will update this page to say so.