06/07/2018
NLP Origins
NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) was first developed in the U.S. in the early 70's from studying the thinking and behavioural skills used by particularly effective and successful people.
It is now used internationally by millions of people throughout the world in such diverse fields as management, sales, marketing, public relations, education, therapy, the military and police, sport, and personal development.
It’s journey began when an Associate Professor of linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, John Grinder, teamed up with a psychology undergraduate Richard Bandler.
Richard Bandler started out as a student of mathematics and was also studying computer science. He eventually became more interested in the behavioural science field and switched his major to psychology.
Together they applied Grinder's linguistic skills and Bandler's creative genius to thoroughly analyse the work and the success-rate of Virginia Satir, a Family Therapist and Fritz Perls who was the founder of Gestalt Therapy.
Bandler and Grinder did whatever worked and removed didn’t work. They analysed writings and tape-recordings to discover what accounted for the successful results achieved by Satir and Perls. Later, through a friend of Bandler's, they got to know and became admirers of Gregory Bateson who, in turn, introduced them to the work of Milton Erickson.
The first two books published by Bandler and Grinder on NLP, was the techniques used by Perls and Satir, The Structure of Magic, Vol I & II. The books identified language patterns that are characteristic of effective therapists, published in 1975 and 1976.
Their second book, Frogs into Princes, a transcript of an early seminar on the teachings was published in 1979
After achieving outstanding results, modelling the methods used by Perls and Satir, Bandler and Grinder started to model other great communicators. They were deeply influenced by Gregory Bateson, and they studied the work of Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950). They studied the work of the famous medical hypnotist Milton Erickson (1901–1980). They also included the work of Noam Chomsky (1928-present), an American linguist, cognitive scientist, philosopher and political commentator, who developed transformational grammar near the end of the 1950’s.
Bandler and Grinder were captivated by Milton Erickson’s techniques , and incorporated Erickson’s manner of conversational hypnosis into the NLP. Communicating to the unconscious using “artfully vague” techniques and did away with authoritarian suggestions. Erickson focused on building rapport and meeting the person in their model of the world to remove resistance from the unconscious. Erickson’s techniques became a core part of NLP and is known as the “Milton Model.”
As Bandler and Grinder knowledge and insights developed, others started to expand and contribute to NLP. NLP now include the work of, Leslie Cameron Bandler, Robert Dilts, Judith DeLozier, and David Gordon. Each individual contributed and helped expand on the work done by Bandler and Grinder and NLP is ever evolving as more and more people are joining this Art and Science of Excellence and contributing to it.
For millions, NLP is a way of life and I being one of them.
I welcome you to the world of NLP 🙂
