Origins and History of NLP

In the early 1970, a student of mathematics (Richard Bandler) and a linguistics professor (Dr John Grinder) at the University of California at Santa Cruz joined forces to model the high-level therapy skills of Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir. After enjoying immediate and powerful results from this initial modelling, they then set out to model the hypnotic skills of Milton Erickson.

NLP has grown out of and has been influenced by General Semantics (Korzybski), Anthropology and Cybernetics (Bateson), Transformational Grammar (Noam Chomsky), Reframing (Watzalawick), Family Systems (Virginia Satir), Gestalt Therapy (Perls) and Medical Hypnosis (Milton Erickson).

Their first work “The Structure of Magic Vol. I & II” (1975, 1976) identified the verbal and behavioral patterns of therapists Fritz Perls (the creator of gestalt therapy) and Virginia Satir (internationally renowned family therapist).

Their next work “Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques” of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Vol. I & II (1975, 1976) examined the verbal and behavioral patterns of Milton Erickson, founder of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and one of the most widely acknowledged and clinically successful psychiatrists of our times.

As a result of this earlier work, Grinder and Bandler formalized their modeling techniques and their own individual contributions under the name "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" to symbolize the relationship between the brain, language and the body.

The basics of this model has been described in a series of books including Frogs Into Princes (Bandler & Grinder, 1979 ) , Neuro-Linguistic Programming Vol. I (Dilts, Grinder, Bandler, DeLozier, 1980), Reframing (Bandler & Grinder, 1982) and Using Your Brain (Bandler, 1985).

Today Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is found in all aspects of human endeavour including Business and Management, Marketing and Advertising, Performance Arts and Sports, Consulting, Coaching and Counselling, Health Sciences and Education. It is an acknowledged and widely practice discipline in behavioural science, psychology and performance development.