History and Founders of NLP

Online, December 11, 2012 (Newswire.com) - One of the most well-known, and sometimes controversial, communication, personal development and psychotherapy methodologies is neuro linguistic programming. NLP was first developed in America in the 70s, and has since become a worldwide phenomenon with neuro linguistic training and NLP education courses now popular all over the world.

But how did NLP come about, and who were the pioneers of NLP education? This article looks at the history of NLP and the key people involved in its development.

Richard Bandler

American author Richard Bandler has written widely on the subject of self-help, and also offers training in this area. He is most well known for being one of the co-founders of the neuro linguistic programming methodology.

John Grinder

Bandler became interested in therapy at university, when he assisted Robert Spitzer to edit a manuscript of taped sessions led by gestalt therapist Fritz Perls. He noticed that certain things Perls said led to subjects giving particular answers, and he took his findings to Professor John Grinder, a linguist at the university who specialised in Chomsky's transformational grammar. Bandler and Grinder together developed a therapy model from this, and they published it in 1975 in a two-part book series, entitled The Structure of Magic.

Milton Erickson

Bandler and Grinder were later introduced to the work of Milton Erickson, and the three of them went on develop some of the foundational models for neuro-linguistic programming together. Bandler and Grinder then developed the NLP model to include some of the more well-known concepts, such "anchoring", "reframing", "submodalities", "perceptual positions", and "representational systems".

In the late 80s and early 90s, Grinder begin collaborating more widely in order to further refine NLP, and developed 'The New Code' which put greater emphasis on mental states, unconscious versus conscious relationships, and perceptual filters.

Bandler has since published many books on the subject, some co-authored with Grinder, and he now concentrates on developing and presenting NLP. He is an active writer, speaker and consultant on the subject.

If you are interested in neuro linguistic training, Yorkshire-based trainer and consultant Julie McGeever offers regular courses and one to one sessions through her NLP training company, Peak Performance. Find out more on her website: www.peak-performance-nlp.co.uk