What is NLP?

NLP (Neurolingustic Programming)

Neuro-linguistic programming - NLP
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The first popular book on NLP, Frogs into Princes, first published in 1979, was based on transcripts of its co-founders, Bandler and Grinder, presenting at seminars live.Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a method, set of techniques, or personal development system first developed in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in association with Gregory Bateson.

NLP uses a toolbox of strategies, axioms and beliefs about human communication, perception and subjective experience. The core principle is that an individual's thoughts, gestures and words interact to create their perception of the world. By changing their outlook, using a variety of techniques, a person can improve their attitudes and actions.

NLP teaches that a person can develop successful habits by amplifying helpful behaviors and diminishing negative ones. Positive change can come when one carefully reproduces the behaviors and beliefs of successful people (called 'modeling'). It also states that all human beings have all the resources necessary for success within themselves.

Bandler and Grinder credited three successful therapists — Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson — as NLP's major inspirations. They 'modeled' the therapists and developed special "patterns" for general communication, rapport-building and self-improvement.

Evidence-based psychologists assert that NLP is not an empirically validated therapy. It has also been criticized for lacking a defining and regulating body to impose standards and a professional ethical code. Even so, NLP remains popular as an approach to self-help, personal influence and business communication. It is also used as an adjunct by therapists in other therapeutic disciplines