Neuro-linguistic programming

NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming is an interpersonal communication model and an alternative approach to psychotherapy based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change. It was created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the early 1970s. The initial focus of NLP was pragmatic, modeling three successful psychotherapists, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and eventually Milton H. Erickson, with the aim of discovering what made these individuals more successful than their peers.

Today the predominant patterns of NLP, the application of those patterns, and many variants of NLP are found in seminars, workshops, books and audio programs in the form of exercises and principles intended to influence change in self and others. There is a great deal of difference between the depth and breadth of training and standards, and some disagreement between those in the field about which patterns are and are not "NLP". While the field of NLP is loosely spread and resistant to a single comprehensive definition, there are some common principles and presuppositions shared by its proponents. Perhaps most generally, NLP aims to increase behavioral choice by the manipulation of personal state, belief and internal representation either by a practitioner / trainer, or by self-application.

NLP in the 80s and 90s

In the early 1980s, NLP was heralded as an important advance in psychotherapy and counseling, and it attracted some interest in counseling research and clinical psychology. In the mid 1980´s research reviews in The Journal of Counseling Psychology and by the National Research Council committee found little empirical basis for the claims about preferred representational systems (PRS) or assumptions of NLP, marking a decrease in research interest. While the title Neuro-linguistic programming implies a basis in neurology, computer science, and linguistics and it is often to marketed as a new science, skeptics contend NLP is an "unproven psychological theory or treatment" and one of the many pseudoscientific or New Age forms of psychotherapy that have emerged in mental health practice. Few practitioners have presented their clinical data for peer-review and most have had little interest in empirical validation. NLP remains supported by its practitioners in the psychotherapy field and has influenced other forms of brief and eclectic interventions. Its models and tools have been used widely outside of psychotherapy in business communication, management training, teaching, executive coaching and motivational seminars.