Dear Friends
Many thought that NLP was a new tool. In fact, it started way back in 1970s and has evolved and time tested across across 40 years. Some pointers about the history of NLP are as follows:
• NLP began in early 1970s, when Richard Bandler (a psychology student I University of California Santa Cruz) was transcribing a taped therapy session by Gestalt Therapist Fritz Perls
• Bandler found certain patterns of Perls language which increase its acceptance by clients
• Bandler brought his findings to John Grinder (a linguist) and they produced “Meta Model”
• Bandler & Grinder subsequently modelled after 3 extraordinary psychotherapist: Fritz Perls (Psychotherapist), Virginia Satir (Family Therapist), Dr Milton Erickson (Hypnotherapist) and uncovered the patterns of human excellence
• Went on to model after achievers in other fields (business, sports, education, health, etc) and identify their common structure – NLP was born
• Both of their initial discoveries were recorded in 4 books between 1975 and 1977. The books were called “The Structure of Magic I & II”, “Patterns I & II” and 2 books on Erickson’s hypnotherapy work
• NLP was then evolved into 2 complementary directions: 1) As a process to discover the patterns of excellence in any field, 2) As the effective ways of thinking and communicating used by outstanding individuals
Bandler and Grinder reviewed many hours of audio and video of the top 3 psychotherapists spent months imitating how they worked with clients, in order to replicate or ‘model’ the communication patterns which supposedly made these individuals more successful than their peers. While the style and approach of these psychotherapists were apparently different, Bandler and Grinder believed that all experts in human communication (including Perls, Satir and Erickson) have patterns in common that could be learnt by others. They claimed that there were a few common traits expert communicators – whether top therapists, top executives or top salespeople – all seemed to share.
Want to know how NLP can help you to ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT? Chat with me by attending our Free NLP Workshop.
Have a GREAT Weekend!
Cayden Chang
Founder & Director, Mind Kinesis Management International
BSc(Hons), MSc
Lifelong Learner Award 2008 Honouree
Co-author, “Do You Have What It Takes To Be BOSS?”
