What Is NLP?

NLP is used for personal development, life coaching and for success in business. NLP is the practice of understanding how people organise their thinking, feeling, language and behaviour to produce the results they do. NLP provides people with a methodology to model outstanding performances achieved by geniuses and leaders in their field.

A key element of NLP is that we form our unique internal mental maps of the world as a product of the way we filter and perceive information absorbed through our five senses from the world around us.

Neuro: Each individual has established their own unique mental filtering system for processing the millions of bits of data being absorbed through the senses. Our first mental map of the world is constituted of internal images, sounds, tactile awareness, internal sensations, tastes and smells that form as result of the neurological filtering process. The first mental map is called ‘First Access’ in NLP.

Linguistic: We then assign personal meaning to the information being received from the world outside. We form our second mental map by assigning language to the internal images, sounds and feelings, tastes and smells, thus forming everyday conscious awareness. The second mental map is called the Linguistic Map (sometimes known as Linguistic Representation)

Programming: The behavioural response that occurs as a result of neurological filtering processes and the subsequent linguistic map.

When Neuro Linguistic Programming began it’s life early in the 1970s as an Associate Professor from the University of California, Santa Cruz, John Grinder, teamed up with an undergraduate Richard Bandler. Both men had a fascination with human excellence which charted a path for them to model behavioural patterns of selected geniuses.

Modelling is the core activity in NLP, and is the process of extricating and replicating the language structure and behavioural patterns of an individual who is excellent at a given activity.

Grinder and Bandler began their NLP quest by modelling three people, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. These geniuses were outstanding as professional agents of change, working in the domain of therapy. All three geniuses, Perls, Satir and Erickson performed their magic from a perspective of unconscious excellence. The geniuses did not present Grinder and Bandler with a conscious description of their behaviour. The modellers (Grinder and Bandler) unconsciously absorbed the patterning inherent in the geniuses and then provided a description.

With little direct knowledge of each of the geniuses speciality and little knowledge of the field of psychotherapy on the whole, Grinder and Bandler over a two year period set out with enthusiasm bordering on fervour, to explicate selected portions of the geniuses’ behaviour. They coded the results of their work in language-based models using the patterns of transformational grammar as the descriptive vocabulary. Through NLP Modelling Grinder and Bandler made explicit the tacit skills of the geniuses and NLP was born.

The company that Grinder and Bandler were keeping in these heady days of the 1970s was a melting pot of enquiring minds seeking investigation into human behaviour. John Grinder was an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Richard Bandler a fourth year undergraduate student. The world renowned anthropologist Gregory Bateson had joined the faculty at Kresge College, and such was Bateson’s interest in Grinder and Bandler’s collaboration he introduced Grinder and Bandler to Milton Erickson. Bateson provided support, feedback and his enthusiasm is in part captured in his introduction to the book Structure of Magic where he states “John Grinder and Richard Bandler have done something similar to what my colleagues and I attempted fifteen years ago.”

In 1975 Grinder and Bandler presented the first two NLP models to the world in the volumes “Structure of Magic I and II.” The volumes published by the respected publishing house “Science and Behaviour Books inc” put NLP on the map and interest in the new field of NLP spread quickly. People in fields related to communication, behaviour and change sought to learn how they too could get amazing results when doing change work. Grinder and Bandler willingly offered training courses in the application of their models. The training courses Bandler and Grinder conducted – proved that the NLP models were transferable to others, meaning the learners could us the NLP models successfully in their own work.NLP Modelling, NLP Training, NLP Application

So where NLP began it’s life as a means of modelling excellence, training courses soon became a very active part of the NLP adventure, followed by NLP application where NLP trained people apply their NLP tools for commercial and personal benefit. NLP Modelling

NLP modelling is the art of making explicit the set of differences present in someone who is excellent at a given activity compared with someone who is mediocre at the same activity. NLP modelling is by far the highest skill level in NLP. NLP modelling can be used to capture patterns of excellence present in anyone in any context.

Many companies in the NLP community put little or no emphasis on modelling. Michael Carroll attended an NLP course back in 1995 and was disappointed that the trainer openly admitted he ‘didn’t know much about modelling’. When Michael set up the NLP Academy he ensured modelling would be an integral part of the NLP Academy philosophy. Modelling is a major feature of our Master Practitioner Course. Modelling is also featured in the NLPedia Master Practitioner Study Set.

Through the years John Grinder, has continued to develop his skills as a modeller. He stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field as a person who can capture the patterns of excellence inherent in any outstanding individual. John Grinder, with his partner Carmen Bostic St Clair, offer modelling trainings with The NLP Academy.NLP Training

When the NLP developers began to share their knowledge, NLP Certification became available with other trainers. Thirty years after the NLP inception, modern day NLP training comes in all shapes and sizes, some excellent, some good, a lot of average and some decidedly poor. At the NLP Academy we are proud of our training record. The quality of NLP Academy Practitioners and Master Practitioners speaks volumes for our work. We are proud all the people who graduate with the NLP Academy and endeavour to support their future development. With the release of the NLPedia Study Sets, we stand alone as the only company in the UK offering genuine multi-sensory home learning packages that support the accelerated learning NLP certification courses. The Practitioner Training is now available as a Home Learning Diploma. Click here for detailsNLP Application

An NLP Practitioner can employ his/her skills as an agent of change working with individuals, groups, or companies, or even global organisations and governments. As a technology, NLP has an amazing track record for instigating fast and efficient change in individuals and groups.

Many people study NLP to help them become more effective in their chosen field. The patterns can be employed across a wide area of applications ranging from fields as diverse as education, team building, sales, marketing, personal development, leadership and coaching. Wherever there is human interaction and growth potential, NLP can be used to develop and enhance performance.NLP Modelling

Coding patterns of geniusThe patterns of any genius can be replicated through modelling NLP Training

The training of NLP patterning, NLP Practitioner, NLP Advanced Tools, NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Trainers Certification, NLP Application

Change work Education Training Sales Leadership Marketing Therapy

So what started out with a wanton curiosity as to how geniuses performed their magic, has now grown into an international field of NLP Trainers, Practitioners, and people excelling as a result of applying Neuro Linguistic Programming in their professions and personal lives.

NLP now features in over 1000 educational books on subjects ranging from specialist NLP matters, psychology, sales, negotiation, management, parenting and accelerated learning. There are thousands of NLP public seminars worldwide, training over 20,000 people each year around the globe hosted by specialist NLP Trainers. The majority of quality business seminars will now include aspects of NLP, which equates to a figure of tens of thousands of people learning how to use NLP, and that figure is growing every year .