Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to psychotherapy and organizational change based on “a model of interpersonal communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them” and “a system of alternative therapy
based on this which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behaviour”.

The term “Neuro-Linguistic Programming” refers to a stated connection between the neurological processes (“neuro”), language (“linguistic”) and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience (“programming”) and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life.

Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is capable of addressing problems such as phobias, depression, habit disorders, psychosomatic illness, and learning disorders, and helps people attain fuller and richer lives”. Bandler and Grinder claimed that if the effective patterns of behaviour of exceptional people could be modeled then these patterns could be acquired by others.

NLP has been adopted by private therapists, including hypnotherapists, and those who undertake training in NLP and apply it to their practice. It has also been promoted as a “science of excellence”, and applied within management training, life coaching, alternative medicine, large group awareness training, and the self-help industry.

NLP originated when Richard Bandler, a student at the University of California, was listening to and selecting portions of taped therapy sessions of the late Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls. Bandler recognized particular word and sentence structures which facilitated the acceptance of Perls’ therapeutic suggestions. Bandler took this idea to one of his university lecturers, John Grinder, a linguist. Together they studied Perls’s utterances on tape and observed a
second therapist, Virginia Satir, to produce what they termed the meta model, a model for gathering information and challenging a client’s language and underlying thinking.

The meta model was presented in 1975 in two volumes, The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy and The Structure of Magic II: A Book About Communication and Change, in which the authors expressed their belief that the therapeutic “magic” as performed in therapy by Perls and Satir, and by performers in any complex human activity, had structure that could be learned by others given the appropriate models. Implicit in the
behavior of Perls and Satir was the ability to challenge distortion, generalization and deletion in a client’s language.
NLP is a pragmatic school of thought – an ‘epistemology’ – that addresses the many levels involved in being human. NLP is a multi-dimensional process that involves the development of behavioral competence and flexibility, but also involves strategic thinking and an understanding of the mental and cognitive processes behind behavior.

NLP provides tools and skills for the development of states of individual excellence, but it also establishes a system of empowering beliefs and presuppositions about what human beings are, what communication is and what the process of change is all about. At another level, NLP is about self-discovery, exploring identity and mission. It also provides a
framework for understanding and relating to the ‘spiritual’ part of human experience that reaches beyond us as individuals to our family, community and global systems. NLP is not only about competence and excellence, it is about wisdom and vision.

NLP Presuppositions

There are certain presuppositions underlying NLP.

1. The map is not the territory.
2. Mind and body are parts of the same cybernetic system and affect each other.
3. The law of requisite variety (also known as the first law of cybernetics – cybernetics is the science of systems and controls in animals, including humans, and machines) states that in any cybernetic system the element or person in the system with the widest range of behaviours or variability of choice will control the system.
4. Behaviour is geared towards adaptation.
5. Present behaviour represents the very best choice available to a person.
6. Behaviour is to be evaluated and appreciated or changed as appropriate in the context presented.
7. People have all the resources they need to make the changes they want.
8. ‘Possible in the world’ or ‘possible for me’ is only a matter of how.
9. The highest quality information about other people is behavioural.
10. It is useful to make a distinction between behaviour and self.
11. There is no such thing as failure; there is only feedback.

NLP Is Founded On Two Fundamental Presuppositions:

1. The Map is Not the Territory. As human beings, we can never know reality. We can only know our perceptions of reality. We experience and respond to the world around us primarily through our sensory representational systems. It is our ‘neuro-linguistic’ maps of reality that determine how we behave and that give those behaviors meaning, not reality itself. It is generally not reality that limits us or empowers us, but rather our map of reality.
2. Life and ‘Mind’ are Systemic Processes. The processes that take place within a human being and between human beings and their environment are systemic. Our bodies, our societies, and our universe form an ecology of complex systems and sub-systems all of which interact with and mutually influence each other. It is not possible to completely isolate any part of the system from the rest of the system. Such systems are based on certain ‘selforganizing’
   principles and naturally seek optimal states of balance or homeostasis.

All of the models and techniques of NLP are based on the combination of these two principles. In the belief system of NLP it is not possible for human beings to know objective reality. Wisdom, ethics and ecology do not derive from having the one ‘right’ or ‘correct’ map of the world, because human beings would not be capable of making one. Rather, the goal is to create the richest map possible that respects the systemic nature and ecology of ourselves
and the world we live in.

The people who are most effective are the ones who have a map of the world that allows them to perceive the greatest number of available choices and perspectives. NLP is a way of enriching the choices that you have and perceive as available in the world around you. Excellence comes from having many choices. Wisdom comes from having multiple perspectives.

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