Neuro-Linguistic Programming

The NLP model

We experience the world through our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Because there is so much continuous information coming in our direction we consciously and unconsciously delete what we don't want to pay attention to. We filter the remaining data based on our past experiences, values and beliefs. What we end up with is incomplete and inaccurate because some of the original input has been deleted altogether and the rest has been generalized or distorted. The filtered information forms our internal map, which influences our physiology and 'state of being'. This in turn affects our behavior.

The story of NLP

At the heart of NLP, though, is the 'modelling' of human excellence - and that is where the story of NLP begins in the early 1970s, with the collaboration of Richard Bandler and John Grinder at the University of California.

Bandler, a student of mathematics with a particular interest in computer science, got involved in transcribing some audio and video seminar tapes of Fritz Perls, the father of Gestalt Therapy, and Virginia Satir, the founder of Family Therapy. He found that by copying certain aspects of their behavior and language he could achieve similar results, and began running