The Beginnings of NLP

- A Brief History -

Dr Richard Bandler

Dr John Grinder

The work I am able to do today, here at David Rose NLP and within the field of (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) NLP, is directly as a result of the pioneering and visionary work of Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the original co-developers of this field.

NLP first came into being in the early 1970s, when Richard Bandler, an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was transcribing therapy sessions of Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt Therapy, from audio recordings, as part of a project for one of his lecturers.

Bandler became aware that he was able to reproduce startlingly similar results to those Perls was achieving with his clients.

Bandler took this to another university lecturer at Santa Cruz, the linguist John Grinder, who had an interest in transformational grammar, based on Noam Chomsky's ideas about generative syntax.

Bandler showed Grinder how to do what he was doing. In exchange, Grinder deconstructed what Bandler was doing, linguistically, analysing the language patterns that he was using. This, in effect, was their first modelling project.

Fritz Perls

"You might describe the Metal Model of NLP as a means by which a person can be 'woken up from a less than useful trance state' - and the Milton Model as a means by which a person can be 'guided into a beneficial trance state' in which accelerated learning can take place - although each of these models fulfills a variety of other useful functions, as well."

David Rose, NLP Trainer

Associate, NLP Master Practitioner, Certified Hypnotherapist

They went on to 'model' the therapeutic sessions of the family therapist Virginia Satir, another exceptional practitioner, who was well known for getting lasting results with her clients.

In the work of both Perls and Satir, they noticed systematic use of particular language patterns, which often led these therapists to ask just the right question at just the right time, enabling them to get right to the heart of the matter with their clients.

These patterns, together with ideas adapted from transformational syntax, formed the basis of what has become known as the Meta Model.

Virginia Satir

Impressed by their work, the British anthropologist and epistemologist Gregory Bateson introduced Bandler and Grinder to Milton Erickson, who would become the third model for NLP.

Erickson, an American psychiatrist and founding member of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, was well known for his unconventional approach to therapy, for his ability to "utilize" anything about a patient to help them change, and for treating the Unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating.

Their modelling of Milton Erickson led to the development of what became known as the Milton Model.

Milton Erickson, MD.

An entire school of hypnosis and hypnotherapy has also developed out of Erickson's profoundly rich and ground breaking work, now universally known as 'Ericksonian Hypnosis'.

Bandler and Grinder worked together until the 1980s, when they went their separate ways, yet both continue to develop the field of NLP today.

John Grinder works with Carmen Bostic St Clair, in what he describes as New Code of NLP.

Richard Bandler has continued alone to develop the area of Sub-Modalities, and has collaborated with John LaValle, among others, developing a number of systems and aproaches, including what he describes as Neuro-Hypnotic Repatterning and also Design Human Engineering.

The field of NLP continues to have a far-reaching influence in many areas of life, from business and sales to sports and performance psychology, and from personal development to counseling and therapy - and much more besides.

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