What is NLP?

NLP has been described as programming for the brain, technology of the mind and the study of success and a shortcut to successful living:

Neuro refers to how the mind and body interact with each other.
Linguistic refers to the insights into a person’s thinking that can be obtained by careful attention to their use of language.
Programming refers to the study of the thinking and behavioural patterns or ‘programmes’ which people use in their daily lives.

NLP works with a combination of tools and techniques with which you can train your mind, body and emotions to run your life more successfully, to communicate effectively with others and to improve how you behave, feel and think. Whatever you do well now – you can do better with NLP.

History of NLP

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming was first developed in the US in the early 70’s from Richard Bandler, a psychology student and John Grinder, an associate professor of linguistics and grew from studying the thinking and behavioral skills used by effective and successful people involved in business, education, sales, therapy, sport and personal development.

As their creative group expanded, many methods that form part of Practitioner and Master Practitioner training were developed such as anchoring – where your mood changes in response to outside stimulus. They developed new ideas and insights, publishing several books which later became hallmarks of their success. These books were primarily aimed at therapists and challenged the mythology of traditional therapy backed up with practical alternatives.

By the late seventies, workshops were springing up all over the States and word was spreading of the ability to learn in hours what may have taken years to discover by trial and error. NLP has gone beyond a concept to a movement and is now used internationally by millions of people throughout the world in a variety of fields such as education, sport, therapy, PR, the military, police, management and the fields of sales and marketing.

The main principles of NLP

To help you understand yourself, what motivates you and how present your ideas effectively and in so doing to understand what motivates others and how to motivate and influence them
To advance your communication skills
To understand and protect yourself from negative stimulus-response influences
To explore how the mind and body interact
To improve how you learn from setbacks and challenges