What is NLP?

Why do some people excel in their chosen field of endeavour while others are average performers?

John Grinder, co-creator of NLP and Business NLP Academy trainer, describes NLP as, “the modeling of excellence”, a practice that seeks to code the unconscious strategies used by excellent performers in any line of work, and then either apply this code to self or teach to others. Therefore using NLP techniques, it is possible to emulate those who perform at the highest standard in almost any context.

For example NLP has been backed by many scientific journals in being able to help clients with things such as anxiety, phobias and depression. Techniques to help these symptoms have come about through ‘modelling’ others who have resolved these issues, and then teaching or applying these models to clients.

The same is true in business. In this day and age it is nearly impossible to attend any business training that does not consist largely of NLP patterns. There are models and codes for good sales people, influential leaders, accurate communicators, how people are confident, how people stay motivated and so on. A good NLP trainer will identify the models and codes an individual or team is using, then help them ‘re-program’ these codes so their performance is increased.

Put another way, NLP modeling helps you emulate the patterns of people who perform outstandingly. Patterns in feelings, thinking, language and behaviour.

At the core of NLP is understanding how the internal mental maps that act as a filter for incoming information work and how to bypass them to achieve powerful results.

Neuro-linguistic Programming identifies a connection between the neurological, language and behavioural patterns that we learn through experience and that, if used properly, can be restructured to achieve specific goals. Take a look at how the term is broken down:

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NLP Origins

Neuro-Linguistic Programming came into existence in the University of California, Santa Cruz during the 1970s.

A meeting of minds between Associate Professor Dr John Grinder, a man since his time studying Psychology had been fascinated with human excellence, and undergraduate Richard Bandler, began the process of forming behavioural models to emulate patterns of selected geniuses.

Modelling is the beating heart of NLP practice, it is the foundation that evidence and theory is built. Put simply, it is the process of extracting behavourial patterns and language structure of an individual who performs excellently in their field and then replicating those to produce a universal model.

Dr John Grinder and Richard Bandler first modelled three outstanding minds from a field closely linked to their own, therapy. These were Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. They each became geniuses in therapy through a perspective of unconscious excellence, meaning they could not describe to John and Richard a conscious description of their behaviour. By identifying the patterns evident in all three geniuses, Grinder and Bandler were able to provide a description of behaviour that would set them on the path to forming NLP as a credible learning method.

After two years of enthusiastic and detailed research into the field of psychotherapy, Grinder and Bandler were able to explicate selected portions of the geniuses behaviour and code the results of their work into language based models using patterns of transformational grammar as the descriptive vocabulary. Being able to make explicit the tacit skills that made geniuses perform the way they did meant Grinder and Bandler could form the basis of NLP.

Any university is an environment where you could expect to find enquiring minds. In arguably the most forward thinking state, California during the heady years of the 1970s, it was exciting times for the study of human behaviour. World renowned anthropologist, Gregory Bateson was among the faculty and in the book Structure of Magic states, “John Grinder and Richard Bandler have done something similar to what my colleagues and I attempted fifteen years ago.”

1975 marked the first publication of NLP material, Structure of Magic I and II. Bringing these volumes to the world put NLP on the map and sparked interest from people in fields from human influence and communication to business and change management. John and Richard gladly offered training courses demonstrating the application of the models they had discovered, proving that NLP models were transferable to others and could be used by NLP modellers successfully in their own work.

NLP Modelling, NLP Training, NLP Application

As a practical pursuit, training courses naturally became an essential part of NLP.

Although NLP began as a way to model excellence, the application of NLP for personal and commercial benefit quickly became important.

NLP Modelling

NLP modelling is the process of rapidly and unconsciously assimilating complex patterns of genius, and then displaying them in ones behavior. It is a practice that is overlooked by many NLP trainers. Its exclusion from a course attended by Michael Carroll in 1995 was a catalyst for the forming of the NLP Academy. He was left surprised by the trainers admission that he had little knowledge of modelling which, in his mind, formed the backbone of the discipline.

After setting up the NLP Academy Michael ensured that modelling would be a key part of the philosophy he planned to teach from. Staying true to that objective, Michael has built the NLP Master Practitioner Course around modelling.

John Grinder, alongside his partner, Carmen Bostic St Clair, have remained the most able modellers in the field. He and Carmen are able to capture patterns of excellence exuded by outstanding performers, they both offer courses at the NLP Academy.

NLP Training

NLP Certification has been available from other trainers besides the creators since NLP trainers began to share their knowledge.

After growing for thirty years there are some excellent courses available in NLP, some are good, many distinctly average, others not credible at all.

With the NLP Academy you are being taught by those who first formed NLP and you can expect to join many other high quality Practitioners and Master Practitioners who we support long after their graduation from our courses.

NLP Application

NLP can be applied anywhere where there is human interaction and growth potential. Skills learned on these courses can be used to develop and enhance performance in a range of fields.

As a practitioner of NLP you can use skills learned at the NLP Academy to become an agent of change with individuals or groups at institutions ranging from companies to global organisations right up to governments.

NLP is a technology that can instigate fast and efficient change in individuals and groups, helping people to become more effective in the field they have chosen.

You can expect NLP to have an impact on education, team building, sales, marketing, personal development, leadership and coaching.

NLP Modelling

Coding patterns of genius
The patterns of any genius can be replicated through modelling

NLP Training

The training of NLP patterning
NLP Practitioner
NLP Master Practitioner
NLP Trainers Certification

NLP Business Application

What began out of curiosity of a university professor and an undergraduate student has developed into a practice helping people worldwide improve their professional and personal lives.

There are more than 1,000 educational books covering NLP in subjects as far reaching as sales, parenting, accelerated learning and psychology. On top of that there are some 20,000 people being trained at thousands of NLP seminars each year.

The NLP Academy is proud to continue to bring NLP to new places, new students and new trainers to help develop excellence in even more peoples lives.

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