Abstract: My knowledge of NLP began in the early 1980s when I did some basic training in the UK and read some of the main texts at that time (Bandler & Grinder, 1975, 1979; Cameron-Bandler, 1978; Grinder & Bandler, 1976, 1981; Lankton, 1980).

I wrote several reviews of the experimental literature on the subject in the 1980s (Heap, 1988a, 1988b, 1989) which are on my website at . After that, I lost interest. My last publication (Heap, 1994) on the subject was a review for Counselling News of Introducing Neuro-LinguisticProgramming (Revised Edition) by Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour.

Definition and origins of NLP

In the Introduction to their book, O’Connor & Seymour (op.cit. p xii) state, ‘NLP is the art and science of excellence, derived from studying how top people in different fields obtain their outstanding results. These communications can be learned by anyone to improve their effectiveness both personally and professionally’.

There is absolutely no question that the origins of NLP and its initial impact were in the field of counselling and psychotherapy.

These claims (extraordinary, but sober in comparison to many versions of the same) were made by the originators of NLP, Americans John Grinder, a linguist, and Richard Bandler who I was always given to understand was a mathematician. However, according to Wikipedia and other Internet sources he has a background in psychology, holding a BA in Philosophy and Psychology and an MA in Theoretical Psychology and had an early interest in gestalt therapy. Whatever the case, there is absolutely no question that the origins of NLP and its initial impact were in the field of counselling and psychotherapy.