20 MINUTES TO MASTER ... NLP

Ericksonian hypnosis: Another early role model was Milton Erickson and his influence on NLP has been enormous. Unlike classical hypnosis, the Ericksonian approach is seemingly low key and unobtrusive. Much use is made of indirect language, suggestion and utilization of the patient/client/subject’s own patterns of speaking, breathing and moving in order to bring about change. Erickson himself was expert at adapting his approach to the specific needs of the individual with whom he was working and this way of working has informed many of NLP’s later practitioners (although the indirect approach is closely linked with Erickson, he was substantially influenced by classical hypnosis and did use a lot of direct techniques himself).

Systems thinking/cybernetics: Much of NLP utilizes systems thinking. Work by Ashby, Beer and others has had a major impact on how NLP has developed and been used and many of the NLP models presented in Chapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo) explore the systemic nature of different areas of experience.

Linguistics: Much of NLP originated in the work of linguists, including Korzybski and Chomsky. Such people had laid down many of the principles which underlie NLP’s language patterns. Some of the connections which have been made are with the ways in which language represents experience, especially in a metaphorical sense, and the ways in which language demonstrates people’s underlying motivational and behavioural patterns.

In addition, some topics that are becoming associated with NLP are:

Accelerated learning: Accelerated learning puts much emphasis on the needs of the individual and the helpfulness of recognizing and utilizing individual patterns in order to enhance learning and development. The earliest writer on this topic was the Bulgarian Georgi Lozanov, working in the 1960s, and other famous names in the field are Ostrander, Schroeder and Jenson, who have written at length about how to improve trainer/trainee relationships. In particular, accelerated learning puts the onus on the trainer to ensure that the learner is in a resourceful state in which to learn, and this means that learning is not simply a one-way process of pushing information towards a recipient and hoping it will stick, but involves creating an atmosphere and an environment in which interaction and mutual respect can lead to individual growth.

Bodywork: NLP is increasingly being associated with the field of physical development as well as psychological enhancement. Some examples of current links are the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, kinesiology, tai chi, voicework/singing, and so forth. With all of these techniques, practitioners use a mixture of body movement and mental/emotional control to achieve results.

NLP constantly draws upon other disciplines and approaches to integrate appropriate parts of them with its own ways of working. Because of this, NLP is evolving all the time and, while it remains recognizable, is fluid and flexible.

MISCONCEPTIONS

Having explained what NLP is, it is also important to mention what NLP is not. There are several popular misconceptions about NLP and the following questions are often asked by people new to NLP:

Isn’t NLP Just Positive Thinking?

Well, yes, in a way, but it goes far beyond simply having nice thoughts and actually gives people a way of knowing what to do in order to think positively. For example, some years ago a training video was produced on presentation skills. The video told viewers that it was important, when making a presentation, to feel confident. However, no advice was offered on how to do that! NLP makes it possible to offer such advice by being able to identify specific things that can be done to master thoughts and feelings as well as behaviour.

Isn’t NLP Manipulative?

Most things can be used in a manipulative way, although they themselves are simply neutral tools. For example a motor car can be driven in such a way that it becomes a hazard, or a person collecting money for an animal charity could take along a sorry-looking small furry animal to elicit feelings of sympathy in passers by. NLP as an approach, like the motor car or the small animal, is neutral; it does not impose rules for its use. So how you use NLP is as important as what you use it for; it is ultimately up to you to determine whether it is used ethically or not.

How Can NLP Be Taken Seriously if it Claims to Work So Quickly?

The problem with this question is that it presupposes certain limitations. If you are used to things taking a long time, speed may be suspicious. For example, you could say it takes years of study to learn the differences between wild plants, but one encounter with a stinging nettle could well imprint its appearance, smell and feel indelibly on your mind! Because conventional psychological approaches have traditionally been time-consuming, it can be difficult to believe that work with NLP can be as fast as it is; the proof, however, is in the results, not in the hype.

Is It Really a Separate Field of Study?

This question often comes from people used to thinking about subjects in a very tightly defined way and it has been said that NLP draws on so many other disciplines that it is not a discrete field in itself. Although it has drawn upon many other disciplines, NLP does have unique elements of its own, some of which were covered at the beginning of this chapter in the section on ‘Features of NLP’. It is probably the focus on the practical applications of mental processing which most distinguishes NLP from other disciplines. It also has established programmes of study, with recognized qualifications at different levels, making it a discipline which is unique and identifiable.

THE FUTURE OF NLP

From the start, NLP has been evolving and developing. Its main founders are still active and developing new concepts and approaches, as are others newer to the field. For the future, we can anticipate further refinements, more applications and innovation and creativity in NLP’s further development.

CHAPTER 2

THE HISTORY OF NLP (#uc065add1-485a-5376-bfd8-72ab8afa3893)

In the last chapter, some of the origins of NLP were discussed and some people associated with its development mentioned. This section takes a more in-depth look at these origins, both in the USA and the UK, and at some of the people who have been a great influence on the emergence and continuation of NLP, some by contributing new techniques and approaches and some by popularizing NLP to a wider audience.

NLP IN THE USA

NLP as a defined field of study originated in the USA in the early 1970s although, as mentioned in the last chapter, there were many influences on its development, going back decades (including likely links to US Air Force/CIA research on language, modelling, eye movements and so forth) or, in the case of some of the ideas themselves, centuries.

In the late 1950s, a group of people had come together in Palo Alto, California, in what became known as the Communication Research Project. Led by Gregory Bateson (see below) it studied communications, psychotherapy, brief therapy and animal behaviour. A further group was set up later at the Mental Research Institute (MRI), the best-known members of which were Paul Watzlawick and the late David Weakland. This group was generally referred to as the Palo Alto Group. The group looked at the approaches and techniques of current practitioners, including Perls, Satir, Erickson and Huxley, considering what they did and said that had an effect on others; in other words, their processes as well as the content of their communications and activities. The Palo Alto work led to further research at Stanford University and was a major influence on the early developers of NLP.

The focus of activity for NLP itself was, initially, the university at Santa Cruz, California, where the Dean had a vision of creating an environment where different disciplines, ideas and models could come together in a creative way. This whole area of California was a hotbed of ideas and development, including Santa Cruz, Palo Alto and Big Sur, where the famous Esalen Institute was to be formed. In this climate, a group of people at Santa Cruz became interested in personal enhancement, creativity and communications. The underpinning drive which lay behind most of the group’s activities was that of curiosity. This period has been written about in many books on NLP, including The Wild Days: NLP 1972–1981 by Terrence L. McClendon, which gives a highly personal account of the period.

NLP’s best-known founders, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, became part of the wider group at Santa Cruz, working on aspects of development. Bandler studied a range of topics – initially physics and computing, then psychology, philosophy, maths and other subjects. He was also a talented musician. Becoming disillusioned with existing university courses, he explored ways of bringing about practical changes in the fields in which he was working. One of his particular interests was Gestalt psychology and it has fairly recently come to light that a student at the university, Frank Pucelik, was also strongly interested in that subject and the two of them started a Gestalt group where they explored therapeutic approaches.

Bandler formed a close association with John Grinder, who was Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Santa Cruz. Grinder had gained a PhD in San Francisco, where his language studies included the theories of Noam Chomsky, the American linguist. He had been an interpreter in the US army and had engaged in covert operations. He was very experienced in working with language through ‘modelling’ (seeChapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo)), and had learned several languages using this process.

As Bandler had exceptional skills in absorbing other people’s behavioural patterns (in the early days he was referred to as a sponge, because of this ability to ‘become’ another person) and Grinder had great experience of modelling (and was sometimes referred to as a chameleon because of his ability to ‘change his colours without changing himself’), they began working together, with Bandler showing Grinder what he did and Grinder helping him model it. Bandler invited Grinder to observe the Gestalt therapy group that he and Frank Pucelik had set up, so that he could help them deconstruct what they were doing. Grinder helped them add more structure to their activities and the three of them eventually formalized what is known as the ‘Meta-Model’. As this was effectively the start of NLP as we now know it, all three of these people, Bandler, Grinder and Pucelik, should be credited as major founders (and Frank Pucelik believes NLP should still be known instead as Meta). Together (Pucelik left the country at some stage to pursue other interests overseas) they analysed the performance of many people, including some leading therapists – initially Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir, and later Milton Erickson. Although Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson were available face to face, Perls had already died and Bandler’s analysis of how he worked came from studying videotapes of him. It has been reported that Bandler became so focused on Perls that after lengthy periods with the video machine, he would emerge looking and sounding just like Perls, with a German accent and a stoop, and smoking heavily.

Together with Bandler and Grinder, a group formed, working on the various elements which became the foundations of NLP. Each of the emerging techniques was explored and refined on an ongoing basis. As well as working on NLP, people were experimenting with hypnotic techniques and language, including deep trance states, positive and negative hallucination, time distortion and amnesia. Terrence McClendon, in The Wild Days, remarks on the association between NLP and hypnosis: ‘You could say that the NLP techniques are the conscious mind’s model of how the unconscious mind works in hypnosis.’

It is difficult to attribute the emergence of a particular NLP technique to a particular ‘creator’, as the efforts of the whole Santa Cruz group often interrelated in order to allow these forms to emerge. As work continued, the different elements of NLP gradually emerged and many of its original creators and developers are still making further refinements and extensions.

Personal associations were also formed during the period in California. In 1977 Bandler married Leslie Cameron and she became Leslie Cameron Bandler. They were married by Grinder, who was a preacher from the Universal Light Church. The marriage lasted only a year or so. Grinder himself later married Judith DeLozier, with whom he formed Grinder, DeLozier and Associates after parting company with Bandler in the 1980s. His marriage also came to an end some while later and he is now in partnership with Carmen Bostic St Clair.

While they were still working together, Bandler and Grinder set up the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, originally as a partnership between Bandler’s company Not Limited and Grinder’s company Limited Unlimited. They also formed a publishing company called Meta Publications, which was responsible for many of the notable books in the field of NLP.

In 1977 the Division of Training and Research (DOTAR), a training, development and research operation, was set up in Santa Cruz by Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Judith DeLozier, Leslie Cameron, Maribeth Anderson, Robert Dilts and David Gordon. This was the first NLP training institute and Leslie Cameron was overall Director, David Gordon was Director of Training and Robert Dilts was Director of Research.

By late 1976, some of the people who had been attending Bandler and Grinder’s workshops started to run their own. These people included Byron Lewis, Robert Dilts, Terrence McClendon and Steve Stevens (later Andreas). Also Leslie Cameron Bandler and Judith DeLozier began presenting workshops together.

As the field grew, so some of the original associations began to change and, in particular, the partnership between Richard Bandler and John Grinder came to an end in the early 1980s. Their interests had begun to diverge and they also had different ideas about what the future held in store for NLP. Both, however, continued to be driving forces within NLP and continue to train and write to this day.

NLP was, from its inception, very much about practicalities and application, rather than theory. Questions such as ‘How can this be used?’ and ‘How can this be taught?’ were asked frequently. The legacy of the Santa Cruz group lies, at least in part, in the attitudes of curiosity and usefulness which informed its work. As NLP continues to develop, questions about application and transfer are still foremost in the minds of many working in the field.

NLP IN THE UK

While NLP began life in the USA, the United Kingdom became a focal point for much activity and innovation, with two main strands to its development, involving Eileen Watkins Seymour and Graham Dawes. Together with Gene Early, Ian Cunningham and David Gaster, they made contacts which led to the foundation of the UK Training Centre for Neuro-Linguistic Programming (UKTC).

In Eileen Watkins Seymour’s account of how the field developed in Britain, she relates how in 1979 she was contacted by a fellow student on a humanistic psychology master’s programme in London and agreed to host a meeting with Gene Early and others who were interested in the subject.

Around a dozen people gathered and from this original meeting a study group was formed, which met on a fortnightly basis. Some of the people involved at that time were Michael Mallows, Willie Monteiro, Graham Dawes, Vivienne Gill, John Watson and Frank Kevlin, who later became Chair of the UK Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

By the following year, members of the group became interested in starting some NLP training and Eileen, Gene Early, Graham Dawes, David Gaster and Ian Cunningham initiated the first Diploma programme in the UK, at the London Business School, and the UK Training Centre (UKTC) was born. The Diploma programme lasted eight months, with a focus on quality in both the training and the elements surrounding it. At the time it was the only full-scale NLP training anywhere outside North America.

The aim of the UKTC was to grow people, not to make money, and the whole ethos of the organization reflected this. Sessions ran from Friday evening through the entire weekend. The first group consisted of 30 people, many of them therapists, and as well as the weekend training, everyone went to a weekly study group. Early trainers on the programme included Gene Early, Barbara Witney, David Gaster, David Gordon and Robert Dilts. Charlotte Bretto and Dave Dobson were also early trainers. Later, master’s programmes were offered, as well as speciality workshops given by visiting trainers from overseas.

By 1987, David Gaster had moved on and Gene Early and Graham Dawes felt it time to hand over the reins. Dudley and Regan Masters, trainers who had graduated from the UKTC, were given the Centre. Eileen was still keen to continue, but decided to ‘let go of [her] baby’. The UKTC only lasted for two further years and was then wound up. Dudley and Regan Masters have not been seen on the NLP scene since and word has it that they became born-again Christians. David Gaster, sadly, died a few years ago. Eileen, in conjunction with Clive Digby-Jones (now her husband), founded and ran the Ravenscroft Centre in London. Graham Dawes continues his activities in NLP, as does Gene Early. Both are respected figures in their communities.

Several early graduates of the UKTC subsequently set up their own training centres in the UK. Some of the earliest ones were PACE, John Seymour Associates, NLP Training Program, Pace Personal Development and Sensory Systems, as well as associated bodies such as British Hypnosis Research and the Proudfoot School of Hypnosis.

Currently there is a high number of UK training organizations and although it is increasingly difficult to pinpoint individuals or individual organizations as ‘leading edge’, there are many innovative steps being taken which contribute to the development, and professionalism, of NLP in the UK.

In addition to the training organizations, numerous networking and practice groups have sprung up throughout the UK and these provide an opportunity for people at all levels of experience to meet, exchange ideas and work on their own personal and professional development. The most prominent of these started life as the Paddington Group, meeting near Paddington station in central London in the 1990s.This group introduced a wide range of people to NLP and acted as a forum for prominent practitioners from the UK and outside.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (ANLP)

Formed in 1985 as a non-profit making organization, the Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming was initially a registered educational charity, recognized internationally as probably the leading association for those interested in, and using, NLP. Originally set up by Eileen Whicker following an inaugural meeting at the London Business School on 8 May 1985, it was envisaged as an umbrella organization for the development of NLP; in Eileen’s words, ‘setting core standards for training and practice, being a basis for exchanging information and experience, creating links with other NLP bodies, setting standards and ethics, promoting research, keeping abreast of legislation and representing NLP in a professional capacity to Government and serving on the Steering Committees then being set up’.

The preparatory meeting held to form the Association was attended by Eileen Whicker, Eileen Watkins Seymour, Basil Jones, Dudley Masters, Valerie Beeby and Surya and John Watson. Support was also obtained from Eric Robbie and Willie Monteiro as well as Gene Early. A steering committee was then set up, consisting of Eileen Whicker, Nigel Gowland, Eileen Watkins Seymour and Roy Johnson, and the first meeting, on 12 April 1985, resulted in an open invitation being sent to other interested people.