Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a method, set of techinques, or personal development system developed in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder, in association with Gregory Bateson. It uses a toolbox of strategies, axioms and beliefs about human communication, perception and subjective experience.

NLP's core idea is that an individual's thoughts, gestures and words interact to create their perception of the world. By changing their outlook, using a variety of techniques, a person can improve their attitudes and actions. NLP author Robert Dilts calls the system "the study of the structure of subjective experience".

NLP teaches that a person can develop successful habits by amplifying helpful behaviors and diminishing negative ones. Positive change can come when one carefully reproduces the behaviors and beliefs of successful people (called 'modeling'). It also states that all human beings have all the resources necessary for success within themselves.

Bandler and Grinder credited three successful therapists — Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson — as NLP's major inspirations. They 'modeled' the therapists and developed special "patterns" for general communication, rapport-building and self-improvement.

NLP is controversial, particularly for use in therapy and after more than three decades of existence, remains scientifically unvalidated.

It has also been criticized for lacking a defining and regulating body to impose standards and a professional ethical code. Even so, NLP remains popular as an approach to self-help, personal influence and business communication. It is also used as an adjunct by therapists in other therapeutic disciplines.

More information about NLP can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming