Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

What NLP is

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, usually shortened to NLP, is an approach that practitioners use to explore communication, learning and change. The Association for Neuro Linguistic Programming (ANLP) describes it as focusing on patterns in thinking, language and behaviour. These include how people describe experiences to themselves, interpret situations and prepare to act.

NLP should not be confused with natural language processing, the computing field concerned with language data and artificial intelligence. The two share the same abbreviation but are unrelated.

The Association for Neuro Linguistic Programming (ANLP), a practitioner body, describes NLP as an approach to exploring patterns in thinking, language, communication, and behaviour. ANLP presents modelling excellence as a central idea: identifying patterns in how effective people do something and exploring whether others might learn them. The association lists applications in personal development, coaching, education, and leadership, and notes that NLP is not a guaranteed quick fix or a replacement for appropriate professional advice. These are ANLP's own descriptions of what NLP proposes — not research findings.

Origins and development

According to ANLP's historical account, NLP emerged in California in the 1970s through the work of Richard Bandler and John Grinder. The association describes modelling as examining patterns in skilled practitioners' communication and behaviour so that others can learn them, and identifies Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, and Gregory Bateson as early influences on the approach.

ANLP lists present-day applications in coaching, education, leadership and personal development. These describe where the association proposes using NLP; they do not establish that it produces better outcomes in those settings.

Common ideas and practices

A recurring NLP theme is that people respond not only to events themselves but also to their internal representation of those events — what they notice, how they describe the situation to themselves, and what meaning they give it. ANLP describes NLP practice as noticing patterns in attention, self-talk, interpretations, internal images, communication, and behaviour. Its examples include examining how someone prepares for an important event or how they interpret another person's actions, then exploring alternative responses, clarifying desired outcomes, and learning from how others approach similar tasks.

ANLP's curriculum guidance for practitioner courses lists topics commonly taught in NLP training: goal formulation, rapport, pacing and leading, representational systems, perceptual positions, the Meta Model, the Milton Model, anchoring, submodalities, reframing, and timeline work. This list shows what ANLP recommends teaching; it does not show how effective these practices are.

What research does and does not show

The research picture for NLP is limited and uneven. The studies described below do not support the claim that NLP as a whole has been proven effective; neither do they show that every NLP idea has been disproven. Each finding needs to be kept within its actual scope.

A systematic review by Sturt and colleagues examined studies of NLP and health outcomes. It included ten experimental studies: five randomized controlled trials and five before-and-after studies. Four of the randomized trials found no statistically significant between-group differences, one favoured NLP, and across the studies the risk of bias was high or unclear. The reviewers concluded that there was too little reliable evidence to establish whether NLP improves health outcomes — and were careful to distinguish this from evidence that NLP has no effect. The review's searches extended to February 2012 and covered English-language studies; studies evaluating a single NLP technique were excluded, and the review does not establish effectiveness or ineffectiveness in coaching or other non-health applications.

A historical review by Witkowski assessed an NLP research database covering publications up to 2009. From 315 database publications, the review selected 63 articles from journals on the ISI Master Journal List. Of 33 studies judged relevant to NLP's underlying tenets, 18.2% supported those tenets, 54.5% did not support them, and 27.3% were uncertain. The author judged the non-supportive studies to be methodologically stronger and concluded that the data did not substantiate claims that NLP had an established empirical foundation. As a historical assessment of one particular database, it is not a current or comprehensive evaluation of today's NLP practice.

One specific NLP-associated claim has been tested more directly. Wiseman and colleagues examined the belief that particular eye-movement patterns can help detect lying. Across three studies — one with participants telling lies or the truth, one testing whether teaching the proposed NLP eye-movement rules improved lie detection, and one analysing videos of public appeals — none supported the tested claim. Those findings concern this specific eye-movement approach to lie detection; they do not evaluate other NLP techniques or NLP as a whole.

What NLP is not

ANLP distinguishes NLP from neuroscience and states that it should not replace appropriate professional advice. Its descriptions explain what practitioners propose doing; independent research is needed to assess the results. The research discussed here gives reasons to question particular claims and shows limited reliable evidence for health benefits. It does not provide a comprehensive assessment of every practice taught under the NLP label.