NLP was founded in the 1970s by John Grinder and Richard Bandler at the University of California, Santa Cruz, by modelling three people, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. In 1975 Grinder and Bandler presented the first two NLP models to the world in the volumes “Structure of Magic I and II.” The volumes published by the respected publishing house “Science and Behaviour Books Inc” put NLP on the map and interest in the new field of NLP spread quickly.

Gregory Bateson has been a very important inspiration in the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming, having served as a mentor to both Richard Bandler and John Grinder and introducing them to medical hypnotist Milton Erickson