What is NLPU?

What is NLPU? To trace its roots fully, one has to go back to the early days of NLP, when NLPU’s founder, Robert Dilts, was a student at Santa Cruz. He attended John Grinder’s lectures on linguistics – which turned into lectures on the Meta-model – and was hooked.

NLPU: Personal Empowerment

In an intriguing interview, Robert talks of a new mood (in California, anyway) at that time (*1). The Vietnam War was over, and the energy of intelligent young people was shifting, no longer ‘against’ the bad guys up there, but towards creating new and exciting ways of being in the world. It’s no coincidence, he says, that ‘up the road’, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were building the first Apple personal computers. The new theme was personal empowerment.

The most exciting thing about Grinder’s lectures was their enormous optimism. See Robert’s videos below charting the origins of NLP (*2)

We can change the world! As NLP progressed, discovering new things – especially, perhaps, the work done modelling Milton Erickson – this mood continued.

NLPU: Mission and Spirit

Robert has retained this spirit, and NLPU is one reflection of this, it was set up in 1991 by Robert and Todd Epstein. In 1992, Judith DeLozier, another original student from those exciting founding days of NLP, joined the team. Epstein died in 1995; since then, Robert and Judith have run NLPU, designing and teaching its courses and also carrying out research.

Situated on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, NLPU has become one of the most respected centres for both training and research in NLP. It offers the full range of training courses, from Practitioner to Master Trainer, as well as working with organisations and professional bodies to create ‘tailor made’ training.

Robert has a very open view of what NLPU can and should do – while those original discoveries, back in the mid-seventies, remain at the heart of what it teaches and researches, he is always open to new ideas.

We have always been great admirers of Robert, and NLP School’s founder/ head of training, Robbie Steinhouse, is qualified as a Master Trainer from NLPU – a qualification only handed out to a chosen few people each year. We are delighted to have NLPU certifying our 2017 Master Practitioner Course.

Resources

NLP University Certified Master Practitioner
Download ‘What is NLPU‘ – PDF file

References

Learning from the best – a post about Judy DeLozier
Judy was one of the original group who worked with Richard Bandler, John Grinder and Gregory Bateson when she was a student at the University of California Santa Cruz campus, where NLP was created.

(*1) Watch the interview with Robert Dilts
Robert Dilts and Judith DeLozier, have been exploring and developing NLP since its origins in the early 1970’s at the University of California, Santa Cruz. On a beautiful sunny afternoon, during a break from classes at the NLP University at UCSC, Robert and Judith kindly gave us some of their time to reflect on NLP, from its origins in the early 1970’s, through to the present day and then on to thoughts of what the future may hold in store.

(*2) A series of 3 videos charting ‘The Origins of NLP’

The Origins of NLP

Part 1/3 First encounters with NLP
View the video

The Origins of NLP

Part 2/3 Difference in point of opinion
View the video

The Origins of NLP

Part 3/3
The future of NLP.
View the video