Richard Bandler
Richard Wayne Bandler is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s.
Early life and education
Richard Wayne Bandler was born in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended high school in Sunnyvale, California. He has stated that he was beaten as a child so badly that every bone in his body was broken. After his parents separated, he moved with his mother and stayed mostly in and around San Francisco. Bandler obtained a BA degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975.Neuro-linguistic programming
Bandler helped publisher Robert S. Spitzer edit The Gestalt Approach based on a manuscript by gestalt therapist Fritz Perls. He also assisted with checking transcripts for Eye Witness to Therapy. According to Spitzer, " came out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls."While a student at UCSC, Bandler also led a Gestalt therapy group. John Grinder, a professor at the University, said to Bandler that he could explain almost all the questions and comments Bandler made using transformational grammar. Grinder's specialty was in linguistics. Together, they created what they called a therapist training group. This was the basis for their first book, The Structure of Magic. Bandler and Grinder claim to have later codified some of the foundational models for neuro-linguistic programming in part by studying the methods of Milton Erickson and Virginia Satir.