The original NLP and the neglected third man

Frank Pucelik is one of the first developers of NLP, although he moved away from the media spotlight.

In the United States in the 1970s, Neurolinguistic Programming, better known by its acronym NLP, was born. A methodology that is currently taught and practiced especially within the world of human development for the ability to model the excellence it provides, but that many apply without knowing its origin and, more importantly, why it was created.

In many cases, we find that the teaching of NLP is focused only on showing its dynamics and techniques, which makes the knowledge of the discipline partial: if those who handle this methodology do not know its fundamentals, they will be able to use its tools, but in an empty and limited manner because they do not know the bases on which they are based and all the possibilities they really have.

We can make a simile with a chef and his kitchen knives. The chef may know very well all the knives and what each one is for. But if, in addition, he knows that the bread knife fulfills its function because it has serrated teeth that make it easier to tear the bread without breaking it, he will have a broader vision of that knife and will understand that, beyond bread, he can use it in other cases, such as to cut biscuits, panettones or other foods of similar texture.

Back to the origins of NLP

Thus, in recent years there has been a growing trend in NLP training that calls for study the theoretical foundations that made possible the birth of the methodology in order to better understand it in its entirety and, thus, get much more out of it. and, thus, get much more out of the techniques and tools that support it.

One of the main proponents of this trend is Frank Pucelik, an unknown to many, but a key figure in the world of NLP: he is one of the co-creators of Neurolinguistic Programming along with the two figures whose names are always associated with its birth, Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

Why has Frank Pucelik been 'erased' in some cases from the 'paternity' of NLP? The truth is that there are no bizarre stories or hidden intrigues. We can say that it has been the result of the evolution of the study of NLP and the way in which Frank's career subsequently developed.

The birth of Neurolinguistic Programming

Frank Pucelik served in the Vietnam War and returned to the United States at the end of the 1960s at the age of 21, psychologically shocked by his experiences there. psychologically shaken by his experiences there. Trying to give an answer to his 'demons' he resumed his psychology studies that he had abandoned without very good results, a career that culminated with excellent certifications on this occasion, which allowed him to move to the University of California Santa Cruz in the early 70's, the nerve center of the great thinkers of the time, to continue researching on Gestalt, the psychological current on which he based his career.

While there, he met Richard Bandler, a psychology enthusiast who was at that time transcribing the lectures of Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls, which Frank also used to attend. Observing these famous therapists, as well as Milton Erickson, they realized that they always achieved successful results in their therapies and decided to model their way of working to see for themselves if they could obtain the same results by applying these models. The seminars on Gestalt that they gave by doing 'their experiments' soon acquired a spectacular fame.The two young men were achieving the same successful results as prestigious therapists with many years of experience.

But there was a problem. Bandler and Pucelik couldn't explain how it happened, what made these methods work. So they invited the linguist John Grinder to attend these seminars, which finally provided an answer to their doubt through transformational grammar. What Grinder showed was that there were language structures, patterns that they used and that were repeated and that were the ones that were able to model the behaviors in a masterful way and achieve the desired results. and achieve the desired results.

After obtaining these conclusions, they realized that if they could extract a patterned methodology on how these excellent people acted, spoke and talked to each other, this methodology, these tools, could be used by others to also achieve amazing results in their lives. Thus was born the germ of NLP, what in the beginning was called 'Study of Excellence' or simply Meta (beyond)..

Subsequent evolution and the demise of Frank Pucelik

Although the three authors mentioned above were the founding fathers of Meta (it was not yet known as NLP), they were also surrounded and supported by a group of 15 students.

The disparity of views of such a large and heterogeneous group led to Frank Pucelik being invited to leave the study group in the mid 1970s. For that reason, the books published immediately after by Bandler and Grinder, 'The Structure of Magic' I and II, where Neurolinguistic Programming is discussed for the first time, Frank Pucelik is not included: he had already taken another direction in the study of the discipline.

Frank Pucelik took the name Meta with him and created Meta International Inc. in 1977, the association that still exists today under the name Meta international. under the name Meta International. Soon Bandler and Grinder also parted ways and the newly born NLP was fully developed in the following years by other authors such as Roberts Dilts, Stephen Giiligan, Judith Delozier or Leslie Cameron, among others.

Although Frank Pucelik never stopped working in the field of psychology, he disappeared from the media spotlight of NLP when he did not continue to publish anything about it, something that the other co-creators did in the following decades.This may be another clue as to why they are considered by many to be the sole fathers of the methodology.

At the end of the 80's Frank Pucelik moved to Moscow and began to successfully develop there as a consultant to companies using his knowledge of NLP. At the same time he focused on designing successful programs for overcoming drug addiction both in the United States and in Eastern European countries.

The original NLP

Since the 2000s, NLP has grown exponentially in worldwide fame along with the interest in coaching. What Pucelik realized then was that, as a result of the disparate evolution that the discipline underwent after its creation, the people who were approaching it were studying in an overly simplistic way, since in many cases it was not explained where the methodology came from or why it had been created, which limited its true potential.and why it was created, which limited its true potential.

Thus, Frank Pucelik decided to return to the public focus of NLP by sowing the seed of what is known as the Original NLP (Meta), which is already being taught in Spain and Latin America. It is a return to that moment when the three co-creators were at the University of California doing their studies on Meta to really understand the complexity of its use and really take advantage of all that this form of modeling excellence can achieve in those who know it.

If you want to train in NLP and you want to do it with Frank Pucelik and knowing the fundamentals and original bases, in D'Arte Human and Business School we help you.