Richard Bandler

Richard Bandler studied at Foothill College, University of California and University of California, Santa Cruz. Training under Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Gregory Bateson is recorded. Steve Andreas and Chris Mulzer are recorded as having studied under Richard Bandler. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with University of California, Santa Cruz.

• Name — Richard Bandler • Birth Name — Richard Wayne Bandler • Born — 1950 • Birthplace — Teaneck, New Jersey, United States • Occupation — Writer, consultant, public speaker • Known for — co-creator of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) • Website — https: richardbandler.com/

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 (UCSC) in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975.

Bandler helped publisher Robert S. Spitzer (of Science and Behavior Books, Inc.) edit The Gestalt Approach (1973) based on a manuscript by gestalt therapist Fritz Perls (who had died in 1970). He also assisted with checking transcripts for Eye Witness to Therapy (1973). According to Spitzer, "[Bandler] 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 (1975). 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.

In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen (December 8, 1954 – November 3, 1986), a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a.357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.