NLP is a shortcut for Neuro Linguistic Programming.
What does that mean? Neuro stand for our brain, linguistic for our language, programming is a bit weird, it stands for the patterns we live by and how we can influence them. The story behind NLP is more a study in the 60's about several diciplines in psychological health care. Richard Bandler, at that time a math student, was asked by John Grinder to help him with a study. One of the questions was: Why are so many psycholists, psychiatrics unsuccesfull and why are some succesfull? They had the same education!

NLP is not a religion or treatment. It's more a discription about how our brain works, and when you really understand it, mNLP becomes a way of life. It's a powerfull tool with it's possibilities and it's limitations.
As a NLP Master Practitioner I learned that there's always a combination of things that works!

Personally I use NLP in combintion with EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, founded by dr. Graig, a psychologist.

The main difference of NLP and EFT in regard of standard therapy is that a regular psychologist or therapist looks at a cliënt from a point of view of illness, there's something wrong with you and that needs to be cured.
NLP looks at a cliënt from a total diferent point of view, you've learned a disrupted strategy and do stupid things! You're not ill, you jsut learned and adapted a stupid pattern!