Most people consider NLP to be synonymous with therapy.
This isn't technically correct.
NLP (or Neuro-linguistic Programming) is the study of excellence. It provides techniques to model human behavior and to install those behaviors in others. It is the skills of the first people studied - the great hypnotists and therapists - that are used to model and install skills in others, as well as to provide a number of the therapeutic models.
"NLP could be the most important synthesis of knowledge about human communication to emerge since the sixties"
Science Digest
NLP can be used to study any mental skill, but it is generally used for therapy, sales, and communication skills, simply because those areas have been studied the most.
From a therapeutic point of view, NLP provides a methodology to allow a practitioner to discover the underlying structure of the way a client responds to particular stimuli and to change it.
From a clients point of view, NLP is a way of solving numerous behavioral issues, such as compulsions, phobias, and motivational issues.
"NLP affords the opportunity to gain flexibility, creativity and greater freedom of action than most of us know how"
Training and Development Journal
There are many articles on the web explaining what NLP is about in far more depth. Here are a selection that may be helpful.
What is NLP?
Posted October 24, 2011 at 20:27
I believe that NLP is the development of synchronicity between individuals and groups.