Also similar is the emphasis on "what works" rather than "what is true." If a technique works for you, great! But there are advantages that practical advice backed by deep theories has over practical advice backed by wrong theories. For example, you're better able to predict what will work not just for you but for other people, too.

I don't think that traditionally trained academic psychologists are very good at predicting outcomes of interventions. I think the difference between a therapists who can predict outcomes and a therapist who doesn't isn't in the amount of academic backing of his practice but in whether he actually measures the outcomes of his own interventions and follows up with patients.

In the NLP world Roberts Dilt for example suggests a technique for curing allergies. Part of his advice is that every patient with a serious allergy is supposed to go through an allergy test by a real doctor after the intervention.

If you design decent feedback circles deep theory isn't need to be able to predict.

Twelve hours spent clarifying your goals with an experienced guide does sound like something that should be valuable to people, but Leverage could take this useful exercise to the masses more effectively if they disconnected it from their unnecessary and weird-looking theory of psychology that hangs alone in theory space, apart from the grand edifice of modern science.

I don't think that NLP has a bad track record when it comes to reaching people. Basing yourself on a weird-looking theory of psychology isn't much of a problem for reaching most people.