Good communication between the domain expert and the knowledge engineer is a must for successful knowledge engineering. However, this is not an easily achieved goal because much of the process of knowledge engineering is still a relatively ad hoc endeavor, pursued by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds with limited training. Consequently, individual knowledge engineers are frequently faced with numerous difficulties including experts who have difficulty verbalizing their knowledge and reasoning processes, who feel uncomfortable discussing their work, or who are unwilling to reveal their knowledge. In these situations, a primary responsibility of the knowledge engineer is to establish an environment in which the expert can be more able, comfortable, and willing to communicate his knowledge. The authors argue that the techniques used in'psychological interviewing can be used equally well in knowledge engineering. They discuss some techniques derived from neurolinguistic programming (NLP) (Grinder & Bandler, 1976) and show how they can address possible trouble points in setting up a comfortable interviewing environment.