family therapy - aamft.org · the Institute helps families, serves mental healthcare professionals, and brings innovative perspectives to a broad array of community service agencies

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family therapy pioneers

a d i r e c t o r y

who do you think are the 10 most influential family therapy pioneers?

Terry D. Hargrave, PhD Clinical Member Amarillo, TX 1. Salvador Minuchin2. Virginia Satir3. Murray Bowen4. Jay Haley5. Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy6. Neil Jacobson7. Olga Silverstien8. James Framo9. Carl Whitaker10. Sue Johnson

Sandra M. Stith, PhDClinical MemberManhattan, KS1. Lyman Wynne2. Salvador Minuchin3. Jay Haley4. Cloe Madanes5. Steve de Shazer6. Insoo Kim Berg7. Carl Whitaker8. Milton Erikson9. Virginia Satir10. Michael White

Gonzalo M. Bacigalupe EdD Clinical Member Auburndale, MA1. Murray Bowen2. Monica McGoldrick3. Salvador Minuchin4. Virgnia Satir5. Carlos Sluzki6. Carl Whitaker7. Tom Andersen8. Harry Goolishian9. Paul Watzlawick10. Michael White

William M. O’Hanlon, MS Clinical Member Santa Fe, NM1. Milton Erickson 2. Jay Haley3. Gregory Bateson4. Virginia Satir5. John Weakland

6. Salvador Minuchin7. Michael White8. Cloe Madanes9. Steve de Shazer10. Carl Whitaker

Froma W. Walsh, PhDClinical MemberChicago, IL 1. Salvador Minuchin2. Murray Bowen3. Virginia Satir4. James Framo5. Milan Group 6. Jay Haley7. Mental Research Institute

(MRI)8. Carl Whitaker 9. Lyman Wynne 10. Ivan Boszornmenyi-Nagy

Gregory W. Brock, PhDClinical Member Lexington, KY 1. Bernard Guerney2. Louise Guerney3. Virginia Satir4. Jay Haley5. Salvador Minuchin 6. Carl Whitaker7. David Olson8. Doug Sprenkle9. Alan Gurman10. Neil Jacobson

Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD Clinical Member Loma Linda, CA1. Gregory Bateson2. Murray Bowen3. Jay Haley4. Salvador Minuchin5. Virgina Satir6. Carl Whitaker7. Harlene Anderson8. Insoo Kim Berg9. Michael White10. Lynn Hoffman

Arnold Woodruff, MSClinical Member Richmond, VA1. Sal Minuchin2. Virginia Satir3. Carl Whitaker4. Jay Haley5. Murray Bowen6. MRI Group 7. Milton Erickson 8. Steve de Shazer/Insoo K.

Berg9. Bill O’Hanlon 10. Harlene Anderson/Harry

Goolishian

Shelley Green, PhDClinical Member Ft. Lauderdale, FL1. Gregory Bateson2. Milton Erickson3. Don Jackson4. Jay Haley5. John Weakland6. Salvador Minuchin7. Virginia Satir8. Luigi Boscolo9. Gianfranco Cecchin10. Carl Whitaker

James D. Thomas, MD Clinical Member Lakewood, CO1. Salvador Minuchin2. Virginia Satir3. Murray Bowen4. Insoo Kim Berg5. Paul Watzlawick6. Jay Haley7. Olga Silverstein8. Michael White9. Carl Whitaker 10. Peggy Papp

Wayne Denton, MDClinical Member Dallas, TX1. Gregory Bateson2. Salvador Minuchin3. Virginia Satir4. Emily Mudd5. Aaron Rutledge6. William Nichols7. Wallace Denton8. Douglas Sprenkle9. Fred Piercy10. Susan Johnson Thorana S. Nelson, PhDClinical Member Mendon, UT1. Murray Bowen2. Salvador Minuchin3. Jay Haley4. Cloe Madanes5. Milton Erickson6. John Weakland7. Monica McGoldrick8. Rachel Hare-Mustin9. Steve de Shazer10. Insoo Kim Berg

William L. Turner, PhDClinical MemberWashington, DC.1. Nancy Boyd-Franklin2. Evan Imber-Black3. Elaine Pinderhughes4. Murray Bowen5. Salvador Minuchin6. Pauline Boss7. Kenneth Hardy8. Monica McGoldrick9. Froma Walsh10. Celia Falicov

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Birth date and location Nathan Ackerman was born in Bessarabia, Russia on November 22, 1908 and died in 1971.

Educational background Nathan and his family came to the U.S. in 1912 and were naturalized

in 1920. He attended public school in New York City, earned a BA from Columbia University in 1929, and an MD from Columbia in 1933.

Contributions to the field Nathan Ackerman is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of family therapy and is credited with developing the concept of family psychology. In 1955, he was the first to initiate a debate on family therapy at a meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, with the intention of opening lines of communication in this new branch of psychiatry. He believed that the mental or physical disposition of one family member would effect other family members, and that often the best way to treat the individual was to treat the family as a whole. In fact, he was a very strong advocate of treating the whole family in order to solve the problems of the individual. Nathan devoted most of his career to family psychotherapy.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Nathan became chief psychiatrist at the Menninger Child Guidance Clinic in 1937. He also was the chief psychiatrist at the Jewish Board of Guardians from 1937 to 1951. His work in these two positions greatly influenced his thinking about family systems. In 1938, he published two books, The Unity of the Family and Family Diagnosis: An Approach to the Preschool Child that contributed to the development of family therapy. After World War II, Nathan began to experiment with seeing patients and their families in a group. He published, taught and showed movies demonstrating this new method, pioneering not only a new type of therapy, but also the tradition of the audiovisual documentation of clinical work that became one of the cornerstones of family therapy training.

How this work is being carried on today Nathan Ackerman founded the Ackerman Institute in 1960. For almost half a century, the Institute has continued his pioneering work by engaging in a three-pronged effort that encompasses: 1) innovative clinical family therapy services through its onsite clinic (licensed by the State of New York Office of Mental Health) and in community settings; 2) state-of-the-art training programs for mental health and other professionals onsite and in community settings in and around New York City and internationally; and 3) cutting-edge research initiatives that focus on the development of new treatment models and training techniques. Through this dynamic interaction of treatment, training and research, the Institute helps families, serves mental healthcare professionals, and brings innovative perspectives to a broad array of community service agencies and other healthcare facilities.

Information and photo provided by the Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York, NY.

Nathan Ward Ackerman

he believed that the mental or physical disposition of one family member would effect other family members, and that often the best way to treat the individual was to treat the family as a whole.

Birth date and location Gregory Bateson was born in 1904 in Grantchester, England, and died in 1980.

Educational background Gregory graduated with a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences at St. John’s College, Cambridge University in 1925, and received his master’s degree in anthropology in 1930.

Contributions to the field Between 1953 and 1962, anthropologist Gregory Bateson and his research team (John Weakland, Jay Haley, Don Jackson, and William Fry) conducted one of the most important and influential series of research projects ever in the behavioral sciences. Using Russell and Whitehead’s theory of logical types as a conceptual framework, the focus of inquiry was on the nature of communications processes, context, and paradox. The first synthesis of the research was the landmark article, “Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia” (1956). During the 10 years this group worked together, they produced more than 70 articles and book chapters. This ground breaking research set forth a revolutionary approach to understanding human behavior, and in doing so, laid the foundation upon which communication (i.e., interactional) theory, and a major part of the field of marriage and family therapy, and brief therapy are based. Subsequent to these research projects, Gregory, who was among the most respected anthropologists of his era before the projects began, was to go on to achieve recognition as one of the most important founding thinkers and creators of cybernetics and communication theory as applied to understanding human behavior—and to be one of the most influential theoreticians ever in anthropology, psychiatry, and marriage and family therapy.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions The Handbook of Family Therapy (1981) tells us that Gregory had studied the social systems of animals and had an interest in general systems theory. These early roots eventually led to work with schizophrenic children and their communications with their mothers. This is where the concept of the double-bind would emerge. Family sessions had become a part of the research team’s efforts.

How this work is being carried on today In the 38 years since the Bateson Projects came to an end, hundreds of books, book chapters and articles based upon this research have been published and countless copies sold. In addition, some of the most influential brief and family therapy orientations in use today, most notably the MRI Brief Therapy model, Steve de Shazer and Insoo Berg’s Solution Focused Therapy, and the Milan Systemic Family Therapy orientation, trace their heritage directly to Gregory Bateson’s research projects. Further, many leading systemic narrative and post-modern approaches acknowledge the Bateson Projects as having been an important wellspring from which their own orientations derive. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Bateson Research Projects remain one of—if not the most—profoundly influential sources of the current interactional and systemic orientations to understanding human behavior, as is recognized not only throughout the field of marriage and family therapy, but also in the fields of cultural anthropology, psychiatry, psychology and the other human sciences.

Most information and photo courtesy of Mental Research Institute (MRI), Palo Alto, CA.

Reference: Broderick, C. B., & Schrader, S. S. (1982). The history of professional marriage and family therapy. In A. Gurman & D. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy, 24-25. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Gregory Bateson

one of the most influential theoreticians ever in anthropology, psychiatry, and marriage and family therapy.





Birth date and location Luigi Boscolo was born in Italy, but as of press time, the AAMFT was not able to determine the date or city of birth.

Educational background Luigi Boscolo studied medicine and pediatrics at the University of Padua in Italy where he earned his MD.

Contributions to the field From 1961-67, Luigi was in New York specializing in psychiatry and psychoanalysis at the New York Medical College and Metropolitan Hospital in New York. In 1967, he returned to Italy to join his friend Gianfranco Cecchin and colleagues Mara Selvini-Palazzoli and Giuliana Prata for the purpose of treating schizophrenia and eating disorders in what later became the Family Therapy Center of Milan. By the early 70s, the Milan team put forth a new model of family therapy inspired by the strategic therapy of Palo Alto, as well as the ideas of Gregory Bateson (cybernetics), which very much inspired them. The methods and results are described in the landmark book, Paradox and Counterparadox. The team was having success working with apparently impossible cases, and they published a series of influential articles discussing treatment approaches of severely disturbed people, using what they called Milan systemic family therapy. Others in the field became aware of Luigi and the Milan team through these brilliant early writings on systemic therapy with families in schizophrenic transaction (c.f., Selvini-Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, & Prata, 1978, 1980; Cecchin, 1987). Communication theory and conjoint family therapy proved to be enormously helpful in the Milan team’s work. From 1975 to 1980, the concept of “neutrality” was a very significant offering from the Milan group. Many in the field consider this to be their most important contribution. In the early 1980s, the Milan team split up and Luigi remained with Gianfranco Cecchin to found and co-direct the Family Therapy Institute of Milan, where they trained countless

therapists in the Milan systemic approach. The center, in addition to clinical work and research, began to play an important role for training, which eventually spread to Europe, America, and Australia. Luigi was a teacher and supervisor not only at the center, but abroad, as well.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Luigi and his collaborators were curious to learn about the work of Paul Watzlawick in Palo Alto, CA. For several years, the group applied psychoanalytic logic in working with families, but they were frustrated by the slow pace of progress. Searching for a more effective approach, the team members found writings about communication theory and conjoint family therapy by members of the Bateson Research Team (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, and Weakland) and the Mental Research Institute to be enormously helpful in their work (Selvini-Palazzoli, 1995). Using Pragmatics of Human Communication (Watzlawick, Beavin-Bavelas & Jackson, 1967) as a guide, the Milan team embraced communication/interactional theory, completely changing how they conceptualized the nature of problems and their technique of family treatment.

How this work is being carried on today Some of the major concepts emerging from, or advanced by, the Milan Group which greatly influenced the field and endure today are circularity, hypothesis building and curiosity, psychotic family “games,” and time. Luigi’s work, along with the rest of the team, was described by James A. Marley in Family Involvement in Treating Schizophrenia (2003) as “raising the art of asking good questions almost to a science.” Today, the Post-Milan approach is an amalgam of the original concepts blended with new techniques.

Some information excerpted from Family Therapy News, May/June 1985; September/October 1986; and the Web site of Centro Milanese di Terapia della Famiglia. Some text written by Wendel A. Ray, PhD, and Karin Schlanger, MFT. See page xx for references and author information.

Luigi Boscolo

luigi’s work is described as “raising the art of asking good questions almost to a science.”

Birth date and location Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, MD, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1920 and died in 2007.

Educational background Ivan obtained his MD from Peter Pazmany University, and completed his psychiatric residency and additional training in physics and biochemistry, with the hope of discovering the etiology of schizophrenia. A political refugee, he moved to the U.S. in 1950. Already an assistant professor of psychiatry when he left Hungary, he joined the University of Illinois in Chicago and gained the respect of the scientific community for his research on correlations between mental illness and intracellular metabolism. However, he realized the scientific knowledge of the time was not sufficient to reach his life’s goal, so he returned to clinical work and spent his life developing and refining contextual therapy, and trying to define good therapy, in general. He obtained his U.S. board-certification in psychiatry in 1956.

Contributions to the field Ivan discovered that our behavior towards others is not simply determined by our individual biological or psychological needs, nor by the regulatory forces described in general systems theory or cybernetics, but also by our expectation of fairness and reciprocity, which he described as the dimension of relational ethics. This led him to the definition of a multidimensional model of therapy—contextual therapy. He also demonstrated that the cohesion of families and other human groups was the result of the individual commitment from each group member to respond to the expectations of the others, in return for their support. For Ivan, family homeostasis depends on loyalty; not on homeostatic forces that family therapists had been hard pressed to define, but from a personal commitment of each individual to remain available to other family members. Invisible Loyalties (with Geraldine Spark, 1973) is one of the most quoted books in the field, but also the source of some misunderstandings. Too often, therapists have interpreted family loyalties as an obstacle to individuation. To the contrary, following the existential philosophers, Ivan contends that true autonomy results from relating to others. Mental health and family health are inseparable from a willingness to care about others, and about the next generations. His conclusions about the importance of loyalty and reciprocity for our success as individuals and as families have been confirmed by the work of researchers in other fields. This has given

a scientific validity to the dimension of relational ethics. Ivan taught contextual therapy and psychiatry for over 20 years at Hahnemann University, founded its master in family therapy program in the 70s, and retired as an emeritus professor of psychiatry in 1999. He also founded the Institute for Contextual Growth, which has offered training both in the U.S. and in Europe for three decades. Ivan was a founding member of AFTA and of the Family Institute of Philadelphia, the recipient of numerous professional awards, awarded an honorary medical degree from the University of Bern (Switzerland), and received a gold presidential medal for distinguished contribution to his homeland, granted to him by the president of Hungary, Arpad Gönzs, in 2000.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In 1957, at Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, Ivan felt that individual therapy had limited results in schizophrenia, so he moved toward the involvement of family members in treatment, leading to the formulation of family therapy. His unit became one of the earliest family therapy training centers in the U.S. and provided inspiration for many pioneers of family therapy in Europe

How this work is being carried on today Though contextual therapy is practiced world-wide, the exact number of contextual therapists is difficult to determine, since Ivan refused to establish an organization for his approach. He always insisted that his work had validity for anyone wanting to do good therapy; it was not just for contextual therapists. Indeed, others outside of the contextual approach recognize his work as important for their practice. His influence has reached outside of the field, and he has offered suggestions for applying contextual therapy to intergroup relationships. The approach is taught in most academic and private family therapy training programs, and some programs offer dedicated contextual therapy tracks both in the U.S. and in Europe. As to the future, contextual therapy is bound to gain a new visibility since family therapists will need to make space for neurobiological determinants of behavior in their models of therapy. In their search for an integrative model, they will discover that contextual therapy is already available as an integrative approach that spans from biology to relational ethics.

Catherine Ducommun-Nagy, MD, LMFT, The Institute for Contextual Growth, PC, Glenside, PA.

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy


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Birth date and location Murray Bowen was born on January 13, 1913 in Waverly, Tennessee and died in 1990.

Educational background Murray was awarded an MD from

the University of Tennessee Medical School, Memphis, in 1937. He served internships at Bellevue and Grasslands Hospitals in New York from 1938 to 1941. After five years of active duty in the Army, he did a Fellowship in psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic from 1946 to 1949.

Contributions to the field Murray moved to NIMH in 1954 to study mother-adult offspring symbiosis in more depth. The dysfunctional adult offspring were schizophrenic, but he could have studied symbiosis in other conditions as well, such as severe alcoholism. During the first year of the project, he saw that the unresolved mother-adult offspring attachment was part of a larger relationship process in which the father and other family members played important roles. The family could be most accurately conceptualized as an emotional unit. Three other developments occurred during the early years of the study. Mother and schizophrenic offspring were each initially treated with individual psychotherapy. After appreciating the involvement of other family members in the process, Murray ended the individual sessions and developed a method of therapy for the family. The goal of the family therapy was to see if one family member could “pull-up” out of the “emotional stuck-togetherness” and function as a more differentiated self. If one parent could do it, it would have a ripple effect that benefited the schizophrenic one. A second development was realizing the need for systems thinking to deal with the complex interactions in the families. A third development came from observations from concurrent outpatient work with families having problems less severe than schizophrenia. Murray realized that the fusion or emotional interdependence he found in schizophrenic families is simply an extreme version of the fusion that exists in all families. The NIMH project ended in 1959 and Murray moved to the Georgetown University Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

During the early 1960s, he originated Bowen family systems theory. He considered the landmarks of his theory to include the introduction of natural systems concepts and evolutionary theory, the family diagram, the emotional system, differentiation of self, triangles, fusion, cut-off, projection to succeeding generations, extended family patterns, emotional objectivity, the therapist’s control of self, extension of family process to work and social systems, and societal regression—all integrated into human emotional, physical, and social functioning.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Murray concluded early on that Freudian theory contained too much subjectivity to become part of science. He studied the sciences and other disciplines with the goal of understanding what would be required to develop a science of human behavior. He decided it would require anchoring a theory in the understanding of human beings as part of all life, as a product of evolution. Murray also did therapy and clinical research with a wide range of psychiatric problems. He treated patients and interviewed family members. In the process, he was able to recognize the intense involvement that many patients’ parents had in their lives. He used “symbiosis” to describe the unresolved emotional attachment that typically existed between the mother and her adult dysfunctional offspring. Murray viewed the adult child’s dysfunction to be as much a symptom of the unresolved attachment as its cause.

How this work is being carried on today Since Murray Bowen’s death, the development of Bowen theory and its applications has continued at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, D.C., and at other centers around the country and overseas. The Center conducts training, sponsors conferences; publishes a journal, audiovisual, and other materials; has a family therapy clinic, and is involved in research efforts. Research thus far is consistent with a systems paradigm, providing a more complete explanation of human problems than the cause-and-effect paradigm.

Michael Kerr, Georgetown Family Center, Washington, DC.

Murray Bowen

he was able to recognize the intense involvement that many patients’ parents had in their lives.

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Birth date and location Richard Fisch was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York.

Educational background Richard Fisch, MD, graduated from Colby College and spent a year studying at Columbia University, School of Anthropology. From 1945-46, Dick served as a medic in the US Navy. Returning to civilian life, he entered New York Medical College where he graduated in 1954. Dick completed a year rotating internship at the Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, followed by psychiatric residency at the Sheppard Pratt Health System, Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in 1958, where Harry Stack Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory of Behavior was still central in the teaching of faculty.

Contributions to the field Six years of interaction with other MRI research associates culminated in 1965 with publication of Dick’s first significant contribution to the literature, “Resistance to Change in the Psychiatric Community,” in which he outlined some of the rationales used then (and even now) to justify retaining the status quo in psychiatric orientations that place almost exclusive emphasis on the individual in isolation from the relationships of which they are a part. In a memo to Don Jackson, dated September 15, 1965, Dick proposed creation of a research project focused specifically on how to make therapy more effective and efficient. As Dick recalled, “The idea and planning of a clinical research project in brief therapy began at MRI in 1965. The climate of therapy at that time had reached the highpoint of psychoanalysis and it, or variations of it, influenced much, if not most of therapy activity. At the same time, family therapy was beginning to develop but had very little recognition in the therapy world” (2005). With this proposal, and creation of the MRI Brief Therapy Center, Richard Fisch triggered the emergence of Brief Therapy approaches in the world that have radically improved the practice of therapy.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In 1958, Dick moved to California, where he became assistant director for the San Mateo County Hospital. He held a number of other positions in traditional hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area, but was disenchanted with the traditional medical treatment that dominated psychiatry (Fisch, 1965) so he began exploring alternatives. This is how he found Don Jackson, founding director of the Mental Research Institute (MRI), and soon joined the family therapy research and training being pioneered at MRI in Palo Alto.

How this work is being carried on today The portentous effect of Dick’s proposal in launching the Brief Therapy movement is worthy of acknowledgement. The brief therapy approach set forth by the BTC Team (Fisch, Weakland, Watzlawick, & Bodin, 1972; Fisch, Weakland, & Segal, 1982; Fisch & Schlanger, 1999; Fisch & Ray, 2006; Weakland, Watzlawick, Fisch, & Bodin, 1974; Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974) is one of, if not the first and most influential brief therapy approach in use today. Forerunner to post modern, social constructivist approaches, the MRI Brief Therapy model evolved in direct lineage out of the cybernetic/communication theory of human behavior set forth by Gregory Bateson and his team during the 1950s. Conceptually simple, the orientation takes the idea seriously that it is not so much the difficulties in living that bring people into therapy, but ineffective efforts being made to resolve those difficulties that inadvertently exacerbate and perpetuate the problem into irresolvable vicious cycles. Interrupt efforts being made to resolve the problem and the problem often dissipates on its own. More interested in finding ways to make therapy more effective than seeking personal notoriety, Richard Fisch is among the most unassuming, dedicated, and influential pioneers of Brief Therapy. Now in his early 80s, he lives in quiet retirement in Menlo Park, California.

Karin Schlanger, MFT, and Wendel A. Ray, PhD. References and author information on page 60.

Richard Fisch

“the major, and almost sole, effort expended in out-patient treatment today is in long-term psychotherapy. this is not only among private therapists, but also among most outpatient clinics…thus, there is a need for a facility that will consistently provide imaginative, well planned, brief therapy and at the same time permit a more thorough study of the effectiveness of this approach in general, and of particular techniques more specifically.” —richard fisch, september 15, 1965.


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Birth date and location James Framo was born in South Philadelphia in 1922 and died in 2001.

Educational background James Framo completed his predoctoral studies at Penn State and earned his PhD in psychology at the University of Texas.

Contributions to the field In 1965, Jim co-edited the classic book, Intensive Family Therapy, with Boszormenyi-Nagy; in 1972, he edited Family Interaction, a collection of papers in which the infamous “Anonymous” article by Bowen first appeared. In 1982, Jim published his book of collected papers and in 1968, Jim’s paper in Voices entitled, “My Families, My Family” was published. This was a break-through acknowledgment of the incredible power and influence of the presence of the therapist’s own family emotional system in the ongoing psychotherapeutic conversation. This paper anticipated the later epistemological emphasis on the person of the observer as an active participant in the systemic interaction being observed. His most important and influential paper is “Symptoms from a Family Transactional Viewpoint” (1970), highlighting an interactional theoretical basis as an alternative way of understanding dysfunctional behaviors and clinical symptoms observed “within” individuals. The paper has been used in numerous training programs around the U.S. and led the way for development of Jim’s object relations-based theoretical approach to MFT. He focused on the relationship between the intrapsychic and the interrelational. In his view, intrapsychic conflicts are largely sourced in family of origin experience, and then are repeated and either defended or mastered within the relationship with the spouse, children or other intimates. All of these dramas can be understood as elaborations from the initial family of origin experience. Jim’s therapeutic methods are delineated in Family of Origin Therapy: An Intergenerational Approach (1992).

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions For 13 years, Jim was a research scientist at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Philadelphia. Here, he collaborated with Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, and it is believed his profound interest in family of origin was nourished and focused during this time. This would be honed during a four-year stint in community mental health in Philadelphia as chief of a family therapy unit.

How this work is being carried on today Jim’s legacy will continue to be important for new generations of serious family therapy students, not only for how his work provides a framework and method for families to heal deeply, but also as a reminder of our own unfinished business with our own families of origin, which drove many in the field to pursue the study of family therapy (Kramer, n.d.). Jim’s advancements helped pave the way for what have become today some of the key features of family of origin work in the family therapy field.

Most text excerpted from Family Therapy News, October 1994, by Donald S. Williamson, PhD.

Reference: S. Z., Kramer (n.d.). In memory of James L. Framo. Newsletter of the American Family Therapy Academy, Issue #84.

James Lawrence Framo

jim framo was a passionate pioneer of family therapy. a pioneer is somebody whose work is so embedded in the fabric of training and practice that all those who belong to the field use the ideas without knowing anymore who originated them.” -celia falicov, “honoring jim framo,” newsletter of the american family therapy academy, issue #84.

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Birth date and location Gianfranco Cecchin was born in Nogarole Vicentino, Italy in August 1932 and died in 2004.

Educational background Gianfranco Cecchin, MD, was psychoanalytic in orientation, receiving medical training and completing psychiatric residencies in traditional analytic approaches in New York.

Contributions to the field After several years of success working with apparently impossible cases, the mid 1970s found the Milan group publishing a series of influential articles articulating a purely systemic approach to treating severely disturbed people using what they called Milan systemic family therapy. Others in the field became aware of Gianfranco and the Milan team through these brilliant early writings on systemic therapy with families in schizophrenic transaction (c.f., Selvini-Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, & Prata, 1978, 1980; Cecchin, 1987). Uncompromising adherence to systemic epistemology, and creation of such concepts as hypothesizing, neutrality, circularity, and curiosity, are a few enduring ideas the field learned from Gianfranco and his colleagues. In the early 1980s, the Milan team split up and Gianfranco Cecchin and Luigi Boscolo teamed up to create the Family Therapy Institute of Milan, where they trained countless therapists in the Milan systemic approach. In the late 1980s, Gianfranco began collaboration with Gerry Lane and Wendel Ray. Meeting several times a year, training small groups of students and seeing clients at Lane’s institute in Atlanta, the trio spent countless hours discussing constraints they saw inherent in the then emerging division between so-called modern and post-modern models of practice, which led to development of such concepts as irreverence, the cybernetics of prejudices, and eccentricity into the systemic literature (Cecchin, Lane & Ray, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2006).

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In 1967, Gianfranco joined Luigi Boscolo, Mara Selvini-Palazzoli and Giuliana Prata for the explicit purpose of treating schizophrenia and eating disorders in what became the Family Therapy Center of Milan.

His collaborators were curious to learn about Gianfranco’s experience with Paul Watzlawick in Palo Alto, CA. Together, with Lynn Hoffman and Peggy Penn in the U.S., for several years the group applied psychoanalytic logic in working with these families, but they were frustrated by the slow pace of progress. Searching for a more effective approach, the team members found writings about communication theory and conjoint family therapy by members of the Bateson Research Team (Bateson, Don Jackson, Jay Haley, and John Weakland) and the Mental Research Institute to be enormously helpful in their work (Selvini-Palazzoli, 1995). Using especially Pragmatics of Human Communication (Watzlawick, Beavin-Bavelas & Jackson, 1967) as a guide, the Milan team embraced communication/interactional theory, completely changing how they conceptualized the nature of problems and their technique of family treatment.

How this work is being carried on today Anyone who trained under Gianfranco or worked with him can confirm what an astoundingly effective teacher, and stunningly accomplished family therapist he was—playfully using circular questions, curiosity, accepting and using the presuppositions of family members, and ascribing continuation of patterns of interaction with such adroit and gentle touch that people routinely changed seemingly intransigent interpersonal impasses. The embodiment of the premises of systemic theory, Gianfranco Cecchin—his quick mind, penetrating sense of humor, incredible therapeutic abilities, his laughter and sparking eyes, and not least, his mischievous spirit—changed the lives of those with whom he came in contact. The concepts developed by Gianfranco and his colleagues greatly influenced the field of family therapy and elements of the Milan approach are still widely used today, as they are blended with new concepts and techniques.

Wendel A. Ray, PhD, and Karin Schlanger, MFT. See page 60 for references and author information.

Gianfranco Cecchin

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Birth date and location Harold A. Goolishian was born in 1924 in Lowell, Massachusetts, raised in Boston, and died in 1991.

Educational background Harry studied psychology at the University of Houston and earned his PhD.

Contributions to the field Harry Goolishian has been described as a pioneer who offered provocative alternatives. He was a master clinician, theoretician, teacher, and politician. Harry, along with Harlene Anderson, developed a postmodern collaborative approach to therapy, known today as Collaborative Language Systems. He was a co-founder of the Galveston Family Institute in 1977, one of the earliest federally funded family therapy projects in the United States. There, Harry and colleagues worked to develop a cybernetic, systems-oriented, strategic, brief therapy. One of Harry’s contributions to the field was Multiple Impact Therapy (Multiple Impact Therapy with Families, 1964), which many consider a landmark in the field of psychotherapy. He published extensively in professional journals on theoretical and clinical issues. He is known for his contribution in the development of MFT training programs and for his teaching, supervision, and consultation with students and professionals in the field. In the 90s, Harry and Anderson explored the applications of theories of language and meaning involving families and the process of therapy. The pair also developed the therapist’s stance of “not-knowing.”

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions One couple in particular brought Harry from a psychodynamic approach to an early form of family therapy. Harry was not permitted under ethical standards of the day to see the wife of his schizophrenic patient. Needing to know more, Harry had the man’s wife meet with him. He eventually met with both of them in one session. This unethical practice was the beginning for Harry of working with couples together. Seeing them separately, it appeared that each person was “right” in their relationship assessments; realizing that each made valid points and were seemingly pleasant people, he came to believe a problem of language must exist. From there he began to think about alternative methods for doing therapy.

How this work is being carried on today Today’s Houston-Galveston Institute is internationally recognized for its innovative contributions to the advancements of theory, psychotherapy practice, and research, and to the development of creative contexts for learning, practice, and research. It has distinguished itself by its unique developments in brief therapy and has been acclaimed for its Collaborative Language Systems approach with its emphasis on “problem-organizing systems,” the role of language, narrative and conversation in therapy, the not-knowing position, and the translation of these concepts into work with difficult life situations. Students and professionals worldwide come to study at the Institute (Houston Galveston Institute, 2003).

Some information excerpted from Family Therapy News, January/February 1989 and February 1992.

Reference: Houston Galveston Institute. (2003). About HGI. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.talkhgi.com/about.cfm.

Harold Armen Goolishian

he was a master clinician, theoretician, teacher, and politician.





Birth date and location Ernest R. Groves was born in 1877 in Framingham, Massachusetts and died in 1946.

Educational background Ernest received a religious studies bachelor’s degree from Yale Divinity School in 1901 and a second bachelor’s from

Dartmouth College in 1903. He later received honorary doctorate degrees from Florida Southern College in 1942 and from Boston University in 1946.

Contributions to the field A sociologist, Ernest Groves developed the first college credit course in preparation for marriage at Boston University in 1922, and at the University of North Carolina in 1927. He wrote the first college text on the subject, Marriage, in 1933. Ernest went on to write more than 20 books and nearly 200 articles and became one of the leading and most respected family life educators in the U.S. His work appeared in popular periodicals of the day, such as Look, Good Housekeeping, and Parents Magazine, as well as the academic journals, Social Forces and Journal of Educational Sociology. He was the first president of the North Carolina Mental Hygiene Society in 1936 and president of the National Conference on Family Relations in 1941. From 1938 to 1940, Ernest was chair of the committee on the Family for the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Throughout his career, Ernest was an active member in numerous national and state organizations for marriage, family life, and mental hygiene. He began annual conferences on the Conservation of Marriage and the Family at the

University of North Carolina, while his wife began the conference at the North Carolina College for Negroes. They became affiliated in 1947. Ernest was a thoughtful man who gave generously of his time and expertise. He devoted a great deal of his life to counseling patients, in person and via mail. His work was considered progressive for its time.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Early in his career, Ernest was a minister, and as such there was no shortage of individuals turning to him for guidance with emotional and interpersonal problems. Over time, Ernest realized so many human problems related to difficulties from childhood and adolescence. Carrying these issues forward into adulthood, the problems then manifested in adult relationships and marriage. With this new insight, Ernest began shifting his interests to child development, family life and marriage. He would continue throughout his career to place a strong emphasis on prevention through education and counseling (Dail & Jewson, 1986).

How this work is being carried on today Today, the Groves Conference remains a viable and active organization and will celebrate its 75th anniversary June 7-11, 2009, at The University of North Carolina, where it all began in 1934. The last Groves Conference met in June 2008 in Ireland to study the impact of globalization on families, thus maintaining its “cutting edge” mission.

Some information courtesy of Roger Rubin, PhD, Family Studies, University of Maryland.

Reference: Dail, P. W., & Jewson, R. H. (1986). In praise of fifty years: The Groves conference on the conservation of marriage and the family. Lake Mills, IA: Graphic.

Ernest Rutherford Groves

over time, ernest realized so many human problems related to difficulties from childhood and adolescence.

Birth date and location Jay Haley was born July 19, 1923 in Wyoming and died in 2007.

Educational background Jay Haley earned a BA in theater arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s of library science at Berkeley. He completed his master’s in communication at Stanford.

Contributions to the field Together with Bateson and the other team members, they developed the first purely communication/interactional theory of human behavior, central to which is the concept of the double bind. During this 10-year collaboration, the Bateson team revolutionized for the world the understanding of the relational and contextual nature of behavior. They were among the first research

teams to see the patient and other family members in conjoint family therapy. Members of Bateson’s Team published more than 70 professional papers, two especially lucid examples are the groundbreaking, “Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia” (Bateson, Jackson, Haley & Weakland, 1956), and Haley’s “The Family of the Schizophrenic: A Model System” (1959). One of the most significant aspects of research in the Bateson group included the study of the hypnotic and clinical work of Milton H. Erickson. Jay incorporated many of Erickson’s techniques into his own strategic therapy. By editing and publishing Erickson’s selected papers (1967) followed by Uncommon Therapy–The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD (1973), it is Jay who is largely responsible for introducing Erickson to a wider audience. During the first decades of the field, Jay was involved with many of the most important developments in the field. In 1959, he was one of the first members of the Bateson team to join Don Jackson when he founded the Mental Research Institute (MRI), serving as director of research. In 1962, in collaboration with Jackson and Nathan Ackerman, Jay helped found, and for the first decade, was first editor of the journal Family Process. In 1967, he left MRI to join Salvador Minuchin and Braulio Montalvo at another of the most influential early family centers, The Philadelphia

Child Guidance Center. In 1975, Jay co-founded, with then wife and fellow family therapy pioneer, Cloé Madanes, The Family Therapy Institute of Washington, DC, where he continued teaching and developing his Strategic Family Therapy Approach until the early 1990s, when he retired and moved back to La Jolla, CA.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In 1952, while a student in communication at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Jay met Gregory Bateson, who invited him to join John Weakland, William Fry, and later Don Jackson as a member of Bateson’s renowned research team, widely known as the Palo Alto Group.

How this work is being carried on today Jay Haley minimized his own contributions and emphasized what he learned from his mentors, Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, his career-long friend and colleague, John Weakland, Salvador Minuchin, Braulio Montalvo and others. Yet, when in his presence, Jay’s understanding of human behavior and how to bring about constructive change left students in awe of his knowledge and skill as a teacher. Like his close colleagues, Weakland and Jackson, Jay did not believe in individual achievement, as the term is commonly understood. Rather than individuals existing in isolation, he saw behavior in context and patterns of interaction of which individual behavior is a part. If there is a change in patterns of interaction, the individual behavior changes, too. Jay was central in establishing a radically alternative way of understanding human behavior, as a product of an interaction, taking place in the present moment between people in an intimate relationship with one another. He also committed himself to demystifying the practice of therapy, contributing some of the most widely read and clearest books, articles, and training videotapes available in the field (Haley, 1963, 1976, 1980).


Jay Douglas Haley

jay’s understanding of human behavior and how to bring about constructive change left students in awe of his knowledge and skill as a teacher.





Birth date and location Lynn Hoffman was born in 1924 to American parents in Paris, France.

Educational background Lynn earned her MSW at Adelphi School of Social Work in 1971.

Contributions to the field Lynn Hoffman is an

internationally known lecturer on family therapy and author of Techniques of Family Therapy (with Jay Haley, 1969); Foundations of Family Therapy (1981); Milan Systemic Family Therapy (with Boscolo, Cecchin, and Penn, 1987); Exchanging Voices, and Family Therapy: An Intimate History (2002). From 1963 to 1965, Lynn began working as an editor for Don Jackson at MRI. While there, she met Satir, Haley, Sluzki, Weakland, and Fisch. Lynn helped Satir edit her book, Conjoint Family Therapy. After completing her MSW, Lynn went to work at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, where Minuchin was developing his structural approach to family therapy. Lynn put together some training tapes based on sessions with families of anorectic children. Harry Aponte was her supervisor, and the pair co-authored an article. Aponte occasionally invited Lynn to attend when he presented workshops, and this led to Lynn’s own workshop career. Lynn also did a stint as staff historian for the Applied Behavioral Sciences Program at Gouverneur Health Services on New York’s Lower East Side. Using an “ecosystems” model, the late psychiatrist Auerswald had designed a multi-disciplinary family health team, and a mobile crisis unit that responded to calls from within the community 24 hours a day. Beginning in 1978, Lynn joined the teaching staff of the Ackerman Institute in New York, and worked on the Brief Strategic Therapy Project headed by Papp and Silverstein. Here, Lynn encountered the Milan team at a workshop and subsequently formed a Milan-style team of her own that included Penn, Patten and Walker. Beginning in 1982, Lynn became part of an informal network of Milan teams. This network spun off a number of new innovators like White, Andersen, Tomm, and Penn. In l983, Lynn began teaching at

the Brattleboro Institute of Family Therapy, where she was influenced by the “reflecting team” approach and began to explore its dimensions, not only for therapy, but for teaching, consulting and workshops. During her nearly 40 years in the field, Lynn has led or taken part in hundreds of workshops and conferences in the U.S., Canada, South and Central America, the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan. In 1988, she was awarded the Life Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Family Therapy by the AAMFT.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Indeed working among the family therapy giants at MRI provided much influence, but also, Lynn describes her work at Gouverneur Health Services as being very enlightening. Auerswald’s work recognized that both the providers and those they treated are embedded in social networks. Rather than seeking diagnoses, Auerswald relied on the strength to be found in peoples’ natural connections.

How this work is being carried on today In 1994, Lynn designed a collaborative conference in Northampton called New Voices in Human Systems. Her intention was to bring therapists, organizational consultants and social scientists together to discuss the implications of postmodernism for their respective fields. She also began to attend international conferences that brought her to countries like Greece, Japan, England, Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Holland and Australia. She continues to travel and be a relevant figure in the field of family therapy.

Lynn Hoffman

during her nearly 40 years in the field, lynn has led or taken part in hundreds of workshops and conferences in the u.s., canada, south and central america, the uk, europe, australia and japan.

Birth date and location Don D. Jackson was born in 1920 in Oakland, California, and died in 1968.

Educational background Don Jackson earned his MD from Stanford Medical School. During his studies, Don was challenged by the lack of competent guidance that resulted when most of the qualified clinical faculty were away, serving in the military during World War II. Turning to the library, Don found the analytic system of psychiatry made sense to him, finding the use of symbolic interpretations in insight-oriented work to have “miraculous results” (Jackson, 1962). Don also trained under the tutelage of Harry Stack Sullivan.

Contributions to the field Clinical supervisor of Bateson, Haley, Weakland, Fry, and Yalom, among others, many of Don’s supervisees would become the first generation of systemic family theorists and therapists. The first clinician to uncompromisingly maintain a higher order cybernetic and constructivist position in the actual practice of therapy, the essence of Don’s model is that the client is seen as a “family-surrounded individual with real problems in the present day” (Jackson, 1967). Brief in orientation, the primary focus, questions asked, assignments and tasks given, is always on the relationship between members of the family. Acknowledged as the principle founder of Interactional Theory and Conjoint Family Therapy, Don was rated one of the top 10 psychiatrists in America in the late 1960s, just before his untimely death at the age of 48. He is remembered as having been a brilliant therapist, teacher, and for his leading part in the development of such groundbreaking theoretical concepts as family homeostasis, family rules, relational quid pro quo, and, with Bateson, Weakland, and Haley, the theory of the double bind. Don was one of the most prolific authors of his time, publishing more than 125 articles and book chapters and seven books, including two classic texts that remain in print today, Mirages of Marriage (with

William Lederer), and Pragmatics of Human Communication (with Watzlawick and Beavin Bavelas). Don founded the Mental Research Institute in 1959, and created the first family therapy training program funded by the U. S. Government, hiring Satir to be the first director of training. With Ackerman and Haley, Don founded the field’s first journal, Family Process.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Don served as a psychiatrist at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, fortuitously leading to his meeting Bateson, who asked Don to join him, Haley, Weakland, and Fry in the now infamous Bateson Research Team. During the first year, Don found the traditional prohibition against contact with a patient’s family members difficult in the then small town of Palo Alto, leading him to articulate the concept of family homeostasis, and to see patients and family members together, an approach he named conjoint family therapy.

How this work is being carried on today Don’s contributions permeate most systemically- oriented family and brief therapy approaches. Theoretical premises introduced by Don and colleagues continue to serve as fundamental premises underlying the brief therapy model developed after his death at the MRI; the strategic work of Haley and his colleagues; the structural model developed by Minuchin and his colleagues; the work of the Milan team; the solution focused brief therapy approach of deShazer, Berg and associates at the Brief Therapy Center of Milwaukee; the work of Keeney and colleagues; the work of Andersen; and even as a point of departure to react against by most “post-modern” narrative orientations of Anderson and Goolishian; Hoffman and White, as well as most other systemically and contextually oriented approaches


Don D. Jackson

“don had a quickness and a lightness in touch that is I think very important in handling problems of human behavior… he was historically a very important person. his original paper on family homeostasis was certainly one of the first, perhaps the first major statement about the family as a system.” -gregory bateson, 1970.

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Birth date and location Neil Jacobson was born in 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and died in 1999.

Educational background Neil completed his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina-

Chapel Hill in 1977, and did his internship at Brown University.

Contributions to the field Neil Jacobson made major contributions in three separate, substantive areas of psychology. At the time of his death, he had major research grants and had made major contributions to couple therapy, treatment for depression, and domestic violence. In couple therapy, he had written the definitive treatment manual for traditional behavioral couple therapy, had evaluated this treatment, and had, with Andrew Christensen, created and evaluated a major modification of this treatment, namely Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy. In the area of depression treatment research, he had challenged the major treatment in the area (cognitive therapy) and elaborated and evaluated an alternative treatment, Behavioral Activation. For domestic violence, he had provided evidence about the kind of men who perpetuate violence against women and had successfully lobbied couple therapists to regularly evaluate violence and take it seriously. In addition to his work in these substantive areas, he made methodological contributions in the analysis and promotion of clinical significance as a metric with which to evaluate clinical success and in the design of clinical trials in psychotherapy research. Finally, he trained a large number of therapists and students in couple therapy, depression treatment, and in the conduct of clinical research. For more information, see the June 2, 2000 issue of Prevention and Treatment (http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/toc-jun02-00.html).

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions During graduate school, Neil became interested in couple therapy and was influenced by the pioneering work of Patterson, Stuart, and Weiss. At the University of North Carolina during graduate school, Neil and

Barclay Martin (1976) produced the first authoritative review of behavioral couple therapy and conducted one of the first clinical trials of the approach (Jacobson, 1977). For more detail, refer to Virginia Rutter’s article (www.afta.org/newsletter/79/page11.html) or the 1993 Family Therapy News article on Neil S. Jacobson.

How this work is being carried on today Neil’s work on couple therapy is carried on by innumerable clinicians who were influenced by his workshops and writings, and his treatment manuals on Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) are still popular today (Jacobson & Christensen, 1998; Christensen & Jacobson, 2000). Neil’s major clinical trial on this treatment is being carried on by his collaborator, Andrew Christensen, at UCLA, and various colleagues. Other studies on IBCT are being planned or carried out at Duke University, the University of Iowa, Texas A&M, and in foreign countries, such as Sweden. Similarly, Neil’s work on depression is being carried on by innumerable clinicians who were influenced by his training and writing. His major clinical trial on behavioral activation was recently published by Sona Dimidjian et al. at the University of Colorado. A self-help manual was recently published by former colleagues Addis and Martell (2004). Studies are underway to extend behavioral activation to other populations, such as for adolescent depression and for veterans with both PTSD and depression. Neil’s influence on domestic violence can be seen in the current standard of care for couple therapy, which includes an evaluation of violence. His book on violence against women (Jacobson & Gottman, 1998) is still cited today. His research directions are carried on by a number of researchers, but perhaps most clearly by Amy Holtzworth-Monroe at Indiana University. Finally, Neil’s influence on the methodology of clinical trials can be seen in the near universal acceptance of his clinical significance metric as a way of evaluating outcome.

Written by Andrew Christensen, PhD, and Neil’s wife, Virginia Rutter, PhD.

Neil Scott JacobsonBirth date and location Monica McGoldrick was born in Brooklyn in 1943 and later raised on a farm in Pennsylvania.

Educational background Monica earned a BA in Russian studies, an MA in Russian studies at Yale University, and an MSW from Smith College School of Social Work. She also holds an honorary PhD from Smith College.

Contributions to the field Monica has been committed to the contribution of new knowledge in the MFT world for over 35 years. She has furthered knowledge and shaped the field in the areas of family development, the family life-cycle, Bowenian therapy, genograms, gender in families, multicultural development, including ethnicity, race, class, and in grief and loss. She is the director and developer of the Multicultural Family Institute, the only one of its kind in the field of family therapy. The Institute provides training, service, and written materials that are at the leading edge of the field of cultural factors in marriage and family therapy. She also serves as an adjunct associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a position she has held for many years. She has been a visiting professor at Fordham University, and on faculty at the Family Institute of Westchester and the Center for Family Learning in New York. Monica has also maintained a private clinical practice for over 30 years. Monica’s largest contribution to family therapy may well be her writings, which have influenced countless numbers of both experienced therapists, as well as trainees over many years. She has published over thirty articles and seven books, two of which have multiple editions. Monica’s work in Family Life Cycle and Ethnicity and Family Therapy have become both standards and classics in the field. Add to these Living Beyond Loss, Genograms: Assessment and Intervention, and Re-visioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture, and Gender in Clinical Practice, and you have part of the essential library for family therapists today. Monica has served on numerous editorial boards and presented at workshops in the U.S. and abroad.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Psychologists and psychiatrists at the mental health center where Monica worked early in her career seemed to have little if any interaction with patients. She soon discovered that social work might be a better pursuit for her, as it would be more hands on. She eventually saw patients when families came to visit, and she realized this was when you learned the most about the patient. Working at the Yale-New Haven Hospital unit, a very family oriented center, Monica’s work began to turn in the direction she had wanted. In 1972, she would hear a presentation by Murray Bowen, where one of his students would offer Monica a position in his family institute (Wyatt, 2006).

How this work is being carried on today Genograms are widely used today, not only in family therapy, but also in the medical field, social work, psychiatry, psychology, etc. Under Monica’s guidance, the Multicultural Family Institute is a thriving center offering conferences, seminars and training programs, as well as consultation to schools and agencies and clinical services to individuals and families. The faculty and affiliates are known internationally for their training and contributions to family therapy theory and practice; especially for their efforts to expand the boundaries of systems thinking to address issues of social justice and equity. They have made many contributions to issues of culture and race, multicultural families, issues for men and women in families, class, and life cycle issues, including untimely and traumatic loss, couple relationships, divorce, child custody, remarriage, child, sibling and adolescent problems, caretaking of aging and ill family members and issues of family conflict and cutoff (Multicultural Family Institute, 2008).

References: Wyatt, R. C. (2006). An interview with Monica McGoldrick. Psychotherapy.net. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/Monica_McGoldrick. Multicultural Family Institute Web site. (2008). Retrieved July 30, 2008, from www.multiculturalfamily.org.

Monica McGoldrickhe successfully lobbied couple therapists to regularly evaluate violence and take it seriously.





Birth date and location Salvador Minuchin was born in 1921 in Argentina.

Educational background Salvador Minuchin graduated medical school in 1946 in Argentina and

began his residency in pediatrics with a subspeciality in psychiatry. In 1950, he studied psychiatry in New York as a psychiatric resident.

Contributions to the field Sal Minuchin developed Structural Family Therapy, an approach which focuses on the dysfunctional structural organization of the family. The therapist tries to disrupt dysfunctional relationships within the family, and cause them to settle back into a healthier pattern. Sal’s style has been described as forceful and intense, but in a manner that communicates respect for family members, as well as self-confidence. He has spent his career working on behalf of the poor and ethnically underprivileged. He began early on to change the language of therapy to

make it relevant to families. Populations considered “unreachable” needed a change in traditional ways of communicating. Sal took this perspective with him to the Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia, to work with the marginalized welfare population in the black ghetto of South Philadelphia. In the ‘70s, Sal and colleagues developed training programs in which family therapists were sent to different institutions in Pennsylvania to help them shift the focus of their interventions from individuals to families. They also trained paraprofessionals, drawn from the neighborhood. Some did not even have a high school education, and they became competent family therapists. That program changed the lives of many people, and, for the first time, their work was multicultural in a broad sense. In New York, Sal would direct his efforts at changing institutions that provided services for poor and marginalized populations. During this time, a training manual for foster parents was written which was widely used around the nation (discussed in Working with Families of the Poor by Minuchin, Minuchin and Colapinto). His group also initiated a program for pregnant women who were drug addicted and under treatment at NYU

hospital, which included the families, focusing on life issues, as well as addiction. Sal has contributed to numerous professional journals and coauthored numerous books, many of which explore the effects of poverty and social systems on families.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In 1951, Sal co-directed residential institutions for disturbed children in Israel. Here, he began to work with groups instead of individuals. Later, Sal trained at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychoanalysis in New York, where the ideas of Harry Stack Sullivan (interpersonal psychiatry) were supported. As he was training, he began practicing at the Wiltwyck School for Boys. Gradually, he began to feel that he needed to see a client’s family for effectiveness (Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2008). It should also be noted that Braulio Montalvo is widely recognized as a gifted therapist and a close associate of Minuchin’s, working with him both at Wiltwyck and Philadelphia Child Guidance.

How this work is being carried on today The Minuchin Center for the Family provides structural family therapy training to individuals, and systemic consultations to organizations, working with couples and families who have been marginalized due to racism, socio-economic conditions and/or sexual orientation. Using the concepts of structural family therapy, the Center educates family therapists to work with these critically underserved populations (Minuchin Center for the Family, 2006).

Some Information excerpted from Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, April 1987 (Laurie Heatherington), and Family Therapy Magazine, January/February 2003.

References: Minuchin Center for the Family (2006). About us. Retreieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.minuchincenter.org/aboutus.php#h. Encyclopedia of Psychology (2008). Minuchin, Salvador (1921- ). bNET. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0005/ai_2699000553.

Salvador Minuchin

that program changed the lives of many people, and, for the first time, their work was multicultural in a broad sense.

Birth date and location Emily Hartshorne Mudd was born in 1898 in Marion, Pennsylvania, and died in 1998.

Educational background Emily attended Vassar, but during WWII, established a program to help maintain crops. She drank out of an infected well and caught Typhoid fever and could not go back to Vassar. She then attended a landscape architecture school in Groton, Massachusetts, where she met her husband, Dr. Stuart Mudd, who was studying at the Harvard Medical School. She received her MA in social work in 1936 and her PhD in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Contributions to the field In the 1920s, Emily helped establish Philadelphia’s first birth control clinic. It has been noted that this endeavor was her fondest and proudest. It was against the law to prescribe contraception, or dispense information on contraception, but she was protected by another law—she was pregnant and could not be arrested. In 1932, Emily established the Marriage Council of Philadelphia. In 1950, the Council became a national center for training and research in human relationships, and eventually became the Division of Family Study in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania. Emily was advanced immediately to the rank of full professor, as the first female professor in Penn’s medical school. Emily was propelled by her academic productivity, publishing credits and the innovation of her programs. As there was previously no tradition of marriage counseling, this Division became a prototype. Emily also became very involved with patients in the Obstetrical and Gynecologic Clinics of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1975, she co-published a paper on counseling and patient interaction in regard to teen pregnancy. Throughout her life, Emily remained focused on the needs of the less fortunate and the harsh realities of economic disadvantage, especially as it pertained to reproductive healthcare. William Masters said of Emily: “More

than anyone else, Emily Mudd encouraged and helped shape the field of marriage and family life education and was among the first to address the dimension of sexuality as a vital factor in family life care.”

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In Philadelphia, Emily Mudd became more and more involved in community activities. Around 1929, she was part of the establishment of the Maternal Health Center, the first family-planning program in the Philadelphia area. It was here that the connection became clear between poverty and birth control issues. This led to an interest in counseling techniques and preventive medicine that remained with Emily throughout her career. Emily saw early on the serious need for relationship assistance, not just medical interventions. In 1972, Emily was appointed by Governor Shaft as co-chair of the Pennsylvania Abortion Law Commission. She further became interested in family-based interventions while working on the Commission and helped establish a place where couples could get help, as well as individuals.

How this work is being carried on today The legacy of the Marriage Council has had a major impact on the field and was transformed into the vital center that exists for training and study today. Further, the report of the Abortion Law Commission had a significant national impact on abortion legislation. The Stuart and Emily Mudd Professorship serves as a hub for an expanding interdisciplinary program, still one of the few such efforts in the United States in the fields of family relations, human reproduction, and social interaction.

Information courtesty of Emily Mitchell

Emily Borie Hartshorne Mudd

“emily mudd encouraged and helped shape the field of marriage and family life education and was among the first to address the dimension of sexuality as a vital factor in family life care.”





Birth date and location Mara Selvini Palazzoli was born in Italy in 1916 and died in 1999.

Educational background Mara Selvini Palazzoli, MD, studied internal medicine in

Italy, but ultimately decided to pursue psychiatry in Switzerland.

Contributions to the field Mara is best known as the leader of the Milan group, a team of four psychiatrists (including Luigi Boscolo, Gianfranco Cecchin and Giuliana Prata) in Milan, Italy, who conducted clinical exploratory research with families with psychotic patients in the early 1970s. Their work is generally referred to as the Milan systemic approach. The group initially borrowed from American family therapy pioneers, like Bateson and the MRI group, but would later become some of the foremost educators in the field world wide. A good deal of their work focused on anorexia and schizophrenia, with therapists working in teams and using one-way mirrors to achieve objectivity. Mara made major contributions to the field in the understanding of transactional patterns in families with an anorexic member. She also focused on the effects of the “invariant prescription” in generating a typology of “family games” by studying the responses of different families to the same therapeutic intervention. Paradox and Counterparadox, available in the U.S. in the late 70s, was read world wide and gives one of the most comprehensive accounts of the group’s work. Mara’s book, Self-starvation, was also available in 1978. Mara was a 1985 recipient of the AAMFT’s Distinguished Contribution to Research in Family Therapy award. In fact, she was very dissatisfied with the level of research in the field and advocated for more research, stating that it is an absolutely vital component of family therapy. Thus, she separated from her colleagues in 1980 and founded a private practice in order to do intensive research with family therapy as the methodology.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Mara had a strong interest in a disorder seen in Italy after World War II, anorexia nervosa. Believing it to be an emotional disorder, she decided to treat it with traditional psychoanalytic methods. But after much frustration, she traveled to the U.S. in the late 60s to learn about family therapy and returned to Italy to incorporate these ideas into her team for treatment of anorexia and schizophrenia. Mara also had an innate curiosity about human behavior. She would observe people surrounding her quite intently and wondered about their professional lives, educational backgrounds and family lives. Her interest in focusing on research in family therapy was stirred in 1978 by Italy’s decision to close all of its mental health hospitals. Instead, they developed district psychiatric centers which were not hospital centers but consultation centers. In those centers teams were assigned to deal with families that came in with a psychotic member. The results were disastrous because many of the teams were not capable of working with families with a psychotic member or of stopping a psychotic crisis. At this point Mara decided to conduct research to develop a model that would make dealing with those families easier for therapists.

How this work is being carried on today Some of the major concepts emerging from, or advanced by, the Milan Group which greatly influenced the field are circularity, hypothesis building and curiosity, psychotic family “games,” and time. Mara’s work, along with the rest of the team, was described by James A. Marley in Family Involvement in Treating Schizophrenia (2003) as “raising the art of asking good questions almost to a science.” Although the Milan group’s stance on neutrality drew some criticism from those in the field who felt it was too distancing, their work and the Milan systemic approach has had a major and far reaching impact on the field. Today, the Post-Milan approach is an amalgam of the original concepts blended with new techniques.

Information excerpted from Family Therapy News, May/June 1985 and September/October 1986.

Mara Selvini PalazzoliBirth date and location Peggy Papp was born in 1923 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Educational background Peggy earned her MSW at Hunter College, School of Social Work, New York City.

Contributions to the field Gender-focused research and dialogue have long been at the center of attention in the marriage and family therapy field. The origin of these discussions can be traced back roughly 35 years to a time when the pioneers of family therapy started to question the gender assumptions inherent in our society. In the 1970s, Peggy helped call attention to the number of publications that blamed mothers for every kind of problem. Mothers were blamed for schizophrenia, incest, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, just to name a few. Peggy has continued to be a key participant in this evolution of ideas about gender and power, and often took part in the initial debates, and continues to do so today. She is an internationally renowned therapist and author of numerous articles and books on family therapy, including The Process of Change, considered a classic in the field; co-author of the landmark book, The Invisible Web: Gender Patterns in Family Relationships; and editor of Couples on the Faultline: New Directions for Therapists. She has presented extensively in the U.S., Europe, South America, China and Israel. She is recognized for her many innovative contributions to family therapy, including family sculpting and the use of themes and belief systems. She was the recipient of the AAMFT’s Lifetime Achievement Award and has been honored by the American Family Therapy Academy for her pioneering work on The Women’s Project for Family Therapy (with Marianne Walters, Olga Silverstein and Betty Carter).

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Peggy and Olga Silverstein began a program using paradox in 1974, working with families of symptomatic children (Minuchin and Fishman, 1981).

How this work is being carried on today Peggy is currently a senior faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, and founder and director of Ackerman’s Depression and Gender Project. In this project, a model was created that recognized the role gender plays in depression. A multi-dimensional treatment approach is practiced that takes into account the biological, psychological, cultural and interpersonal aspects of depression. The family is seen as an essential part of the recovery and is involved in the treatment process. In addition to her Ackerman affiliation, Peggy has a private practice in family therapy in New York City.

Some information courtesy of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York, NY. Also from Family Therapy Magazine, July/August 2002.

Reference: Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Harvard University Press.

Peggy Bennion Papp

peggy helped call attention to the number of publications that blamed mothers for every kind of problem. mothers were blamed for schizophrenia, incest, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, just to name a few.





Birth date and location Virginia Satir was born June 26, 1916 in Neillsville, Wisconsin, and died in 1988.

Educational background Virginia earned a BA in education in 1936. In 1948, she received an MA in social work from the

Northwestern University in Chicago.

Contributions to the field Virginia Satir is one of the most common names in the annals of family therapy. During her early professional years, she was part of a small group, including others such as Ackerman and Bowen, who made family therapy a major alternative to the existing therapeutic systems. A teacher who carried her message around the world, Virginia is often referred to as the “Columbus of family therapy.” Her books, Conjoint Family Therapy (1964) and Peoplemaking (1972), are two of the central texts in the field. She developed the Satir Growth Model,

a comprehensive set of beliefs, methods, tools, and experiential exercises that support positive change in individuals, family systems, organizations and communities. In 1958, Virginia joined Don Jackson in founding the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California. Her major contributions to family therapy include: introduction and promotion of conjoint family therapy into the mainstream of therapy practices; bringing a process approach to therapy that gave a major alternative to content and problem-solving approaches; providing a health focus to therapy by promoting a view of the world and of people that builds on possibilities, internal resources, personal choice, and self worth; developing a three-generational approach to family therapy that has major transformational results; using experiential learning as a dependable and viable mode for change; promoting and developing the use of “right hemisphere” interventions such as humor, meditation, trance, touch, voice tone, and affect; putting focus on the therapist, instead of any specific

techniques, as the major change agent; developing a way of changing dysfunctional communication patterns to healthy patterns; expounding transformational approach that works at various levels of people’s internal process, such as yearning, expectations, perceptions, feelings, and coping reactions; and providing hope for thousands of clients and therapists that change is possible.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions From the beginning, Virginia was curious about relational communications. She once explained that there had been too many contradictions in her life that she did not understand. Her mother would cry but claim that nothing was wrong. Her father would look and act frustrated and anxious but say he was happy. Early on she was considered a maverick in her field work and it wasn’t long before she launched her own independent therapy career. In 1951, seeing many severely dysfunctional individuals for whom her training and experience had not prepared her, she began to develop new approaches based on the needs of the individuals and her own intuitive creativity.

How this work is being carried on today Her greatest impact was through her many workshops, demonstrations, month-long training institutes, and her modeling of congruency and belief in human beings. Her last few books established her not only as a master family therapist and innovator, but also as the founder and developer of a major, comprehensive family therapy system that can be practiced and taught by others than herself. Her techniques have been developed to the point that they are used in the office work of family therapists, as well as in therapy sessions with individual clients. Her tools of sculpting and reframing are used today by many other systems. Her legacy includes the formation of the Satir Institute and the Satir International Summer Institute, known today as the Satir Institute of the Rockies.

Excerpted from Family Therapy News, September/October 1988, John Banmen, EdD.

Virginia SatirBirth date and location Paul Watzlawick was born in Villach, Austria in 1921, and died in 2007.

Educational background Paul Watzlawick received his doctorate in 1949 from the University of Venice (Cà Foscari) in philosophy and modern languages. He then trained at the Carl Jung Institute in Zürich.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions After teaching for a year at the University of El Salvador School of Psychology and Medicine, while traveling back to Europe a fortuitous event occurred—Paul met Don Jackson. In the late 1960s, he joined the Research Associates at the Mental Research Institute (MRI). He fully embraced the radically alternative, interaction-focused conceptualization of behavior, studying this view under the direct tutelage of the three founding thinkers: Don D. Jackson, Gregory Bateson, and Milton H. Erickson.

Contributions to the field Paul Watzlawick is among the best known figures in the fields of communication and constructivist theory, family and brief therapy. His contributions to the Interactional View of human behavior are profound, many, and among the most influential and widely read. Paul published some of the most influential publications in communication/interactional theory, such as Pragmatics of Human Communication–A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes (1967, with Janet Beavin Bavelas and Don Jackson); in the area of constructivism he published How Real is Real and The Invented Reality; and in Brief Therapy, Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (with John Weakland and Richard Fisch); and The Language of Change, as lucid examples.

How this work is being carried on today Paul devoted his life to teaching, mentoring generations of therapists, researchers, and teachers. This is among his most durable legacies—the number of students (many now leaders in brief therapy) who look upon Paul Watzlawick as their mentor. Along with his career-long collaborators Weakland and Fisch, Paul pioneered the application of interactional/communication principles in the practice of brief therapy. Out of this collaboration came one of the clearest and most influential brief therapy orientations, MRI Brief Therapy (e.g., Brief Therapy: Focused Problem Resolution, 1974) written with colleagues Weakland, Fisch, and Art Bodin, and the influential Change–Principals of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution, 1974, by Watzlawick, Weakland, and Fisch. For more than 45 years, Paul did not waiver from the basic tenets of Interactional View. He authored more than 150 scientific papers and 22 books that are translated in 80 languages. In an era when self-promotion and exaggerated importance have become commonplace, it is impressive that the curriculum vitae of this extraordinarily accomplished man was one page in length. Paul stands comfortably among such giants as Gregory Bateson, Heinz von Foerster, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, in the fields of Communication-Interactional Theory and Constructivist Theory. His contributions stand equally comfortable among the pioneers of brief therapy as Don Jackson and Milton Erickson.


Paul Watzlawick

his contributions to the interactional view of human behavior are profound, many, and among the most influential and widely read.

a teacher who carried her message around the world, virginia is often referred to as the “columbus of family therapy.”





Birth date and location John Weakland was born in 1919, and grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. He died in 1995.

Educational background At age 15, John entered Cornell University, completing a degree in

chemical engineering. In the next few years, John was partly responsible for the development of the first method for mass-producing penicillin, and later involved in developing the design of the catalytic cracker of petroleum, still in use today, which heats crude petroleum, breaking it down into gasoline and other petroleum products.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Growing tired of chemical engineering, John turned to the Princeton Library where he became interested in the social sciences. Learning that Gregory Bateson was teaching at Columbia University New School of Social Sciences, and wanting to know more about the classes, uncharacteristically, John telephoned Bateson. Hearing that John was a chemical engineer, Bateson, who was involved in the Macy Conferences on Cybernetics, and having difficulty understanding a mathematical equation, invited John to his home in Greenwich Village to discuss mathematics. They were to become lifelong friends, beginning a research collaboration that eventually would blossom into the influential Bateson Research Project. Abandoning chemical engineering to study anthropology and sociology at Columbia University under the tutelage of Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, John was eventually led to field work with Chinese communities in New York and San Francisco, Navaho and Pueblo Indians, and later, native communities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.

Contributions to the field With others at the Bateson Research Team, John pioneered the application of communication theory in understanding human behavior. He (1951; 1967) insisted the study of human behavior concentrate on directly observable interaction and avoid reliance on inferences or constructs that are not observable.

Communication/Interactional theory posits that communication occurring in the present among members of the clients’ family is the most relevant source of explanation for behavior. Focusing on how members of a family affect one another, the team set forth double bind theory (Bateson, Jackson, Haley & Weakland, 1956). The double bind is a continuous, pervasive process that can occur in any intense relationship in which the individuals involved feel it vitally important to accurately interpret the meaning of the other. A single, simple message never occurs and family members frequently send incongruent messages. John was also pivotal, with Haley, in introducing Milton Erickson’s hypnotherapy to a wider audience. Working with Don Jackson, Jules Riskin, and Virginia Satir, he pioneered the development of conjoint family therapy. Among the first to apply interactional/systemic premises in work with individuals, John contended that if one takes seriously the interactional view, that problems occur in the context of, and are maintained by, the behaviors of other family members, then, it is not necessary to see the whole family together in order to identify and interrupt attempted solutions which maintain the problem. In Counseling with Elders and Their Families, John Weakland and John Herr (1979) pioneered the area of marriage and family therapy with aging families. These are but a few of John’s innovative contributions during the Bateson research projects, and later at MRI.

How this work is being carried on today What evolved out of the Bateson research projects, then with Jackson, Satir, and Riskin at MRI in the early studies of family interaction and conjoint family therapy, and later in the work with Richard Fisch, Paul Watzlawick and at the MRI Brief Therapy Center, is nothing less than a paradigm shift in thinking about the nature of the relationship between human beings and their surrounding contexts. Even though progressively more debilitated by a terminal illness, John continued to teach and supervise trainees from his home, completing his final book (Weakland & Ray, 1995) only weeks before his death at age 76.


John H. WeaklandBirth date and location Carl Whitaker was born in 1912 and died in 1995.

Educational background Carl Whitaker, MD, trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Syracuse University and performed his psychiatry residency at Syracuse University Psychopathic Hospital and a child guidance fellowship in Louisville, Kentucky.

Contributions to the field Carl invented as he went along, breaking new ground for treating psychosis, working before rules were in place. There was no orthodoxy, no political correctness, no managed care. He taught that the “person of the therapist” is the most important tool in therapy, and that it is critical to know about transference and countertransference, that intuition and spontaneity are vital components of life for the therapist and families. Carl was chair of the department of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta from 1946 to 1955, where he came up with the idea of co-therapy for schizophrenics. He also co-developed the symbolic-experiential approach. He helped establish the Atlanta Psychiatric Clinic, where he remained in private practice from 1955 to 1964. In 1965 he left to join the University of Wisconsin’s psychiatric department. He retired in 1982, devoting himself to teaching, supervision and extended family therapy consultations (or “family reunions”) with his wife and co-therapist, Muriel VanderVeer Schram. Carl was known as an advocate for co-therapy, and supported live supervision and family treatment long before such approaches became standard practice in the family therapy field. Some of his works include The Family Crucible (1978) co-written by Gus Napier, From Psyche to System (1982) and The Midnight Musings of a Family Therapist (1989). The child is the hub around which Whitaker’s search for life and for hope revolved, where he saw the family’s development blocked in the rigid wrapping of “pathology.” Even the most serious symptomatic manifestations seemed to have little relevance for Carl, who sought out the person and not his or her behavior. Problematic behavior became quickly transmuted by his use of relational imagery and playful objects, working on the awareness of the family within the individual. Carl also helped to develop some of the first major professional meetings of family therapists.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Carl learned early in his career that he often was not able to cure his patients with one-on-one treatment. He eventually decided to bring mom into the examination room; if that didn’t help, next he would call dad in, and so on. This was a radical idea in its day and became something more than just a medical exam. Carl felt that humans don’t really exist as individuals. He saw the smallest component of human life as being the family.

How this work is being carried on today Carl’s life work and thoughts on the human condition will continue to be appreciated by new generations of family therapists. In the midst of endless models, new approaches, and supertechniques, many will seek to find human beings and their qualities in the real world and not in the microscope. Whitaker’s legacy is sure to be revalued and revered, even by those who kept their distance during his lifetime, labeling him as bizarre and irrational. Carl did not allow himself to be created into a myth around his personality. He died without any official disciples, but he trained a multitude of therapists around the world, sometimes unbeknownst to them, with the power of integrity and coherence. He taught more about life than about techniques. He taught those around him to search for “self ” and spiritual essence, through the experience of suffering and solitude.

Information excerpted from Family Therapy News, June 1995 and August 1995, and Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, July 1996.

Carl Whitaker

carl invented as he went along, breaking new ground for treating psychosis, working before rules were in place. there was no orthodoxy, no political correctness, no managed care.





Birth date and location Michael White was born December 29, 1948 in Adelaide, South Australia, and died in 2008.

Educational background Michael earned his BA in social work from the University of South Australia in 1979. In

1996, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California.

Contributions to the field Michael is considered by many to be one of the most innovative practitioners of his generation. Together with New Zealander David Epston, he developed narrative therapy, which draws on the work of postmodern philosophers such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, and is a significant contribution to psychotherapy and family therapy. Michael was a practicing social worker and family therapist, co-director of the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, and wrote several books of significance in the field of family therapy and narrative therapy. Before his death, he set up the Adelaide Narrative Therapy Centre. Michael was known for his work with children and Indigenous Aboriginal communities, as well as his work with schizophrenia, anorexia/bulimia, male violence, and trauma. Some therapeutic ideas developed by Michael include “externalizing the problem,” “re-authoring” the dominant stories of people’s lives, and the idea of “double-listening” to accounts of trauma—not only the accounts of trauma itself, but how people have responded to trauma. Instead of employing traditional concepts of motivation, unconscious processes or categories of psychological damage, this approach proposes that we perceive our lives as a continuing series of stories. By encouraging the recollection of significant, forgotten details, it seeks to generate more nuanced accounts of people’s lives, enabling them to consider wider ranges of possibilities for the future.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions Michael realized early in life that his major strength was found in listening to people and putting them at ease. He was also exposed early on to populations in need when he worked as a probation welfare officer and then as a psychiatric social worker in a children’s hospital. Early influences included systems theory and cybernetics; however, his main work drew on a range of sources, including literary theory, cultural anthropology, non-structuralist psychology, and French critical/post-structuralist philosophy. Further, his family had a strong influence on him, in particular, the females in his life including his former wife Cheryl, daughter Penni, sisters Suzanne and Julienne, and his mother Joan.

How this work is being carried on today Michael continued developing narrative therapy with Epston throughout the 1980s, and the international interest in their work led to the publication of the widely translated Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends (1990). Although his work has become most usually associated with the externalization of problems and the catchphrase “the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem,” Michael’s “community assignments” perhaps best illustrated the social and relational ethics of his work. These ventures forged new connections within communities devastated by trauma, through the telling and retelling of stories. The most recent of these gatherings took place in 2007 at the invitation of the indigenous Six Nations and also Caledonia communities of Ontario, Canada. Two groups of 55 representatives each came together to tell stories of long-standing violent conflicts. Shared stories of longing for peace and of hopes for changed lives for their children emerged from this process, forming new foundations for working together in the future. Looking to the future of narrative therapy, those left to carry on Michael’s work are currently operating as Narrative Practices Adelaide, and they intend to support his vision to establish a network of practitioners; provide therapy and counseling services; offer training opportunities; provide narrative skills workshops; narrative supervision; and expand upon Michael’s vision of using narrative practice in treating men who use violence in their relationships.

Sources: “Michael White” by Jane Speedy and Martin Payne, June 17, 2008, The Guardian. Additional information from Wikipedia, Dulwich Centre, and Narrative Practices Adelaide.

Michael Kingsley WhiteBirth date and location Lyman C. Wynne was born in Lake Benton, Minnesota in 1923 and died in 2007.

Educational background Lyman completed his medical degree studying psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. After earning his MD, he obtained his PhD from the Department of Social Relations at Harvard.

Contributions to the field Lyman Wynne was a renowned family therapy pioneer and schizophrenia researcher. He set up the first community mental health center in the country. He then trained in neurology in London, psychiatry residency in Boston, and more psychiatry residency training in Washington, DC. From 1961 to 1971, Lyman was chief of the adult psychiatry branch of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). In 1971, he moved to the University of Rochester Medical School where he became chair of the Department of Psychiatry for six years. He continued as professor of

psychiatry and as an active mentor to countless junior faculty and fellows, even past his official retirement in 1998 at the age of 75. Lyman’s professional life was devoted to understanding and alleviating the suffering of patients with schizophrenia and related disorders, and the burdens that their family members experienced. While at the NIMH, he recognized the concept of communication deviance, which was found to be associated with poor patient functioning. In 1960, he, Pekka Tienari, and then Karl-Erik Wahlberg started their 30-year Finnish adoption study of schizophrenia. In his first years at the University of Rochester, Lyman also conducted a longitudinal study of children at high risk for schizophrenia and related disorders. Lyman published nearly 200 journal articles and book chapters, with the last two papers from his 30-year Finnish adoption study of schizophrenia published in the December 2006 issue of Family Process. He was prolific, but he was also generative with others. He published many articles with fellows and junior faculty, helping launch the academic careers of many young scholars. All during this time, he carried on a small but active family therapy practice. Lyman was a consummate scholar,

researcher, and clinician. He was involved in and provided leadership in AFTA and in the AAMFT, serving on the board of directors. He received the 1986 Distinguished Contributions to Family Therapy Award from the AAMFT.

Influences leading to interest in family-based interventions In the 1950s and 1960s, Lyman worked across the hall from Murray Bowen at NIMH. Others that joined them there included Donald Bloch, Will Carpenter, David Reiss, and Robert Ryder. It was in this setting that Lyman first started seeing psychotic patients and their families together. Patricia Sullivan reported in The Washington Post on January 21, 2007, that, “as early as 1947, Dr. Wynne came up with the idea of treating families as a unit, even when only one member was diagnosed with schizophrenia.”

How this work is being carried on today Lyman and his wife, Adele, endowed the Wynne Center for Family Research, the research arm of the Wynne Center for the Family, in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. This Center is a tribute to their life together promoting healthy family functioning; it is a center that brings scholars together to develop innovative approaches to improve functioning in the face of chronic medical and psychiatric problems. As a further tribute to the Wynnes, the family therapy clinical services and family therapy training programs are coming together with the family research center at the University of Rochester to be renamed the Wynne Center for the Family.

Most information from: Shields, C. G., & McDaniel, S. H. (2007) Family therapy pioneer, researcher, and mentor: Lyman C. Wynne, MD, PhD, 1923–2007. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33, #2, 132-133.

Lyman Carroll Wynne

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f a m i l y t h e r a p y p i o n e e r sR E F E R E N C E S A N D A U T H O R I N F O R M A T I O N

gianfranco Cecchin: references Cecchin, G., Lane, G., & Ray, W. (1992). Vom strategischen vorgehen zur nicht-intervention. Familiendynamik, 3-18.

Cecchin, G., Lane, G., & Ray, W. (1993). Irreverance: A strategy for therapist survival. London: Karnac.

Cecchin, G., Lane, G., & Ray, W. (1994). The cybernetics of prejudices in the practice of psychotherapy. London: Karnac.

Cecchin, G., Lane, G., & Ray, W. (2006). Exzentrizität und intoleranz: Eine systemische kritik. Zeitschrift für Systemische Therapie und Beratung, 24 (3), 156-165.

Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., Hoffman, L., & Penn, P. (1987), Milan systemic family therapy. NY: Basic Books.

Selvini-Palazzoli, M., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, G. (1978). Paradox and counterparadox: A new model in therapy of the family in schizophrenic transaction. New York Jason: Aronson.

Selvini-Palazzoli, M., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, G. (1980). Hypothesizing-circularity-neutrality: Three guidelines for the conductor of the interview, Family Process, 19, 73-85.

Author information: Wendel A. Ray, PhD, is the Hammond Endowed Professor of Education and professor of family system theory at The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) marriage and family therapy program, and a senior research associate and former director of the Mental Research Institute (MRI). Karin Schlanger, MFT, is a senior research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute, director of the MRI Brief Therapy Center, and co-founder and director of the MRI Latino Brief Therapy Center, Palo Alto, CA.

Don D. Jackson: references Bateson, G. (1970). The first Don D. Jackson memorial lecture. (Later published in Ray, W. [2007]. Bateson Cybernetics: The basis of MRI Brief Therapy, Kibernetics, 36 [7/8], 859-870).

Jackson, D. (1967). Aspects of conjoint family therapy. In G. Zuk & I. Boszormenyi-Nag (Eds.), Family therapy and disturbed families, pp. 28-40. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books.

Jackson, D. (1962). The question of insight in promoting therapeutic change. A reel to reel audio recording of a presentation by Don D. Jackson to the staff of the Mental Research Institute, March 8, 1962. Palo Alto, CA: The Mental Research Institute

Ray, W. (Ed.) (2005). Don D. Jackson: Essays from the dawn of an era, selected papers, Vol. 1. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker, &Theisan, Ltd.

Watzlawick, P., Beavin-Bavelas, J. & Jackson, D. (1967). Pragmatics of human communication. NY: Norton.

Author information: See Author Information under Gianfranco Cecchin.

Jay Douglas Haley: references Bateson, G., Jackson, D., Haley, J., & Weakland, J. (1956). Toward a theory of schizophrenia, Behavioral Science, 1, (4) 251-264.

Haley, J. (1959). The Family of the schizophrenic: A model system. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, #129.

Haley, J. (1963). Strategies of psychotherapy, NY: Grune & Stratton.

Haley, J. (Ed.), (1967). Advanced techniques of hypnosis and therapy – Selected papers of Milton H. Erickson, MD, NY: Grune & Stratton.

Haley, J. (1973). Uncommon therapy: The psychiatric techniques of Milton H. Erickson, NY: Basic Books.

Haley, J. (1976). Problem solving therapy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Haley, J. (1980). Leaving home – The therapy of disturbed young people. NY: McMillian.


Paul Watzlawick: references Watzlawick, P. (1964). An anthology of human communication. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books.

Watzlawick, P., Beavin-Bavelas, J., & Jackson, D. (1967). Pragmatics of human communication–A study of interactional patterns, pathologies and paradoxes. New York: W. W. Norton.

Weakland, J., Fisch, R., Watzlawick, P., & Bodin, A. (1974). Brief therapy: Focused problem resolution, Family Process, 13, p. 141-168.

Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J., & Fisch, R. (1974), Change: Principals of problem formation and problem resolution. New York: W. W. Norton.

Watzlawick, P. (1976). How real is real. NY: WW Norton.

Watzlawick, P. (1978) The language of change. NY: WW Norton.

Watzlawick, P. (1984). (Ed.), The invented reality. NY: WW Norton.

Ray, W. & Nardone, G. (2008) Paul Watzlawick–Insight may cause blindness and other essays. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker, Theisan, Ltd.


richard Fisch: references Fisch, R. (1965). Resistance to change in the psychiatric community, Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 13, Oct., 1965.

Fisch, R., (1965, Sept. 15). Proposal for a brief therapy clinic and evaluation project. Unpublished Memorandum, from Richard Fisch to Don Jackson, 5 pages.

Fisch, R., Weakland, J., Watzlawick, P., & Bodin, A. (1972). On unbecoming family therapists. In A. Ferber, M. Mendelson, & A. Napier, The book of family therapy. New York: Science House, p. 597 617.

Fisch, R., Weakland, J., & Segal, L. (1982). The tactics of change–Doing therapy briefly. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Fisch, R., & Schlanger, R. (1999). Brief therapy with intimidating cases-Changing the unchangeable. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Fisch, R., & Ray, W. (Eds.), (2006). Special issue on MRI brief therapy. Journal of Brief Therapy, 6, (1/2).

Weakland, J., Fisch, R., Watzlawick, P. & Bodin, A. (1974a). Brief therapy: Focused problem resolution. Family Process, 13, 141 168.

Watzlawick, P., Weakland, R., & Fisch, R. (1974b). Change–Principals of problem formation and problem resolution. New York: WW Norton.


John H. Weakland: references Bateson, G., Jackson, D., Haley, J., & Weakland, J. (1956). Toward a theory of schizophrenia, Behavioral Science, 1: 4; 251-264.

Fisch, R., Weakland, J., & Segal, L. (1982). Tactics of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Herr, J., & Weakland, J. (1979). Counseling with elders and their families. New York: Springer.

Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J., & Fisch, R. (1974). Change. New York: WW Norton.

Watzlawick, P., & Weakland, J. (Eds.), (1977). The interactional view. New York: WW Norton.

Weakland, J. (1951). Method in cultural anthropology. Philosophy of Science, 18 (1), 55-69.

Weakland, J. (1967). Communication and behavior - An introduction. In J. Weakland (Guest Editor), Special issue, American Behavioral Scientist, 10: 8; 1-4.

Weakland, J., Fisch, R., Watzlawick, P., & Bodin, A. (1974). Brief therapy: Focused problem resolution. Family Process, 13: 2; 141-168.

Weakland, J., & Ray, W. (1995). Propagations–Thirty years of influence from the Mental Research Institute. New York: Haworth Press.


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