family therapy pioneers

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Birth date and

locationNathan Ackerman

was born inBessarabia, Russiaon November 22,1908 and died in1971.

Educational

backgroundNathan and his

family came to theU.S. in 1912 and

were naturalizedin 1920. He attended public s chool in New York City,earned a BA from Columbia University in 1929, and anMD from Columbia in 1933.

Contributions to the fieldNathan Ackerman is widely acknowledged as a pioneerin the field of family therapy and is credited withdeveloping the concept of family psychology. In 1955,he was the first to initiate a debate on family therapy at ameeting of the American Orthopsychiatric Association,

with the intention of opening lines of communicationin this new branch of psychiatry. He believed that themental or physical disposition of one family member

would effect other family members, and that often thebest way to treat the individual was to treat the familyas a whole. In fact, he was a very strong advocate oftreating the whole family in order to solve the problemsof the individual. Nathan devoted most of his career tofamily psychotherapy.

Influences leading to interest in

family-based interventionsNathan became chief psychiatrist at the MenningerChild Guidance Clinic in 1937. He also was the chiefpsychiatrist at the Jewish Board of Guardians from1937 to 1951. His work in these two positions greatlyinfluenced his thinking about family systems. In 1938,he published two books, The Unity of the FamilyandFamily Diagnosis: An Approach to the Preschool Child thatcontributed to the development of family therapy. After

World War II, Nathan began to experiment with seeingpatients and their families in a group. He published,

taught and showed movies demonstrating this newmethod, pioneering not only a new type of therapy, butalso the tradition of the audiovisual documentation ofclinical work that became one of the cornerstones offamily therapy training.

How this work is being carried on todayNathan Ackerman founded the Ackerman Institutein 1960. For almost half a century, the Institute hascontinued his pioneering work by engaging in a three-pronged effort that encompasses: 1) innovative clinicalfamily therapy services through its onsite clinic (licensedby the State of New York Office of Mental Health)and in community settings; 2) state-of-the-art trainingprograms for mental health and other professionalsonsite and in community settings in and around New

York City and internationally; and 3) cutting-edgeresearch initiatives that focus on the development of newtreatment models and training techniques. Through thisdynamic interaction of treatment, training and research,the Institute helps families, serves mental healthcareprofessionals, and brings innovative perspectives to abroad array of community service agencies and otherhealthcare facilities.

Information and photo provided by theAckerman 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 locationGregory Bateson was born in 1904 in Grantchester,England, and died in 1980.

Educational backgroundGregory graduated with a bachelors degree in naturalsciences at St. Johns College, Cambridge University in1925, and received his masters degree in anthropologyin 1930.

Contributions to the fieldBetween 1953 and 1962, anthropologist Gregory

Bateson and his research team (John Weakland, JayHaley, Don Jackson, and William Fry) conductedone of the most important and influential series ofresearch projects ever in the behavioral sciences. UsingRussell and Whiteheads theory of logical types as aconceptual framework, the focus of inquiry was onthe nature of communications processes, context, andparadox. The first synthesis of the research was thelandmark article, Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia(1956). During the 10 years this group workedtogether, they produced more than 70 articles andbook chapters. This ground breaking research set fortha revolutionary approach to understanding humanbehavior, and in doing so, laid the foundation upon

which communication (i.e., interactional) theory, and amajor part of the field of marriage and family therapy,and brief therapy are based. Subsequent to these researchprojects, Gregory, who was among the most respectedanthropologists of his era before the projects began,

was to go on to achieve recognition as one of the mostimportant founding thinkers and creators of cyberneticsand communication theory as applied to understandinghuman behaviorand to be one of the most influentialtheoreticians ever in anthropology, psychiatry, andmarriage and family therapy.


family-based interventionsThe Handbook of Family Therapy(1981) tells us that Gregory hadstudied the social systems ofanimals and had an interest ingeneral systems theory. Theseearly roots eventually led to work

with schizophrenic children andtheir communications with theirmothers. This is where the concept of the double-bind

would emerge. Family sessions had become a part of the

research teams efforts.

How this work is being carried on todayIn the 38 years since the Bateson Projects came to anend, hundreds of books, book chapters and articles basedupon this research have been published and countlesscopies sold. In addition, some of the most influentialbrief and family therapy orientations in use today, mostnotably the MRI Brief Therapy model, Steve de Shazerand Insoo Bergs Solution Focused Therapy, and theMilan Systemic Family Therapy orientation, trace theirheritage directly to Gregory Batesons research projects.Further, many leading systemic narrative and post-modern approaches acknowledge the Bateson Projects ashaving been an important wellspring from which theirown orientations derive. It is not an exaggeration to saythat the Bateson Research Projects remain one ofif notthe mostprofoundly influential sources of the currentinteractional and systemic orientations to understandinghuman behavior, as is recognized not only throughoutthe field of marriage and family therapy, but also in thefields of cultural anthropology, psychiatry, psychologyand the other human sciences.

Most information and photo courtesy of Mental ResearchInstitute (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.


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Birth date and locationLuigi Boscolo was born in Italy, butas of press time, the AAMFT wasnot able to determine the date orcity of birth.

Educational backgroundLuigi Boscolo studied medicine andpediatrics at the University of Paduain Italy where he earned his MD.

Contributions to the fieldFrom 1961-67, Luigi was in New York specializing inpsychiatry and psychoanalysis at the New York MedicalCollege and Metropolitan Hospital in New York. In1967, he returned to Italy to join his friend GianfrancoCecchin and colleagues Mara Selvini-Palazzoli andGiuliana Prata for the purpose of treating schizophreniaand eating disorders in what later became the FamilyTherapy Center of Milan. By the early 70s, the Milanteam put forth a new model of family therapy inspiredby the strategic therapy of Palo Alto, as well as the ideasof Gregory Bateson (cybernetics), which very muchinspired them. The methods and results are describedin the landmark book, Paradox and Counterparadox.The team was having success working with apparentlyimpossible cases, and they published a series ofinfluential articles discussing treatment approachesof severely disturbed people, using what they c alledMilan systemic family therapy. Others in the fieldbecame aware of Luigi and the Milan team throughthese brilliant early writings on systemic therapy withfamilies in schizophrenic transaction (c.f., Selvini-Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, & Prata, 1978, 1980;Cecchin, 1987). Communication theory and conjointfamily therapy proved to be enormously helpful in theMilan teams work. From 1975 to 1980, the conceptof neutrality was a very significant offering from theMilan group. Many in the field consider this to betheir most important contribution. In the early 1980s,the Milan team split up and Luigi remained withGianfranco Cecchin to found and co-direct the FamilyTherapy Institute of Milan, where they trained countless

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


family-based interventionsLuigi and his collaborators were curious to learn aboutthe work of Paul Watzlawick in Palo Alto, CA. Forseveral years, the group applied psychoanalytic logic in

working with families, but they were frustrated by the

slow pace of progress. Searching for a more effectiveapproach, the team members found writings aboutcommunication theory and conjoint family therapyby members of the Bateson Research Team (Bateson,

Jackson, Haley, and Weakland) and the MentalResearch Institute to be enormously helpful in their

work (Selvini-Palazzoli, 1995). UsingPragmatics of Human Communication (Watzlawick, Beavin-Bavelas& Jackson, 1967) as a guide, the Milan team embracedcommunication/interactional theory, completelychanging how they conceptualized the nature ofproblems and their technique of family treatment.

How this work is being carried on todaySome of the major concepts emerging from, or advancedby, the Milan Group which greatly influenced the fieldand endure today are circularity, hypothesis building andcuriosity, psychotic family games, and time. Luigis

work, along with the rest of the team, was describedby James A. Marley in Family Involvement in TreatingSchizophrenia(2003) as raising the art of asking goodquestions almost to a science. Today, the Post-Milanapproach 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 Website of Centro Milanese di Terapia della Famiglia. Sometext written by Wendel A. Ray, PhD, and Karin Schlanger,

MFT. See page xx for references and author information.

Luigi Boscolo

luigis work is described as raising the artof asking good questions almost to a science.

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

Educational backgroundIvan obtained his MD from Peter Pazmany University,and completed his psychiatric residency and additionaltraining in physics and biochemistry, with the hope ofdiscovering the etiology of schizophrenia. A politicalrefugee, he moved to the U.S. in 1950. Already anassistant 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 researchon correlations between mental illness and intracellularmetabolism. However, he realized the scientific knowledgeof the time was not sufficient to reach his lifes goal, sohe returned to clinical work and spent his life developingand refining contextual therapy, and trying to definegood therapy, in general. He obtained his U.S. board-certification in psychiatry in 1956.

Contributions to the fieldIvan discovered that our behavior towards others isnot simply determined by our individual biologicalor psychological needs, nor by the regulatory forcesdescribed in general systems theory or cybernetics, butalso by our expectation of fairness and reciprocity, whichhe described as the dimension of relational ethics. Thisled him to the definition of a multidimensional modelof therapycontextual therapy. He also demonstratedthat the cohesion of families and other human groups

was the result of the individual commitment from eachgroup member to respond to the expectations of theothers, in return for their support. For Ivan, familyhomeostasis depends on loyalty; not on homeostaticforces that family therapists had been hard pressedto define, but from a personal commitment of each

individual to remain available to other family members.Invisible Loyalties(with Geraldine Spark, 1973) is oneof the most quoted books in the field, but also thesource of s ome misunderstandings. Too often, therapistshave interpreted family loyalties as an obstacle toindividuation. To the contrary, following the existentialphilosophers, Ivan contends that true autonomy resultsfrom relating to others. Mental health and family healthare inseparable from a willingness to care about others,and about the next generations. His conclusions aboutthe importance of loyalty and reciprocity for our successas individuals and as families have been confirmed bythe work of researchers in other fields. This has given

a scientific validity to the dimension ofrelational ethics. Ivan taught contextualtherapy and psychiatry for over 20 years atHahnemann University, founded its masterin family therapy program in the 70s, andretired 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 inEurope for three decades. Ivan was a founding memberof AFTA and of the Family Institute of Philadelphia, therecipient of numerous professional awards, awarded anhonorary medical degree from the University of Bern

(Switzerland), and received a gold presidential medal fordistinguished contribution to his homeland, granted tohim by the president of Hungary, Arpad Gnzs, in 2000.


family-based interventionsIn 1957, at Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute,Ivan felt that individual therapy had limited results inschizophrenia, so he moved toward the involvement offamily members in treatment, leading to the formulationof family therapy. His unit became one of the earliestfamily therapy training centers in the U.S. and providedinspiration 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 todetermine, since Ivan refused to establish an organizationfor his approach. He always insisted that his work hadvalidity for anyone wanting to do good therapy; it

was not just for contextual therapists. Indeed, othersoutside of the contextual approach recognize his work asimportant for their practice. His influence has reachedoutside of the field, and he has offered suggestions forapplying contextual therapy to intergroup relationships.

The approach is taught in most academic and privatefamily therapy training programs, and some programsoffer dedicated contextual therapy tracks both in theU.S. and in Europe. As to the future, contextual therapyis bound to gain a new visibility since family therapists

will need to make space for neurobiological determinantsof behavior in their models of therapy. In their search foran integrative model, they will discover that contextualtherapy is already available as an integrative approachthat spans from biology to relational ethics.

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

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy


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Birth date and locationMurray Bowen was born on January13, 1913 in Waverly, Tennessee anddied in 1990.

Educational backgroundMurray was awarded an MD from

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

Contributions to the fieldMurray moved to NIMH in 1954 to study mother-adultoffspring symbiosis in more depth. The dysfunctionaladult offspring were schizophrenic, but he could havestudied symbiosis in other conditions as well, such assevere alcoholism. During the first year of the project,he saw that the unresolved mother-adult offspringattachment was part of a larger relationship processin which the father and other family members playedimportant roles. The family could be most accuratelyconceptualized as an emotional unit. Three other

developments occurred during the early years of the study.Mother and schizophrenic offspring were each initiallytreated with individual psychotherapy. After appreciatingthe involvement of other family members in the process,Murray ended the individual sessions and developed amethod of therapy for the family. The goal of the familytherapy was to see if one family member could pull-upout of the emotional stuck-togetherness and functionas a more differentiated self. If one parent could do it, itwould have a ripple effect that benefited the schizophrenicone. A second development was realizing the need forsystems thinking to deal with the complex interactions inthe families. A third development came from observations

from concurrent outpatient work with families havingproblems less severe than schizophrenia. Murray realizedthat the fusion or emotional interdependence he foundin schizophrenic families is simply an extreme version ofthe fusion that exists in all families. The NIMH projectended in 1959 and Murray moved to the GeorgetownUniversity Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

During the early 1960s, he originated Bowen familysystems theory. He considered the landmarks of histheory to include the introduction of natural systemsconcepts and evolutionary theory, the family diagram, theemotional system, differentiation of self, triangles, fusion,cut-off, projection to succeeding generations, extendedfamily patterns, emotional objectivity, the therapistscontrol of self, extension of family process to work andsocial systems, and societal regressionall integrated intohuman emotional, physical, and social functioning.


family-based interventionsMurray concluded early on that Freudian theorycontained too much subjectivity to become part ofscience. He studied the sciences and other disciplineswith the goal of understanding what would be requiredto develop a science of human behavior. He decided itwould require anchoring a theory in the understandingof human beings as part of all life, as a product ofevolution. Murray also did therapy and clinical researchwith a wide range of psychiatric problems. He treatedpatients and interviewed family members. In the process,he was able to recognize the intense involvement that

many patients parents had in their lives. He usedsymbiosis to describe the unresolved emotionalattachment that typically existed between the motherand her adult dysfunctional offspring. Murray viewedthe adult childs dysfunction to be as much a symptomof the unresolved attachment as its cause.

How this work is being carried on todaySince Murray Bowens death, the development of Bowentheory and its applications has continued at the BowenCenter 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 researchefforts. Research thus far is consistent with a systemsparadigm, providing a more complete explanation ofhuman 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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date and locationrd Fisch was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York.

ational backgroundrd Fisch, MD, graduated from Colby College anda year studying at Columbia University, School ofopology. From 1945-46, Dick served as a medic inS Navy. Returning to civilian life, he entered NewMedical College where he graduated in 1954. Dickleted a year rotating internship at the Brookdaletal in Brooklyn, New York, followed by psychiatricncy at the Sheppard Pratt Health System,dale University Hospital Medical Center in 1958,Harry Stack Sullivans Interpersonal Theory ofior was still central in the teaching of faculty.

ributions to the fieldars of interaction with other MRI researchates culminated in 1965 with publication of Dicksgnificant contribution to the literature, Resistanceange in the Psychiatric Community, in whichtlined some of the rationales used then (and evento justify retaining the status quo in psychiatrications that place almost exclusive emphasis on

dividual in isolation from the relationships ofthey are a part. In a memo to Don Jackson,September 15, 1965, Dick proposed creation of

arch project focused specifically on how to makepy more effective and efficient. As Dick recalled,idea and planning of a clinical research projectef therapy began at MRI in 1965. The climaterapy at that time had reached the highpoint ofoanalysis and it, or variations of it, influenced, if not most of therapy activity. At the same time,y therapy was beginning to develop but had veryecognition in the therapy world (2005). With thissal, and creation of the MRI Brief Therapy Center,rd Fisch triggered the emergence of Brief Therapyaches in the world that have radically improved thece of therapy.


family-based interventionsIn 1958, Dick moved to California, where hebecame assistant director for the San MateoCounty Hospital. He held a number of otherpositions in traditional hospitals in the San Francisco BayArea, but was disenchanted with the traditional medicaltreatment that dominated psychiatry (Fisch, 1965) sohe began exploring alternatives. This is how he foundDon Jackson, founding director of the Mental ResearchInstitute (MRI), and soon joined the family therapy researchand training being pioneered at MRI in Palo Alto.

How this work is being carried on todayThe portentous effect of Dicks proposal inlaunching the Brief Therapy movement is worthy ofacknowledgement. The brief therapy approach set forthby 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 firstand most influential brief therapy approach in usetoday. Forerunner to post modern, social constructivist

approaches, the MRI Brief Therapy model evolved indirect lineage out of the cybernetic/communicationtheory of human behavior set forth by Gregory Batesonand his team during the 1950s. Conceptually simple,the orientation takes the idea seriously that it is not somuch the difficulties in living that bring people intotherapy, but ineffective efforts being made to resolvethose difficulties that inadvertently exacerbate andperpetuate the problem into irresolvable vicious cycles.Interrupt efforts being made to resolve the problem andthe problem often dissipates on its own. More interestedin finding ways to make therapy more effective thanseeking personal notoriety, Richard Fisch is among themost unassuming, dedicated, and influential pioneersof Brief Therapy. Now in his early 80s, he lives in quietretirement in Menlo Park, California.

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

chard Fisch

ajor, and almost sole, effort expended in out-patient treatment today is in long-term

otherapy. this is not only among private therapists, but also among most outpatient clinicsthus,

s a need for a facility that will consistently provide imaginative, well planned, brief therapy and

same time permit a more thorough study of the effectiveness of this approach in general, and of

ular techniques more specifically. richard fisch, september 15, 1965.



Birth date and locationJames Framo was bornin South Philadelphia in1922 and died in 2001.

Educational

backgroundJames Framo completedhis predoctoral studiesat Penn State andearned his PhD inpsychology at theUniversity of Texas.

Contributions to the fieldIn 1965, Jim co-edited the classic book, Intensive FamilyTherapy, with Boszormenyi-Nagy; in 1972, he editedFamily Interaction, a collection of papers in which theinfamous Anonymous article by Bowen first appeared.In 1982, Jim published his book of collected papers andin 1968, Jims paper in Voicesentitled, My Families,My Family was published. This was a break-throug hacknowledgment of the incredible power and influenceof the presence of the therapists own family emotional

system in the ongoing psychotherapeutic conversation.This paper anticipated the later epistemological emphasison the person of the observer as an active participantin the systemic interaction being observed. His mostimportant and influential paper is Symptoms from aFamily Transactional Viewpoint (1970), highlightingan interactional theoretical basis as an alternative wayof understanding dysfunctional behaviors and clinicalsymptoms observed within individuals. The paper hasbeen used in numerous training programs around theU.S. and led the way for development of Jims objectrelations-based theoretical approach to MFT. He focusedon the relationship between the intrapsychic and theinterrelational. In his view, intrapsychic conflicts arelargely sourced in family of origin experience, and thenare repeated and either defended or mastered within therelationship with the spouse, children or other intimates.All of these dramas can be understood a s elaborationsfrom the initial family o f origin experience. Jimstherapeutic methods are delineated in Family of OriginTherapy: An Intergenerational Approach (1992).


family-based interventionsFor 13 years, Jim was a research scientist at the EasternPennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Philadelphia. Here,he collaborated with Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, and it isbelieved his profound interest in family of origin wasnourished and focused during this time. This would behoned during a four-year stint in community mentalhealth in Philadelphia as chief of a family therapy unit.

How this work is being carried on todayJims legacy will continue to be important for newgenerations of serious family therapy students, not onlyfor how his work provides a framework and method forfamilies to heal deeply, but also as a reminder of our ownunfinished business with our own families of origin,which drove many in the field to pursue the study offamily therapy (Kramer, n. d.). Jims advancementshelped pave the way for what have become today someof the key features of family of origin work in the familytherapy field.

Most text excerpted from Family Therapy News, October1994, 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, newsletteroftheamerican

familytherapyacademy, issue #84.

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

Educational backgroundGianfranco Cecchin, MD, was psychoanalytic inorientation, receiving medical training and completingpsychiatric residencies in traditional analytic approachesin New York.

Contributions to the fieldAfter several years of success working with apparentlyimpossible cases, the mid 1970s found the Milan grouppublishing a series of influential articles articulating apurely systemic approach to treating severely disturbedpeople using what they called Milan systemic familytherapy. Others in the field became aware of Gianfrancoand the Milan team through these brilliant early writingson systemic therapy with families in schizophrenictransaction (c.f., Selvini-Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, &Prata, 1978, 1980; Cecchin, 1987). Uncompromisingadherence to systemic epistemology, and creation ofsuch 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 andLuigi Boscolo teamed up to create the Family TherapyInstitute of Milan, where they trained countlesstherapists in the Milan systemic approach. In the late1980s, Gianfranco began collaboration with GerryLane and Wendel Ray. Meeting several times a year,training small groups of students and seeing clients atLanes institute in Atlanta, the trio spent countless hoursdiscussing constraints they saw inherent in the thenemerging division between so-called modern and post-modern models of practice, which led to developmentof such concepts as irreverence, the cybernetics ofprejudices, and eccentricity into the systemic literature(Cecchin, Lane & Ray, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2006).


family-based interventionsIn 1967, Gianfranco joined Luigi Boscolo, MaraSelvini-Palazzoli and Giuliana Prata for the explicitpurpose of treating schizophrenia and eating disordersin what became the Family Therapy Center of Milan.

His collaborators werecurious to learn aboutGianfrancos experience withPaul Watzlawick in PaloAlto, CA. Together, withLynn Hoffman and PeggyPenn in the U.S., for severalyears the group appliedpsychoanalytic logic inworking with these families, but they were frustrated bythe slow pace of progress. Searching for a more effectiveapproach, the team members found writings aboutcommunication theory and conjoint family therapyby members of the Bateson Research Team (Bateson,Don Jackson, Jay Haley, and John Weakland) and theMental Research Institute to be enormously helpful intheir work (Selvini-Palazzoli, 1995). Using especiallyPragmatics of Human Communication (Watzlawick,Beavin-Bavelas & Jackson, 1967) as a guide, the Milanteam embraced communication/interactional theory,completely changing how they conceptualized the natureof problems and their technique of family treatment.


Anyone who trained under Gianfranco or worked withhim can confirm what an astoundingly effective teacher,and stunningly accomplished family therapist he wasplayfully using circular questions, curiosity, acceptingand using the presuppositions of family members, andascribing continuation of patterns of interaction withsuch adroit and gentle touch that people routinelychanged seemingly intransigent interpersonal impasses.The embodiment of the premises of systemic theory,Gianfranco Cecchinhis quick mind, penetrating senseof humor, incredible therapeutic abilities, his laughterand sparking eyes, and not least, his mischievousspiritchanged the lives of those with whom he came incontact. The concepts developed by Gianfranco and hiscolleagues greatly influenced the field of family therapyand elements of the Milan approach are still widelyused today, as they are blended with new concepts andtechniques.

Wendel A. Ray, PhD, and Karin Schlanger, MFT. See page60 for references and author information.

Gianfranco Cecchin


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Birth date and locationHarold 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 Houstonand earned his PhD.

Contributions to the fieldHarry Goolishian has been described as a pioneerwho offered provocative alternatives. He was a masterclinician, theoretician, teacher, and politician. Harry,

along with Harlene Anderson, developed a postmoderncollaborative approach to therapy, known today asCollaborative Language Systems. He was a co-founderof the Galveston Family Institute in 1977, one of theearliest federally funded family therapy projects in theUnited States. There, Harry and colleagues workedto develop a cybernetic, systems-oriented, strategic,brief therapy. One of Harrys contributions to thefield was Multiple Impact Therapy (Multiple ImpactTherapy with Families, 1964), which many consider alandmark in the field of psychotherapy. He publishedextensively in professional journals on theoretical and

clinical issues. He is known for his contribution in thedevelopment of MFT training programs and for histeaching, supervision, and consultation with studentsand professionals in the field. In the 90s, Harry andAnderson explored the applications of theories oflanguage and meaning involving families and the processof therapy. The pair also developed the therapists stanceof not-knowing.

Influences leading to interest in family-

based interventionsOne couple in particular brought Harryfrom a psychodynamic approach to anearly form of family therapy. Harry was notpermitted under ethical standards of the dayto see the wife of his schizophrenic patient.Needing to know more, Harry had the mans wife meetwith him. He eventually met with both of them in onesession. This unethical practice was the beginning forHarry of working with couples together. Seeing themseparately, it appeared that each person was right in

their relationship assessments; realizing that each madevalid points and were seemingly pleasant people, hecame to believe a problem of language must exist. Fromthere he began to think about alternative methods fordoing therapy.

How this work is being carried on todayTodays Houston-Galveston Institute is internationallyrecognized for its innovative contributions to theadvancements of theory, psychotherapy practice, andresearch, and to the development of creative contexts forlearning, practice, and research. It has distinguished itself

by its unique developments in brief therapy and hasbeen acclaimed for its Collaborative Language Systemsapproach with its emphasis on problem-organizingsystems, the role of language, narrative and conversationin therapy, the not-knowing position, and the translationof these concepts into work with difficult life situations.Students and professionals worldwide come to study atthe 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.


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Birth date and

locationErnest R. Groves

was born in 1877in Framingham,Massachusetts anddied in 1946.

Educational

backgroundErnest received areligious studies

bachelors degree fromYale Divinity Schoolin 1901 and a secondbachelors from

Dartmouth College in 1903. He later received honorarydoctorate degrees from Florida Southern College in1942 and from Boston University in 1946.

Contributions to the fieldA sociologist, Ernest Groves developed the first collegecredit course in preparation for marriage at BostonUniversity in 1922, and at the University of NorthCarolina in 1927. He wrote the first college text on thesubject,Marriage, in 1933. Ernest went on to write morethan 20 books and nearly 200 articles and became oneof the leading and most respected family life educatorsin the U.S. His work appeared in popular periodicals ofthe day, such as Look, Good Housekeeping, and ParentsMagazine, as well as the academic journals, Social Forcesand Journal of Educational Sociology. He was the firstpresident of the North Carolina Mental Hygiene Societyin 1936 and president of the National Conference onFamily Relations in 1941. From 1938 to 1940, Ernest

was chair of the committee on the Family for the FederalCouncil of Churches of Christ in America. Throughouthis career, Ernest was an active member in numerousnational and state organizations for marriage, familylife, and mental hygiene. He began annual conferenceson the Conservation of Marriage and the Family at the

University of North Carolina, while his wife began theconference at the North Carolina College for Negroes.They became affiliated in 1947. Ernest was a thoughtfulman who gave generously of his time and expertise. Hedevoted a great deal of his life to counseling patients,in person and via mail. His work was consideredprogressive for its time.


family-based interventionsEarly in his career, Ernest was a minister, and as suchthere was no shortage of individuals turning to him for

guidance with emotional and interpersonal problems.Over time, Ernest realized so many human problemsrelated to difficulties from childhood and adolescence.Carrying these issues forward into adulthood, theproblems then manifested in adult relationships andmarriage. With this new insight, Ernest began shiftinghis interests to c hild development, family life andmarriage. He would continue throughout his careerto place a strong emphasis on prevention througheducation and counseling (Dail & Jewson, 1986).

How this work is being carried on todayToday, the Groves Conference remains a viableand active organization and will celebrate its 75thanniversary June 7-11, 2009, at The University of NorthCarolina, where it all began in 1934. The last GrovesConference met in June 2008 in Ireland to study theimpact of globalization on families, thus maintaining itscutting edge mission.

Some information courtesy of Roger Rubin, PhD, FamilyStudies, 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 locationJay Haley was born July 19, 1923 in Wyoming and diedin 2007.

Educational backgroundJay Haley earned a BA in theater arts at the Universityof California, Los Angeles, and a bachelors of libraryscience at Berkeley. He completed his masters incommunication at Stanford.

Contributions to the fieldTogether with Bateson and the other team members,

they developed the first purely communication/interactional theory of human behavior, central to whichis the concept of the double bind. During this 10-yearcollaboration, the Bateson team revolutionized for the

world the understanding of the relational and contextualnature of behavior. They were among the first research

teams to see the patient and other family membersin conjoint family therapy. Members of BatesonsTeam published more than 70 professional papers,two especially lucid examples are the groundbreaking,Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia (Bateson, Jackson,Haley & Weakland, 1956), and Haleys The Familyof the Schizophrenic: A Model System (1959). One ofthe most significant aspects of research in the Batesongroup included the study of the hypnotic and clinical

work of Milton H. Erickson. Jay incorporated manyof Ericksons techniques into his own strategic therapy.By editing and publishing Ericksons selected papers(1967) followed byUncommon TherapyThe Psychiatric

Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD(1973), it is Jaywho is largely responsible for introducing Erickson toa wider audience. During the first decades of the field,

Jay was involved with many of the most importantdevelopments in the field. In 1959, he was one of thefirst 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 journalFamily Process. In 1967, he left MRI to join SalvadorMinuchin and Braulio Montalvo at another of themost influential early family centers, The Philadelphia

Child Guidance Center. In 1975,Jay co-founded, with then wifeand fellow family therapy pioneer,Clo Madanes, The Family TherapyInstitute of Washington, DC,

where he continued teaching anddeveloping his Strategic FamilyTherapy Approach until the early1990s, when he retired and moved back to La Jolla, CA.


family-based interventions

In 1952, while a student in communication at StanfordUniversity in Palo Alto, California, Jay met GregoryBateson, who invited him to join John Weakland,

William Fry, and later Don Jackson as a member ofBatesons renowned research team, widely known as thePalo Alto Group.


Jay Haley minimized his own contributions andemphasized what he learned from his mentors, MiltonErickson, Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, his career-long friend and colleague, John Weakland, SalvadorMinuchin, Braulio Montalvo and others. Yet, when inhis presence, Jays understanding of human behavior andhow to bring about constructive change left students inawe of his knowledge and skill as a teacher. Like his closecolleagues, Weakland and Jackson, Jay did not believein individual achievement, as the term is commonlyunderstood. 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 changein patterns of interaction, the individual behaviorchanges, too. Jay was central in establishing a radicallyalternative way of understanding human behavior, as aproduct of an interaction, taking place in the presentmoment between people in an intimate relationship withone another. He also committed himself to demystifyingthe practice of therapy, contributing some of the most

widely read and clearest books, articles, and trainingvideotapes available in the field (Haley, 1963, 1976, 1980) .


Jay Douglas Haley

jays understanding of human behavior and how to bring

about constructive change left students in awe of his

knowledge and skill as a teacher.


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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationLynn Hoffman was born in1924 to American parents inParis, France.

Educational backgroundLynn earned her MSW at

Adelphi School of Social Workin 1971.

Contributions to the fieldLynn Hoffman is an

internationally known lecturer on family therapy andauthor ofTechniques of Family Therapy(with Jay Haley,1969); Foundations of Family Therapy(1981);MilanSystemic Family Therapy(with Boscolo, Cecchin, andPenn, 1987); Exchanging Voices, and Family Therapy:An Intimate History(2002). From 1963 to 1965, Lynnbegan 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, ConjointFamily Therapy. After completing her MSW, Lynn wentto work at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic,

where Minuchin was developing his structural approachto family therapy. Lynn put together some trainingtapes based on sessions with families of anorecticchildren. Harry Aponte was her supervisor, and the pairco-authored an article. Aponte occasionally invited Lynnto attend when he presented workshops, and this led toLynns own workshop career. Lynn also did a stint as staffhistorian for the Applied Behavioral Sciences Program atGouverneur Health Services on New Yorks Lower EastSide. Using an ecosystems model, the late psychiatrist

Auerswald had designed a multi-disciplinary familyhealth team, and a mobile crisis unit that respondedto calls from within the community 24 hours a day.Beginning in 1978, Lynn joined the teaching staff ofthe Ackerman Institute in New York, and worked onthe Brief Strategic Therapy Project headed by Pappand Silverstein. Here, Lynn encountered the Milanteam 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 aninformal network of Milan teams. This network spunoff a number of new innovators like White, Andersen,Tomm, and Penn. In l983, Lynn began teaching at

the Brattleboro Institute of Family Therapy, where s hewas influenced by the reflecting team approach andbegan to explore its dimensions, not only for therapy,but for teaching, consulting and workshops. During hernearly 40 years in the field, Lynn has led or taken partin 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 LifeAchievement Award for Distinguished Contribution tothe Field of Family Therapy by the AAMFT.


family-based interventionsIndeed working among the family therapy giants atMRI provided much influence, but also, Lynn describesher work at Gouverneur Health Services as being veryenlightening. Auerswalds work recognized that both theproviders and those they treated are embedded in socialnetworks. Rather than seeking diagnoses, Auerswaldrelied on the strength to be found in peoples naturalconnections.

How this work is being carried on todayIn 1994, Lynn designed a collaborative conference inNorthampton called New Voices in Human Systems.Her intention was to bring therapists, organizationalconsultants and social scientists together to discuss theimplications of postmodernism for their respective fields.She also began to attend international conferences thatbrought her to countries like Greece, Japan, England,Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Holland and Australia.She continues to travel and be a relevant figure in thefield of family therapy.

Lynn Hoffman

during her nearly 40 yearsin 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 locationDon D. Jackson was born in 1920 in Oakland,California, and died in 1968.

Educational backgroundDon Jackson earned his MD from Stanford MedicalSchool. During his studies, Don was challenged by thelack of competent guidance that resulted when most ofthe qualified clinical faculty were away, serving in themilitary during World War II. Turning to the library,Don found the analytic system of psychiatry made senseto him, finding the use of symbolic interpretations

in insight-oriented work to have miraculous results(Jackson, 1962). Don also trained under the tutelage ofHarry Stack Sullivan.

Contributions to the fieldClinical supervisor of Bateson, Haley, Weakland, Fry,and Yalom, among others, many of Dons supervisees

would become the first generation of systemicfamily theorists and therapists. The first clinician touncompromisingly maintain a higher order cyberneticand constructivist position in the actual practiceof therapy, the essence of Dons model is that theclient is seen as a family-surrounded individual withreal problems in the present day (Jackson, 1967).Brief in orientation, the primary focus, questionsasked, assignments and tasks given, is always onthe relationship between members of the family.

Acknowledged as the principle founder of InteractionalTheory and Conjoint Family Therapy, Don was ratedone of the top 10 psychiatrists in America in the late1960s, 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 developmentof such groundbreaking theoretical concepts as familyhomeostasis, family rules, relational quid pro quo, and,

with Bateson, Weakland, and Haley, the theory of thedouble bind. Don was one of the most prolific authorsof his time, publishing more than 125 articles and bookchapters and seven books, including two classic textsthat remain in print today,Mirages of Marriage(with

William Lederer), and Pragmaticsof Human Communication (with

Watzlawick and Beavin Bavelas).Don founded the Mental ResearchInstitute in 1959, and created thefirst family therapy training programfunded by the U. S. Government, hiring Satir to be thefirst director of training. With Ackerman and Haley,Don founded the fields first journal, Family Process.



Don served as a psychiatrist at the Menlo Park VeteransHospital, fortuitously leading to his meeting Bateson,

who asked Don to join him, Haley, Weakland, and Fryin the now infamous Bateson Research Team. Duringthe first year, Don found the traditional prohibitionagainst contact with a patients family members difficultin the then small town of Palo Alto, leading him toarticulate the concept of family homeostasis, and to seepatients and family members together, an approach henamed conjoint family therapy.

How this work is being carried on todayDons contributions permeate most systemically-oriented family and brief therapy approaches.Theoretical premises introduced by Don and colleaguescontinue to serve as fundamental premises underlyingthe brief therapy model developed after his death at theMRI; the strategic work of Haley and his colleagues;the structural model developed by Minuchin and hiscolleagues; the work of the Milan team; the solutionfocused brief therapy approach of deShazer, Berg andassociates 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 mostpost-modern narrative orientations of Anderson andGoolishian; Hoffman and White, as well as most othersystemically and contextually oriented approaches

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

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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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationNeil Jacobson was born in 1949in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, anddied in 1999.

Educational backgroundNeil completed his PhD inclinical psychology at theUniversity of North Carolina-

Chapel Hill in 1977, and did his internship at BrownUniversity.

Contributions to the fieldNeil Jacobson made major contributions in threeseparate, substantive areas of psychology. At the time ofhis death, he had major research grants and had mademajor contributions to couple therapy, treatment fordepression, and domestic violence. In couple therapy,he had written the definitive treatment manual fortraditional behavioral couple therapy, had evaluated thistreatment, and had, with Andrew Christensen, createdand evaluated a major modification of this treatment,namely Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy. Inthe area of depression treatment research, he hadchallenged the major treatment in the area (cognitivetherapy) and elaborated and evaluated an alternativetreatment, Behavioral Activation. For domestic violence,he had provided evidence about the kind of men whoperpetuate violence against women and had successfullylobbied couple therapists to regularly evaluate violenceand take it seriously. In addition to his work in thesesubstantive areas, he made methodological contributionsin the analysis and promotion of clinical significance asa metric with which to evaluate clinical success and inthe design of clinical trials in psychotherapy research.Finally, he trained a large number of therapists andstudents in couple therapy, depression treatment, and inthe conduct of clinical research. For more information,see the June 2, 2000 issue ofPrevention and Treatment(http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/toc-

jun02-00.html).


family-based interventionsDuring graduate school, Neil became interested incouple therapy and was influenced by the pioneering

work of Patterson, Stuart, and Weiss. At the Universityof North Carolina during graduate school, Neil and

Barclay Martin (1976) produced the first authoritativereview of behavioral couple therapy and conducted oneof the first clinical trials of the approach (Jacobson,1977). For more detail, refer to Virginia Rutters article(www.afta.org/newsletter/79/page11.html) or the 1993Family Therapy Newsarticle on Neil S. Jacobson.

How this work is being carried on todayNeils work on couple therapy is carried on byinnumerable clinicians who were influenced by his

workshops and writings, and his treatment manualson Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) arestill popular today (Jacobson & Christensen, 1998;Christensen & Jacobson, 2000). Neils major clinicaltrial on this treatment is being carried on by hiscollaborator, Andrew Christensen, at UCLA, and variouscolleagues. Other studies on IBCT are being planned orcarried out at Duke University, the University of Iowa,Texas A&M, and in foreign countries, such as Sweden.Similarly, Neils work on depression is being carriedon by innumerable clinicians who were influenced byhis training and writing. His major clinical trial onbehavioral activation was recently published by SonaDimidjian et al. at the University of Colorado. A self-help manual was recently published by former colleagues

Addis and Martell (2004). Studies are underway toextend behavioral activation to other populations, suchas for adolescent depression and for veterans with bothPTSD and depression. Neils influence on domesticviolence can be seen in the current standard of carefor couple therapy, which includes an evaluation ofviolence. His book on violence against women (Jacobson& Gottman, 1998) is still cited today. His researchdirections are carried on by a number of researchers,but perhaps most clearly by Amy Holtzworth-Monroeat Indiana University. Finally, Neils influence on themethodology of clinical trials can be seen in the nearuniversal acceptance of his clinical significance metric asa way of evaluating outcome.

Written by Andrew Christensen, PhD, and Neils wife,Virginia Rutter, PhD.

Neil Scott JacobsonBirth date and locationMonica McGoldrick was born in Brooklyn in 1943 andlater raised on a farm in Pennsylvania.

Educational backgroundMonica earned a BA in Russian studies, an MA inRussian studies at Yale University, and an MSW fromSmith College School of Social Work. She also holds anhonorary PhD from Smith College.

Contributions to the fieldMonica has been committed to the contribution of new

knowledge in the MFT world for over 35 years. She hasfurthered knowledge and shaped the field in the areasof family development, the family life-cycle, Boweniantherapy, genograms, gender in families, multiculturaldevelopment, including ethnicity, race, class, and ingrief and loss. She is the director and developer of theMulticultural Family Institute, the only one of its kindin the field of family therapy. The Institute providestraining, service, and written materials that are at theleading edge of the field of cultural factors in marriageand family therapy. She also serves as an adjunctassociate professor of clinical psychiatry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a position shehas held for many years. She has been a visiting professorat Fordham University, and on faculty at the FamilyInstitute of Westchester and the Center for FamilyLearning in New York. Monica has also maintaineda private clinical practice for over 30 years. Monicaslargest contribution to family therapy may well be her

writings, which have influenced countless numbersof both experienced therapists, as well as trainees overmany years. She has published over thirty articles andseven books, two of which have multiple editions.Monicas work in Family Life Cycleand Ethnicity andFamily Therapyhave become both standards and classics

in the field. Add to these Living Beyond Loss, Genograms:Assessment and Intervention, and Re-visioning FamilyTherapy: Race, Culture, and Gender in Clinical Practice,and you have part of the essential library for familytherapists today. Monica has served on numerouseditorial boards and presented at workshops in the U.S.and abroad.


family-based interventionsPsychologists and psychiatrists at themental health center where Monica

worked early in her career seemedto have little if any interaction withpatients. She soon discovered thatsocial work might be a better pursuitfor her, as it would be more hands on. She eventuallysaw patients when families came to visit, and she realizedthis was when you learned the most about the patient.

Working at the Yale-New Haven Hospital unit, a very

family oriented center, Monicas work began to turnin the direction she had wanted. In 1972, she wouldhear a presentation by Murray Bowen, where one of hisstudents would offer Monica a position in his familyinstitute (Wyatt, 2006).


Genograms are widely used today, not only in familytherapy, but also in the medical field, social work,psychiatry, psychology, etc. Under Monicas guidance,the Multicultural Family Institute is a thriving centeroffering conferences, seminars and training programs, as

well as consultation to schools and agencies and clinicalservices to individuals and families. The faculty andaffiliates are known internationally for their trainingand contributions to family therapy theory and practice;especially for their efforts to expand the boundariesof systems thinking to address issues of social justiceand equity. They have made many contributions toissues of culture and race, multicultural families, issuesfor men and women in families, class, and life cycleissues, including untimely and traumatic loss, couplerelationships, divorce, child custody, remarriage, child,sibling and adolescent problems, caretaking of agingand 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.


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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationSalvador Minuchin was born in 1921 in

Argentina.

Educational backgroundSalvador Minuchin graduated medicalschool in 1946 in Argentina and

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

Contributions to the fieldSal Minuchin developed Structural Family Therapy, anapproach which focuses on the dysfunctional structuralorganization of the family. The therapist tries to disruptdysfunctional relationships within the family, and causethem to settle back into a healthier pattern. Sals style hasbeen described as forceful and intense, but in a mannerthat communicates respect for family members, as wellas self-confidence. He has spent his career working onbehalf of the poor and ethnically underprivileged. Hebegan early on to change the language of therapy to

make it relevant to families. Populations consideredunreachable needed a change in traditional ways ofcommunicating. Sal took this perspective with him tothe Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia, to work withthe marginalized welfare population in the black ghettoof South Philadelphia. In the 70s, Sal and colleaguesdeveloped training programs in which family therapists

were sent to different institutions in Pennsylvaniato help them shift the focus of their interventionsfrom individuals to families. They also trainedparaprofessionals, drawn from the neighborhood. Somedid not even have a high school education, and theybecame competent family therapists. That programchanged 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 institutionsthat provided services for poor and marginalizedpopulations. During this time, a training manual forfoster parents was written which was widely used aroundthe nation (discussed in Working with Families of thePoor by Minuchin, Minuchin and Colapinto). Hisgroup also initiated a program for pregnant women

who were drug addicted and under treatment at NYU

hospital, which included the families, focusing onlife issues, as well as addiction. Sal has contributedto numerous professional journals and coauthorednumerous books, many of which explore the effects ofpoverty and social systems on families.


family-based interventionsIn 1951, Sal co-directed residential institutions fordisturbed children in Israel. Here, he began to work

with groups instead of individuals. Later, Sal trained atthe William Alanson White Institute of Psychoanalysis

in New York, where the ideas of Harry Stack Sullivan(interpersonal psychiatry) were supported. As he wastraining, he began practicing at the Wiltwyck Schoolfor Boys. Gradually, he began to feel that he needed tosee a clients family for effectiveness (Encyclopedia ofPsychology, 2008). It should also be noted that BraulioMontalvo is widely recognized as a gifted therapist and aclose associate of Minuchins, working with him both at

Wiltwyck and Philadelphia Child Guidance.

How this work is being carried on todayThe Minuchin Center for the Family provides structuralfamily therapy training to individuals, and systemicconsultations to organizations, working with couples andfamilies who have been marginalized due to racism, socio-economic conditions and/or sexual orientation. Using theconcepts of structural family therapy, the Center educatesfamily therapists to work with these critically underservedpopulations (Minuchin Center for the Family, 2006).

Some Information excerpted fromJournal of Marital andFamily Therapy, April 1987 (Laurie Heatherington), andFamily 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 htt p://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 locationEmily Hartshorne Mudd was born in 1898 in Marion,Pennsylvania, and died in 1998.


Emily attended Vassar, but during WWII, establisheda program to help maintain crops. She drank out ofan infected well and caught Typhoid fever and couldnot go back to Vassar. She then attended a landscapearchitecture school in Groton, Massachusetts, where shemet her husband, Dr. Stuart Mudd, who was studyingat the Harvard Medical School. She received her MA

in social work in 1936 and her PhD in 1950 from theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Contributions to the fieldIn the 1920s, Emily helped establish Philadelphias firstbirth control clinic. It has been noted that this endeavor

was her fondest and proudest. It was against the lawto prescribe contraception, or dispense informationon contraception, but she was protected by anotherlawshe was pregnant and could not be arrested.In 1932, Emily established the Marriage Council ofPhiladelphia. In 1950, the Council became a nationalcenter for training and research in human relationships,and eventually became the Division of Family Studyin the Department of Psychiatry, University ofPennsylvania. Emily was advanced immediately tothe rank of full professor, as the first female professorin Penns medical school. Emily was propelled by heracademic productivity, publishing credits and theinnovation of her programs. As there was previously notradition of marriage counseling, this Division becamea prototype. Emily also became very involved withpatients in the Obstetrical and Gynecologic Clinics ofthe Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1975,she co-published a paper on c ounseling and patientinteraction in regard to teen pregnancy. Throughouther life, Emily remained focused on the needs of theless fortunate and the harsh realities of economicdisadvantage, especially as it pertained to reproductivehealthcare. William Masters said of Emily: More

than anyone else, Emily Muddencouraged and helped shape thefield of marriage and family lifeeducation and was among the first toaddress the dimension of sexuality asa vital factor in family life care.


family-based interventionsIn Philadelphia, Emily Mudd became more and moreinvolved in community activities. Around 1929, she waspart of the establishment of the Maternal Health Center,

the first family-planning program in the Philadelphiaarea. It was here that the connection became clearbetween poverty and birth control issues. This led toan interest in counseling techniques and preventivemedicine that remained with Emily throughouther career. Emily saw early on the serious need forrelationship assistance, not just medical interventions.In 1972, Emily was appointed by Governor Shaft asco-chair of the Pennsylvania Abortion Law Commission.She further became interested in family-basedinterventions while working on the Commission andhelped establish a place where couples could get help, as

well as individuals.

How this work is being carried on todayThe legacy of the Marriage Council has had a majorimpact on the field and was transformed into the vitalcenter that exists for training and study today. Further,the report of the Abortion Law Commission had asignificant national impact on abortion legislation. TheStuart and Emily Mudd Professorship serves as a hubfor an expanding interdisciplinary program, still one ofthe few such efforts in the United States in the fieldsof family relations, human reproduction, and socialinteraction.

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.


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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationMara Selvini Palazzoli was bornin Italy in 1916 and died in1999.

Educational backgroundMara Selvini Palazzoli, MD,studied internal medicine in

Italy, but ultimately decided to pursue psychiatry inSwitzerland.

Contributions to the fieldMara 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 withfamilies with psychotic patients in the early 1970s.Their work is generally referred to as the Milan systemicapproach. The group initially borrowed from Americanfamily therapy pioneers, like Bateson and the MRIgroup, but would later become some of the foremosteducators in the field world wide. A good deal of their

work focused on anorexia and schizophrenia, withtherapists working in teams and using one-way mirrorsto achieve objectivity. Mara made major contributionsto the field in the understanding of transactionalpatterns in families with an anorexic member. She alsofocused on the effects of the invariant prescription ingenerating a typology of family games by studying theresponses of different families to the same therapeuticintervention. Paradox and Counterparadox, availablein the U.S. in the late 70s, was read world wide andgives one of the most comprehensive accounts of thegroups work. Maras book, Self-starvation, was alsoavailable in 1978. Mara was a 1985 recipient of the

AAMFTs Distinguished Contribution to Research inFamily Therapy award. In fact, she was very dissatisfied

with the level of research in the field and advocatedfor more research, stating that it is an absolutely vitalcomponent of family therapy. Thus, she separated fromher colleagues in 1980 and founded a private practice inorder to do intensive research with f amily therapy as themethodology.


family-based interventionsMara had a strong interest in a disorder seen in Italyafter World War II, anorexia nervosa. Believing it tobe an emotional disorder, she decided to treat it withtraditional psychoanalytic methods. But after muchfrustration, she traveled to the U.S. in the late 60s tolearn about family therapy and returned to Italy toincorporate these ideas into her team for treatment ofanorexia and schizophrenia. Mara also had an innatecuriosity about human behavior. She would observepeople surrounding her quite intently and wondered

about their professional lives, educational backgroundsand family lives. Her interest in focusing on researchin family therapy was stirred in 1978 by Italys decisionto close all of its mental health hospitals. Instead, theydeveloped district psychiatric centers which were nothospital centers but consultation centers. In thosecenters teams were assigned to deal with families thatcame in with a psychotic member. The results weredisastrous because many of the teams were not capableof working with families with a psychotic member or ofstopping a psychotic crisis. At this point Mara decidedto conduct research to develop a model that would makedealing with those families easier for therapists.

How this work is being carried on todaySome of the major concepts emerging from, or advancedby, the Milan Group which greatly influenced thefield are circularity, hypothesis building and curiosity,psychotic family games, and time. Maras 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 questionsalmost to a science. Although the Milan groups stanceon neutrality drew some criticism from those in the field

who felt it was too distancing, their work and the Milansystemic approach has had a major and far reachingimpact on the field. Today, the Post-Milan approach isan amalgam of the original concepts blended with newtechniques.

Information excerpted from Family Therapy News, May/June1985 and September/October 1986.

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

Educational backgroundPeggy earned her MSW at Hunter College, School ofSocial Work, New York City.

Contributions to the fieldGender-focused research and dialogue have longbeen at the center of attention in the marriage andfamily therapy field. The origin of these discussionscan be traced back roughly 35 years to a time when

the pioneers of family therapy started to question thegender assumptions inherent in our s ociety. In the1970s, Peggy helped call attention to the number ofpublications that blamed mothers for every kind ofproblem. Mothers were blamed for schizophrenia, incest,domestic violence, and sexual harassment, just to namea few. Peggy has continued to be a key participant inthis evolution of ideas about gender and power, andoften took part in the initial debates, and continues todo so today. She is an internationally renowned therapistand author of numerous articles and books on familytherapy, includingThe Process of Change, considered aclassic in the field; co-author of the landmark book, TheInvisible Web: Gender Patterns in Family Relationships;and editor ofCouples on the Faultline: New Directions

for Therapists. She has presented extensively in theU.S., Europe, South America, China and Israel. She isrecognized for her many innovative contributions tofamily therapy, including family sculpting and the use ofthemes and belief systems. She was the recipient of the

AAMFTs Lifetime Achievement Award and has beenhonored by the American Family Therapy Academy forher pioneering work on The Womens Project for FamilyTherapy (with Marianne Walters, Olga Silverstein andBetty Carter).


family-based interventionsPeggy and Olga Silverstein began a program usingparadox in 1974, working with families of symptomaticchildren (Minuchin and Fishman, 1981).

How this work is being

carried on today

Peggy is currently a seniorfaculty member of the

Ackerman Institute forthe Family, and founderand director of AckermansDepression and GenderProject. In this project,a model was createdthat recognized the rolegender plays in depression.

A multi-dimensionaltreatment approachis practiced that takes into account the biological,psychological, cultural and interpersonal aspects ofdepression. The family is seen as an essential part of therecovery and is involved in the treatment process. Inaddition to her Ackerman affiliation, Peggy has a privatepractice in family therapy in New York City.

Some information courtesy of the Ackerman Institute forthe Family, New York, NY. Also fromFamily TherapyMagazine, 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.


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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationVirginia Satir wasborn June 26, 1916 inNeillsville, Wisconsin,and died in 1988.

Educational backgroundVirginia earned a BA ineducation in 1936. In1948, she received an MAin social work from the

Northwestern University in Chicago.

Contributions to the fieldVirginia Satir is one of the most common names in theannals of family therapy. During her early professionalyears, she was part of a small group, including otherssuch as Ackerman and Bowen, who made family therapya 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 familytherapy. Her books, Conjoint Family Therapy(1964)and Peoplemaking(1972), are two of the central textsin the field. She developed the Satir Growth Model,

a comprehensive set of beliefs, methods, tools, andexperiential exercises that support positive changein individuals, family systems, organizations andcommunities. In 1958, Virginia joined Don Jacksonin founding the Mental Research Institute (MRI)in Palo Alto, California. Her major contributions tofamily therapy include: introduction and promotion ofconjoint family therapy into the mainstream of therapypractices; bringing a process approach to therapy thatgave a major alternative to content and problem-solvingapproaches; providing a health focus to therapy bypromoting a view of the world and of people that buildson possibilities, internal resources, personal choice, andself worth; developing a three-generational approach tofamily therapy that has major transformational results;using experiential learning as a dependable and viablemode for change; promoting and developing the useof 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 wayof changing dysfunctional communication patterns tohealthy patterns; expounding transformational approachthat works at various levels of peoples internal process,such as yearning, expectations, perceptions, feelings, andcoping reactions; and providing hope for thousands ofclients and therapists that change is possible.


family-based interventionsFrom the beginning, Virginia was curious aboutrelational communications. She once explained that

there had been too many contradictions in her lifethat she did not understand. Her mother would crybut claim that nothing was wrong. Her father wouldlook and act frustrated and anxious but say he washappy. Early on she was considered a maverick inher field work and it wasnt long before she launchedher own independent therapy career. In 1951, seeingmany severely dysfunctional individuals for whom hertraining and experience had not prepared her, she beganto develop new approaches based on the needs of theindividuals and her own intuitive creativity.

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

Excerpted from Family Therapy News, September/October1988, John Banmen, EdD.

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


Paul Watzlawick received his doctorate in 1949 fromthe University of Venice (C Foscari) in philosophy andmodern languages. He then trained at the Carl JungInstitute in Zrich.



After teaching for a year at the University of El SalvadorSchool of Psychology and Medicine, while travelingback to Europe a fortuitous event occurredPaul metDon Jackson. In the late 1960s, he joined the Research

Associates at the Mental Research Institute (MRI). Hefully embraced the radically alternative, interaction-focused conceptualization of behavior, studying this viewunder the direct tutelage of the three founding thinkers:Don D. Jackson, Gregory Bateson, and Milton H.Erickson.

Contributions to the fieldPaul Watzlawick is among the best known figures inthe fields of communication and constructivist theory,family and brief therapy. His contributions to theInteractional View of human behavior are profound,many, and among the most influential and widelyread. Paul published some of the most influentialpublications in communication/interactional theory,such as Pragmatics of Human CommunicationA Study ofInteractional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes(1967,

with Janet Beavin Bavelas and Don Jackson); in the areaof constructivism he published How Real is Realand TheInvented Reality; and in Brief Therapy, Change: Principlesof Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (with John

Weakland and Richard Fisch); andThe Language ofChange, as lucid examples.

How this work is being

carried on todayPaul devoted his life toteaching, mentoringgenerations of therapists,researchers, and teachers.This is among his mostdurable legaciesthenumber of students(many now leaders inbrief therapy) who lookupon Paul Watzlawick

as their mentor. Alongwith his career-longcollaborators Weakland and Fisch, Paul pioneered theapplication of interactional/communication principlesin the practice of brief therapy. Out of this collaborationcame one of the clearest and most influential brieftherapy orientations, MRI Brief Therapy (e.g., BriefTherapy: Focused Problem Resolution, 1974) written withcolleagues Weakland, Fisch, and Art Bodin, and theinfluential ChangePrincipals of Problem Formation andProblem Resolution, 1974, by Watzlawick, Weakland,and Fisch. For more than 45 years, Paul did not waiverfrom the basic tenets of Interactional View. He authoredmore than 150 scientific papers and 22 books thatare translated in 80 languages. In an era when self-promotion and exaggerated importance have becomecommonplace, it is impressive that the curriculumvitae of this extraordinarily accomplished man was onepage in length. Paul stands comfortably among suchgiants as Gregory Bateson, Heinz von Foerster, andLudwig Wittgenstein, in the fields of Communication-Interactional Theory and Constructivist Theory. Hiscontributions stand equally comfortable among thepioneers of brief therapy as Don Jackson and MiltonErickson.


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.


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p i o n e e r s

Birth date and locationJohn Weakland was bornin 1919, and grew up inCharleston, West Virginia.He died in 1995.

Educational backgroundAt age 15, John enteredCornell University,completing a degree in

chemical engineering. In the next few years, Johnwas partly responsible for the development of the

first method for mass-producing penicillin, and laterinvolved in developing the design of the catalytic crackerof petroleum, still in use today, which heats crudepetroleum, breaking it down into gasoline and otherpetroleum products.


family-based interventionsGrowing tired of chemical engineering, John turned tothe Princeton Library where he became interested inthe social sciences. Learning that Gregory Bateson wasteaching at Columbia University New School of SocialSciences, and wanting to know more about the classes,uncharacteristically, John telephoned Bateson. Hearingthat John was a chemical e ngineer, Bateson, who wasinvolved in the Macy Conferences on Cybernetics,and having difficulty understanding a mathematicalequation, invited John to his home in GreenwichVillage to discuss mathematics. They were to becomelifelong friends, beginning a research collaboration thateventually would blossom into the influential BatesonResearch Project. Abandoning chemical engineeringto study anthropology and sociology at ColumbiaUniversity under the tutelage of Ruth Benedict andMargaret Mead, John was eventually led to field work

with Chinese communities in New York and SanFrancisco, Navaho and Pueblo Indians, and later, nativecommunities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.

Contributions to the fieldWith others at the Bateson Research Team, Johnpioneered the application of communication theoryin understanding human behavior. He (1951; 1967)insisted the study of human behavior concentrateon directly observable interaction and avoid relianceon inferences or constructs that are not observable.

Communication/Interactional theory posits thatcommunication occurring in the present amongmembers of the clients family is the most relevant sourceof explanation for behavior. Focusing on how membersof a family affect one another, the team set forth doublebind theory (Bateson, Jackson, Haley & Weakland,1956). The double bind is a continuous, pervasiveprocess that can occur in any intense relationship in

which the individuals involved feel it vitally importantto accurately interpret the meaning of the other. Asingle, simple message never occurs and family membersfrequently send incongruent messages. John was also

pivotal, with Haley, in introducing Milton Ericksonshypnotherapy to a wider audience. Working with Don

Jackson, Jules Riskin, and Virginia Satir, he pioneeredthe development of conjoint family therapy. Amongthe first to apply interactional/systemic premises in

work with individuals, John contended that if one takesseriously the interactional view, that problems occur inthe context of, and are maintained by, the behaviors ofother family members, then, it is not necessary to s ee the

whole family together in order to identify and interruptattempted solutions which maintain the problem.In Counseling with Elders and Their Families, John

Weakland and John Herr (1979) pioneered the area ofmarriage and family therapy with aging families. Theseare but a few of Johns innovative contributions duringthe Bateson research projects, and later at MRI.

How this work is being carried on todayWhat evolved out of the Bateson research projects,then with Jackson, Satir, and Riskin at MRI in theearly studies of family interaction and c onjoint familytherapy, and later in the work with Richard Fisch, Paul

Watzlawick and at the MRI Brief Therapy Center, isnothing less than a paradigm shift in thinking about thenature of the relationship between human beings andtheir surrounding contexts. Even though progressivelymore debilitated by a terminal illness, John c ontinued toteach and supervise trainees from his home, completinghis final book (Weakland & Ray, 1995) only weeksbefore his death at age 76.

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

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

Educational backgroundCarl Whitaker, MD, trained in obstetrics andgynecology at Syracuse University and performed hispsychiatry residency at Syracuse University PsychopathicHo

family therapy pioneers

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