Family Therapy - Founders and Key Influences

Founders and Key Influences

Some key developers of family therapy are:

  • Alfred Adler (phenomenology)
  • Nathan Ackerman (psychoanalytic)
  • Tom Andersen (Reflecting practices and dialogues about dialogues)
  • Harlene Anderson (Postmodern Collaborative Therapy and Collaborative Language Systems)
  • Harry J Aponte (Person-of-the-Therapist)
  • Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) (cybernetics, systems theory)
  • Ivan Böszörményi-Nagy (Contextual therapy, intergenerational, relational ethics)
  • Murray Bowen (Systems theory, intergenerational)
  • Steve de Shazer (solution focused therapy)
  • Milton H. Erickson (hypnotherapy, strategic therapy, brief therapy)
  • Richard Fisch (brief therapy, strategic therapy)
  • James Framo (object relations theory, intergenerational)
  • Edwin Friedman (Family process in religious congregations)
  • Hans-Werner Gessmann (Humanistic Psychodrama in family reconstruction, hypnosystemic therapy in sexual disorders)
  • Harry Goolishian (Postmodern Collaborative Therapy and Collaborative Language Systems)
  • John Gottman (marriage)
  • Robert-Jay Green (LGBT, cross-cultural issues)
  • Jay Haley (strategic therapy, communications)
  • Lynn Hoffman (strategic, post-systems, collaborative)
  • Don D. Jackson (systems theory)
  • Sue Johnson (Emotionally focused therapy, attachment theory)
  • Bradford Keeney (cybernetics, resource focused therapy)
  • Walter Kempler (Gestalt psychology)
  • Bernard Luskin (media psychology, Public understanding of issues through media)
  • Cloe Madanes (strategic therapy)
  • Salvador Minuchin (structural)
  • Braulio Montalvo (structural)
  • Virginia Satir (communications, experiential, conjoint and co-therapy)
  • Mara Selvini Palazzoli (Milan systems)
  • Ross Speck (network therapy)
  • Robin Skynner (Group Analysis)
  • Paul Watzlawick (Brief therapy, systems theory)
  • John Weakland (Brief therapy, strategic therapy, systems theory)
  • Carl Whitaker (Family systems, experiential, co-therapy)
  • Michael White (narrative therapy)
  • Lyman Wynne (Schizophrenia, pseudomutuality)


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