Timeline: Major events in Marriage and Family Therapy

1921

First child guidance clinic

Alfred Adler establishes the first child guidance clinic in Vienna

Period: 1930 to 1939

First institutes for marriage counseling

The first institutes for marriage counseling were established. Clinicians began to recognize the advantages of treating married couples in conjoint sessions.

1934

Groves conference first began

The conferences began with professor Ernest Groves bringing together a few teachers and students who were seriously interested in the study of the family.

1938

First paper published on family therapy

Nathan Ackerman is credited as being the author of the first paper published on family therapy "The unity of family"

1943

Don Jackson

Don Jackson graduates from Stanford University School of Medicine and strongly rejected the psychoanalytic concepts that formed the basis of his early training.

1946

Murray Bowen

Bowen at Menninger Clinic

1946

Carl Whitaker

Whitaker at Emory

1946

Gregory Bateson

Bateson at Harvard

1946

Macy Conferences held

The aim of the conferences was to promote meaningful communication across scientific disciplines and restore unity to science.

1948

Schizophrenogenic mother

Carl Whitaker begins conferences on schizophrenia

1951

John Bell visits John Bowlby

John Bells visits John Bowlby who worked with problem children and occassionally brought in the family

1952

Gregory Bateson receives Rockefeller grant

Bateson receives Rockefeller grant to study communication in Palo Alto Wynne at National Institute of Mental Health

1953

Jay Haley invited to work with Gregory Bateson

Jay Haley invited to work with Gregory Bateson on schizophrenia project

1954

First director of the Family Division at the NIMH

Murray Bowen became the first director of the Family Division at the National Institute of Mental Health.

1955

The practice of treating psychological problems in the context of the family begins

1956

Double bind

Gregory Bateson and his colleagues introduce the concept of double bind to describe how schizophrenic symptoms could be explained in the concept of family

1957

Ivan Bosznormenyi-Nagy

Bosznormenyi-Nagy opens Family Therapy department at EPPI in Phildelphia

1958

Mental Research Institute founded

MRI founded by Don Jackson and colleagues

1959

Virginia Satir

Satir serves as the director of training at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto

1960

Family Institute founded

Family Institute founded by Nathan Ackerman

1960

Family therapy at Wiltwyk

Salvador Minuchin and collegues began doing family therapy at Wiltwyk

1961

John Bell published "Family Group Therapy"

1962

Salvador Minuchin and Jay Haley

Salvador Minuchin and Jay Haley formed a professional relationship

1962

Gregory Bateson's Palo Alto project ends

1962

First journal on family therapy

Nathan Ackerman and Don Jackson founded the journal "Family Process"

1964

Virginia Satir publishes "Conjoint Family Therapy

1968

Behavioral Family Therapy first appeared

1968

Don Jackson

Don Jackson commits suicide at the age of 48

1971

Nathan Ackerman

Nathan Ackerman dies and the Family Institute is renamed the Ackerman Institute

1973

Center for Family Learning is founded

The Center for Family Learning is founded by Phil Guerin.

1973

Ivan Bosznormenyi-Nagy and Geraldine Spark publish "Invisible Loyalties"

1975

The Journal of Marital and Family Therapy is launched

1976

Family Therapy Institute

Jay Haley moves to Washington D.C. and founded the Family Therapy Institute with Cloe Mandanes. This became a major training institute in the United States.

1977