About MRI

Since 1959, The Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto, California, has been one of the leading sources of ideas in the area of interactional/systemic studies, psychotherapy, and family therapy. Later, it presented an innovative model for the comprehensive approach to brief therapy, a model which, in turn, has influenced subsequent brief therapy approaches  throughout the world. Continuing applied research and theory development have expanded the use of interactional concepts to community, school and business. Thousands of professionals within the U.S. as well as from many countries of the world have attended MRI training programs. Below is a statement of our mission.

The Mental Research Institute, established in 1959, is a small, independent, multi-disciplinary, non-profit corporation:

• devoted to conducting and encouraging scientific research based on new ways of looking at how people behave,
• dedicated to benefit the human community worldwide through training, clinical and consultative services
• committed to extending a tradition of innovation and openness towards new paradigms of change.

The focus of MRI is to explore and to encourage the use of an interactional approach to further understand and more effectively resolve human problems from the family to all other levels of social organization.