Brief Therapy Center:
In the mid 1960s Richard Fisch, MD was a Research Associate at the MRI with a particular interest in exploring ways to induce positive changes with clients in the most respectful, yet time efficient manner possible. In September 1965 Fisch wrote a memorandum to Don Jackson, Director of the MRI, in which he proposed the creation
of a Brief Therapy Center in which the specific objective would be research into efficient and effective methods of treatment. Start-up funds were obtained and within a year the Brief Therapy Project and Center was created. John Weakland, Paul Watzlawick, and Art Bodin joined Fisch in the project. In the more than thirty years since the creation of the BTC Fisch, Weakland, and
Watzlawick went on to establish one of the first and most influential models of Brief Therapy being practiced today. Thousands of therapists have been trained at the BTC. In 1995 John Weakland passed away, bringing to an end one of the most productive and influential careers of a major founding father of family theory and brief therapy. Richard Fisch, Paul Watzlawick and their
current team, which include Karin Schlanger, Barbara Anger-Dias, and Dan Lev, continue to refine their model of brief therapy, and to train countless therapists who come from all over the world for training in the Brief Therapy Model. Those interested in additional information about training in brief therapy at the BTC should go the Links section of this homepage and click on
the MRI Homepage.
