Jay Haley
Encyclopedia
Jay Douglas Haley was one of the founding figures of brief and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, and authors in these disciplines.
. His family moved to Berkeley, California when he was 4. After serving in the United States Army Air Forces
during World War II
, he attended UCLA where he received a BA in Theater Arts. During his undergraduate years, Haley published a short story in The New Yorker. After a year spent in pursuit of a career as a playwright, he returned to California and received a Bachelors of Library Science degree from University of California at Berkeley and then a Masters Degree in Communication from Stanford University. Jay was married for the first time in 1950 and had three children, Kathleen, Gregory, and Andrew, with his wife Elizabeth.
While at Stanford, Haley met the anthropologist Gregory Bateson
who invited him to join a communications research project that later became known as The Bateson Project, a collaboration that became one of the driving factors in the creation of family therapy and that published the single most important paper in the history of family therapy, "Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia." The central members of this Project were Gregory Bateson
, Donald deAvila Jackson
, Jay Haley, John Weakland, and Bill Fry.
In addition to his personal involvement in the birth and evolution of family therapy, Jay was an observational researcher of psychotherapy in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Bateson Project arranged for Jay and John Weakland to observe and record clinicians including Milton Erickson, Joseph Wolpe
, John Rosen, Don Jackson, Charles Fulweiler, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann
, and others.
In 1962, while working at the Mental Research Institute
in Palo Alto, Jay became the founding editor of the family therapy journal Family Process
(assisted by his first wife, Elizabeth Haley, an experienced journalist). While at MRI, Jay continued the professional relationship with Milton Erickson that had been established in the earliest years of the Bateson Project. Jay helped to introduce Erickson to the clinical public with such important books as Uncommon Therapy.
Haley moved to Philadelphia in the mid-1960s to take a position at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Through his collaboration with Salvador Minuchin
and Braulio Montalvo, Jay influenced (and was influenced by) the evolution of Structural Family Therapy
in the early 1970s.
After founding the Family Therapy Institute of Washington DC with second wife Cloe Madanes in 1976, Haley continued to be a central force in the evolution of Strategic Family Therapy
. His publications from the years at the Family Therapy Institute include one of the field's most influential best selling books, Problem Solving Therapy.
After leaving the Family Therapy Institute in the 1990s, Jay moved to the San Diego area and, in collaboration with his third wife Madeleine Richeport-Haley, produced a number of films relating to both anthropology and psychotherapy. Madeleine also collaborated in the writing of Jay's final book, Directive Family Therapy. At the time of his death, he was also a Scholar In Residence at California School of Professional Psychology
at Alliant International University
.
Haley combined a systemic understanding of human problems and strengths with a pragmatic approach to intervention. His method of therapy-–he claimed not to have a theory of therapy—-emphasizes creative and sometimes provocative instructions for the clients to react to. The approach emphasizes careful contracting between clients and the therapist, experimenting with possible solutions (in a manner sometimes inspired by the therapist and sometimes inspired by the client), review of the results and informed resumption of experimentation until the goal of therapy is achieved. In the 1960s and 1970s when psychodynamic approaches to therapy dominated, such practicality was commonly seen as heretical. The here-and-now emphasis of Haley and others of his generation of pragmatic practitioners is now the norm for the field of psychotherapy.
Strategic Therapy is any type of therapy where the therapist initiates what happens during therapy and designs a particular approach for each problem. As Haley wrote in Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques Of Milton H. Erickson MD: "Strategic therapy isn't a particular approach or theory, but a name for the types of therapy where the therapist takes responsibility for directly influencing people" (Pg. 17).
In the 1950s, therapists began to study the environment of a patient, not just the patient himself. The theory of strategic therapy states that the patient's symptoms are a result of attempts by family members to correct what they consider "problem" behavior. Haley's strategic therapy focuses on short-term, targeted efforts to solve a specific problem.
A therapist employing strategic therapy must:
Life and works
Conceived in a log cabin on his family's homestead in Montana, Haley was born in Midwest, WyomingMidwest, Wyoming
Midwest is a town in Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. It is part of the Casper, Wyoming Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 408 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Midwest is located at ....
. His family moved to Berkeley, California when he was 4. After serving in the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he attended UCLA where he received a BA in Theater Arts. During his undergraduate years, Haley published a short story in The New Yorker. After a year spent in pursuit of a career as a playwright, he returned to California and received a Bachelors of Library Science degree from University of California at Berkeley and then a Masters Degree in Communication from Stanford University. Jay was married for the first time in 1950 and had three children, Kathleen, Gregory, and Andrew, with his wife Elizabeth.
While at Stanford, Haley met the anthropologist Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
who invited him to join a communications research project that later became known as The Bateson Project, a collaboration that became one of the driving factors in the creation of family therapy and that published the single most important paper in the history of family therapy, "Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia." The central members of this Project were Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
, Donald deAvila Jackson
Donald deAvila Jackson
Don D. Jackson was an American psychiatrist best known for his pioneering work in family therapy.From 1947 to 1951 he studied under Harry Stack Sullivan....
, Jay Haley, John Weakland, and Bill Fry.
In addition to his personal involvement in the birth and evolution of family therapy, Jay was an observational researcher of psychotherapy in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Bateson Project arranged for Jay and John Weakland to observe and record clinicians including Milton Erickson, Joseph Wolpe
Joseph Wolpe
Joseph Wolpe was born on April 20, 1915, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and died on December 4, 1997, from lung cancer. He is one of the most influential figures in behavior therapy....
, John Rosen, Don Jackson, Charles Fulweiler, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann
Frieda Fromm-Reichmann
Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was a German psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud who emigrated to America during World War II.-Life and work:...
, and others.
In 1962, while working at the Mental Research Institute
Mental Research Institute
The Palo Alto Mental Research Institute is one of the founding institutions of brief and family therapy. Founded by Don D. Jackson and colleagues in 1959, MRI has been one of the leading sources of ideas in the area of interactional/systemic studies, psychotherapy, and family...
in Palo Alto, Jay became the founding editor of the family therapy journal Family Process
Family Process (journal)
Family Process is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on family system issues, including policy and applied practice. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Family Process Institute...
(assisted by his first wife, Elizabeth Haley, an experienced journalist). While at MRI, Jay continued the professional relationship with Milton Erickson that had been established in the earliest years of the Bateson Project. Jay helped to introduce Erickson to the clinical public with such important books as Uncommon Therapy.
Haley moved to Philadelphia in the mid-1960s to take a position at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Through his collaboration with Salvador Minuchin
Salvador Minuchin
Salvador Minuchin is a family therapist born and raised in San Salvador, Entre Ríos, Argentina. He developed Structural Family Therapy, which addresses problems within a family by charting the relationships between family members, or between subsets of family. These charts represent power dynamics...
and Braulio Montalvo, Jay influenced (and was influenced by) the evolution of Structural Family Therapy
Structural family therapy
Structural Family Therapy is a method of psychotherapy developed by Salvador Minuchin which addresses problems in functioning within a family...
in the early 1970s.
After founding the Family Therapy Institute of Washington DC with second wife Cloe Madanes in 1976, Haley continued to be a central force in the evolution of Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic therapy is one of the major models of both family and brief psychotherapy. It was inspired by the work of Milton Erickson, MD and Don Jackson, MD and has been associated with the work of Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes , the Brief Therapy Team at the Mental Research Institute Strategic...
. His publications from the years at the Family Therapy Institute include one of the field's most influential best selling books, Problem Solving Therapy.
After leaving the Family Therapy Institute in the 1990s, Jay moved to the San Diego area and, in collaboration with his third wife Madeleine Richeport-Haley, produced a number of films relating to both anthropology and psychotherapy. Madeleine also collaborated in the writing of Jay's final book, Directive Family Therapy. At the time of his death, he was also a Scholar In Residence at California School of Professional Psychology
California School of Professional Psychology
The California School of Professional Psychology , was founded by the California Psychological Association in 1969. It is part of Alliant International University.The school has trained approximately half of the licensed psychologists in California...
at Alliant International University
Alliant International University
Alliant International University is a private, non-profit higher education institution based in San Diego, California. It offers programs in six California cities and four locations outside the United States...
.
Haley combined a systemic understanding of human problems and strengths with a pragmatic approach to intervention. His method of therapy-–he claimed not to have a theory of therapy—-emphasizes creative and sometimes provocative instructions for the clients to react to. The approach emphasizes careful contracting between clients and the therapist, experimenting with possible solutions (in a manner sometimes inspired by the therapist and sometimes inspired by the client), review of the results and informed resumption of experimentation until the goal of therapy is achieved. In the 1960s and 1970s when psychodynamic approaches to therapy dominated, such practicality was commonly seen as heretical. The here-and-now emphasis of Haley and others of his generation of pragmatic practitioners is now the norm for the field of psychotherapy.
Haley's Strategic Therapy
What is strategic therapy?Strategic Therapy is any type of therapy where the therapist initiates what happens during therapy and designs a particular approach for each problem. As Haley wrote in Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques Of Milton H. Erickson MD: "Strategic therapy isn't a particular approach or theory, but a name for the types of therapy where the therapist takes responsibility for directly influencing people" (Pg. 17).
In the 1950s, therapists began to study the environment of a patient, not just the patient himself. The theory of strategic therapy states that the patient's symptoms are a result of attempts by family members to correct what they consider "problem" behavior. Haley's strategic therapy focuses on short-term, targeted efforts to solve a specific problem.
A therapist employing strategic therapy must:
- Identify solvable problems.
- Set goals.
- Design interventions to achieve those goals.
- Examine the responses.
- Examine the outcome of the therapy.
By Haley
- Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
- The Art of Strategic Therapy
- The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ and Other Essays (Avon Books 1969)
- Strategies of Psychotherapy
- Problem-Solving Therapy
- Ordeal Therapy: Unusual Ways to Change Behavior (Jossey-Bass 1984)
- Learning and Teaching Therapy (Guilford Press 1996)
- Directive Family Therapy (written with Madeleine Richeport-Haley)
- Leaving Home: The Therapy of Disturbed Young People, Second Edition. (Brunner/Routledge 1997) ISBN 978-0876308455
Coauthored
- Techniques of family therapy (written with Lynn HoffmanLynn Hoffman (family therapist)Lynn Hoffman , ACSW, is a US social worker, family therapist, author and historian of family therapy. Her mother, Ruth Reeves was a painter and Art Deco textile designer...
) (1967; 1994). New York: Basic Books. (1994 printing – Northvale, NJ: Aronson.) - Changing Directives: The Strategic Therapy of Jay Haley (written with Jeffrey K. Zeig) (2001)