Haley, Jay, 1923-2007

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Haley was pivotal in creating psychotherapy's major paradigm shift from insightful, long-term therapy, to a brief, family-based and problem-focused strategic therapy. Haley argued for training therapists through live supervision, giving them the necessary tools for problem-solving through an active thoughtfully planned strategy. He pioneered the recording of therapy sessions, and created many training films.

From the description of Jay Haley papers, 1957-2007. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754865259

Background

Jay Haley (1923-2007) was born in an oil town in Wyoming. He was a pioneer in family therapy, and his work traces its birth and development during half a century. He was a founder and first editor of Family Process, the first journal in family therapy. Haley was pivotal in creating psychotherapy's major paradigm shift from insightful, long-term therapy, to a brief, family-based and problem-focused strategic therapy. Haley argued for training therapists through live supervision, giving them the necessary tools for problem solving through an active thoughtfully planned strategy. He pioneered the recording of therapy sessions, and created many training films.

Jay Haley held degrees from UCLA, U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University. While at Stanford he met Gregory Bateson and as a young member of the Gregory Bateson Research Project, he participated in the early research in family therapy and schizophrenia. His work on leading medical hypnotist Dr. Milton H. Erickson in Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton Erickson M.D. (1973), influenced many people to become therapists. He elaborated and codified a brief strategic family therapy approach, which grew out of Erickson's work, and departed in many significant ways from the more traditional approach to therapy. It emphasized the present not the past, a positive unconscious not a negative unconscious, a focus on action rather than developing insight, and emphasizing the skills needed to solve problems rather than diagnosis.

In the mid 1960's Jay Haley joined Salvador Minuchin and Braulio Montalvo at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic as Director of Family Therapy Research for ten years. They received a grant to train paraprofessionals in the community (poor African Americans and Latinos). This innovative training and live supervision is published in Problem-Solving Therapy, a text for learning therapeutic skills. Haley also served as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-founded The Family Therapy Institute of Washington, DC, and served as Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Howard University, and at the University of Maryland, where he continued his pioneering work in training therapists from around the world in directive family therapy. In the early 1990's he returned to California joined the faculty of Alliant International University, continued making training films, writing, and lecturing until his death in 2007. His contributions have been published in 21 books, more than 100 papers, which have been translated into 15 languages, and many therapy films.

From the guide to the Jay Haley Collection, 1957-2007, (Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Haley, Jay, 1923-2007. Jay Haley papers, 1957-2007. Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
creatorOf Jay Haley Collection, 1957-2007 Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Ackerman, Nathan W. (Nathan Ward), 1908-1971 person
associatedWith American Psychiatric Association corporateBody
associatedWith American Psychotherapy Seminar Center corporateBody
associatedWith Bateson, Gregory, 1904-1980 person
associatedWith Development in Family Therapy corporateBody
associatedWith Donald D. Jackson person
associatedWith Erickson, Milton H. person
associatedWith Jackson, Don D. (Don De Avila), 1920-1968 person
associatedWith Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc corporateBody
associatedWith Minuchin, Salvador person
associatedWith Montalvo, Braulio person
associatedWith Neil Schiff person
associatedWith Richeport-Haley, Madeleine person
associatedWith Short, Dan person
associatedWith Twenty Fifth Year Celebration of the Family Therapy Conference corporateBody
associatedWith Watts, Alan, 1915-1973 person
associatedWith Weakland, John H. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Subject
Bateson Project
Brief psychotherapy
Double bind (Psychology)
Family Life Cycle
Family therapy
Family therapy experiments
Hypnosis and altered states of consciousness
Psychotherapists
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Schizophrenia
Strategic (Directive) Therapy
Substance abuse
Teaching "non-therapists"
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1923-07-19

Death 2007-02-13

Americans

English

Information

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