Inspired by anthropologist Gregory Bateson's research on communication and psychiatrist Milton Erickson's work on hypnotherapy, the Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto, composed of Don Jackson, Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland and Dick Fisch, has put together in the 1960's a new way of considering psychological pain and a treatment method that takes in consideration a dimension too often overlooked by our civilization: the relationship.
In 1965, Dick Fisch creates, within the MRI, the Brief Therapy Center. He will work there for many years with Watzlawick, Weakland and the thousands of therapists coming from all over the word to learn their therapeutic approach. The team's influence is also reflected by a large number of publications.
Their psycho-relational therapeutic approach, known as "Interactional and Strategic Brief Therapy" defines itself as "non-normative"; it offers communication process oriented towards the resolution of problems brought by the patients. The therapist's interventions are aimed at putting an end to the vicious circle between the patients' attempted solutions and the persistence of their problems.
