Written by Diane Newton

"Making Connections: Virginia Satir's Legacy of Peace and Potential"

Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker Dr. Steven Channing, in cooperation with the Satir Institute of the Southeast and Avanta, proposes a documentary film on the life and work of Virginia Satir--internationally known pioneer in family therapy, teacher, author, and member of the International Council of Elders, a society developed by the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. This hour-long documentary for the general public will focus upon Satir's life and work in the context of a turbulent time in our nation - and in the history of the helping professions.

Virginia Satir was a towering figure--not just in stature, but in the status she achieved as an innovator in the field of family therapy. As she developed and practiced her highly experiential approach to treatment during the early 60s, many of her contemporaries in psychotherapy ultimately came to appreciate what Satir recognized very early on--that the family system is central to understanding the individual. As her reputation grew, Satir often took her approach directly to the public, holding large audiences rapt as she "sculpted" relationships onstage. Her skill, warmth, humor, and charisma lead Time magazine to declare, "She can fill any auditorium in the country." At a personal level, however, this advocate for healthy family communication often struggled to achieve it within her own.

The concepts and methods Satir developed are marked by their simplicity and universality, which have contributed to their continued widespread application since her death in 1988. For example, she affirmed that one's self-esteem profoundly shapes communication patterns and interpersonal relationships. This has become a fundamental fact that informs everything from parenting classes to public education, from mediation efforts to extreme makeovers. But until Satir and her contemporaries focused on human potential, "self-esteem" was hardly a part of our national vocabulary.

Satir's work expanded beyond the family to address and influence even larger systems--communities, organizations, governments--in order to promote her vision of "peace within, peace between, and peace among the people of the world." Whether she worked to rebuild communication between Sioux Indians and their adversaries after the tragedy at Wounded Knee, or between Israelis and Palestinians after centuries of conflict, Satir believed that wounds could be healed and connections made at a deeply human level between ever the most unlikely partners.

Satir's work has profoundly influenced not only family therapy, but professional disciplines as diverse as organizational development, academia, business, and medicine. The wider impact and continued promise of her work, towards conflict resolution locally and globally, will certainly appeal to contemporary television audiences in today's vexed world.

Finally, a supporting curriculum (e.g., companion videos, teaching guides, and other learning resources) for institutional purposes based on the Satir System will be designed for professional use.

About the Filmmaker

Producer Dr. Steven Channing, is an award-winning published historian and documentary filmmaker. He began professionally as an academic historian, with a Ph.D. from t he University of North Caroline. He taught at the University of Kentucky, Stanford, Duke and Genoa, Italy, and was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins. His published books include the Allen Nevins Prize wining study Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina  and The Confederate Ordeal  for Time-Life's Civil War series.

As filmmaker, his works include And Still I Rise: Maya Angelou, and the regional Emmy Award winning historical drama Alamance  for PBS. His company, Video Dialog Inc., is currently premiering February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four,  documenting the first civil rights sit-in. February One is scheduled for PBS national broadcast in February 2005 in their Independent Lens series. His interest in t he life and work of Virginia Satir began several years ago, through participation in a "Personal Development Workshop" (PDW) conducted by master practitioners Jean McLendon and Hugh Gratz.