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Virginia Satir Biography

As with her philosophical ideas, it is difficult to catalog everything Virginia accomplished during her career from 1936 to 1988. She began as an ambitious teacher and developed into a well-known international trainer, offering day-long and month-long workshops the world over.

After graduate school, Virginia entered private practice in social work and met with her first family in 1951. When she spoke of this meeting, she remembered learning the importance of seeing families as the best way to get the whole picture. By 1955 she was working with Dr. Calmest Gyros at the Illinois Psychiatric Institute, spreading the idea of working not just with patients but with their families as well.

Virginia enjoyed great success as a therapist in private practice and as a consultant to schools and other agencies. Her great capacity for working with other people, even the most difficult people, was noticed by many.

Virginia moved to California, where together with Don Jackson and Jules Riskin, she founded the Mental Health Research Institute in Menlo Park. In 1962, a grant from NIMH allowed MHRI to start the first-ever formal family therapy training program, under Virginia’s direction. Jules Riskin recalls,

She was extremely creative, forceful, and charismatic. She was gifted in developing new ideas but not interested in the details of doing research. She was an inspirer. I had my first experience in family therapy working as a co-therapist with Virginia. The experience was some-what like, although I’ve never done it, sitting on the outside of a fast moving jet airplane. It was quite thrilling.

In 1964 Virginia started to visit Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, California. She was excited about the learning and working opportunities there, which included meditation and bodywork, and felt free to discover and try new things and ideas. She became one of the first Directors of Training, overseeing the Human Potential Development Programs.

Continues on:

Snap Shots of Virginia

Family of Origin

Education

Teaching Career

Marriage & Children

Graduate School

Virginia's Career in Therapy

Virginia's Philosophy

The Pioneer

Illness & Death

The Legacy

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