Today we bring the biography of Salvador Minuchin, a reference in the structural model of family therapy, this Argentine psychiatrist and pediatrician is remembered for his charisma and his performance as a professional, the contributions he has left us through all his works are immense and have allowed us to better understand the dynamics and daily challenges of a family.
When Minuchin left us in 2017, he was almost 100 years old and many place their names alongside such relevant characters as Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers and Burrhus Frederic Skinner.
- She pioneered as a therapist and innovated in helping children include the family in the process.
- Without the family.
- He says.
- It is impossible to understand the origin of certain symptoms.
He talks about interesting aspects, such as family alliances, taught us how power relations develop and how submission can flow from this scenario.
In addition, he was a psychiatrist with an exceptional ability to allow, among other things, the appreciation of the emotional component. In this way, he was able to explain better labor tensions, trauma, damage and unmet needs.
Salvador Minuchin was an architect who rebuilt family structures, knew how to break into family dynamics to understand the dynamics that fed pathological processes.
Subsequently, thanks to interventions with a precise course, he was able to facilitate the changes that had to be made, always putting children at the forefront, as precious interlocutors.
“Growing up means learning to separate. ” -Salvador Minuchin-
Salvador Minuchin was born in Argentina in 1921, studied Medicine at The University of Cerdoba and graduated in 1948, then spent a few years working in Israel as a military doctor, after this experience he decided to move to New York to study. Psychiatry.
There she also graduated as a psychoanalyst from William Alanson White Institute, which allowed her to work as a child psychiatrist at a child rehabilitation center called Wiltwyck.
It was during this very decisive period, between 1954 and 1062, that Minuchin decided to change the classical therapeutic approach a little.
Thanks to these innovative dynamics, Salvador Minuchin has finally developed structural family therapy.
After making his new theories in the field of family therapy, Minuchin traveled to Palo Alto, California, where he worked with Jay Haley at the family clinic, this famous therapist was one of the founders of short and family therapy, and the mentor who would help him refine and mature his revolutionary theory.
In 1981 he left his position as director to create the Institute of Family Studies, where he would teach therapists and family members how to improve the child and optimize educational processes.
Salvador Minuchin died on October 30, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida
His work at the Wiltwyck Child Rehabilitation Institution was instrumental when Minuchin developed his theoretical model, realized, for example, that it made no sense to focus work exclusively on young people, once rehabilitated and released, did the same again and returned to The Institution.
Here are Salvador Minuchin’s theoretical contributions to family therapy:
The therapeutic objective of Salvador Minuchin’s structural model was to understand the interactions present in a specific family system to transform it, for this purpose sought to improve the behavior and relationships of family members, with the child or adolescent as the protagonist in mind.
One of the assumptions underlying Minuchin’s theoretical model is that the family is a dynamic entity in continuous motion.
When diagnosing a child’s or adolescent’s family structure, the therapist should focus on:
In conclusion, this Argentine psychiatrist and pediatrician has left us even more legacies. Books as important as family recovery, family kaleidoscope and family therapy techniques.
His work is highly appreciated by academics, social justice specialists, family therapists and all those who wish to improve the lives of children and their nearest environment.
We must not forget that by serving families we are promoting a more dignified, healthy and happy future, in this context Salvador Minuchin was one of our best representatives.