Yvonne Agazarian
Yvonne M. Agazarian (February 17, 1929 - October 9, 2017) was the principal architect of
Yvonne Agazarian | |
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Born | February 17, 1929 group therapy |
Institutions | American Group Psychotherapy Association |
Life
Agazarian was born in London to a French mother and Armenian father, the youngest of six children. She attended a
While in Philadelphia, Agazarian completed a PhD in the field of group dynamics at Temple University, entitled A Theory of Verbal Behaviour and Information Transfer.[3] It was at Temple where she first developed an interest in bridging the lack of common language between group dynamics and psychoanalysis. She qualified as a therapist at the Psychoanalytic Studies Institute in Philadelphia.[2]
In 1995, she founded the Systems-Centered Training and Research Institute, based in Philadelphia, which continues to develop systems-centered therapy, and with whom she worked until her death in 2017.
Theoretical Orientation
Agazarian had from the sixties been interested in the paradigm clash presented by her training in individual psychotherapy and in group therapy, and in the possibility of overcoming it: from the eighties onwards, she explored the possibility of resolving it through
It was, however, the challenge presented in the following decade by health maintenance organizations and their stress on short-term therapy, that propelled her into devising systems-centered therapy, in order (she stated) to discover "how to think about short-term therapy in a way that maintained the integrity and values of our work".[5]
The influences she credited on her work range from
Awards and achievements
In 1997, the American Psychological Association awarded her Group Psychologist of the Year "for her involvement in research, publication, teaching and training. She exemplifies the finest in scholarship in the discipline of psychology. As a group psychologist, she has contributed to expanding our knowledge of the boundaries between clinical and social psychology with the investigation of living human systems and systems-centered group and individual therapy. Her considerable body of work illustrates the highest blend of creativity and learning".[7]
Selected works
- The Visible and Invisible Group, with Richard Peters, 1981
- Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups, 1997
- Systems-centered practice: Selected papers on group psychotherapy, 2006
See also
References
Further reading
- "Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups" (New Ed Edition October 2004; originally published 1997)
- "Autobiography of a Theory: Developing the Theory of Living Human Systems and Its Systems-Centered Practice" (August 2000)
- Agazarian's articles in the Emerging Theory section of the SCTRI Newsletter