San Diego, February 21, 2007  — Jay Haley, founder of Family Therapy and Alliant Professor and Scholar in Residence, passed away on Tuesday, February 13, 2007. The following memorial for his was written by Alliant Professor Dr. Scott Wooley,Systemwide Marital and Family Therapy Program Director.

Jay Haley 1923 - 2007

Jay Haley, a primary founder of the field of Family Therapy, died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, February 13th.  His beloved wife Madeleine Richeport-Haley was with him. 

Haley was influential at all stages of the development of the field of Family Therapy. He was widely recognized as a primary founder of the field of Family Therapy and of Brief Strategic Family Therapy. Jay Haley was intensely and passionately focused on helping people change, and he brilliantly harnessed the power of family relationships to improve lives.

His model of brief problem-solving therapy shifts the focus from the client to the framework of the social context, particularly the family unit. Haley believed that therapists should approach each problem with techniques specific to both the situation and the sequences of behavior related to the problem, in order to change behavior in a short time period. Haley once said, “I think my most significant contribution is breaking therapy down to a practice of specific skills – of simple ideas, skills, and techniques. This is quite different from the non-directive ideology the field had when I first got into it.”

Haley’s pioneering work in the development of problem-solving and brief strategic therapy influenced generations of mental health workers and improved the lives of countless individuals, couples, and families. He was the author of 21 books and over 100 scholarly papers on many aspects of therapy. He was the founding editor of Family Process, the first Family Therapy journal in the field.  Books written by Jay Haley such as Problem Solving Therapy, Strategies of Psychotherapy, Uncommon Therapy, The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ, Ordeal Therapy, and Leaving Home: The Therapy of Disturbed Young People have become classics in the field and have influenced numerous therapists and clients. His final book Directive Family Therapy, written with his wife, will be published in a few months by Haworth Press.   

Jay Haley was passionately focused on issues of diversity, particularly ethnic diversity. Haley, Salvador Minuchin and Braulio Montalvo pioneered the training of underprivileged ethnically diverse therapists to work in diverse communities. He was keenly aware of diversity, poverty, and racism, and focused his approaches to therapy on the needs of underprivileged and ethnically diverse families. He trained therapists throughout the world and his books have been translated into 15 different languages. 

Dr. Haley was a pioneering filmmaker. He also pioneered the use of live supervision using a one-way mirror and wrote extensively on its use. In the last few years, he pioneered the use of computers in sending directions to therapists during live supervision. His work with film started in the Bateson Project during the 1950s and continued throughout his career. He and his wife Dr. Madeleine Richeport-Haley, an Anthropologist filmmaker, produced 25 films together, many of which are available commercially. 

Haley was a leading figure in the Palo Alto Group's Mental Research Institute. He was also the Director of Family Therapy Research at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic and was a Co-Founder of the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C. Dr. Haley worked extensively with other pioneers such as Milton Erickson, Don Jackson, Gregory Bateson, and Salvador Minuchin, and integrated ideas from each of these innovators in his development of brief directive forms of therapy.

He held degrees from the University of California in Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Stanford University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from US International University (now Alliant International University) and from the College of Medicine and Surgery in Costa Rica.  He served as a professor at the University of Maryland, Howard University, the University of Pennsylvania, United States International University, and Alliant International University. At the time of his passing he was serving as a Research Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy programs in the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant International University where he had been teaching since 1998. 

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation sponsored a festschrift in his honor in 1999 attended by colleagues from around the world.  In 2001 he was awarded the most valuable therapist in California by the California Division of the American Association of Marriage and Family and Family Therapy.  

Dr. Haley loved teaching. When asked what he wanted to be remembered for he said, “Being the oldest living teacher of therapy.”  Generations of students remember not only his keen wit and humor, but also his intense kindness.  Despite the awards and fame he achieved in life, he took a sincere interest in students and clients, and was always willing to help them.  Scott Woolley, the Systemwide Marital and Family Therapy Program Director at Alliant International University, said, “He seemed completely unaware of his towering stature in the field.  He related to our students with incredible patience, kindness, and a deep humility.  He was always anxious to hear their ideas and work as colleagues with them to improve the lives of clients.”

The Alliant community mourns the loss of not only a great scholar and intellect, but an inspirational colleague and friend. Dr. Haley’s contributions to the Alliant Community can be best described by those whose lives he touched:

• He was quite the pioneer in so many areas and his writings were very influential on my thinking and approach. - Rodney L. Lowman, Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs
  
• I had the great pleasure of having Jay Haley as a practicum instructor early in my development as a therapist. What struck me about Jay then was not his history, nor his many contributions to the advancement of the field. It was his humility. The man who had played such a major role in the development of family therapy as a distinct profession was always warm, approachable, and spoke as easily about his mistakes as he did about his successes. Even in his later years, he remained intensely curious about each new client (and new therapist) before him. He supervised my classes at USIU/Alliant using computer-assisted supervision, a process that was then very new, and has since been used in therapist training at many sites around the country. Jay was tremendously important to my growth as a therapist, as well as the growth of countless others, through his wise, compassionate, and curious manner in supervision. He never stopped learning, and taught supervisees to do the same. He was a joy to work with. We as a profession, and I personally, will miss him very much. -Benjamin Caldwell, PsyD
  
• I still have his first books! He made a great impression on me very early on in my career.
  -Ellin Bloch, PhD
  
• I am a huge fan of his, and am saddened at his passing, but pleased it was peaceful.
  -Rhoda Olkin, PhD
  
• Back in the early years of my career, I heard Jay Haley speak, read his book, and was supervised using his methods of therapy. I would say he was a revolutionary thinker and therapist. A wonderful life in helping others. -Rebecca Turner, PhD
  
• Jay Haley was very kind to me and to our students. I will be forever impacted by his kindness, his patients, and his intense, passionate focus on bringing about changes to help individuals, couples, and families. He cared deeply not only about improving the lives of clients, but also about our students and faculty. He will be deeply missed. - Scott R. Woolley, PhD

Dr. Haley is survived by his wife Madeleine Richeport-Haley, two sons and a daughter, four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Instead of services, it was Dr. Haley’s wish that people do something nice with their families.

Remembrances

Remembrances may be sent to JayHaleyMemories@alliant.edu. 

Donations

The Jay Haley Scholarship Fund
Attention: Ava Chan-Crowder
Alliant International University
10455 Pomerado Road
San Diego, CA 92131-1799
 
Or
 
Shriners Children’s Hospital
2425 Stockton Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95817

More on Dr. Jay Haley
 
Please go to Dr. Haley’s wenpage: http://www.jay-haley-on-therapy.com/ to learn more about his incredible accomplishments and contributions to the field of Family Therapy.