Strategic Therapy is rooted in ancient history, originating in the Hellenic tradition of Sophists, masters of rhetoric and persuasion, and in the Art of Stratagem of ancient China.
Recently, the prolific tradition of the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, generated the Brief Strategic Therapy Model. This innovative model stems from Gregory Bateson (a famous anthropologist) interactional communication studies, the constructivist approach (Heinz von Foerster) and Milton Erickson’s studies on suggestion and hypnosis.
Paul Watzlawick then organized the theory and principles of therapeutic communication in a fundamental textbook, “Pragmatic of human communication” (1971).
Giorgio Nardone, with Paul Watzlawick, pioneered the model in Italy, establishing the Strategic Therapy Center in Arezzo: in the past 40 years Giorgio Nardone and his associates treated successfully thousands of people and a huge variety of disorders.
Since “it is the solution that explains the problem”, all outcome data were collected and analyzed to further improve the model (“action- research”), perfecting strategies, implementing protocols for specific disorders, and refining communication techniques (strategic dialogue).
Data and results of this vast research are published in numerous books in several countries, which are fundamental texts of the strategic approach to psychotherapy.