Introduction
Jaakko Seikkula is a Finnish professor of psychotherapy, researcher, international lecturer, and therapist known for his innovative work on psychosis and severe depression. Trained as a clinical psychologist and family therapist, he is recognized principally as the developer of open dialogue, a family and social network practice that has shown impressive outcomes for severe psychiatric crises (e.g., first-episode psychosis). While serving as chief psychologist at Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland from 1985 to 1998, Seikkula developed the open dialogueapproach as part of a team that included psychiatrists Jukka Aaltonen and Birgitta Alakare. In 1998, he left his clinical position at the hospital and entered full-time university teaching and research. His subsequent university research has continued to make significant contributions to the understanding of dialogical transformation in psychotherapy. He has authored and co-authored over 160 academic journal articles and...
Key Citations
Aaltonen, J., Seikkula, J., & Lehtinen, K. (2011). Comprehensive open-dialogue approach I: The incidence of non-affective and psychosis and prodromal states. Psychosis, 3(3), 179–191.
Olson, M., Laitila, A., Rober, P., & Seikkula, J. (2012). The shift from monologue to dialogue in a couple therapy session: Dialogical investigation of change from the therapists’ point of view. Family Process, 51(3), 420–435.
Olson, M., Seikkula, J., & Ziedonis, D. (2014). The key elements of dialogic practice in open dialogue: Fidelity criteria. Worcester: The University of Massachusetts Medical School. http://umassmed.edu/psychiatry/globalinitiatives/opendialogue/
Seikkula, J., & Arnkil, T. (2006). Dialogical meetings in social networks. London: Karnac Books.
Seikkula, J., & Arnkil, T. (2014). Open dialogues and anticipations: Respecting the otherness in the present moment. Helsinki: THL publications.
Seikkula, J., & Olson, M. (2003). The open dialogue approach to acute psychosis: Its “poetics” and “micropolitics”. Family Process, 42(3), 403–418.
Seikkula, J., Alakare, B., Aaltonen, J., Haarakangas, K., Keränen, J., & Lehtinen, K. (2006). Five years experiences of first-episode non-affective psychosis in open dialogue approach: Treatment principles, follow-up outcomes and two case analyses. Psychotherapy Research, 16(2), 214–228.
Seikkula, J., Laitila, A., & Rober, P. (2011). Making sense of multi-actor dialogues in family therapy and network meetings. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 3(4), 667–687.
Seikkula, J., Karvonen, A., Kykyri, V., Kaartinen, J., & Penttonen, M. (2015). The embodied attunement of therapists and a couple within dialogical psychotherapy. Family Process, 54(4), 703–715.
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Olson, M. (2019). Seikkula, Jaakko. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_1003-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_1003-1
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