History of Brief Therapy Conferences

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation sponsored the first Brief Therapy Conference in San Francisco in 1988. That meeting doubled as the Fourth International Congress on Ericksonian Approaches to Hypnosis and Psychotherapy. Approximately 2,200 professionals from United States and 24 countries met at that conference to learn from preeminent practitioners of brief therapy. The proceedings of that Conference, edited by Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D. and Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D. were published in Brief Therapy: Myths, Methods, and Metaphors by Brunner/Mazel in 1990.

The Second Brief Therapy Conference was held in Orlando, Florida, in 1993. It was organized as a brief therapy conference in its own right, separate from an Erickson Congress. The Third Brief Therapy Conference was held in San Francisco in December of 1996. These two Conferences were each attended by approximately 2,000 professionals.

The Fourth Brief Therapy Conference was held in 1998 in New York City. The Fifth Conference was held in Orlando in December 2002, the Sixth in San Francisco in December of 2003, the 7th in 2006 in Anaheim, and the 8th Brief Therapy Conference was held in San Diego in 2008.

The Brief Therapy Conference is the only multidisciplinary conference on short-term approaches. Therapists/clinicians from major schools discuss and demonstrate their approaches. The stellar faculty has included representatives from Brief Psychoanalytic Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, Cognitive Behavioral, Ericksonian, and Solution Focused Therapy, to name a few. Through The Brief Therapy Conference practitioners learn how to practice in the managed cared environment.

History of The Milton H. Erickson Foundation

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., is a federal nonprofit corporation. It was formed to promote and advance the contributions made to the health sciences by the late Milton H. Erickson, MD, during his long and distinguished career. The Foundation is dedicated to training health and mental health professionals. Strict eligibility requirements are maintained for attendance at our training events or to receive our educational materials. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, sex, or physical challenge. For more information you can take a look at the Milton H. Erickson Foundation website at erickson-foundation.org. The premier meeting of the Foundation is The Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference (evolutionofpsychotherapy.com) to be held December 9-13, 2009, in Anaheim, California.

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation Board of Directors

• Jeffrey K. Zeig PhD

• Roxanna Erickson Klein RN, MS, PhD

• Camillo Loriedo MD

• J. Charles Theisen MA, MBA, JD, PhD

• Bernhard Trenkle Dipl. Psych.