Name
Peggy Penn (1931–2012)
Introduction
Peggy Penn was an innovative practitioner and theorist in Family Therapy and a leader in the development of conversational and dialogical therapies. She trained many family therapists at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where she worked during most of her career, as well as in her international workshops. A writer and poet herself, Penn created a unique approach that integrates texts written by the clients into the therapeutic process.
Career
Penn’s first career was as an actress, and at the time she used her maiden name, Peggy Maurer. She later received her Master of Social Work from the Hunter School of Social Work in New York City. Penn also collaborated with Erik Erikson studying play in children and worked at the Austen Riggs Nursery School as a therapist. Penn was a supervising faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where she served as the Director of Training from 1986 through 1992. She co-created clinical research...
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Key Citations
Boscolo, L., Ceccin, G. C., Hoffman, L., & Penn, P. (1987). Milan systemic family therapy: Conversations in theory and practice. New York: Basic Books.
Goldner, V., Penn, P., Sheinberg, M., & Walker, G. (1990). Love and violence: Gender paradoxes in volatile attachments. Family Process, 29(4), 343–364.
Penn, P. (1982). Circular questioning. Family Process, 21(3), 267–280.
Penn, P. (1985). Feed-forward: Future questions, future maps. Family Process, 24(3), 299–310.
Penn, P. (1998). Rape flashbacks: Constructing a new narrative. Family Process, 37(3), 299–310.
Penn, P. (2001a). Chronic illness: Trauma, language, and writing: Breaking the silence. Family Process, 40(1), 33–52.
Penn, P. (2001b). So Close. Fort Lee: Cavankerry Press.
Penn, P. (2009). Joined imaginations: Writing and language in therapy. Chagrin Falls: Taos Institute Publications.
Penn, P., & Frankfurt, M. (1994). Creating a participant text: Writing, multiple voices, narrative multiplicity. Family Process, 33(3), 217–231.
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Tarragona, M. (2018). Penn, Peggy. 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_1007-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_1007-1
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