Problem-Solving
Brief Therapy®

Training for professionals
who want to lead their industry

The Center’s most important services

Our trainings

We are different because we teach by focusing on the practical applications, not just theory. Our specialty trainings utilize real cases and high engagement with our trainers. We have specialized trainings of real cases and dynamics with our teachers.

Brief Therapy Certificate®

Entry level Problem Solving Brief Therapy. Around 250 hours of face to face training, readings and case analysis

Problem-Solving Brief Therapy

Exclusive offering for colleagues who have completed the BT Certificate. Supervision of participant’s cases and 40 hours of group supervision. (Limited enrollment)

Corporate Services

We take care of the Mental Health of your people so you can focus on what you do best

About us

The Brief Therapy Center started in 1967 at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, CA as a research project led by Richard Fisch in collaboration with John Weakland and Paul Watzlawick (Jay Haley and Don Jackson also participated at the beginning) to invent a more effective therapy method in the context of psychoanalysis.

Today we know it as Problem-Solving Brief Therapy®, The Brief Therapy Center® is thriving after the closure of the MRI and is the leading institution promoting this form of therapy in the world

Our leadership is based on continuous research

Research highlights

From the Brief Therapy Center® we carry out an important work of dissemination and research of the Brief Problem Solving® therapy model. Our team constantly publishes advances, news and research.

Effective Therapy for Teens

Esther Krohner

It takes two to tango BUT only one to promote positi...

Esther Krohner LMFT & Karin Schalnger LMFT

Effective therapy needs to be brief–short, and solut...

Karin Schlanger, Esther Krohner

Permission to Feel Sadness During The Holidays: A Br...

Karin Schlanger and Esther Krohner

Do you dare use paradoxes in your practice?

Karin Schlanger

Debunking the Therapy Stigma: Improving Mental Healt...

Esther Krohner, MFT

Trainings

The most effective professionals are coming out of our trainings
Karin Schlanger was the only one to learn from the creators of Brief Problem Solving Therapy®, which is why her methodology is so successful. 

Donec dictum est ut ante ultricies.

Featured Customers

Personal relationships keep the Center’s global ambition alive

Meet our team

The professionals of the Brief Therapy Center® would love to have you onboard!

Karin Schlanger

Karin Schlanger was the Director of the Brief Therapy Center in MRI since 2008 until the sale of the building in 2019. She continues to be the director of the BTC currently. She has worked as a ps...

Esther Krohner

I have 14 years of experience working in mental health settings. I am and LMFT and RYT. I have been training and practicing family therapy with Karin Schlanger for 5 years at the...

Ignacia Pérez Botto

Since I began my studies in Psychology in Chile, the systemic current is what made me the most sense and where I wanted to direct my work. I have always felt that more traditional therapies tend to...

Gloria Díaz

Gloria Díaz is a Psychologist and has a Master’s from the Universidad de Barcelona, 2005. Intermediate piano degree from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo. Worked as...

Gisela Pi

I have been as psychotherapist for 17 years working at different medical centers and private practice in Barcelona. I have clients in Catalan, Spanish and English, working with ex-pats from around ...

Margarita Irazusta

Clinical Psychologist, doing Problem-Solving Brief Therapy for over 15 years. She works with teenagers, adults, couples, children, parents, and families. She has been working under the supervision ...

Pedro Vargas Ávalos

My first contact with the Palo Alto Brief Therapy model was through the reading of Gregory Bateson and his Double Link hypothesis during the third year of the career. My interest was to understand ...

Clara Solís

I liked psychology since middle school. Upon arriving at the university I confirmed that I made the right choice. In the sixth semester I studied the clinical area and met the family therapy and th...

Karin Schlanger

Karin Schlanger was the Director of the Brief Therapy Center in MRI since 2008 until the sale of the building in 2019. She continues to be the director of the BTC currently. She has worked as a ps...

Esther Krohner

I have 14 years of experience working in mental health settings. I am and LMFT and RYT. I have been training and practicing family therapy with Karin Schlanger for 5 years at the...

Ignacia Pérez Botto

Since I began my studies in Psychology in Chile, the systemic current is what made me the most sense and where I wanted to direct my work. I have always felt that more traditional therapies tend to...

Gloria Díaz

Gloria Díaz is a Psychologist and has a Master’s from the Universidad de Barcelona, 2005. Intermediate piano degree from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo. Worked as...

Gisela Pi

I have been as psychotherapist for 17 years working at different medical centers and private practice in Barcelona. I have clients in Catalan, Spanish and English, working with ex-pats from around ...

Margarita Irazusta

Clinical Psychologist, doing Problem-Solving Brief Therapy for over 15 years. She works with teenagers, adults, couples, children, parents, and families. She has been working under the supervision ...

Pedro Vargas Ávalos

My first contact with the Palo Alto Brief Therapy model was through the reading of Gregory Bateson and his Double Link hypothesis during the third year of the career. My interest was to understand ...

Clara Solís

I liked psychology since middle school. Upon arriving at the university I confirmed that I made the right choice. In the sixth semester I studied the clinical area and met the family therapy and th...

How to Survive Tenage Years and Maybe Be Friends Later in Life

Gain tools to promote positive change in the families you work with. We will tackle common obstacles and break vicious cycles.

How to Survive Tenage Years and Maybe Be Friends Later in Life

Gain tools to promote positive change in the families you work with. We will tackle common obstacles and break vicious cycles.