My journey with Virginia started many years ago, first in 1969 as a student, and again in 1988, months before she died, when I had the opportunity to watch her work with a family first in Burnaby, BC and later in an even larger audience in Vancouver Hospital. I was very moved by the spirit in which she worked with these families, who seemed very unaware of the 200-400 or more of us looking in on their session. Satir’s unwavering and deep presence with which she engaged with each family was palpable along with her positive, very respectful and creative approach as she joined with the family to meet their goals for healing. Soon after that I found her book, Conjoint Family Therapy, and re read it many times.

It was another 13 years before I learned of the Satir Institute of the Pacific in early January 2001 and found a Level 1 course being taught by John Banmen and Kathlyne Maki-Banmen.  For years I had longed to learn more about her work and I jumped at the opportunity to apply. This marked the next and very important phase of my journey to learn more about Satir’s remarkable way of working with families. I have continued to learn as much as I can through conferences, workshops, her books, papers and videos. My learning was enhanced further through the writing with six others of the book, Virginia Satir’s Evolving Legacy: Transformative Therapy with a Bodymind Connection, published a year ago by Agio Publishing.

The Virginia Satir Global Network grew from a name change in 2007 from the Avanta Network, a forum for the continued evolution of Satir’s work, founded in 1977 and has over 30 affiliates around the globe currently teaching Satir’s model.

I am not sure just when The Virginia Satir Global Network (VSGN) entered my world, but I know it took a deeper turn at the outset of the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020 when VSGN initiated weekly opportunities for practitioners and adherents around the world to meet on Wednesday mornings at 8am (PST) for 90 minutes.  Through meditation, presentations on Satir’s teachings, and small breakout groups with others, we shared with folks from often over 20 or more countries weekly for over two years. Given the stressful times globally during this period of our history, these weekly meetings felt like an Oasis, in so many ways. It was very moving to meet with and learn from the struggles and experiences of folks in other countries, many of whom were impacted in tougher ways than we were in Canada, with our already established resources to meet this crisis.

As Covid times shifted, VSGN changed their weekly presentations to once a month on the first Wednesday of the month; however, a group of those attending continued to meet on the other Wednesdays as well, as the less structured one-hour VSGN Coffee Group. Members from around the globe continue to attend, in varying numbers, but the community that has evolved from Covid onset until today is very rich and significant for those who come as often as they are able for support and further learning. A number of folks who are very new to Satir’s ideas also attend.

VSGN held their second annual online two-day conference this past June, Pathways to Hope, with excellent presenters. The quality of these presentations was remarkable, and in time will be available on the VSGN website www.satirglobal.org. The sessions were so compelling for me that I managed to sit in front of the screen for 8 hours, two days in a row…a first for me, for sure.

Two plenary sessions deserve special mention:  First, an interview between Dr. John Banmen and Dr. Michael Harding on what we can expect from a revised version of The Satir Model they have been working on with others and hope to publish in 2026. This was very exciting for me especially, as one invested in seeing the Satir message moving forward to give it greater prominence in the years to come.

The other plenary session, “The Science of Hope: Research on the Satir Model and its Expanding Legacy” was given by Dr. Darya Haitoglou, PhD, on her six years of research on the impact of the Satir Model with those suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. Darya looked at the effectiveness through a research lens at the Satir Model compared with other models, such as IFS, CBT, Polyvagel Theory, Mindfulness, Narrative Therapy and Somatic Experiencing and found strong, measurable and evidence-based outcomes from those using the Satir Model based practices. She also looked at the model’s effectiveness across cultures. Many of us involved with Satir’s ideas are not surprised by her findings, but seeing the statistically validated outcomes of her research was very heartening. Darya’s commitment to the continuing legacy of Satir’s work and the need for it to reach a wider audience among clinicians and teachers is very inspiring.

VSGN is accessible to the general public with excellent resources, and with even more material for those who become members. I highly recommend both the Wednesday sessions and their website: www.satirglobal.org as a resource available for each of us committed to growing and evolving our “dance” with this model. I am retired now, but as a private practitioner working on my own, this community felt and continues to feel, not only very supportive, but enriching in my ongoing passion to continue my learning of the lifegiving wisdom of Virginia Satir.

mary.leslie2@outlook.com