Editing Virginia Satir (section)

==Career as a therapist==
After graduating social work school, Satir began working in private practice. She met with her first family in 1951, and by 1955 was working with Illinois Psychiatric Institute, encouraging other therapists to focus on families instead of individual patients. By the end of the decade she had moved to [[California]], where she cofounded the [[Mental Research Institute]] (MRI) in Palo Alto, California. MRI received a grant from [[National Institute of Mental Health|NIMH]] in 1962, allowing them to begin the first formal family therapy training program ever offered; Satir was hired as its training director.<ref name="satir"/>

Satir's skills and views about the important role the family has and its connection to an individual's problems and/or healing process led her into becoming a renowned therapist.
One of Satir's most novel ideas at the time was that the "presenting issue" or "surface problem" itself was seldom the real problem; rather, how people ''coped'' with the issue ''created'' the problem.<ref name="networker">{{cite web |year=2007 |title=The Top 10: The Most Influential Therapists of the Past Quarter-Century |url=http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/populartopics/219-the-top-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002091559/http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/populartopics/219-the-top-10 |archive-date=2013-10-02 |access-date=2012-07-10 |website=Psychotherapy Networker}}</ref> Satir also offered insights into the particular problems that low [[self-esteem]] could cause in relationships.<ref name="networker"/>  In addition to Satir's influence in human sciences, she helped establish organizations with the purpose of educating therapists around the world and granting them with resources to help families and clients.

Long interested in the idea of [[Social network|networking]], Satir founded two groups to help individuals find mental health workers or other people who were suffering from similar issues to their own. In 1970, she organized Beautiful People, which later became known as the International Human Learning Resources Network. In 1977 she founded the Avanta Network, which was renamed to the Virginia Satir Global Network in 2010.<ref name="satir"/><ref name="satirglobal.org">{{cite web |date=2014-10-02 |title=Virginia Satir Global Network |url=http://satirglobal.org/ |access-date=2015-03-06 |publisher=The Virginia Satir Global Network}}</ref>

Two years later, Satir was appointed to the Steering Committee of the International Family Therapy Association<ref>{{cite web |title=International Family Therapy Association |url=http://www.ifta-familytherapy.org/ |access-date=2015-03-06 |publisher=International Family Therapy Association}}</ref> and became a member of the advisory board for the [[National Council for Self-Esteem]].<ref name="satir"/>

She has also been recognized with several honorary doctorates, including a 1978 doctorate in [[Social Sciences]] from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].

'''Honors and awards received'''<ref name="satir"/>
* 1976: Awarded Gold Medal of "Outstanding and Consistent Service to Mankind" by the University of Chicago.
* 1978: Awarded honorary doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
* 1982: Selected by the West German Government as one of the twelve most influential leaders in the world today.
* 1985: ''Time'' magazine quotes a colleague, "She can fill any auditorium in the country", after her stellar contribution to the Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
* 1985: Selected by the prestigious National Academy of Practice as one of two members to advise on health concerns to the Congress of the United States.
* 1986: Selected as member of the International Council of Elders, a society developed by the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
* 1987: Named Honorary Member of the Czechoslovakian Medical Society.
* She was honored in the [[California Social Work Hall of Distinction]].
* In two national surveys of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists, she was voted the most influential therapist.<ref name="networker"/>