Marianne Walters

(1930 – 2006) The Women’s Project in Family Therapy was born out of the work of four feminist pioneers in the field of marriage and family therapy: Marianne Walters, Betty Carter, Peggy Papp, and Olga Silverstein (1988). She opened the Family Practice Center in Washington D.C. in 1980, Walters became one of the first women to found and operate her very own family therapy institute.

Umberta Telfener: She was harsh, direct, strong. She was at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic when I was there. She was a great friend with Sal and had a great humor, she was considered a persuasive therapist. I was a little afraid of her and tried to keep a distance. When I came back to Italy I became a great admirer of her feminist work. I remember we met once in  Albany New York State, where the was one of the first feminist gatherings. We were both listening to a woman speaking with great passion: “History, his story. Even in history the man has won and taken over and we woman have a secondary role”. I will always remember the glance we exchanged from a distance, we were probably both thinking that the word “history” comes from the latin  “Historia” that means inquiry, narrative, account.