Judith V. Jordan is the co-director and a founding scholar of the Jean Baker Miller Institute and co-director of the institute's Working Connections Project. She is an attending psychologist at
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...
and assistant professor of psychology at the
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
. She works as a psychotherapist, supervisor, teacher and consultant. Jordan's development of
relational-cultural therapy
Relational-cultural theory, and by extension, relational-cultural therapy (RCT) stems from the work of Jean Baker Miller, M.D. Often, relational-cultural theory is aligned with the feminist and or multicultural movements in psychology. In fact, ...
has served as a foundation for other scholars who have used this theory to explore the workplace, education. leadership and entrepreneurship.
Jordan is the author of the book ''Relational-Cultural Therapy'', co-author of ''Women's Growth in Connection'', editor of ''Women's Growth in Diversity'', ''The Complexity of Connection'', ''The Power of Connection'', and has published many "Works in Progress" at
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...
as well as chapters and journal articles. In addition, Jordan has written, lectured and conducted workshops nationally and internationally on the subjects of relational-cultural theory, women's psychological development, empathy, mutuality, mutual empathy, courage, shame, relational resilience, psychotherapy with women, a relational model of self, relational psychotherapy, gender issues in psychotherapy, relationships between women and men, the mother-daughter and mother-son relationships, special treatment programs for women and treating post-traumatic stress.
In 1997 Jordan shared the Massachusetts Psychological Association's "Career Contribution Award" with Irene Pierce Stiver and Janet Surray, and in 2010 she received the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
Division 29's "Distinguished Psychologist Award for Contributions to Psychology and Psychotherapy".
Early life
Jordan grew up in
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
Stroudsburg is a borough in and the county seat of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies within the Poconos region approximately five miles (8 km) from the Delaware Water Gap at the confluence of Brodhead Creek, McMichaels, ...
. In school, Jordan was excluded from safety patrol and shop class in middle school (privileges reserved for boys), but she was encouraged by her mother to fight the exclusion. She attended Abbot Academy (now
Phillips Andover Academy
Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a private, co-educational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students located in Andover, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The academy enrolls ...
) for high school because she had excellent grades and was not being challenged in her small rural school. Jordan struggled with overwhelming homesickness and was shamed into believing that if she couldn't "separate from home,
hewouldn't be able to succeed at anything" from school authorities. The school determined that Jordan should see a therapist, which was her initial introduction to the profession of psychology, and while this relationship was important, it did not deconstruct Jordan's internalized belief that she had to separate from the people that she loved in order to "be successful"
Her interest in the power of connection found its roots in her own struggle to stay connected with important people in a world that told her that was a sign of "weakness". At
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
she studied psychology, and went on to get her Ph.D. from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where she studied child development, and clinical psychology. She wrote her dissertation on how a competitive context interrupts girls' achievement behaviors. As a young faculty and clinician at
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
, she began to write about the limitations of a "separate self" model of development and looked at the ways in which empathy provides an experiential sense of connection and compassion.
Education and early career
Jordan received the award for outstanding achievement in her graduate class at Harvard University. She founded the Women's Studies Program and Women's Treatment Network at
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...
and served as its first director.
*Abott Academy (now
Phillips Andover Academy
Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a private, co-educational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students located in Andover, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The academy enrolls ...
), Andover, MA
*BA,
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
, Magna Cum Laude
*Ph.D, Clinical Psychology,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, recognition for outstanding academic performance
*Internship at
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...
, Belmont, MA
*1978, junior faculty,
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...
Department of Psychology, working with Irene Pierce Stiver and colleague Jan Surrey
At Harvard, Jordan was told that her position in the doctoral program was "wasted on a woman," a refrain that was repeated to other leaders in feminist psychology (including Carol Gilligan). Jordan drew on her mother's experience of being repeatedly told to leave her M.D. program and excelled at Harvard, but she "really went underground in terms of any sense of competence and strength" until she joined Jean Baker Miller's Monday night group. In training, Jordan had been taught that the neutrality of the therapist was paramount to a patient's healing, and that for a therapist to demonstrate any emotional response to a patient's story or feelings would "have a bad impact on the patient". In her own practice, Jordan began to wonder if this distant neutrality was adversely affecting patients. She "couldn't bring herself to abandon her patients to please her supervisors," and "the kind of therapy she did 'felt deviant'" in this respect. Jordan said that she began to meet with the women in Miller's Monday night group, "whom I respected tremendously, seeing that they were living with the same kind of uncomfortableness in this position, and that they were making the same kind of changes in what they were doing was incredibly validating". The core group met every other week for ten years, talking openly and honestly about the work that they were doing, and the things they were learning from and with their patients, in Jean Baker Miller's living room.
[Robb, C. (2006). This changes everything: The relational revolution in psychology. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux., p.125]
Published works
* Women's Growth in Connection (1991) with Miller, J., Kaplan, A., Stiver, I., and Surrey, J.
* Women's Growth in Diversity (1997), editor.
* A Relational-Cultural Model: Healing through Mutual Empathy (2001), Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 65(1) 92-103
* A Relational-Cultural Perspective in Therapy (2002) In F. Kazlow (ed) Comprehensive handbook of psychotherapy (Vol 3, pp233–254).
* The Complexity of Connection (2004) with Walker, M. and Hartling, L.
* Recent Developments in Relational-Cultural Theory (2008) In Women And Therapy: A Feminist Quarterly, 31(2)(2/3/4).
* Relational-Cultural Therapy (2010).
* The Power of Connection (2010), editor.
References
External links
Profileat JBMTI.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Judith V
Brown University alumni
American women psychologists
21st-century American psychologists
American feminists
Harvard Medical School alumni
Harvard Medical School faculty
Harvard University faculty
Living people
Psychology educators
Year of birth missing (living people)
Phillips Academy alumni
McLean Hospital people
American women academics
21st-century American women