About me
Mary Jo Barrett is the Founder of The Center for Contextual Change. Currently she is the Founder and Director of Collaborative Change Consulting, a training and consulting institute that focuses helping families, couples and individuals heal from violence and trauma through the life span. She holds a Masters in Social Work from the Jane Addams School of Social Work and has served on the adjunct faculties of The University of Chicago, The Chicago Center for Family Health, and the Family Institute of Northwestern University. Ms. Barrett was the Clinical Director of Midwest Family Resource and has been working in the field of family violence since 1974 beginning with Parents Anonymous.
Ms. Barrett’s latest book, Treating Complex Trauma: A Relational Blueprint for Collaboration and Change, was co-authored by Linda Stone Fish. Ms. Barrett has also coauthored two books with Dr. Terry Trepper: Incest: A Multiple Systems Perspective and The Systemic Treatment of Incest: A Therapeutic Handbook. She created the Collaborative Change Model, a contextual model of therapy used to transform the lives of those impacted by abuse and/or traumatic events.
Her trainings and published works focus on the teaching of the Collaborative Change Model; Family Therapy and Interpersonal violence Adult Survivors of Abuse and Trauma; Complex Developmental Trauma and Compassion Fatigue.
Ms. Barrett founded the Family Dialogue Project, a mediation program which strives to redefine relationships within families that have been impacted by allegations of abuse or differences that appear irreconcilable.