Jaakko Seikkula is a professor at the Institute of Social Medicine at the University of Tromso in Norway and senior assistant at the Department of Psychology in the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland.  His special subject is developing and analyzing the processes in open dialogues in child, youth and adult psychiatry, especially concerning psychotic and other severe crises.  As a therapist, he is working with social networks and has long experience as a trainer in family therapy in Finland and internationally.  Between 1981-1998, he worked as a clinical psychologist at the Keropudas hospital in Finland where he and colleagues developed a highly successful approach for working with psychosis known as Open Dialogue Treatment (OPT). 

The approach de-emphasizes the use of drugs and focuses instead on developing a social network of family and helpers and involving the patient in all treatment decisions.  Ongoing research shows that over 80% of those treated with the approach return to work and over 75% show no residual signs of psychosis.  Official government statistics comparing 22 health districts in Finland found that Dr. Seikkula's district was the only one not to have any new chronic hospital patients in a two year period and led the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health to award a prize for "over ten years ongoing development of psychiatric care".  Dr. Seikkula lectures extensively and provides workshops for professionals on this innovative approach.