Reviewed by Tom Strong
Open Dialogue (OD) was developed in Finland as a family- and community-based response to psychiatric emergencies. Central to OD’s development have been the conceptual and research contributions of Jaakko Seikkula. I review and reflect on Seikkula’s recent book on OD’s development that shows how dialogic ideas, research, and client and collegial feedback have come to inform OD as he advocates it be currently practiced.
Why Dialogue Does Cure: Explaining what makes dialogue unprecedentedly effective in difficult crises was published by Springer in 2025. 169 pp. ISBN: 978-3-031-91293-1.
Key words: Open Dialogue; Jaakko Seikkula; family therapy; book review
Strong, T. (2026). Reflecting on the healing potentials of dialogue: A review of Why Dialogue Does Cure: Explaining what makes dialogue unprecedentedly effective in difficult crises by Jaakko Seikkula. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 159–162. https://doi.org/10.4320/QBTW6235