Maija-Liisa Laakso: 1934 - 2011

Maija-Liisa Laakso, a member of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Association, passed away after a short illness at the age of 76. Although, for the last 19 years of her life, she lived and worked in Jyväskylä, she was born a farmer's daughter in North Karelia and dearly loved her place of birth and its rural landscape.

Maija Liisa Laakso studied and graduated as a psychologist at Helsinki University and also raised her children in Helsinki. After graduating, she worked as a psychologist in several psychiatric hospitals in different parts of Finland. Having received tenure at the Hesperia hospital in Helsinki, she was able to seek psychoanalytical training. Maija-Liisa graduated as a psychoanalyst of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society 1977. She was appointed as a training analyst in 1995.

Maija-Liisa Laakso worked in private practice as a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, and supervisor from 1975 in Helsinki and later in Jyväskylä. For several years, she travelled between these two cities, treating patients, supervising and teaching psychoanalysis. Her dedication to psychoanalytical work and training have been essential in the establishment of a core of psychoanalysts in Jyväskylä and partly also in Kuopio. At the present time, there are already five psychoanalysts in Jyväskylä. Maija-Liisa continued her professional activities for a long time, supervising the adolescent psychiatric polyclinics in central Finland until the end of 2010.

Maija-Liisa Laakso was active in the Finnish Psychoanalytical Association. She participated in the activities of its Board and the Training Institute. She acted as a Secretary of the Board and Vice President of the Society as well as a courageous and creative co-worker at the Training Institute. She was a beloved teacher and supervisor.

In the Finnish Adolescent Psychotherapy Foundation, Maija-Liisa was an inspiring teacher almost from when it was founded in 1986. She was also a good lecturer and writer. Among other themes, she wrote about set