Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center is an innovative, Humanistic psychology graduate school located in San Francisco, California, and was founded in 1971, as an at-distance graduate school. During the late 1950’s, a group of American psychologists paved the way for a new branch of psychology called humanistic psychology. This critical view of the discipline of psychology is based on goodness, respect of humankind and improvement of the overall satisfaction of individuals. This new body of psychological thought, known as “the third force”, was led by American psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. In 1969, Dr. Eleanor Criswell, a professor at Cal State Sonoma proposed to the Association for Humanistic Psychology, an idea of educational programs in humanistic psychology and humanistic psychological research. As a result of this proposal, a new school under the name "The Humanistic Psychology Institute" was founded under the leadership of Dr. Criswell and pioneer somatics researcher Dr. Thomas Hanna. In 1971, the school began to offer a master’s program. The doctoral program in HP was introduced in 1972. In 1976, the institute was reorganized and appointed Dr. Donald E. Polkinghorne as president. During his tenure, Saybrook became an internationally respected graduate school with students engaged in studies for Ph.D. degrees in Humanistic Psychology and Human Science. In honor of the historic conference on humanistic psychology held in 1964, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the school changed its name to Saybrook Institute. In 1997, the school amended the name from Saybrook Institute to Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. Today, Saybrook has a enrollment of 400 Master's and Doctoral students. Serving mid-career professionals, Saybrook's curriculum offers innovative, individualized and rigorous dispersed residency MA and Ph.D. programs in Psychology, Human Science, and Organizational Systems.