Volume 27 (2016) Issue 1 Special Edition: 9th EFTA-TIC Meeting (Belgrade 2015) Embracing New Knowledge: Training for Intergrative and Innovative Systemic Practice In September of last year, the European Family Therapy
Association (EFTA-TIC) held its 9th Meeting of Trainers. The meeting was held
in Belgrade, Serbia and was hosted locally by Professor Nevena Calovska-Herzog
and her associates of the Association of Systemic Therapists of Serbia. Since their inception in 2003, the TIC Meetings have
evolved into a unique series of popular gatherings that bring together
experienced trainers in systemic psychotherapy and practice from all corners of
Europe and beyond: over 100 colleagues from 22 countries participated in
Belgrade and afterwards evaluated their experience as extremely positive. The papers that emerged from the variety of presentations at the Belgrade meeting are published in this two-issue Special Edition of Human Systems. Through this publication, we hope to nurture the expanding of our perspectives and to foster novel conversations on our training practices. The past year also marked the loss of two of our dear colleagues who served on the Advisory Board of Human Systems: Luigi Onnis, to whom the EFTA-TIC Special Issue is dedicated, and Patricia Minuchin. We commence this issue by honoring them. As systemic trainers our common encounter lies in
stimulating and guiding our trainees in their journey to becoming future
systemic practitioners, equipped with professional and personal skills with a
felt sense of confidence and satisfaction in their professional and personal
skins with commitment to continual self-reflexivity and openness to new learning.
Ours is a fascinating role filled with much satisfaction and many challenges. In our first paper, Charlie Azzopardi from Malta is
concerned with the positioning of family therapy as a profession among the
other psychotherapies and how the diversity of our approaches and
conceptualizations is often perceived as confusing. Our second paper illustrates the effectiveness of
training in the systemic paradigm and is concerned with training mental health
professionals working in the public sector. Valeria Pomini, Maria-lo Akalestou,
Vlassis Tomaras and Katia Charalabaki vividly describe the marked lack of such
training, and the negative effect of its absence within the context of the
present day Greek socioeconomic crisis characterized by an immense decrease in
financial resources, the influx of migrant families and job insecurity. Our next paper is concerned with the challenges that
inevitably arise in difficult clinical and training situations and how to train
therapists to overcome impasses. Umberta Telfner and Marilena Tettamanzi from
the Milan Center of Family Therapy explore how, as systemic trainers who teach
complexity, we need to help students and ourselves remain “responding agents”
by utilizing active self-reflexivity on both our personal and clinical
processes. The authors, utilizing their experience with Heinz von Foerster,
offer an insightful exposition as to impasses that unavoidably emerge – in
therapy and training – from our inevitable blind spots. Haviva Ayal and Sara Iwanir, colleagues from Israel,
approach the overcoming of impasses through interventions based on an
alternative manner of perceiving stress. Contrary to the customary view of
stress as a fierce enemy, the authors examine the useful outcomes in systemic
therapy and training of perceiving stress in a more positive light. This brings us to the following paper by Athina
Androutsopoulou, Maria Viou, Niki Nikolaou, Christina Moschakis, Varvara Maria Nikolopoulou,
Niki Kontoni and Elina Diamantaki. With their conceptualization of therapy as
dialogic, the authors offer us a prime example of qualitative study exploring
the way therapist’s inner dialogue may shape client’s and observer’s own inner
dialogue, helping or hindering the therapeutic process. Their study was
conducted through simulations in the training context, with their specific
“Inner Dialogues – Therapists Observer Client” (ID-OC) activity – a very
interesting training technique that aims to familiarize students with the
concept of inner dialogue through role-played sessions. The analysis of the recorded
inner dialogue narratives showed how the therapist’s inner dialogue, as
performed in various acts, shaped that of the client and the observer, and
influenced the process and the resolution of the session: therapists’
self-reflection brought accurate assessment of thoughts and difficulties of the
client and mutual connection while, on the other hand, frustration towards the
client and therapist’s self doubt were related to misconnection. The use of experiential role-playing and simulations
in the personal growth of the potential family therapist is also the focus of
our last paper in this first issue. Gianmarco Manfrida, Valentina Albertini and
Maurizio Coletti, from Italy, expand the family genogram to include sculpting.
By integrating the dynamic family sculpture tool with the genogram, the feelings
that emerge become more potent and, although still within the boundaries of the
trainee’s request for education, offer a therapeutic experience which calls
forth possible alternatives of viewing internalized family story. In our second issue of this Special Edition, we will
offer another rich variety of ideas and practices as presented at the Belgrade
EFTA-TIC Trainers’ Meeting. Kyriaki Polychroni Subscribe to this Volume HERE |
Issue 1
Author | Title | Pages | Abstract | Purchase this article |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kyriaki Polychroni & Peter Strattton | Dedication to Luigi Onnis | i-ii | Free Fulltext Access | Free Fulltext Access |
Kyriaki Polychroni | Editorial | 003-007 | Free Fulltext Access | Free Fulltext Access |
Kyriaki Polychroni | In Memory of Pat Minuchin | 009-011 | Free Fulltext Access | Free Fulltext Access |
The Complex Politics of Family Psychotherapy: Implications for Training | Charlie Azzopardi | 011-019 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
Valeria Pomini, Maria-Io Akalestou, Vlassis Tomaras & Katia Charalabaki | Systemic Training for ‘Frontier’ Mental Health Professionals: An Experience from Greece, in The Face of the Financial Crisis | 021-037 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
Umberta Telfener & Marilen Tettamanzi | A Bag Full of Tricks: When Therapy Feels Stuck. How To Get Over an Impasse In Difficult Situations | 039-053 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
The Enhancing Power of Positive Perceived Stress (PPS) in Systemic Therapy and Training | Haviva Ayal & Sara Iwanir | 055-062 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
Therapist Inner Dialogue and First Session Resolution: Qualitative Data from the Training Activity Inner Dialogues -Therapist Observer Client (ID-TOC) | Athena Androutsopoulou, Maria Viou, Niki Nikolaou, Christina Moschakis, Varvara-Maria Nikolopoulou, Niki Kontoni, & Elina Diamantaki | 063-080 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
Family Genogram and Live Sculptures for Trainees: A Socio-Constructionist Tool for Personal Growth in Family Therapy Training | Gianfranco Manfrida, Valentina Albertini & Maurizio Coletti | 081-093 | Access Abstract | Access Fulltext |
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