#5 November 2008

A word from the President

Welcome to our EFTA Newsletter.

As you can see we have contributions from different events and different countries that show the wealth and range of tradition, experience and expertise within our organisation.

If you would like to make a contribution to the Newsletter, please let us know – we should love to hear from you.

With all good wishes

Arlene Vetere

Obituary notes for Michael White

Michael White in memoriam

by Allan Holmgren, Dispuk Denmark
Michael White in memoriam (PDF 268 Kb)

Panning for Gold (on Michael White)

by Mary Sykes Wylie
Panning for Gold (PDF 128 Kb)
We express our appreciation to Richard Simon, Ph.D., Editor of The Psychotherapy Networker, for authorizing the reproduction of this article, which appeared in the Psychotherapy Networker website during the summer 2008, written shortly before Michael White’s death and published in his homage.

Articles in several languages (English, Français, Español, Italiano)

Guy Ausloos (Canada)

Unconditional family focus & the competence of the family (PDF 136 Kb)
Lecture from ISBA congress in Copenhague, Denmark on 24/09/2008.

Francesco Bruni, Pier Giuseppe Defilippi (Italia)

Memoria e valutazione dell’esperienza clinica (PDF 856 Kb)
In Ecologia della mente, vol. 28, n. 2, 2005

Anne Courtois (Belgique)

Couples à transactions rigides: Re-scénarisation des attachements insécure
Perspectives systémique et développementale (PDF 240 Kb)
In Cahiers Critiques de Thérapie Familiale et de pratiques de Réseaux n°38, 2007/1, page 211 à 226.

Guerre parentale et clivage de la fratrie: un double enfermement
Ouvertures cliniques (PDF 192 Kb)
In Cahiers de Psychologie Clinique n°31, 2008/2, page 51 à 68.

Pierre Duterte (France)

La thérapie familiale pour des victimes de torture (PDF 156 Kb)

Sandro Giovanazzi (Chile), Juan Luis Linares (España)

Dinámicas relacionales parentales en torno a los hijos en el proceso de separación conyugal.  El “síndrome del juicio de Salomón” (PDF 196 Kb)
In Revista Sistemas Familiares y Otros Sistemas Humanos, A. 23 n°1, Buenos Aires 2007.

Francesco Bruni, Sabrina Caruso, Sabrina Caspani, Angelo Polimeno, Stefano Ramella Benna (Italia)

I destini incrociati e la psicoterapia: una suggestione analogica (PDF 580 Kb)
In Psicobiettivo, volume XXVII, 1-2007

D. Russel Crane, Jacob D. Christenson (U.S.A)

The Medical Offset Effect: Patterns in Outpatient Services Reduction for High Utilizers of Health Care (PDF 184 Kb)
In Contemporary Family Therapy (2008) 30: 127-128

European masters degree in family therapy

Preliminary announcement

Over the last two years Per Jensen from the Diakonhjemmet University College in Oslo and Jim Sheehan from University College Dublin have begun to prepare the ground for Systemic Family Practitioners in Europe to obtain not simply their own local Qualification in Family Therapy from their Training Institute but an additional European Masters  in Family Therapy as well. While much more detail about this will be circulated as the planning progresses the basic idea is to provide an easily recognized degree in Family Therapy that would be available across Europe to those successfully completing a local family therapy training that meets relevant European standards at the same time as undertaking a small part of their training in Training  Institutes outside their own national borders.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to increase the exchange between teachers , trainers and students from different parts of the European region and to further develope the strength and identity of European Family Therapy.

We would be really happy to hear from both individuals, organizations and institutes who may be interested in participating  in this developement and we can be contacted at or

Per Jensen and Jim Sheehan

From Finland

Finland in Shock after school shootings – How to go on?

by Jaakko Seikkula (PDF 68 Kb)

News

From Honorary member of EFTA

Carlos E. Sluzki, M.D., itinerant Honorary Member of EFTA, has moved from his prior position as Chair, Department of Psychiatry at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Professor (Clinical) at UCLA to become a professor of Global and Community Health at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he is teaching Social Epidemiology and other related subjects, while living and practicing in Washington DC.

News from EFTA-CIM / Nouvelles d’EFTA-TIC

Two good news

The 2008 membership directory will be sent to you in December 2008.

EFTA-CIM has proposed to the National Family Therapy Organisations (NFTO) of each country to sign an agreement of collaboration.  This agreement allows the members of the NFTO who are already members of EFTA-CIM (as well as the ones who will join EFTA-CIM) to benefit of a reduced membership subscription of 40 € (instead of 70 €).

The National Associations from Belgium, Finland, Greece, Poland and Switzerland has already signed this agreement. We hope other countries will join soon.

It is important to stress that the force of EFTA-CIM is in particular the number and the quality of its members.

Jacques Pluymaekers,
Chair of EFTA-CIM

News from EFTA-TIC

Meetings of trainers

Since September 2003, EFTA-TIC is regularly organizing meetings exclusively for trainers on different themes. These meetings bring together the Chamber’s members to share experiences, successes and concerns. These events were held in Barcelona – Spain, Florence – Italy, Rhodes – Greece and, most recently, Toulouse – France.

Participants’ evaluations are very positive each time. Our 4th meeting last September in Toulouse – hosted by Eric Trappeniers, Director of the Institut de la Famille – was on the theme “Training in Family Therapy: Integrating Content, Form and Relationship” and was again a success. 108 trainers participated representing 49 institutes from 18 countries. A high level of scientific quality was demonstrated in 17 interactive workshops and in the presentations at 2 round tables:

“Accommodating a Multi-Cultural Europe: Implications for Therapy and Training” and

“Creating a European Program on Family Therapy and Systemic Practice: New Possibilities”.

As is a tradition at all our meetings, we also had an enjoyable experience exchanging more personally – this time listening to French musicians while singing and dancing together to songs representing our various countries.

We are now preparing for the 5th Trainers’ Meeting to be held in Krakow, Poland in September 2009 (dates to be announced).

We invite trainers to join is in what promises to be an inspiring event.

EFTA-TIC Board

News from EFTA-NFTO

Report from annual meeting in Helsinki

NFTO- chamber had it’s annual meeting in Helsinki, Finland in June. Both new and old members of the chamber and the board were present. The atmosphere in the meeting was enthusiastic and collaborative.  SEE SOME PICTURES (PDF 2,3 Mb)

The board had sent secretary’s report beforehand to the members of the chamber, summarizing the work that had been done in the chamber and in EFTA in general during the past three years, to help especially the newcomers in engaging themselves to the work. In the meeting the beginning of the meeting was dedicated to getting to know each other, to “warming up” and to the reports of previous work. Also priorities in NFTO-work were discussed, in order to focus on central themes. After that working groups were formed around these topics:

research; creating a “core text” describing family therapy and it’s evidence base; ethics; updating NFTO profile; planning of a questionnairy concerning training standards of family therapy training; planning of the chamber meetings.

The chamber heard the reports from the groups and made a plan of how to proceed with the work. The groups had worked hard and presented many important and relevant observations and questions for the board.

The role of national representatives in the chamber was discussed during the meeting, including for example reporting from one’s own country in the EFTA newsletter, encouraging family therapists in their countries to join EFTA and acting as a link between their association and the NFTO chamber and board. A document of the role of representatives will be created by the board.

Representatives from other two chambers, TIC and CIM and the president of EFTA, Arlene Vetere, visited the meeting and informed the chamber about current issues. E.g. raising the membership in CIM in order to strengthen EFTA:s economical possibilities to function was discussed.

The chamber will meet next time in June 2009 in Leipzig, Germany.

On behalf of NFTO board
Eija-Liisa Rautiainen
Chair person

Research

Therapeutic alliances in family therapy

by Valentin Escudero, University of La Coruña, Spain
know more about this research (PDF 72 Kb)

International Congress

World Family Therapy Congress – IFTA 2009 in Portorož, Slovenia March 4-7, 2009

Congress theme: Reconciling Differences: Can Family Therapy Help Heal the World?
Congress site: http://www.paragon-conventions.com/ifta2009

7th EFTA congress in Paris, 29-31 October 2010

Congress theme: 60 years of family therapy, 20 years of EFTA, and after? New ways for systemic practice
60 ans de thérapie familiale, 20 ans d’EFTA, et après? Nouvelles perspectives pour la pratique systémique
Congress site (available soon): www.eftaparis2010.com

Review of books

Prendre place – la famille, l’école, la thérapie

Yveline Rey, Lucien Halin, Ed. Fabert, Psychothérapies Créative, 04/04/2008
Lire la 4ème de couverture (en français)

La Famille en Héritage

Zorica Jérémic, Patrick Vinois, Ed. Larousse, avril 2008
Lire le commentaire d’Irène Kaganski (en français)

The Child’s Voice in Family Therapy: A Systemic Perspective

Carole Gammer, W.W. Norton, November 2008
Read the book review by Annette Kreuz Smolinski (in English)

Spiel-Räume. Lehrbuch der systemischen Therapie mit Kindern und Jugendlichen

Rüdiger Retzlaff, bei Klett-Cota, 2008
mehr Informationen

Contact us

For any contributions, comments, … Do not hesitate to contact us!

President of EFTA: Professor Arlene Vetere 
EFTA Secretariat : Fabienne Dardenne