Back from the Future

This October 2026 I have been invited in Singapore by Dr Chua Wei Bin, executive director of the Counselling & Care Center (CCC), at the II° Singapore Systemic Family Therapy Conference. A congress that was gathering the southeastern Asian regions with professionals coming from Malesia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines … Many presentations with no space for questions and comments. What a shame, so many stimuli, so much curiosity!
The themes proposed have been the same, transversal to the whole world: evolving families, the need to strengthen the system of community support,  the need to integrate holistic care, the increasing number of single young adults, of divorces, an increase in longevity. The Minister of Social Policies heartened marriages and procreation and encouraged a restriction on AI, as well as the need to expand who counts as family. The word “decolonization” came up many times but was not explored in depth.
Concerning the systemic map, Timothy Sim – vice-president of the Asian Academy – presented the Structural model, Jay Lebow – the historical editor of Family process –  the history of the development of family therapy worldwide over the past 50 years. I reflected on the Milan model and its present proposals; Prof Xudong Zhao, Professor at the Shanghai Tongji University  in  China, exemplified his personal journey within the systemic thinking: he started with structural concepts, then studied Virginia Satir, then a Solution focused approach, to end up on a narrative path. He also declared his current curiosity for the Milan Approach. His journey exemplifies the variety of stimuli to which professionals are subjected, with the risk of great confusion and scarce belonging.
Interesting the theme Tymoty posed: should Singapore integrate western models or found its own? Should therapy models be pure or adapted to the necessities of the geographical area? To this second question I personally think that adapting is mandatory and that good therapist utilize models as landmarks and perform much more than the chosen model prescribes. Psychotherapy is a micro process, actually there is often a gap between what professionals do and how they explain the therapeutic process.
Is systemic thinking dead? Good life to systemic thinking!!!

Family Therapy is still alive but it seems difficult to check the necessary path to become a psychotherapist. It was very difficult for me to find my way among the very different training paths of the attenders. Few participants of the two seminars I held had done a regular course (three years, approximately), some just 4 months, others had attended a seminar or just a course. While attending to their curiosity and their enthusiasm, I was thinking that it took me 40 years to feel embodied in the systemic way of acting and thinking!
I came back from the future, from the ipermodern city of  Singapore, realizing that as trainers – us purists of systemics, us nostalgic of the integrity of the movement – we must change our expectations and our priorities. I continue thinking that expanding the systemic way is fundamental. I hold the prejudice that working systemically allows to enhance possibilities in all the fields in which it is operative.
Just when I had lost hope for a shared, integrated, systemic perspective, a small miracle occurred: during the final round table, I asked the panelists what they wanted me to take back with me to Europe. For the first time in those two days, they spoke in strict systemic terms, engaging in an authentic and heartfelt conversation on collaboration and shared objectives within an ethical stance.