Dear Colleague, Following a workshop on supervision practices among systemic therapists organized at the EFTA TIC meeting in Athens in 2023, a transnational research team, composed by Valeria Pomini (Greece), Ivy Daure (France), and Maurizio Frisina (Belgium), with the support of Vanna Foe (trainee – Greece), constructed a questionnaire called Systemic Supervision Survey (SySS) in […]

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This document was written by participants of the online meeting regarding the international dramatic situation. The contributors (Mauro Mariotti, Valeria Pomini, Maria Grazia Sabatini, Peter Stratton) are part of the group of authors of « Evidenze e creatività in psicoterapia sistemica e relazionale,” a book published by Franco Angeli, scheduled for release on April 14, 2025, and edited by Mauro Mariotti, Camillo Loriedo, George Saba, Carlos E. Sluzki and Peter Stratton. This document has been sent to all the authors of the book, requesting their contributions and its dissemination to relevant individuals in our field. The EFTA President, Umberta Telfener, generously offered to share the document on the EFTA website. We hope that, as systemic workers and thinkers, our voices will be heard. We hope you, members of EFTA, will participate to the next meeting (to be scheduled) and with comments to be sent to or directly to EFTA ().

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www.efta-relates2025.com

L’APPEL A COMMUNICATIONS EST OUVERT

Chers amis et collègues, nous nous réjouissons de vous rencontrer à Lyon.
En tant que comité scientifique et comité d’organisation, nous aimerions partager notre vision avec vous.
Nous imaginons un espace où le partage devient possible dans le cadre d’une rencontre interactive et créative dynamique. C’est pourquoi nous avons imaginé de nombreux formats différents, dans l’espoir que vous nous soumettiez une proposition et que vous vous engagiez avec nous dans cette entreprise.
Notre vision est d’avoir des dialogues et des conversations plutôt que des présentations linéaires. Nous souhaitons encourager et inclure des participants actifs, ainsi que ceux qui préfèrent être des auditeurs réfléchis.
Les propositions qui utilisent des méthodes holistiques, incarnées et artistiques qui nous poussent à sortir de notre zone de confort pour créer de nouvelles opportunités d’apprentissage sont les bienvenues.

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1. Reflection from Umberta Telfener : As Social Justice and Systemic Thinking Task Force we met the first time at the NFTO in Sofia in June 2023, we created a whatsup group and exchanged some “fast” thoughts wondering what to deal with. Too many issues seemed important and focus was needed. Then life took over but right now we decided to start meeting and discussing again regularly. These words are just some reflections on the too many terrible and unjustified wars we are surrounded by.

Few days ago a client of mine posed this question: “Are we more violent compared to Medieval times?” I was stunned since I was questioning myself about the horrors of war in a time of enhanced consciousness: why does a civilized country become violent and destroy others? How can individuals de-humanize and do things that are despicable and they would judge as horrendous in times of peace? I started searching ….

2. Answer from Borislava Metcheva : I read the article carefully and so many thoughts are racing through my head… I am struggling a lot with the idea how we can make sense of what is going on globally so that the way we make sense of it help us see a path forward…
Here are some of my thoughts:
First of all, I am thinking about “conscious purpose” (Bateson) – for how long as societies we were enchanted by this premise and for how long this narrative of “achievement-improvement-more achievement-more ambition-and so on” organized our behavior at large scale…

3. Thoughts by Cinthe Lemmens : I read  both of your contributions, Umberta and Borislava, my systemic colleagues, friends. How good is it not to feel alone, to belong to a large systemic community. Connectivity and exchange as an antidote to apathy, indifference, desensitization, numbness, hopelessness…
Reading your thoughts brings up new thoughts, memories.
It takes me back to the presentation of Lucie Hornova in Sofia, Bulgaria, our latest NFTO-meeting. She (and we) talked about hope and hopelessness, quoting K. Weingarten who says: ‘Hoping is not just a feeling or a noun, hope is also a verb that we can practice. We Do Hope.’

4. Thoughts by Petya Varcheva: The written by Umberta and Borislava is strongly resonating in me. Following the flow I feel, I would like to share some of my associations and reflections
I’m also struggling with the question – how we, as humans, have created such a context in which this terrifying violence became possible and so many of us became passive bystanders, supporting with their silence or openly justifying people killing people…

5. Thoughts by Charlie Azzopardi

On reflecting on contemporary history and the current world situation, and reading the interesting reflections of other colleagues, I could not stop myself from writing down some ideas about what is going on in terms of social justice. Of course having learned to think systemically I cannot but not view the contemporary complex political situation from this perspective and make sense of everything around me by connecting « everything to everything else » (Bateson).

When I started my career in care in 1986 I had chosen this career specifically because I believe that people are fundamentally good and I wanted to do ‘good’. I could only see ill and malaise from the perspective depicting hatred, ill, and malaise as mistakes in people’s attempted good intentions.  It was a philosophy based on Goethe’s and existential philosophy tapping on human potential, and therefore hope. I gradually and disappointingly realised that I undermined Freud’s idea of mortido and perhaps started questioning and reframing my moral atheism to think of good and evil. From believing good and evil to be social constructs and attributions to believing that good and evil are innate in people. Eric Fromm’s analysis was a turning point in my shift. He offered a wider perspective of the complex and multidimensional nature of evil and destructiveness highlighting the interplay between biological, psychological, social factors in shaping both destructive and constructive human tendencies.  The present reflections here are part of this inconclusive journey as I search for some ‘truths’ with which I can connect and hang on to for my sanity. Of course, the certainty I’m searching for will probably never be found. Yet I’m getting closer to concorde with Telfener when she wrote that « The spirit of evil dwells with everyone ». While everyone has the potential to be violent, the distinction between non-violent and violent people is that violent people commit it.

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Bonjour à tous, je suis Umberta Telfener, la nouvelle Président de l’EFTA.

Je suis très honorée d’avoir reçu cette mission qui me tient personnellement très à cœur.

Je suis à l’EFTA depuis 1991, d’abord à titre individuel et à partir de 2010 comme représentante de l’Institut de thérapie familiale de Milan (Luigi Boscolo et Gianfranco Cecchin). Je suis devenue membre du conseil d’administration de l’EFTA TIC en 2016 et, à partir de novembre 2020, j’en ai été la présidente. Maintenant, je vais agir en tant que votre présidente et j’ai l’intention de faire de mon mieux.

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