Chers membres de l’EFTA,

J’ai participé récemment en ligne à un panel dans le cadre du congrès annuel de l’American Family Therapy Academy. « La thérapie systémique, la recherche et l’éducation à l’ère de la technologie et de l’IA » était le thème du congrès et les représentants des associations internationales ont été invités à discuter de la manière dont nous utilisons l’IA. J’y ai participé avec Dickson Chow, vice-président de l’Académie asiatique de thérapie familiale, qui vit à Hong Kong, et Andrew Sofin, président de l’Association canadienne de thérapie familiale. Le représentant de l’Association australienne était absent. Nous avons parlé de l’utilisation de l’IA sur le terrain, dans la recherche, en psychologie, en psychothérapie et dans nos vies. Fantastique les deux présidents, Rinny et Man-Tso dont je ne me souviens pas des noms.

J’ai parlé de l’accélération que l’IA a produite dans cette ère hypermoderne, dans laquelle nous avons modifié la façon d’apprendre, de jouer, de travailler, d’aimer, de décider, de parler, d’entrer en relation les uns avec les autres… Des changements qu’elle a produits : elle a changé le cours du lit de la rivière, comme l’aurait dit Wittgenstein.

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In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, we sit down with Umberta Telfener, President of EFTA, and Hans Christian Michaelsen, Vice President, to explore the heart of systemic practice across Europe. Together, they unpack what EFTA (European Family Therapy Association) is, how it’s structured, and what it offers to both long-standing members and curious newcomers. We […]

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RETROUVONS-NOUS A LYON!

Les relations entre les personnes – familles, équipes, communautés, nations – ont subi des changements majeurs au cours des dernières décennies, résultat ou effet secondaire de l’évolution politique, culturelle et scientifique.
D’une part, des disciplines telles que la physique, la médecine, la psychologie, les sciences environnementales et sociales ont apporté des contributions décisives à l’avancement de nos connaissances; des galaxies lointaines se sont rapprochées de notre vision cosmique, et nos sondes et nos fusées ont atteint les confins de l’espace-temps. D’autre part, la violence et la barbarie détruisent quotidiennement des vies, des biens et des certitudes, provoquant des affrontements violents et souvent meurtriers entre individus, communautés, nations et cultures. Malgré ces réalités difficiles, les thérapeutes et praticiens systémiques sont déterminés à poursuivre leur engagement à guérir la souffrance psychique et relationnelle qui en résulte et, surtout, à raviver l’espoir, la résilience et l’optimisme pour un avenir meilleur.

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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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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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