Arlene Vetere

Clinical Psychologist, systemic practitioner, who lives in the UK and teaches at the VID Specialized University in Oslo; Deputy director of the Clinical Doctorate training at Surrey University. Past President of EFTA. Among other interests she developed a systemic framework to work with violence, a practice that has been adopted and adapted by other Countries such as Norway, Finland, Ireland, Malta

Szymon Chrząstowski: I first met Arlene in 2007 at the EFTA congress in Glasgow. I had the courage (or perhaps rather audacity) to ask her to become my supervisor. Unexpectedly for me, she agreed. Two years ago, when the war in Ukraine broke out, we organized a small conference in Poland, where Arlene was to give a lecture. At the time many Poles were extremely concerned, if not downright scared, that the war would move to Polish territory. A friend of mine had prepared special backpacks for herself and her son, in case they needed to flee towards Germany. We assumed that Arlene would cancel her visit. After all, there was a war going on in a neighboring country, and though the conference itself was important to Polish psychotherapists, it had only local significance. However, Arlene came to Poland. She showed how brave she is, which helped us deal with our fear. It’s significant perhaps that Arlene’s father was a soldier during WW2 and fought in The Battle of Dunkirk.