EFTA Research Café: Use of the Synergetic Navigation System in supervision and training

Research on Dynamics of Interpersonal Patterns

With Günter Schiepek & Matej Vajda

Families as well as other social systems are dynamic systems, creating and changing intra-personal and inter-personal patterns. These dynamic patterns can be assessed by methods which are available in the Synergetic Navigation System (SNS) – a server- and app-based system for data acquisition, data analysis and visualization in change processes of individuals and interpersonal systems.

We will show some options for couples and family therapy, as interpersonal matrices, superimposed time series from different persons, (cross-) recurrence plots, or interpersonal correlation matrices. A user survey revealed that the ongoing feedback using the SNS improved psychotherapy, supports the intrinsic motivation for change of the clients, optimizes the client-therapist alliance, and helps to develop self-efficacy and competencies in self-reflection.

Beside examples from couples and family therapy, we will present a research project on supervision dynamics (based on multiple time series from the client, the therapist, and the supervisor, analyzed by cross recurrence plots). We also will show how the SNS can be used in the training and supervision of trainees in psychotherapy.

Günter Schiepek, o.Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. phil. habil. Director of the Institute Synergetics and Psychotherapy Research at the Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg (Austria) and of the Center for Complex Systems (Stuttgart/Germany). Since 2008 professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and at the Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg. Visiting professor at the Sapienza University, Rome (2019). Visiting-Professor at the Donau-University Krems and at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt (Austria). Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Academia Scientiarium et Artium Europaea) since 2009, vice dean of the medical class from 2012 to 2018. Honorary fellow of the German Society of Systemic Therapy and Systemic Research. Fellow of the Mind Force Institute (London, UK). Scientific consultant of the German Society for Systemic and Family Therapy (DGSF). Member of the scientific directory of the German-Japanese Society for Integrative Science. Member of the German Society of Psychology and of the SPR interest group on complex systems.
Main research topics: Synergetics and dynamics of nonlinear systems in psychology, neuroscience, and management. Process-outcome-research in psychotherapy. Neuroscience of psychotherapy. Internet-based Real-Time Monitoring of change processes in different fields. Social psychology. Management. Research in the measurement and development of human competencies.
Member of the scientific board of different institutions, communities, and journals. Published 24 books and about 300 papers in international and German scientific journals and readers.

Matej Vajda is a certified systemic psychotherapist and has a Master’s degree in sociology of sexuality and gender. He works in private practice with individuals, couples and families, in Slovenia and internationally.
Matej is also an assistant lecturer at Sigmund Freud University Vienna – Ljubljana branch (SFU Ljubljana) where he teaches courses on sexuality, sexual disorders, sociology of mental health, epistemology and research, among others.
At SFU Ljubljana, he collaborates on international research projects in the area of routine outcome measurement and real-time monitoring of psychotherapy processes.
Additionally, Matej is a counsellor for students and employees at the University of Ljubljana, where he is also a doctoral student at the Faculty of Social Work, researching the use of client feedback in social work counselling.

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