Greetings to all of our EFTA members,
As I write this the humanitarian catastrophe following the Russian invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine is building. The many civilian victims of indiscriminate bombardments of residential areas, health care settings and civilian infrastructure are dealing with the lack of the right to safety dignity and the protection of their human rights. We know as systemic therapists that the impact of war leads to trauma within families that can echo through generations to come. Speaking truth to power is not easy it means taking a stand, the EFTA General board has done this and condemned the aggression of the Russian state and it leader Vladimir Putin in the declaration that we agreed in Barcelona. In the wider European sphere of psychotherapy, The European Association for Psychotherapy has removed the voting rights of the national Russian Psychotherapeutic Association. We don’t but we have reached out to the national Ukrainian association of family therapy, they are not members of EFTA, but in a spirit of solidarity we have offered to facilitate contact for family therapy students, trainers and practitioners that may have to flee Ukraine with the family therapy infrastructure in the destination country. We are supporting the initiative of our General Treasurer Michel Maestre who has created an organisation to provide psychological support online to those in Ukraine. The information on the service can be accessed HERE.