The development of resonances in Europe, around the work of Mony Elkaïm

For almost 60 years, Mony Elkaïm was one of those who contributed to the development of systemic family therapies in Europe.

Born in Marrakech in November 1941, into a Jewish family, open to cultural diversity, he began his studies in Paris, which he continued in Brussels, specializing in neuropsychiatry.

Mony Elkaïm stayed in the early 1970’s at the Albert-Einstein College of Medicine in the United States, where he practiced social and community psychiatry with marginalized families from the Bronx. There, he discovered family therapy at its beginning, and met Maurizio Andolfi, an Italian psychiatrist who also trained in family therapy before making it known in Italy.

Back in Brussels, Mony Elkaïm became part of the antipsychiatry movement in Europe, he developed community psychiatry and in 1975 organized an international meeting on the theme “the alternative to the psychiatric sector”. Mony Elkaïm will become the coordinator of an international network of alternative approaches in the field of mental health alongside Franco Basaglia, Giovanni Jervis, Félix Guattari, Roger Gentis, Françoise and Robert Castel, David Cooper and Ronald Laing.

In parallel with his political action, he created a family therapy consultation in Brussels and then in 1979, as well as a family therapy training center, the Institute of the Family and Human Systems,

In 1981, he organized the first family therapy congress in Europe with his colleagues from the Institute, such as Jacques Pluymaekers, Edith Goldbeter, Geneviève Platteau and Alain Marteaux, Romano Scandariato. He invites the pioneers of American family therapy as well as Europeans including Mara Selvini, Luigi Cancrini, and Maurizio Andolfi.

These international congresses followed one another in Brussels until 1990, when Mony Elkaïm founded the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA), of which he was President for more than ten years, before chairing over the Chamber of Training Institutes.

During this round table, we wanted to bring together some witnesses and friends who have accompanied him over the past few years, in order to evoke his memory and his work.

The idea of ​​this round table is to show how Mony Elkaïm was able to bring together therapists, beyond their culture, beyond their convictions, beyond even their practice to create, despite certain differences, a movement, that of EFTA, where most European family therapists meet. Since then and until today, EFTA congresses have taken place every 5 years, this one being the first since Mony Elkaïm left us. We will honor him.

Michel Maestre

Deisy Amorin-Woods
Family and systemic therapist, Director of the Insight Counselling& Relationship Centre, Lecturer&Practicum Supervisor at Edith Cowan University, AUSTRALIA

Deisy Amorin-Woods is a family&systemic therapist, Director of the Insight Counselling& Relationship Centre, Lecturer&Practicum Supervisor at Edith Cowan University, Associate Editor of the Australian& New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy and State Representative of the Australian Association of Family Therapy.

For over 20 years she’s worked in private, government and non-government as senior clinician& supervisor and manager of allied-health teams. Areas include:mental health, justice, drug and alcohol, women’s issues, sexual and reproductive health, family violence, and migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, working with diverse families including cross-cultural couples-and-intercultural families

Areas of interest include working with culture establishing and promoting culturally-appropriate and responsive approaches in teaching, supervision and practice. She developed the model ‘MI CVLTVRE’ in working sensitively with people from culturally-and-linguistically-diverse backgrounds. Also of interest is collaborative practice, working across contexts, institutions and disciplines. Recent-current projects include involvement in steering committees and research groups across universities,disciplines and countries in the areas of intimate partner violence and establishing guidelines working effectively with children and families in the manual therapy sphere. In 2020, at the rise of the pandemic Deisy coordinated a collaborative paper with international practitioners: Family Therapy and COVID-19: International Reflections during the Pandemic from Systemic Therapists across the Globe. In 2021 she was Guest Editor of the Covid-19-Special issue for the ANZJFT: COVID-19 Systems&Families: Acknowledging Loss, Transcending Hope.

Anna Batki
Clinical Psychologist, Systemic Therapist, Adjunct Professor at ELTE Budapest University, HUNGARY

Anna Batki, PhD,  is a Budapest-based clinical psychologist and systemic therapist. She is an adjunct professor at ELTE Budapest University. Both her academic and clinical work focus on understanding and assisting adoptive and other “non-traditional” families.  She studied at ELTE, Cambridge and Semmelweis Universities and was a visiting scholar in the UK at the Tavistock Clinic, Great Ormond St Hospital and UCL. As a contributing editor she recently published „Families – the psychology of diversity” (in Hungarian.)

Maria Borcsa
PhD, Professeure de Psychologie clinique, Institut de Médecine sociale, des sciences de la réhabilitation et de recherche en soins de santé, Université des sciences appliquées de Nordhausen, ALLEMAGNE 

Maria Borcsa, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Applied Sciences Nordhausen (UASN), Germany, licensed psychological psychotherapist (CBT), family therapist, trainer and supervisor, author and (co-)editor of numerous scientific articles and books in German, English, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish. She is founding member of the Institute of Social Medicine, Health Care Research and Rehabilitation Sciences at UASN, member of the Editorial Board of the journals "Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology", “Contemporary Family Therapy”, international associate editor of “Journal of Family Therapy”, advisory editor of “Family Process”, associate editor of “Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy”, and founding editor of the EFTA Family Therapy Book Series. She has been board member of the German Association for Systemic Research, Therapy, Supervision and Counseling (SG) (2005-2011), board member of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA) (2007-2016), chair of the chamber of National Family Therapy Organizations of EFTA (2010-2013), and president of EFTA (2013-2016). In 2019, she received an award from EFTA for her excellence in the research field of family therapy and systemic practice.

Maria Esther Cavagnis
Director of Studies at the Family Therapy Foundation in Buenos Aires, Professor in Systemic Psychology, Austral University, ARGENTINA

Maria Esther Cavagnis, holds a Magister in clinical Psychology from Santo Tomas de Aquino University, Colombia; Magister in Research from Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Colombia. She is currently a Director of Studies, Senior Tutor in the therapist training program and   coordinator of Clinical Research and Assistance Team; at the Family Therapy Foundation in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor in Systemic Psychology, School of Psychology, Austral University, Argentina. A visiting lecturer at several universities in Argentina and Latin America. A Private practitioner since 1982.

Katia Charalabaki
Psychiatrist, family therapist, coordinating director of the Family Therapy Unit of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica, GREECE

Katia Charalabaki is a psychiatrist, family therapist, coordinating director of the Family Therapy Unit of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica. She studied medicine in Athens, where she specialized in psychiatry, and trained in family psychotherapy in Athens, Brussels and Paris. She has been president of the Hellenic Systemic Thinking and Family Therapy Association (HESTAFTA), is editor-in-chief of the digital journal Systemic Thinking & Psychotherapy and member of the editorial committee of the journal Tetradia Psychiatrikis. She has edited the Greek translations of Murray Bowen’s Toward the Differentiation of Self in One’s Family, Paul Watzlawick’s Pragmatics of Human Communication, Mary-Joan Gerson’s The Embedded Self. She has contributed papers to the collective publications [in Greek]: Healthy body in a healthy mind; Health and Sickness: psychological processes; Couple therapy; The therapeutic relationship.

Salvatore D’Amore
Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Professor of Child, Adolescent and Parenting Clinical Psychology at Université Libre de Bruxelles, BELGIUM

Salvatore D’Amore, PhD, is a psychologist, psychotherapist and professor of Child, Adolescent and Parenting Clinical Psychology at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). His clinical and psychotherapeutic work is currently orientated toward counseling,  supporting and treating clinical issues related  to single-parenting, stepfamilies, gay and lesbian coupling and parenting. He also participates in various national and international conferences focused on clinical and research with contemporary couples and families systems. His writings on attitudes toward sexual minorities, gay and lesbian parents and their children family processes, boundary ambiguity among diverse families have been published in journals and books in this field.   Recently he edited “ Les défis des familles d’aujourd’hui: Approche systémique des relations familiales (Actual Families Challenges: systemic approach of family relationships).  Furthermore, he is a reviewer for a number of scientific journals such as Family Process and is a member of the American Psychological Association and the European Family Therapy Association. 

Silvia Donato
Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, ITALY

Silvia Donato is an Associate Professor of Social Psychology for the Faculty of Psychology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC)– Milano. Member of the Advisory board of the Family Studies and Research University Centre at UCSC. She teaches “Social psychology”, “Psychology of interpersonal and social relationships” at UCSC for undergraduate students and “Clinical and social psychology of ageing” and “Psychology of new media” at UCSC for graduate students. She is trainer of the relationship education program: “Groups for Family Enrichment”. She’s member of the International Association for Relationship Research and chair of the Internationalization Committee of the same association. Her research interests focus on the study of couple relationship across the lifespan. In particular, her studies focus on stress and dyadic coping in couples, the intergenerational transmission of coping competences, partners’ accuracy and similarity in perceptions, partners’ support in response to positive events, scale psychometrics, preventive psychosocial interventions and their evaluation. One of her articles on the theme of dyadic coping was awarded by the International Association for Relationship Research as best article in 2018.

Todd Edwards
Visiting Professor at NOVA University, Portugal, Proferssor at the University of San Diego, USA

Professor Todd Edwards is a faculty member in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego, USA. He is also a Visiting Professor at NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal. Professor Edwards is a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and Editor of the International Journal of Systemic Therapy. His primary areas of specialization are integrative family therapy and the integration of family therapy into primary care medical settings.

Tomaž Erzar
Family Therapist, Professor, Co-ordinator of the Graduate Programme in Marital and Family Therapy at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Tomaž Erzar lives in Ljubljana (Slovenia) where he works as a family and couple therapist and university professor. He started his training as therapist in 1996 and since 2001 he teaches and works as coordinator of the Graduate Programme in Marital and Family Therapy at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana. His research focuses on attachment issues in couple therapy, violence in families, and the process of forgiveness. He wrote several articles on the history of psychoanalysis, dynamics of shame and the process of de-traumatization and forgiveness. He is a co-founder and director of the Study and Research Center for the Family (ŠRCD) in Ljubljana. He is married to psychologist and therapist Katarina Kompan Erzar and has two children.

Federico Ferrari
Clinical Psychologist, Systemic-dialogic Therapist, Trainer at CBTF, Visiting Lecturer at the Universities of Parma and Ferrara, Board Member of SIRTS (Italian Society for Systemic Research and Therapy), ITALY

Federico Ferrari lives and works in Milano (Italy). He completed his training at Boscolo and Cecchin’s Centro Milanese di Terapia della Famiglia in 2010, where he also specialized as trainer in 2014 and worked as a such until 2020. In 2020 he specialized as trainer in Dialogic Approaches to Couple and Family Therapy at University of Jyväskylä (Finland) with Jaakko Seikkula. In 2022 he obtained a PhD in social psychology researching heteronormativity in different social groups of sexual identity.

After working 10 years as a consultant in a public clinic for 14-24y.o. youth and their families, today he works as a private psychotherapist with individuals, couples, and families. He also works as a trainer for the Centro Bolognese di Terapia della Famiglia, and for the SIPSIS Master Program in Clinical Work with Sexual Identities. At the University of Ferrara, he holds a course in Protection of Gender Subjectivities within the Master Program in Protection of Minors, and he conducts a workshop on Psychology of Sexual Identities at the University of Parma within the Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology.

He is the author of several publications in Italian, English and French on the themes of gender, heteronormativity, sexual identity, and LGBT parented families.

Liz Forbat
Family Therapist, Research Psychologist, Programme Director at the University of Stirling, SCOTLAND

Prof Liz Forbat is a family therapist and research psychologist. Her research and clinical practice focus on how families and relationships are impacted when someone gets ill, for example with cancer or other life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Her research draws on a number of methodologies including RCTs, qualitative interview studies, implementation science and systematic reviews. She has published her research extensively with over 70 articles and three books. She is programme director of the doctorate of applied social research (family therapy) at the University of Stirling. Prof Forbat is a member of the editorial board for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, and on the Board of the UK Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. She lives and works in Scotland.

Jorge Gil Tadeo
Clinical psychologist, Family Psychotherapist, Teaching Supervisor, Biogestaltist Psychotherapist,  SPAIN

Jorge Gil Tadeo is a Clinical psychologist, Family Psychotherapist and Teaching Supervisor accredited by the Spanish Federation of Family Therapy Associations Drug addiction expert. Biogestaltist Psychotherapist.

Johannes Herwig - Lempp
Systemic Social worker, Supervisor and Trainer, GERMANY

Johannes Herwig-Lempp, a German social worker and professor of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Merseburg/ Germany where he teaches Systemic Social Work (a current approach in Germany, which is solution-focused, resource orientated, and based on constructivism). He has experience with youth welfare services, teamwork,  peer supervision/colleagual counseling, and advanced social work training and supervision. He has authored three books: “Systemic Social Work. Attitudes and Acting in Practice” (2022, only in German), “Resource-Oriented Teamwork” (English version in 2013), and “Drug Addiction as an Explanatory Principle” (1994, only in German) as well as numerous articles. He has organized seven “Merseburg Conferences of Systemic Social Work”.

Lucie Hornova
Ph.D, Clinical Psychologist, Family Therapist, EFTA NFTO Board Member, CZECH REPUBLIC

Larysa Hushchina
Systemic Family Psychotherapist, trainer,  supervisor, family mediator, crisis psychologist, UKRAINE

Larуsa Hushchina is a Systemic Family Psychotherapist, Head of the Systemic Family Psychotherapy Section of the Ukrainian Union of Psychotherapists (UUP). Head of the Dnipropetrovsk branch of UUP, teaching trainer in Systemic Family Psychotherapy, supervisor according to ANSE standards, trauma-focused therapist, family mediator. Crisis psychologist, coordinator of the psychological crisis service of Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk region.

Mija M. Klemenčič Rozman
Social pedagogue, Gestalt experiential psychotherapist, Assistant Professor at University of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Mija M. Klemenčič Rozman is a social pedagogue and gestalt experiential psychotherapist. She works as assistant professor at the Department of Social Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana. Her main topics of research and interest are young people in psychosocial distress, trauma, school-family partnership, mutual-aid groups, professional growth. She has been a director of Institute for Family Therapy Ljubljana and a member of Professional Board of Slovene national gestalt association (SLOGES). She is a counsellor in Psychosocial Counselling office for students of University of Ljubljana and a managing editor of scientific journal Socialna pedagogika.  

Katarina Kompan Erzar
Marital and Family Therapist, Associate Professor at the Theological Faculty University of Ljubljana and Associate Proffessor at SFU Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Katarina K. Erzar is a marital and family therapist, an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at the Theological Faculty University of Ljubljana, and associate professor at SFU Ljubljana. As a therapist works in social welfare as an independent consultant and licensed supervisor in a project "Therapeutic help to families facing emotional, physical and sexual violence", funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs. Her research interests are: parenting, marital relationship and neuropsychological basis of attachment. She publishes her research work in scientific articles and books: The discovery of the relationship, The hidden power of the family, Love heals memory, Sensitivity to children and Attachment theory, Family, the bonds of three generations.

Inga-Britt Krause
Social Anthropologist, Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist & Training & Development Consultant, UK

Dr Inga-Britt Krause, BSc Dip Fam Ther, PhD. Social Anthropologist, Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist & Training & Development Consultant. Britt studied Philosophy and later European Ethnology at the University of Copenhagen. This was followed by Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, UK where she received a BSc and later a PhD. Britt trained to be a Family Therapist in 1989, became employed at the Marlborough Family Service in 1993 and joined the Tavistock Clinic in 2001 in the post of Training & Development Consultant (Race & Equity). She is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a member of the Association for Family Therapy and registered with UKCP both as a systemic psychotherapist and as a supervisor. Britt has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the Himalayas and in the UK and is currently the Lead of the Professional Doctorate in Systemic Psychotherapy in the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust. She is an internationally known psychotherapy teacher, trainer and supervisor, Visiting Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo on the ‘Shrinking the Planet’ project, and consultant to several anthropological research projects.

Ivana Kreft Hausmeister
PhD, clinical psychologist and gestalt experiential psychotherapist, University Children's Hospital Ljubljana, Department for Hematology and Oncology, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Ivana Kreft Hausmeister is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist (EAP, EAGT, SLOGES) working with children, adolescents and adults. She is a full-time clinical psychologist at the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University Children's Hospital Ljubljana where she been working with children and adolescents with cancer and their families. Ivana is also clinical director at The Institute for Family Therapy in Ljubljana, where she also teaches in their gestalt experiential psychotherapy program. In her career she has been active in research areas of adaptation and coping with acute and chronic disease, medical trauma, palliative care and neurooncology. For the last three years she has also been the president of Program commitee of an annual event at The Slovene National Umbrella Association for Psychotherapy (SKZP).

Annete Kreuz
Psychotherapist, Supervisor, Trainer, Advisory Member for Psychotherapy of the National Spanish Board of Psychologists, SPAIN

Annette Kreuz was born in Germany , but lives and works in Valencia (Spain). She became a Clinical Psychologist ( Ministry of Health, Spain ) and is accredited as Psychotherapist and Supervisor in Family Therapy in Spain and Germany. She is honorary and founding member of the Valencian Association for Family Therapy. Since 1992 she is the Director Centro Fase 2 a training centre in Family Therapy She has been General Secretary of several important Spanish and International Psychotherapy Federations, including EFTA ( European Family Therapy Association. EWOK for Family Therapy and Intervention in EAP) and FEAP ( Federación Española de Asociaciones de Psicoterapia , In 2010 she was awarded with the Award for Special Contribution to the work of EFTA. Currently, she is Advisory Member for Psychotherapy of the National Spanish Board of Psychologists , and Member of EuroPsy Specialist European Awarding Committee in Psychotherapy, in Europe, and recently was elected Vicepresident of the RED RELATES (European and Latin American Network for Family Therapy and Systemic Interventions. She is a trained PACT Level II Therapist ( Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy) She is totally convinced that good feedback helps organize research, therapy and training.

Jay Lebow
Senior Scholar and Senior Therapist, Family Institute at Northwestern and Clinical Processor, Northwestern University, Evanston, Il, USA

Jay Lebow, Ph.D., ABPP is Senior Scholar and Senior Therapist at the Family Institute at Northwestern and Clinical Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. He is editor in chief of the journal Family Process. He is author of 7 books including Treating the difficult divorce, Couple and Family Therapy: An Integrative Map of the Territory, Research for the Psychotherapist, Integrative Systemic Therapy, and Common Factors in Couple and Family Therapy, and editor of 8 other volumes including Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy, Handbook of Family Therapy, and Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. He is also author of 200 articles and book chapters, He has engaged in clinical practice, supervision, and research for over forty years, is board certified in couple and family psychology, and is an AAMT approved supervisor He served as President of the Society of Couple and Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association and has received the Society’s Family Psychologist of the Year award as well as the American Family Therapy Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Emmanuelle Lepine 
 Clinical psychologist, family therapist, specialized in post traumatic stress, FRANCE

Emmanuelle Lepine est psychologue clinicienne, spécialiste du stress post traumatique et de la gestion des situations difficiles. Systémicienne, elle a été formée et supervisée pendant de nombreuses années par Mony Elkaïm. Emmanuelle a fondé et dirigé le service de soutien psychologique et opérationnel de la préfecture de police de Paris entre 1994 et 2004, tout en se spécialisant sur l’accompagnement des adolescents dans des contextes difficiles . De 2007 à 2019 elle intervient au service ERIC (Equipe Rapide d’Intervention de Crise) à l’hôpital Charcot (Plaisir) où elle assure la prise en charge de situations d’urgence psychiatrique, ainsi que les consultations en thérapie familiale. Dans le même temps, Emmanuelle Lépine travaille pour différents cabinets spécialisés dans l’expertise et la gestion des risques psycho-sociaux (depuis 2004), et réalise des missions d’accompagnement des directions et des équipes lors de situations de crises aussi bien traumatiques que relationnelles. Elle intervient depuis de nombreuses années auprès des médias sur la question des journalistes confrontés à de nombreux terrains de  guerre. Elle est expert auprès de la cour d’appel de Bordeaux et auprès de la Fondation de France comme membre du comité santé mentale des jeunes et du comité solidarité Antilles .

Eliza Lis
Psychologist, Systemic Psychotherapist, Teacher (in training) and Supervisor (in training) of Systemic Therapy, Wielkopolska Systemic Therapy Association (WTTS), POLAND

Eliza Lis is a psychologist, systemic psychotherapist (2012, WTTS), teacher (in training) and supervisor (in training) in Wielkopolska Systemic Therapy Association (WTTS), Poznan, Poland. She has also been taking part in Emotionally Focused Therapy training process since 2017 and her way of work has been evolving since then.  In her professional practice she derives inspiration from both systemic and EFT approach, emphasizing the use of experiencing emotional work within the frames of systemic model.  

Camillo Loriedo
Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rome, Director of the Italian Institute of Relational Psychotherapy, ITALY

Professor of Psychiatry “Sapienza” University of Rome
Director, Istituto Italiano di Psicoterapia Relazionale, Rome
Director, Scuola Italiana di Ipnosi e Psicoterapia Ericksoniana, Rome
President, Italian Society of Psychotherapy (SIPSIC).
President, Italian Milton Erickson Society (SIME)
President, Italian Society of Hypnosis (SII).
Since 1998, Board of Directors of the Milton Erickson Foundation (Phoenix, Arizona).
Founding Member and Past President, Società Italiana di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Relazionale (Italian Family Therapy Association SIPPR)
Founding President, Italian Federation of Psychotherapy Association (FIAP),
Past-President, International Society of Hypnosis (ISH),
Past-President European Society of Hypnosis (ESH)
Since 2020 Director of the Silent Emotions Center (SE Center - Onlus) Center for Eating Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITIONS
Since 1996: Membership by Special Invitation of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Awarded by the Milton H Erickson Foundation with The Milton H. Erickson Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the field of Psychotherapy, in Phoenix, Arizona (2001)
Awarded by the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) with the Benjamin Franklin Award
Visiting Professor, Health Sciences Faculty, Universidad Fernando Pessoa, Oporto, Portugal (2021).

Authored over 410 scientific papers and 34 books.

Nina Mešl
Social worker, Assistant Professor and Researcher at Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Nina Mešl, PhD, social worker, assistant professor and researcher at Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana. She is an experiential gestalt family psychotherapist. Prior to her employment at the Faculty, she did practical work in the field of social work with children and families. Her areas of research include social work with families, theories of help in social work, and trauma. In recent years, she has researched and published on uses of theory in practice, approaches to developing and using knowledge, and social work with families facing multiple challenges. She has participated in different research projects in various fields (e.g. Erasmus+ LIFE (Learning to Innovate with Families); project “Helping Families in the Community: The Co-creation of Desired Changes for Reducing Social Exclusion and Strengthening Health”; EurofamNet: The European Family Support Network). She presented her research at several conferences, in scientific journals and monographs (e.g.  Mešl, N. (2018). Collaborative social work in the community with families facing multiple challenges. Ljetopis socijalnog rada, 25 (3), 343-367; Mešl, N. & Rihter, L. (2021). Examining the association of the subjective experience of poverty, adverse and positive childhood experiences in the adult population of Slovenia, European Journal of Social Work.

Lieven Migerode
Clinical psychologist, couple and family therapist, ITALY

Lieven Migerode
Social worker, Systemic psychotherapist, Τraining psychotherapist and supervisor, SLOVENIA

Katarina Možina, Ph.D, born in 1973 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I started my studies at the Faculty of Social Work where I obtained a master's degree in social work. For ten years I worked with socially underpriviliged children, adolescents and families. In the meantime, I entered the study of psychotherapy, which I completed with diplomas in systemic psychotherapy and Imago partner therapy and completed training to obtain the titles of training psychotherapist and supervisor. In 2020, I obtained the European diploma in psychotherapy, and in 2021 I completed PhD studies at SFU Vienna with the topic of transgenerational transmission of trauma and survival. Since 2016, I have been working in a private psychotherapy practice and participate in the pedagogical process at SFU Ljubljana as a teacher, training psychotherapist and supervisor. At the same time, since my high school years, I have been working as a volunteer in various programs, in recent years as a counselor and psychotherapist (e.g. Psychological support for the elderly during covid-19 in a nursing home; work in a temporary refugee reception center; occasional pro bono psychotherapeutic services and online counselling). I am constantly pursuing additional education in various areas of professional and personal interest.

Pavel Nepustil
Psychologist, social worker and family therapist, CZECH REPUBLIC

Pavel Nepustil, Ph.D.,  currently works as a family therapist, supervisor and trainer, with a specific interest in drug use, addiction, and mental health. In Brno (Czech Republic) where he lives and works, he designed and led several innovative low-threshold services for people who struggle with drug and addiction issues. His work in this field is mostly influenced by collaborative-dialogic practices greatly inspired by work of Harlene Anderson. Harlene was Pavel´s mentor during Fulbright scholarship at the Houston Galveston Institute (Texas, USA) in 2008. Collaborative-dialogic practices are also in the center of Narativ group that Pavel co-established. Recently, Pavel´s practice has been also greatly influenced by the Open Dialogue approach. In 2020, Pavel graduated  from Trainer’s Training in Open Dialogue (Helsinki, Finland) headed by Prof. Jaakko Seikkula. He also co-established a mutual help group, Recovery Brno, and is a leading trainer of the first Czech training program for recovery coaches. With a group of recovery coaches, he is currently piloting an outreach team offering network meetings in families with drug and addiction problems. He published two books in Czech, one of them (Recovered without treatment) was translated into English.

Valerie O'Brien
PhD, Couple and Family Systematic Psychotherapist,  Trainer, Supervisor, Associate Professor in School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, IRELAND

Valerie O'Brien, PhD,

Qualifications: Couple and Family Systemic Psychotherapist

PhD in Systemic Family Therapy Trainer and Supervisor of the Family Therapy Association of Ireland – FTAI. Statutory Registered Social Work;

CQSW and Masters in Social Work;

Working Context

Associate Professor in School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin - Director of Post Graduate Studies

Associate at Clanwilliam Institute, Dublin: Clinical Practice, Supervision and Research

Private Practice

Trains and supervises teams and professionals in systemic, couple and family therapy.

National Board Membership

Family Therapy Association of Ireland - FTAI

the Irish Council of Psychotherapy – ICP.

Areas of Research/Publication and Conference Presentations

Fifth Province and Systemic Therapies, Child Welfare and Protection; Kinship Care, Foster Care and Adoption; Family and Professional Consultation and Decision Making Models.

Wide experience of presenting key notes, lectures and workshops in Ireland and in International Conferences

Matthias Ochs
Psychological Psychotherapist, Systemic Family Therapist, Lecturer for Systemic Therapy, Hochschule Fulda - University of Applied Sciences, GERMANY

Igor Okron
Training psychoanalyst and supervisor, president of the Slovenian Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, SLOVENIA

Dr. Igor Okorn is a training psychoanalyst and supervisor (IPA) and a member of the Croatian Psychoanalytic Society. He is a president of the Slovenian Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. He is a member of an international psychoanalytic “peer” group Sophia. He also engages in managing and organizing groups and in organizational and group counseling. He works in private practice as psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Valeria Pomini
PhD, Psychologue clinique et Psychothérapeute, Premier Département de Psychiatrie, Faculté de Médecine, Université nationale Capodistria d’Athènes, GRÈCE

​Valeria Pomini, PhD, is licensed Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist at the 1^st Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She works as family therapist and supervisor at Eginition Hospital, at the Family Therapy Unit, of which she is co-founder (1988) and coordinator since 2010. Since 1992, she is co-founder and co-director of the 4-year Training Course in Systemic Family and Marital Therapy at the Athens University Mental Health Research Institute “Costas Stefanis” (UMHRI). She has a wide teaching experience in Greece and abroad at academic master programs of education as well as at institutes providing training in systemic family and couple psychotherapy. She has also experience as team supervisor in several mental health services of the public sector in Greece during the last thirty years. She is author and (co-)editor of several scientific articles and books in Greek, English and Italian. She is founding member and member of the Editorial Board of the journal Systemic Thinking and Psychotherapy, founding member and past-president (2004-2010) of the Hellenic Systemic Thinking and Family Therapy Association (HESTAFTA), and member of the Board of the Greek Federation of Associations of Systemic and Family Therapy “ETHOS”. She is also co-chair of the Committee for Psychotherapy of the Hellenic Psychological Association.

Božidar Popović
Psychotherapist, Lecturer and Advisor at Sigmund Freud Univeristy (SFU), Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

​Božidar Popović was born in 1973. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 1998 and specialised in psychiatry in 2008. Since 2004, he has been working at the General District Hospital in Našice. He completed his education in Systemic Psychotherapy in 2008 and has held the European Certificate in Psychotherapy since 2011. Since 2016, he has been running the private psychotherapy practise "Salutogenesis". Since 2014 he has been a lecturer and supervisor at Sigmund Freud University Vienna - Ljubljana Branch since 2018. Since 2017 he is a PhD student at the University of Zadar in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology.

Peter Rober
Clinical Psychologist, Family Therapist and Trainer, Professor at the Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Medical School, KU Leuven, BELGIUM

Peter Rober, Ph.D, is Professor at the Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Medical School (KU Leuven, Belgium). He is responsible for Context – the Centre of Marital and Family Therapy at UPC KU Leuven. His research focus is on the psychotherapy process in couple and family therapy, and on processes in couples and families (trauma, grief, secrecy, …).  He has numerous publications on these subjects in international peer-reviewed journals (Family Process, JMFT, …). He is the author of In Therapy Together: Family Therapy as a Dialogue (Palgrave/MacMillan, London, 2017).

Peter’s website: www.intherapytogether.com/

Peter’s Youtube channel: https://tinyurl.com/peterroberYouTubeChannel

Viola Sallay
Assistant Professor, Clinical Health Psychologist, Family Therapist, University of Szeged, Institute of Psychology, HUNGARY

https://europeanfamilytherapy.eu/wp-content/uploads/cv-viola-sallay.pdf

Jasmina Sermijn
Clinical psychologist, Systemic therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, BELGIUM

Jasmina Sermijn, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, systemic therapist, supervisor, and trainer. Her main areas of interest are the practise of narrative and collaborative systemic therapy, postmodern philosophy, and especially the ways in which identity is narratively co-constructed in and through interaction and dialogue. Her dissertation explored the interaction between psychiatric diagnoses and the co-construction of the self. She has published several books and articles on this topic.

In her therapeutic work, Jasmina is dedicated to creative collaborative exploration of preferred ways of living with individual clients, families, and small communities. She enjoys crossing boundaries between different fields of practise (philosophy, psychology, theatre, film) and storytelling to expand the possibilities of connecting individual experiences to broader sociocultural contexts. In her training work, she seeks to create collaborative learning communities where people can inspire each other and new ideas can emerge.

Jasmina currently works as a therapist at Hestia - Centre for Psychotherapy. She is a member of the training team of vzw Rapunzel (Diest) & Euthopia (Breda) - both training institutes for family therapy. She is also an associate member of the Taos Institute, trainer of the ICCP community and freelance trainer and supervisor for various institutions and organisations. As a supervisor she is accredited by BVRGS and NVRG.

Günter Schiepek
​Directeur de l'Institut Synergetics and Psychotherapy Research de la Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, AUTRICHE & du Center for Complex Systems, ALLEMAGNE

Günter Schiepek is 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). 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). Accredited trainer and supervisor for Systemic 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.

Lea Šugman Bohinc
Systemic psychotherapist and Supervisor, Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Lea Šugman Bohinc, Ph.D. Psych., ECP, was born in 1964 in Maribor, Slovenia, and works as an Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work (since 2011/2012 Head of the Department of Theories and Methods of Help), and at the Sigmund Freud University - Ljubljana Branch, Faculty of Psychoterapy Science. She is a co-organiser of numerous international social work summer schools. In her private practise she works as a systemic psychotherapist and supervisor. Her scholarly and professional interests include the epistemology of helping and supervision, postmodern collaborative narrative approaches to helping and supervision, collaborative dialogic approaches to social work teaching (including international contexts), social cultural work and creative expressive therapy, and transdisciplinary sciences of complexity such as cybernetics and synergetics. She has been involved in various research projects and published scholarly articles and book chapters, co-authored two scholarly monographs and a handbook.

Umberta Telfener
Health & Clinical Psychologist, Systemic Psychotherapist, Teacher of the Milan Systemic Family Therapy, ITALY

UMBERTA TELFENER, clinical psychologist with a degree in Philosophy and one in Psychology, is a adjunct professor at the PhD Course in Health Psychology of the University La Sapienza of Roma. She has worked in a Public Health Center for ten years and is in private practice since 1980. Actually she supervises the work of professionals and groups both in private and public settings. Teacher of the Milan Family Therapy School (Boscolo & Cecchin), Umberta has edited many books and articles both in Italian and foreign journals, among them a systemic dictionary built as a dialogical hypertext that she edited with the supervision of Heinz von Foerstert (Sistemica, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2003); Learning contexts (Apprendere i contesti Cortina Editore Milano 2011) and Reflexivity in psychotherapy (Ricorsività in psicoterapia, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2014). In the field of postmodern and hypermodern relationships she has published four books on love and relational themes. Among the latest articles The spiritual dimension in psychotherapy in Terapia Familiare N° 107, 2015, and an article in the book by Imelda McCarthy and Gail Simon Systemic Therapy as transformative Practice (Everythingt Connected 2016). Umberta has a website: www.systemics.eu

Sofia Terlez
Clinical psychologist, Couples and Family EFT Therapist, Cofounder of the Ukrainian EFT Association and the Head of the Ukrainian EFT education committee, UKRAINE

Sofiya Terlez is a Ukrainian Living in Belgium for 9 years. She is a clinical psychologist, couples and family EFT therapist, cofounder of the Ukrainian EFT Association and the head of the Ukrainian EFT education committee. During peacetime Sofiya together with her Ukrainian colleagues organised the first peer support groups for EFT therapists and translated conference materials and scientific articles into Ukrainian.
After the military invasion of Ukraine, Sofiya was organising support groups for Ukrainian EFT therapists with Israeli therapists, as well as supervision groups with EFT trainers (USA),who work with military population and survivors of violence. She initiated and implemented a project to pay for charitable counselling. Due to the war, many people cannot afford to pay for counselling. The EFT Foundation, to which our colleagues around the world donate, pays therapists 5 pro bono sessions per month.

Sofiya works at EAP as an management counsellor and since the beginning of the war she has been supporting managers and staff of Ukrainian companies and running group support sessions for international (Sweden, Romania, France) communities regarding the situation in Ukraine.
In her private practice in Brussels she sees Ukrainian families of refugees. 

Erzsébet Fanni Tóth
Psychotherapist, Lecturer and Coordinator of the the International PhD progamme in psychotherapy sciences, SFU Vienna, AUSTRIA

Erzsébet Fanni Tóth, Ph.D, was born in southern Slovakia. She graduated from University College Roosevelt, the international honours college of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Then, she pursued a degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. She was awarded a PhD in Psychotherapy sciences at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, Austria for her dissertation about narrations of traumatic memories.

Dr Tóth is a faculty member of Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, where she lectures in qualitative and arts-based research methods. She also serves as a coordinator of the International PhD progamme in psychotherapy sciences. She is specialized in qualitative and arts-based trauma research and mental health communications. Her further research interests include identity, memory, gender and migration.

Dr. Tóth has been shortlisted for the precious Arc Docendi, the state award for excellence and innovation in higher education in Austria. She has also successfully applied for international project grants and has been managing cross-cultural cooperations. As a multilingual, and an experienced public speaker in the Central-Eastern European region, and a passionate advocate of women’s and children’s rights.

Alexandra-Ariadni Vasiliou
Psychotherapist, Trainer at Processwork Hub, Athens, GREECE

Alexandra Vassiliou, Ph.D, is a Processworker, psychotherapist, conflict resolution facilitator, trainer, and community worker. She was trained in Systems Theory and its Application in the Human Sciences at the Athenian Institute of Anthropos. She later trained in Processwork (Diploma in Process Work) at the Process Work Institute, Oregon, USA, and completed graduate studies in Social Psychology (Ph.D. in Social Psychology) at the Union Institute, Ohio, USA. She lives in Greece, and works locally and internationally, as a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and community worker. She is a founding member of the Processwork Hub in Athens and collaborates with public and private organizations, NGOs, schools and universities. She is a faculty member for training programs in Greece and abroad. She supervises the team of psychologists that work at the LGBT+ Telephone Help Line “11528 - By Your Side'' and is also a member of the Scientific Committee and Training Committee of Orlando LGBT+, a mental health professional organization that specializes on mental health for LGBT+ people. She is interested in human experiences, as expressed through the body, dreams and relationships and the connections between personal and social/political change.

Maria Laura Vittori
Psychologist,  Psychotherapist, Professor at the Guglielmo Marconi University, Member of SIPPR and EFTA, ITALY

She is:

• Registered Psychologist
• Registered Psychotherapist
• Ordinary member of the Italian Society of Relational Psychology and Psychotherapy SIPPR
• Ordinary member of the European Family Therapy Association EFTA.

Her educational path

• 1985: Degree in Psychology with honors at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”;
• 1994: Post graduate degree in relational psychotherapy at the “Centro Studi di Terapia Familiare e Relazionale;
• 2002: Qualification as Trainer and Supervisor at the “Centro Studi di Terapia Familiare e Relazionale”;
• 2020: Pratictioner of Dynamic interpersonal Therapy, certificated by Anna Freud Institute and Tavistock institute, London
• 2020: B2 e (expert) in English certificated in Oxford

                                                              Her professional path

• Since 1990: Manager Psychologist at the public Department of Mental Health;
• Since 2009: Professor at the Guglielmo Marconi University in Rome .

                                                                Books written by her

• Bruni F., Vinci G., Vittori L.: “Lo sguardo riflesso. Psicoterapia e formazione” Armando Editore, Rome, 2010.
• VittoriL.. “Guida al paradigma relazionale. La teoria , la clinica, l’intrinseca bellezza. Franco Angeli, Milan, 2014.
• Vittori L. (a cura di). “Per una Clinica della Gentilezza. Storie di terapia e supervisione” Franco Angeli, Milan, 2019.

Bojan Vukovic
Systemic Therapist, Trainer, Supervisor, Member of the Association of Systemic Therapists, SERBIA

​Bojan Vukovic is a Certified Systemic Family Therapist (ECP) and trainer in Serbia, a member of the Association of Systemic Therapists, training Institute from Serbia. He is a Certified EFT couple therapist and supervisor in supervision.  He has experience working with children and youth without parental care (he worked in an institutional setting and an NGO) Now,  he has a full-time practice in Belgrade, Serbia, working with adults, families with adolescents, and especially with couples.