NFTO Chamber meeting 2022, Bar/ Montenegro

Thursday 26. May Arrival

18:00 Registration

18:30 Opening and cultural event

19:30 Dinner in Hotel Princess (courtesy of our hosts, the Family Therapy Association of Montenegro), seaside walking

Friday 27. May

10:00 – 10:30 – Official greetings from representative of the Montenegro Association, Ministry of Health, Municipality Officials and EFTA President Monica Whyte

10.30 – 11:30 – “OUR STORY” – presentation of Montenegro Association with the history of the beginnings of psychotherapy in Montenegro

11.30-12.00 – Coffee break

 12:00-12:30 – Hans Christian Michaelsen and David Amias – process “On the war around us.”

12:30-13:15

• Matthias Ochs: Empirical Evidence in Family Therapy (15 min)

For the approval of Systemic (Family) Therapy by the German government to get paid by the official health insurance, the hugest (and maybe until then most complete) overview regarding its empirical evidence ever made was carried out – and published in 2017. Some (fun) facts of this overview should be presented.

• Itana Kovačević (30 min) – Presentation of Research Results on The Impact of Covid-19 on Family Functioning in Montenegro

13:15 – 14:30 Lunch

 14:30 – 16:00 – 2 Parallel Workshops

• Lucie Hornova: The Systemic concept of ‘not knowing’ in the medical context

In the last 30 years “not-knowing” position has been one of the essential concepts of collaborative systemic family therapy. Even though collaboration is one of our essential goals, introducing this position into the medical environment seems controversial and difficult. The medical systems seem to be built on “knowing” as a main requirement. “Not knowing” in their perspective is a position reserved for social world only, not for the world of hard medical science. So, how can we use our collaborative expertise in the medical context? How can we bring in the concepts of curiosity and dialogue into the medical treatment? How can we bring these concepts into building multidisciplinary teams where staff enjoys working? This workshop is based on 20 years of practical experience of running a psychology and psychotherapy centre in the hospital context. 

• Julia Hardy: How to extend the verbal field of family therapy with creative technics, psychodramatical methods?

As a trainer in family therapy and psychodrama I can use both methods in making family therapy sessions lively and deep, using the conscious and unconscious level of understanding. These methods, which I show in the presentation can help to discover unknown sides and potencials of family members, widening the resources of the family, the therapeutic process and make family therapy unforgettably colourful, sometimes funny and/or cathartic. These methods can be well used in EFT, and other frameworks.

16:.00 – 16:30 –  Coffee break

16:30 – 18:00 – 2 Parallel Workshops

• Umberta Telfener: Systemic thinking and systemic psychotherapy, the state of the art in Europe

What is the state of systemic thinking and psychotherapy, were are we, how have we evolved after the teachings of the masters of the sixties? Is it possible to pinpoint the different currents of practice?

Where do we come from and where are we going, which are the core aspects of our models. What does it mean to meet a story, a consecution of relationships within a context of which we are an important element. How do we utilize the recent discoveries of neurosciences; how do we include attachment, trauma and dissociation; in which way we utilize the stories told and the ones lived; has imagination become an important part of our practice.

Despite therapy is for practically all of us in different European Countries an ethical practice based on respect, we underline different aspects and propose differences that create a difference. On these differences I would like to reflect with the participants.

I personally would like to stress the importance of procedures in psychotherapy: who to call in, the importance of who sends to psychotherapy, the importance of the analysis of the request and its redefinition, the encounter with the ontological truth of the client, the multiple positioning, the need to be aware of, the possibility of unintended outcomes, the need to make psychotherapy a second order process in which we reflect on our reflections.

• Valerie O’Brien: Fifth Province and the Use of the Diamonds as a Tool for Analysis and Intervention in Systemic Practice

This workshop presents a focus on the fifth province methodology based on the original work of Irish family therapists: Nollaig Byrne, Phil Kearney, and Imelda McCarthy. The approach, especially the use of the diamond tools is ideal for applying to complex systems of which one is a part – participant or intervener. The purpose of the workshop  is to enable through the use of the diamond tool to offer an analysis of the help-giving situation – who is asking us to do what and for whom; and to foster more reflective positioning and knowledge of self. It will be presented through case examples drawn from child welfare, foster care and adoption context and will offer participants an opportunity to apply the ideas to their clinical and supervisory context. 

19.30 Self-paid dinner – Old town Bar

Saturday 28. May

09:00 – 13:00- NFTO Chamber Meeting, with one coffee break

13:00 – 17:00 – Boat tour on lake Skadar (with lunch)

17:15 – 18:30 – Extraordinary EFTA General Assembly

19:30 Dinner in a town restaurant

 Sunday 29. May – Departure

 Some information about the speakers in the scientific programme

Umberta Telfener, Chair of EFTA-TIC, teacher of the Milan School of Boscolo and Cecchin, adjunct professor at the Health Psychology Post Graduate School at the University of Roma La Sapienza.

David Amias, Consultant Systemic Family Psychotherapist, London, U.K.

Matthias Ochs, Prof. Dr. Diploma Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Systemic Family Therapist, Certified Teacher Systemic Therapy/ Counseling, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Hans Christian Michaelsen, Ass. Professor, Psychotherapist. Dep. of Family Therapy and Social Studies, VID Specialized university College, Oslo, Norway

Lucie Hornová, Clinical psychologist, systemic supervisor, and trainer, Czech Republic

Julia Hardy, Ph.D., Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist. Budapest, Hungary

Valerie O’Brian, Ass Prof and Programme Director of MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy at University College Dublin, Ireland