Theoretical Training

In-Depth Study of Theories and Techniques in the School's Orientation

The theoretical and technical training specific to the School's approach addresses, among others, the following macro-topics:

General overview of systemic theory and its evolution from first- to second-order cybernetics
The meaning of the notion of "system" in psychotherapy; initial comparison with other approaches
Circularity in therapy: case formulation and causality
The double bind theory in therapeutic literature: contradictions, paradoxes, and pathogenic vs. creative double binds
Concepts of homeostasis, social matrix, conscious purpose, and the ecology of mind
Contextualization in the formulation of clinical hypotheses
Immanence within systemic thinking
Morphogenesis according to Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana: intensity within relationships
Creatura and Pleroma, map and territory: comparison between Gregory Bateson and Carl Gustav Jung
Revising the concept of neutrality in light of clinical curiosity: losing neutrality
Comparison among different epistemologies: psychodynamic, cognitive, systemic

Distinction between language and languages: the therapist's body in the session
Distinction between emotions (neurophysiological variations), affects (encounters with otherness), and feelings (the expression and meaning-making of bodily variations in relation to alterity)
Bodily communication, non-verbal communication, verbal communication, and the body–mind relationship in development and psychotherapy
Non-signifying languages: babbling, echolalia, glossolalia, musical languages in clinical work
Redundancy as rule, change as difference, observer theory (Heinz von Foerster)
Contextual force and implicative force in human communication
Symmetrical and complementary relationships as dominant relational forms in the Western world; continuous plateau of intensity as typical of Eastern classical relational styles; insights from Bateson, Mony Elkaïm, and Félix Guattari
What a relationship is: beginning observation from the relationship itself; curiosity and tenderness in psychotherapy
Structurally misleading elements in conversational relationships; empathy as a presumptive phenomenon; the evolution of hypotheses
Contradiction, paradox, and double bind in relational practice
Context as virtual text

From psychoanalysis to systemic practice: how systemic therapy emerged
From dyad to triad: the birth of systemic thinking
Structural family theories: generational boundaries, alliances, coalitions (Salvador Minuchin)
Humanistic–existential therapies within systemic practice (Carl Whitaker)
Strategic therapies: from Haley to Psychotic Games by Selvini Palazzoli
Narrative therapies: Foucault's influence on family therapy, Michael White and David Epston
Conversational and dialogical therapies (Goolishian and Anderson)

Gender and psychotherapy: differences and identities
Migration and cultural therapies; cultures, ethno-clinical approaches, territories, and de-territorializations
Different psychopathological frameworks: systemic and contextual interpretations
The Double Bind theory: first version (schizophrenia), second version (creation)
Childhood and adolescence through a systemic–transcultural lens

Difference between therapeutic strategy (Haley) and therapeutic strategizing (Luigi Boscolo and Gianfranco Cecchin)
Circular questions and their use in hypothesis formulation
Reflexive questions as instruments for change
Trigenerational intervention (Andolfi)
The meaning of therapeutic curiosity; Gianfranco Cecchin's lesson
Transference, empathy, and resonance from Sándor Ferenczi to Mony Elkaïm
The importance of temporality in the therapeutic process
Distant origins of pathology in relation to historical–multigenerational context
Neurophysiological origins of pathology (Oliver Sacks)
Eroticism and sexuality in systemic approaches (Georges Bataille, Julia Kristeva)

Historical aspects and evolution of the epistemology of complexity
Historical roots of the systemic approach in clinical practice (from psychoanalysis to Bateson; from Bateson to second-order cybernetics)
The concept of the Observing System (von Foerster)
Autopoiesis theory (Varela and Maturana)
Analysis of the therapeutic space
Constructivism and radical constructivism; distinctions; social constructionism and relational materialism

Narratives in therapy: recounting the origins of "how we find ourselves here, now"
Style in communication (Bateson)
Difference among emotions, feelings, and affects in relationships
Aesthetics of relationships and aesthetics of change (Keeney, Barbetta, Cavagnis, Krause, Telfener)
Sense and meaning in the relationship; the body as a relational system
Human systems as linguistic and bodily systems

Iatrogenic risk (Telfener, Bianciardi)
Institutions, communities, and contexts as elements of well-being and as sources of pathology
The family as a process of meaning-making
Psychopathology as a possible description
Reading psychopathology contextually
Cultural matrices of diagnosis

Analysis of the request and differences among request, need, desire, and participation in sessions
Analysis of context and referral characteristics
Structuring the therapeutic group: reflecting team, use of the one-way mirror, self-reflexive techniques, body-based techniques
Temporality of the clinical process: session duration, spacing between sessions, timing
Creating the therapeutic relationship
Hypnosis and trance in the therapeutic relationship: resources and risks

Phone intake
Family genogram and cultural genogram
The systemic hypothesis process and the use of circular questions
Counterfactual questions — reflexive, triadic — and the subjunctive mode (Goodman, Bruner, Boscolo, Bertrando)
Non-verbal aspects of communication; intuition in psychotherapy
Inquiry and hypothesis building regarding the "story" of the family system
Hypothesizing about the therapeutic relationship and the use of the therapist's feelings
Closing the session: constructions in systemic therapy, reformulation, positive connotation
The therapeutic paradox, prescriptions, and contemporary therapeutic rituals

Analysis of service networks as open and closed systems: structure and identity of a service
The work team as a system
The family–services–therapy system
Working in and with psychopharmacology contexts
From content to process: the relationship among interventions; transforming divergences into complementarities
Specific contexts and their systemic analysis