This Newsletter offers an
update on the NFTO Board activity, following the NFTO Chamber
meeting in May, 2003. There are a number of priorities
for the NFTOs at present. These will be discussed in turn.
1. The Statutes for the
new EFTA
Following our inaugural
meeting in Budapest, 2001, we set ourselves the task of
developing new Statutes for the new EFTA structures, consulting
widely within the Chamber membership of EFTA as we did
so. The Statutes Working Party consists of Jaakko Seikkula
(Finland, NFTO), Annette Kreuz (Spain, TIC), Hugh Jenkins
(UK, CIM). The Statutes will be ready for voting, within
the three Chambers of EFTA, at the Berlin Conference, 2004.
The Statutes needed to reflect
the organizational complexity of the new EFTA, that is,
the Chamber of NFTOs, the Chamber of Training Institutes
(TIC), and the Chamber of Individual Members (CIM). Clearly,
National Associations, Training Institutes and Individual
Members are different, systemically speaking, so we have
had to develop an organizational structure that respects
the needs of all EFTA constituent members, without creating
a context that favours some, over others! Since the Budapest
meeting in June 2001, we have been trying out our new structures
and procedures, so that when we take the step of putting
them to the vote in Berlin 2004, we shall have had some
practical experience to inform our decision-making. The
NFTO Board is pleased to report that so far, the new organizational
structure facilitates our autonomy whilst promoting opportunities
for co-operation with the other two Chambers.
2. Finances
The NFTO Chamber within
EFTA is still new and is trying to establish a financial
basis for its operations. The fee charged to NFTOs for
annual membership is relatively modest, and as such will
constrain the growth of our activities at European level,
on behalf of the NFTOs. We set a significantly reduced
fee for very small countries and for countries with exchange
rate difficulties.
3. Conference
The next EFTA Conference
will be in Berlin, 29th September — 2nd October,
2004, jointly hosted with the two German Systemic Associations,
and led by Kurt Ludewig. This promises to be an extremely
invigorating event, with speakers and workshop presenters
from all over Europe. If you would like further information
about the Conference, have a look at its website: www.efta2004.de
4. Criteria for Family
Therapy Trainers
Following the very successful
work of the Training Standards Committee in agreeing standards
for the training of family therapists in Europe, and now
adopted within EFTA, the Committee have now turned their
attention to developing criteria for the training of family
therapy trainers and supervisors.
The Training Standards Committee
consists of: Roberto Pereira (Spain, NFTO); Peter Stratton
(UK, TIC); Tamas Kurimay (Hungary, CIM); Luigi Onnis (Italy,
TIC); Edith Goldbeter (Belgium); and Ivan Eisler (UK, NFTO,co-opted).
The training criteria for
family therapy trainers and supervisors have been circulated
to the members of the 3 EFTA Chambers for comment and feedback.
Feedback from the NFTOs is required by the 15th of
September, 2003.
The Training Standards Committee
has a 5-step programme:
The training standards criteria
for the training of family therapists can be obtained from
the NFTO administrative secretary, Jannigje Bolk (nfto@nvrg.nl).
5. Relationship with
the EAP (European Association of Psychotherapy)
The EFTA
is represented on the EAP and acts as the "Europe-wide Organization" to
facilitate the award of the Eurocertificate in Psychotherapy.
National Associations that wish to participate, present
their registered family therapy members to the EAP, through
the EFTA, for the award of the Eurocertificate.
6. EFTA Code of Ethics
The original EFTA Ethical
Standards and Code of Conduct for family therapy practitioners
is under revision in the light of the new organizational
structures. Currently we are consulting with the National
Boards of the NFTOs to be sure there are no contradictions
between the new EFTA code and existing National Association
codes of ethical conduct.
7. European Passport
The EFTA
President, Juan Linares has developed the European "passport" with
the help of the Training Institutes and Individual Members
Chambers. The passport facilitates exchanges between trainers
and training institutes. Further details can be obtained
from eterapia@hsp.santpau.es
If you would like to know
more about the activities of the NFTO Board and Chamber,
please contact ArleneVetere (drarlenevetere@hotmail.com)
or Ineke Muinen (m.muinen@introweb.nl).
We look forward to hearing from you.
Arlene Vetere
Chairperson NFTO Board of
EFTA
June 2003
Efta
Family Therapy Training Criteria (Third Draft Nov. — 2003)
Family Therapy Training
should be done by Trainers with an adequate and accredited
level of Experience and Training, specially in the Supervision
of the Therapists.
Training and supervising
requires specific skills and knowledge more than just
having certain amount of post-qualification clinical
experience. A variety of models that can be used successfully
to train trainers (e.g. courses, apprenticeships, mentoring,
etc.)
The European Family Therapy
Association (EFTA) should have criteria to ensured that
the F.T. Training is done by Trainers with enough training
and experience.
This criteria is the
second of a three steps structure that includes Family
Therapy Criteria, already approved, and F.T. Training
Schools Criteria to be developed in a next future.
The EFTA training standard
committee propose next categories of trainers:
1.- Systemic and Family
Therapy Supervisor: The Systemic and Family Therapy
Supervisor is the highest category of trainer. The Supervisor
is qualified to be in charge of the supervision of the
clinical practice, and the training of new supervisors.
2.- Trainer: The
trainer is a full member of a Family Therapy School, either
in transit to the Supervisor category or interested in
the family therapy training, but without interest to became
Supervisor.
3.- Trainer Collaborator: The
Trainer Collaborator is a fully trained Family Therapist
who start the collaboration in a Family Therapy School,
in order to go on the training to become a Trainer; or
a person who is an habitual collaborator
of the school, but is not interested to become a full member
of the school trainers staff, or don’t develop clinical
practice.
and
next minimum criteria for each category:
1.- Systemic and Family
Therapy Supervisor
-
Minimally
two years as Family Therapy Trainer (plus 3 years as
Training Collaborator) with a minimum of 80 hours of
teaching in F.T. Training Courses
-
Minimally
five years of Clinical Experience
-
Minimally
two years of Supervisor learning, in a specific course
or in a Supervision group. The Supervisor training
must include:
-
Minimally
50 hours of Supervision Courses
-
Minimally
50 hours of Supervised Courses
-
Minimally
50 hours of Supervision
-
Be
accepted by a F.T. Training School
2.- Trainer
-
Minimally
three years as Trainer Collaborator, with a minimum
of 100 hours of teaching in F.T. Training Courses
-
Three
years of Clinical Experience
-
Be
accepted by a F.T. Training School
3.-
Teaching Collaborator
-
Be
accredited as Family Therapist
-
Be
accepted by a F.T. Training School
Efta
Minimum Criteria for Training in Family Therapy
General
principles:
In
developing the specific criteria the following general
principles have been used:
A.
Flexibility
Training
in family therapy builds on the theoretical and clinical
training/experience received as part of basic professional
training (in clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work,
etc). The criteria allow for the fact that models of training
in different professions and in different countries vary,
providing different starting points for specialist training
in family therapy. Flexibility is needed both to accommodate
the different learning pathways adopted by different trainings
but also to leave room for developments in the future.
B.
Generality
Wherever
possible the training criteria have been defined at a level
of generality which allows for commonalties between different
models of family therapy training to be identified. This
also allows comparisons with models of training being developed
for other psychotherapies. The proposed criteria for family
therapy compare well in such comparisons in spite of the
fact that in many areas our approach to training is quite
different. The training committee took the view that for
the family therapy criteria to be credible did not require
them to be same as those for other therapies but where
they are different we need to be clear why they are different.
C.
Specificity
There
are aspects of family therapy training that are specific
to family therapy, whether in terms of theory, methods
of supervision or clinical practice. These are made explicit
in the criteria both because of the central role that they
play in family therapy but also because they provide a
rationale for why it is appropriate to retain some of the
differences from other training models.
LENGTH
AND CONTENT OF TRAINING IN FAMILY THERAPY
Specialist
training in family therapy cannot be considered in isolation.
Although, in general, it takes place at a post-qualifying
level, it builds on previous training and previous clinical
experience which is normally gained within one of the mental
health professions. In defining requirements for the overall
length and content of training account has to be taken
of at least the following components:
i)
general clinical training (clinical psychology, psychiatry,
social work etc)
ii)
introductory family therapy training
iii)
qualifying level training in family therapy
Length
and hours of training
The
overall length of training should be no less than seven
years of which at least four should normally be specific
to family therapy. The total number of hours of training
will be of the order of 3 000 - 3 500 of which 700 - 900
hours will be an integral part of the specialist family
therapy training.
Components
of training
A.
Theoretical study and practical teaching
The
knowledge and conceptual understanding that are needed
for a complete family therapy training will be acquired
partly during general training and partly during specialist
family therapy training. Although the way these are be
combined may vary, the following areas should always be
covered:
1)
Theory
- Theories
of individual and family life-cycle development
- Learning
about a range of family forms and different social
systems
- General psychopathology
- Psychological
therapies
- Models of
change
-
Models
of family therapy and their application in different
settings
2)
Research
- Empirical
evidence for family interventions
- Understanding
research methodology
3)
Ethical issues
4)
Skills development
Between
1/3 - _ of the specialist training should be dedicated
to these areas.
B.
Clinical training/clinical experience
Clinical
training in family therapy builds on training in general
clinical skills (usually acquired during basic training)
and general clinical experience which should include experience
of working with a range of mental health problems.
The
main element of specialist clinical training in family
therapy is supervised clinical practice with families.
While a range of different types of supervision may be
used there should always be a significant component of ‘live’ supervised
practice. The clinical component of the training (including
both direct work with families under supervision and observing/discussing
the work of other trainees in a supervision group) will
form 1/3 - _ of the specialist training in family therapy
C.
Personal development
A
significant part of any psychotherapy training is to ensure
that trainees are able to identify and manage their own
personal involvement and contribution to the process of
therapy. The way in which this is achieved during family
therapy training varies considerably. It may include personal
therapy, group work, family of origin work (e.g. using
genograms) or in some cases direct work with ones own family.
Aspects of personal development will also form an important
part of the supervision process. Given the diversity of
personal development work (and the varying needs of individual
trainees), it would be misleading to make specific requirements
for the amount of time that should be devoted to this area
of training. The goal is to increase self-reflexivity of
trainees and their self-awareness as professional family
therapists.
May,
2002
Members
of the Committee:
Tamas
Kurimay, Luigi Onnis, Roberto Pereira ( Coord.)
Advidsory
Members:
Ivan
Eisler, Edith Goldbetter, Peter Stratton
These
criteria are based on the work developed by the efta trainig
Working Party. Thank you to all its members.
