Workshops

Bård Bertelsen
Associate professor Psychology Academic Group Institute of Psychosocial Health Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences , University of Agder
Odd Kenneth Hillesund
(tittel)
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Bård Bertelsen is associate professor of psychology and clinical psychologist with a specialty in child, youth, and family psychology. His research focuses on the social organization of mental health and social services, and existential issues in therapeutic work.

Odd Kenneth Hillesund is assistant professor and family therapist, and head of the family therapy programme at UiA. He has done research on the education of therapists and the organization of knowledge in an intensive family therapy unit.
In a world of life … knotting is the fundamental principle of coherence (Ingold, 2017, p. 10)
In this workshop, we present a paper currently under development. In the paper, we revisit ideas from Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian’s (1992) classic “The Client is the Expert – a Not-knowing Approach to Therapy”, - a text that has been pivotal in the evolution of the linguistic turn in family therapy. In that text, the authors explored how ideas from interpretive and hermeneutic philosophy could inform therapeutic practice.
Currently, the concept of “not-knowing” and the idea that this is a fitting way to identify what good therapists do is met with increasing scepticism. Drawing on Aristotle’s differentiation between three ways of knowing, we argue that both Anderson and Goolishian’s original ideas and the critique that these ideas face today are formulated primarily within the domain of episteme, based on general analytical rationality and derived from epistemology, the study of knowledge. As such, the idea of not-knowing and its knowing counterpart are ultimately tied to theories about the troubles people experience and therapists address (knowing or not).
To move ahead from this conundrum, we perform an aesthetic intervention – adding a “(k)” to the ‘not’ that is found in the title of Anderson and Goolishian’s original text, suggesting that therapeutic practice is, first and foremost, a matter of knotting - making or/and showing knots. This, we suggest, locates therapeutic skills as neither techne nor episteme (i.e. as a question of knowing what is ultimately true or having technical expertise), but rather as phronesis – practical wisdom. As a practical rather than a normative theoretical issue, we suggest that what therapists should know is not how to know or not know most effectively, but rather how to knot. To make this argument, we draw on the anthropologist Tim Ingold’s conception of human lives as lines (Ingold, 2007; 2015; and the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s strange book of poems called “Knots” (Laing, 1970), as well as the far more tangible The Ultimate Encyclopedia of knots & Ropework by G. Budford (2004).
The workshop will contain both a lecture/presentation of our main argument for the idea of therapeutics as knot-knowing, an exercise, and a plenary discussion.
Øyvind Hope, Per Arne Lidbom & Tore Dag Bøe
University of Agder, Norway
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Description: The dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin has been a source of inspiration for the development of dialogical approaches in the mental health field. The ideas that practitioners and researchers build on from Bakhtin’s rich universe seem to be about how human lives are formed through dialogue - both regarding our views of the world and our ways of being/moving within it. A perhaps less known and used perspective comes from Bakhtin’s early essay, Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity (Bakhtin, 1990). There, he elaborates on the idea that for humans to become subjects, the ability and possibility to step out of the dialogue through a “loophole” (p. 40) is essential. We must resist collapsing into the rhythm of the dialogue. Or, as Bakhtin also phrases it, the ethical subject must be “extra-rhythmic” (p. 117) (in the sense of “outside of rhythm”). In the same vein, Bakhtin writes that to become free subjects, we need to liberate ourselves not only from causal necessity but also from “aesthetic necessity”: “By rhythm, I can only be possessed (…) in rhythm I am not aware of myself. (…) In this sense, ethical freedom is not only freedom from causal necessity but also freedom from aesthetic necessity.” (Bakhtin, in Morson & Emerson, 1990, p 194).
In this workshop, we take ideas like these as a point of departure. From this starting point, we explore what happens if we place the possibility of stepping in and out of dialogues as a fundamental condition for our human living and existence. What it means to exist through dialogues cannot be reduced to our constant presence in the responsivity that dialogue offers. To exist literally means to step out, out-stepping (ex-sistere)1. This suggests that existing as a subject is about a kind of dialogical loop where we from inside the dialogue, step out, break with, the formative dialogues - but only as a move to make a comeback to the dialogue and “introduce” something new that may interrupt the coherent flow of events.
In our workshop, we invite participants to ponder what a concern for stepping in and stepping out, being extra-rhythmic, and attention to loopholes in dialogue may bring about. We relate this to three different settings explored in three different research projects. First, a study exploring the interplay between inner and outer dialogues in network meetings. Second, a study exploring how the landscapes of the communities may be helpful. Third is an exploration of a 17-second sequence from an encounter between a girl and a mental health practitioner.
Format: In the workshop, we will offer short presentations from the facilitators, with some presentations of our research on the topic we address and some reflections. The workshop will invite responses through the method of “the Fishbowl”, where the participants can step into a separated small group of chairs, where they can choose to go and sit down to offer their comments or reflections on the main topic or on what the others in “the Fishbowl” are saying before they step out of “the Fishbowl” again and into the group of the listening participants. We will conclude with a short plenary session for final remarks.
Kristina Edman
Malmö University, Sweden
Kristina Edman is a doctoral candidate at Malmö University, where she analyses children’s involvement (sometimes called participation) in audiovisual recordings of child and family therapy sessions.
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Background and purpose: Children have the right to be involved in practices that address their needs, but little is known about how children exercise involvement in child and family therapy sessions. We therefore set out to identify and describe how children exercise involvement in these settings. Methods: We conducted a detailed analysis of audiovisual recordings of therapy sessions involving children and families. Findings: Our analysis generated six dimensions to how children exercise involvement in child and family therapy sessions: (1) participatory, (2) directive, (3) positional, (4) agentive, (5) emotional, and (6) narrative. Together, these dimensions form a compass, illustrating that one dimension of involvement does not necessarily exceed, nor precede, another dimension. Conclusions and implications: This study challenges the conventional belief that the more involved a child is the better. Instead, we introduce a non-hierarchical and non-linear compass that may lay the groundwork for a deeper understanding of children’s involvement in therapies. Put differently, the results suggest that children’s involvement is more diverse and more complex than any single ac
Ulrika Ernvik
MSW, Licensed psychotherapist with family and systemic orientation
Supervisor, speaker and author
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In 2015 many children and teenagers came on their own to Sweden as refugees. Many of them were severely traumatized by their experiences of war and escape. They came to foster families and homes, who asked for help to support these children and teenagers in the recovery from their traumatizing experiences. I saw a big need of a model that could be used by adults not trained in psychological treatment or psychotherapy, and based on the latest decades of research within the fields of neurobiology, memory consolidation and trauma I developed what I came to call SafetyStories.
In SafetyStories we bring in an imagined safety person into the traumatizing event through visualization, which will make the memory re-consolidate with feelings of safety instead of feelings of horror. The trauma story and the new safety story will then be told back as a fairy tale, weaved into a time story that help those who are traumatized to realize that they are not in danger any longer. SafetyStories has shown to work very well with families who have experienced trauma. Each family member can invite their own safety person, and the magic story will be a powerful family story of power and hope. The storytelling will also reinforce the bonds between the family members.
The presentation will include a summary of the research that SafetyStories is based on, as well as a review of the ten steps of the SafetyStories process.
Anne Marie Fosse Teigen
Bufetat
Anne Marie Fosse Teigen is a Specialist in Clinical Family Psychology, non-fiction writer and couples course developer with first-hand experience of being neurodivergent. She works part-time, mainly with teaching, supervising and writing about existential and relational effects of neurodivergence.
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I was a seasoned couples and family therapist, supervisor, and couples course developer when I in 2016, teaching my first group of ADHD-affected couples, discovered the powerful existential and relational effects of adult neurodiversity. UnCl then, for nearly three decades as a psychologist, I hadn’t had a clue about how these brain differences could affect the lives of my course participants and clients. It was equally unexpected to realize that I had stumbled upon a tribe, to which I myself belonged.
The next couple of years I and a colleague developed a psychoeducative course for couples where one or both have ADHD. I continued to look for science-based knowledge about existensial and relational aspects of adult ADHD and was regularly astonished by the scarcity of relevant research. Adult neurodiversity and neurodiverse couplehood also seemed to be unchartered territory on the family therapy map. At the same Cme the couples I worked with conveyed heartbreaking – and oMen highly similar – stories about how traditional therapy had failed to help them.
In this workshop I hope to convey some of what I have learnt about adult neurodiversity, neurodiverse couplehood and neurodiverse parenthood during the last years – both from a personal and a professional perspective. The workshop may cover phenomena your neurodiverse clients will be forever grateful that you knew about. Because, when it comes to neurodiversity: What you don’t know that you don’t know, can actually do harm
Juha Metelinen
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Background and purpose of the presentation;
Suicide rates in Finland and in Europe have been decreasing over the years, but suicide attempts and self-harming are still very common. In Finland, self-harming is a very common symptom with adolescents in psychiatric services. When an adolescent attempts suicide, it is a crisis for all the family members. Too often parents have experienced that they do not get enough help and are left alone with this awful crisis. They often feel that they do not know what to do and how to handle the situation. We know that a previous suicide attempt is the key risk factor for suicide.
Mieli Finnish Mental Health is a mental health association, nowadays funded by the Finnish government. In 2012, the organization started a project “Attempted suicide short intervention program (ASSIP)” (translated in Finnish LINITY) for clients who have attempt suicide. The intervention model was developed by Konrad Mitchel and Anja Gysin-Maillart in the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland. The idea of ASSIP is to prevent suicide attempts In 2018, the project changed to a permanent service and we named our service the Suicide Prevention Center. It operates in Helsinki and Kuopio.
A few years ago in our Suicide Prevention Center, especially in Kuopio, there was a wave of adolescents coming to the ASSIP intervention. We soon realized that we needed a service for parents and the adolescents to talk together about the suicide crisis, as we call the crisis after the suicide attempt. At that time the family intervention was designed with the co-operation of the Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic in Kuopio University Hospital. We started working together with “the experiment” in the beginning of this year 2022 in Kuopio.
A summary of the main points of the presentation;
In this presentation the ASSIP model and the model for the family intervention “experiment” will be introduced with the underpinning philosophy. The family intervention model is developed from the ASSIP model and using Attachment Based Family Therapy Theory. The key factors are working with high risk, safety, and attachments. We believe that the parents and family are a very important safety net for the youth. Our task as professionals and family therapists is to help parents and families with that.
Implications of your presentation for practice.
Suicide attempts and self-harming are part of the family therapy processes many times. It is very important to understand what suicide crises means to families and how could we help families with after suicide attempts and self-harming.
Jacob Cilius Vinsten Christiansen
UCL Erhvervsakademi og Professionshøjskole
jchu@uc.dk
Mette Strange Ørum
UCL Erhvervsakademi og Professionshøjskole
mebr1@ucl.dk
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My presentation will be focusing on, how the post-humanistic and more specific, the New Materialistic approach can be implemented into the practice of a systemic therapist. The presentation will discuss the problems and dilemmas that arise when we as practitioner’s change our perspective from a socialconstructionist on to a perspective that in a larger scale considers, what the material world wants to do with us. What reflections on our position as therapists are coming to life in this perspective, and how can it affect our clients.
The presentation will be done upon my reflections following my dissertation centering on young adolescents and their ways of mastering their anxiety.
Anne Grasaasen
Associate professor in Family Therapy and Systemic practice and family therapist
Vid Specialized University, Oslo
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From a social constructionist perspective, it will become visible in the workshop how we are our relationships. I will portray myself as a researcher, family therapist, author, mother, grandmother, daughter, and partner. And everything is woven together.
About autoethnographic research in family life and the use of the method to understand the narratives from three generations of women encountering family therapy.
Autoethnography is a postmodern analysis method where the researcher is also an informant, thereby being their own source. In an interactive workshop, I aim to inspire the use of autoethnography within the field of family research. Initially, I will reflect on how the familial aspect provides access to study both the ordinary and every day, and the complex and difficult in intimate relationships and situations. Life experiences and crises involving parents and children, relationships and friendships can thus be presented from an insider perspective. Autoethnography can thereby provide different knowledge about family life. Furthermore, I will have two main focuses:
- How can personal experience be used to write scientific knowledge?
- How can we take care of research ethical implications?
As an example, I will present the study "My mother, my mirror?". The study's data material is my mother, my daughter, and my own narrative about experiences with family therapy during relationship breakdowns, described from my perspective, in the present. At the same time, it is a longitudinal presentation over 50 years, from when the field of family therapy came to Norway and until today.
Common in the narratives is how shame has been prominent for all three. Also common is how the shame can be related to how we experienced the power through professional practice to be strongly shaped by discourses of the time.
Rolf Sundet
University of South-Eastern Norway
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This workshop starts with a claim: In the actual event of practicing family therapy, theory is not primarily about explanation and understanding. Theory, as a grouping of concepts and their relationships, is primarily tools for thinking which again has as its main attention how to make opportunities for bringing forth a more livable life for the families that comes to us? In this workshop I would like to present ideas and concepts by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and what they have helped me think, and what those thoughts suggest concerning the actualisation of therapy together with families.
One line of thinking concerns ontology. Ontology can be seen as the absent but implicit of family therapy. The last 30 years have had an increasing focus on questions of epistemology. Questions concerning what knowledge are how to get it and how to use it? So strong has this focus been that we seem to have lost the central definition that Gregory Bateson left us with: Epistemology and ontology cannot, in practice, be separated. Any claim about knowledge implies ontology and any ontology gives claims about knowledge.
Central to Bateson`s epistemology/ontology is difference. The workshop will introduce thoughts around an ontology of difference and invite the participants to have a dialogue on what such an ontology would imply for us practicing family therapy? Central will be how to break the dominant perspective in theory as tools for explanation and understanding, and instead give a better position to theory and theorizing as practice tools for thinking and making helpful forms of practice.
Liv Heidi Koppang
Halvor De Flon
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The systemic field has since its origin been influenced and inspired by different theories such as General Systems Theory, Communication Theory and philosophical perspectives such as Constructivism, Social constructionism and Poststructuralism . What the Philosophical perspectives have in common is that they can all be defined within postmodern philosophy.
Lately Critical Realism, which can be described as a philosophical perspective of science, has been presented by practitioners such as Peacock and researchers such as Lorås and Tilden as a perspective that can contribute to a deeper understanding of the many phenomena that practitioners meet in contact with clients and patients. Critical Realism offers an ontology that claims that there is a reality beyond and independent of the language which distinguishes it from postmodern perspectives.

A summary of the main points of the presentation.
• What is Critical Realism?
• What is the difference between Critical Realism and postmodern perspectives?
• Does Critical Realism and postmodern perspectives exclude each other?
• How can Critical Realism contribute to development of practice and research?
• Practical clinical examples.

Implications of your presentation for practice.
- Can be understood within the framework of Critical Realism, which may lead to a practice and research more adapted to peoples lives.
Katarina Fagerstrom
Social worker, family therapist, developer and trainer in the Systemic child protection practice approach in Finland
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As a family therapist in child protection, I have noticed that parents can be left alone when they cannot handle their child’s substance misuse, agressive behaviour or self destruction any longer and when child protection services and placing the young person outside home becomes the last option for the family.
The Non Violent Resistance NVR and New Authority approach has been developed for twenty years, mosty in Israel and the german speaking countries in Europe. It is influenced by thinkers as Mahatma Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King’s ideas of resisting all kind of violent behaviour. In the NVR-group parents get support from each other and concrete tools to respond to the adolescents provocations. The main focus in the group is parents’ self reflection and ability to ask for broader support to build up trust and understanding towards their child.
During the years 2021-2022 A twelve session group for parents was piloted in child protection in the ItäUusimaa region in Finland, as an attempt to strengthen co-operation between child protection and substance misuse treatment for adolescents. The pilot was arranged and financed by the project Tulevaisuuden lastensuojelu – The Future Child Protection in Southern Finland. An other goal was to develope further tools for systemic child protection.

Terje Tilden,
PhD, Modum Bad Research Institute, Vikersund, Norway

Co-authors:
Kristoffer Whittaker, Jesper Dammeyer, Sverre Urnes Johnson, Johanne Elise Bæverfjord, Solveig Tilden, Joanna Rzadkowska
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In couples therapy clients often suffer from a blend of severe relational distress and individual psychiatric symptoms. Clinically, the decision of whether to address the symptoms, the relationship dynamics, or both represents a considerable challenge. From a systemic point of view it could be assumed that focusing on one or the other has marginal significance, as change one place in the system would impact the adjacent systems in a circular interchange. It could also be argued that the focus of choice in treatment is not the therapist’s task, but should be directed by the clients’ wish, need and goal. Viewing this dilemma from a research perspective, it becomes imperative to scrutinize theoretical, value-based and ideological perspectives that accordingly could complement systemic theory with empirical support. Studies on whether relational change predicts symptom change or vice versa are however so far inconclusive. The body of knowledge on this topic also addresses appropriate analytic approaches in order to capture the nature of couple therapy. In particular, it is recommended to analyze quantitative data on a dyadic level and not only at an individual level. This presentation will report results from dyadic analyses done on a sample of 138 couples attending couple therapy at the Family unit, Modum Bad, Vikersund, Norway. These results will be discussed in relation to previous findings that applied analysis at an individual level. Potential clinical implications of the findings will be discussed.
Steinar Sunde
Psykologspesialist Familievernkontoret i Romsdal
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"Littsint" has been developed within family counseling since 2008 to reach as many as possible among these 150,000 families with research-based knowledge. "Littsint" has been developed with support from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (BUF-dir) and the Child Welfare Services (BUF-etat) based on research that showed that violence against children in Norway was more common and harmful than previously believed (Mossige 2007, Filetti 1998).
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) defines coercive violence as parenting based on fear instead of trust. Littsint.no aims to assist as many parents as possible in transitioning from fear-based to trust-based parenting.
"Littsint" is a free online self-help portal that disseminates research-based therapy and parenting guidance in 11 languages. The overarching goal is to enhance parents' regulatory skills and promote trust-based parenting.
The program includes sixteen films, an app, a PowerPoint presentation, and the dissemination of research in 11 languages, guiding parents through the first four anger management sessions they can receive at a family counseling office, with exercises between each session.
The program is intended for use as self-help for parents but provides links to all family counseling offices, child welfare offices, and Brøset groups for those seeking more assistance than self-help.
In recent years, there have been 60-100 new users of the material every day, and all languages are in use.
Recruitment takes place through the website Littsint.no and the regular support system in both primary and secondary care services. There have been approximately 20,000 new users of the website each year for the last 5 years.
Courses in the "Littsint" material are financed by the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (BUF-dir) and the Child Welfare Services (BUF-etat), and therefore, they are free for family counseling and public health nurses. All "Littsint" material is freely available, including videos, an app, and PowerPoint presentations in 11 languages for professionals who wish to teach, for example, parents in schools, kindergartens, or refugee services.
"Littsint" has been implemented in family counseling through three workshops in 2012, 2014, and 2022, conducted locally at over 90% of all family counseling offices. Open Teams guidance sessions are offered to Family Counseling every Monday from 10:00 to 11:30 for the maintenance of the "Littsint" material, as requested by the family counseling services.
"Littsint.no" has been integrated into the material "I trygge hender" used by public health nurses at health centers to prevent, detect, and avert violence.
The portal will be presented- in an interactive way.
Yngve Kolltveit
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In this workshop, we will give a presentation on our current research on EFST in a specialized mental health care clinic. Additionally, we will invite participants to gain firsthand experience with the use of a newly developed scale for measuring the quality of therapy.
EFST is a parent guidance intervention with the aim of alleviating mental health difficulties by guiding parents to assist their children in recognizing and coping with their emotions.
Due to a lack of research into the effects and mechanisms of change in EFST in specialized mental health care, we began with two doctoral studies. We will present this research:
1. Effectiveness of EFST: Presenting a Randomized Controlled Trial. By Linda Severinsen. The RCT project will be presented along with preliminary results.
2. The mechanisms of change: How does EFST cause change? The primary aim of this mixed-methods study is to provide knowledge and possibilities for improvements in EFST. By Yngve Kolltveit
In the last part of the workshop, participants will gain insight into how we have developed the EFST scale to measure quality in therapy. Participants will have the opportunity to put it into practice by scoring a therapy session on the EFST scale. Finally, there will be room for reflection and discussion on how we can use the scale in daily clinical work in general and in further development of EFST.
Anna Margrete Flåm
Institute of Psychology, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
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Force and dialogue? How can many folded voices, contrasts, and opposition be invited into therapy when violence happens in families with children and family therapy is mandated by the Childcare System?
Lately, substantial research has underlined the need to strengthen two research areas in family therapy work: 1) The inclusion of children into family therapy and 2) the understanding of consequences of violence for children and their families. In this workshop family therapy is shown where therapy is mandated by Childcare System (CCS) after rapports about violence in the family, and the family, children, and network included into mandated family therapy. The workshop explores the following questions:
· How can mandated therapy be entered to invite collaboration?
· How can unwillingness and direct opposing voices be opened?
· How can contrasting and divergent voices be included, become helping, and mutually contribute towards change throughout the work?
· How can voices of children be included to inform and form the work?
· How can CCS be included during the work in accordance with its judicial obligations?
· How can feedback-informed instruments be incorporated?
The presentation will present the collaborating approaches, the understanding of knowledge lying beneath, and what results the work gave.
The presentation invites into discussion: Is this a not-seen area, as the research claims it is? Does family therapy more easily neglect some kinds of family violence by constructing a family therapy context? Is it so that including the voices of children is necessary? Is it so that dialogue can be combined with mandating therapy?
The presentation illustrates ways to handle such concerns and invites reflections among participants.
Frode Pedersen
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The conference’s main focus is about diversity. I’ve been privileged focusing on one specific aspect linked to diversity in the family therapy field.
In 2017 I finished my master degree in family therapy at VID focusing on couples where one of the two had a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. After that I was privileged to get public support developing the couples course “the two of us and ASD”/Oss to og ASF.
The first course was held January – 21, and the 11th course will take place late November this year. Alongside I’ve also had many couples joining couples therapy in my daytime work at Grenland familytherapy office in Skien.
If I’m given the chance to contribute on next years conference, the focus will be on providing some understanding and also sharing some experiences from my practice working with neurodiverse couples – more specific couples where on of the partners functions neurotypically whilst the other is functioning on the spectrum. The essential idea will be about paying attention to a difference making a difference – not forgetting the vast possibilities provided with a good relation between the two.
Karianne Nguyen Knudsen
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In 2018, the family counselling office in Drammen, a part of The Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat), initiated new approach to support families with complex social challenges after relationship ending. The proportion of children in families with low income in Norway, is highest in Drammen and Oslo. 28% of children in Drammen have immigrant background and their parents are overrepresented in the low-income statistics, with many children, low education, weak professional connections to the labor market and high dependence on public support schemes.
A multidimensional approach with diversity-perspective on culture and social dimensions, and knowledge of human rights and legal certainty has expanded understandings of complex social problems in families. The therapist’s self-reflection, awareness of diversity and social problems were important for therapists’ understanding and coping of complex problems in the family. The program was also important for clients’ feedback opportunities, witnessing their own feedback having impact and triggering cross learning.
The program uses a model consisting of three thematic modules of well-being and life coping: 1) Myself, 2) Me and Others, and 3) Me in the World.
The program is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the state family counselling office, non-profit organizations and the social service.
The national center of excellence for parental support and prevention (SKM) has been assigned responsibility for national implementation of the program in the state family welfare service.
The program and method will be presented in an interactive way with the use of reflecting processes.
John Vatne
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The Norwegian family service is mandated to assist families’ relational challenges to facilitate good and healthy conditions for the children to grow up in. Children growing up in an environment with anger issues and violence are prone to psychological challenges later in life.
Working with anger issues with the parents needs a parallel process of repair with the child. The southern region has developed a pilot that started early 2023 and will be running for three years at several locations. An evaluation will follow with a potential for scaling up to national level.
The parents participate in a course where they commit to 15 sessions (two hours each) over 15 weeks. The child participates at three stop points. With the parent before the onset of the course, midway and at the end. A guide has been prepared for each of the conversations with key topics to be covered like a semi-structured conversation with the therapist following the child's initiative.
The theoretical framework builds on Antonovsky`s theory of how sense of coherence will strengthen the child. Psychoeducation and mentalization training are essential within the sessions. The goal being that an understanding of the family history will strengthen the attachment between the child and parents. The preliminary findings indicate an increased understanding for the child of their own feelings, needs, thoughts and intentions in relation to the parent’s anger.
Espen Warankov Godø and Andreas Brede
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Men sometimes feel alienated within the frames of a Family Counselling Office, which might contribute to less successful outcome of therapy and might prevent men from seeking therapy. In a two-year (and counting) project we have invited men into group therapy based on ideas from Open Dialogue and Narrative Therapy where we have inquired into how therapy should be conducted to be sensitive to male needs.
At this workshop we invite the participants to a short presentation of a two-year group therapy project we have run for men only. We will first give a very brief overview of the project and share the experience from ourselves and the participants, such as the importance of personal involvement form the therapists, how a calm atmosphere fertilizes the inner dialogues, and the value of personal stories in other participants lives. Then we would like to invite up to six male volunteers to a simulated closed circle group therapy session where we play with some of our experiences for the men’s group. Other participants are invited to observe from outside the circle. After this session, we will open for dialogue with all workshop participants and specifically tune in to experiences the volunteers had.
Allan Holmgren
NUTS: Narrative Therapy and Teaching / DISPUK, Denmark
holmgren@dispuk.dk
Allan Holmgren is the founder of DISPUK in Denmark, one of the leading institutes for narrative therapy and practice. Allan invited Michael White to come to Denmark already in 1987. He has collaborated with Michael White since then until his sudden death in 2008. Allan is an expert in family therapy.
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The workshop will consist of a presentation of my basic ideas about what the systemich therapies are missing. There will be clinical examples to illustrate the theoretical considerations.
My point of departure will be in narrative psychology, poststructuralist philosophy and new phenomenology.
Thomas Persson
Licensed psychologist, licensed psychotherapist, supervisor and teacher in family therapy
thomas.persson@norrbotten.se
I have experience in adult psychiatry, child and youth habilitation, child and youth psychiatry and currently work in first-line psychiatry with children, youth and their families in Luleå, Norrbottens län, northern Sweden.
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A new systemic approach: Systemic work with the KOSKI-model
With the KOSKI-model (Mapping of Causes, Symtoms and Consequencies in daily life, and Intervention planning) the client, family and the therapist have listed the factors that they perceive are associated with the current problems. The client have also ranked the factors in each category according to their importance. The KOSKI-model results in a map of bio-psycho-social factors of importance for the current problems. The map with its parts is assumed to represent a system with elements connected to the current problems. Next the client is given the task to draw lines between the parts of the map that he/she experiencies are associated with each other. The resulting systemic map show the client’s highlighted connections between parts of the system. Based on this systemic map the therapist formulates a systemic hypothesis and construct a problem chain. The therapist then presents the problem chain as a proposal to the client and family and work on it until they agree on a problem chain. Next the therapist propose interventions directed towards the chain links. The purpose with the interventions are to influence and change links so that the current problems are reduced or stopped. In the treatment process, the therapist uses the problem chain as an educational tool to increase the client’s and family’s understanding of how different parts or factors are connected and influence each other and contribute to the current problems.
I would like to present the approach in a roleplay (=more informative and fun) or in a lecture.
Åse Holmberg
Associate professor VID Specialized University
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As human beings, we are affected by not only our immediate family but also by what happens in our relationships, surroundings and society at large. We live in a time with great global challenges, and pandemics, wars, hunger, suffering and environmental disturbances can make youth uncertain about life and the future.
In Norway, 9% between the age of 15-29 are without work, practice or education. Many young people struggle with psychological challenges. Is society in an existential crisis - and in which way include family therapists' existential perspectives in their work with the youths?
This presentation addresses a study where ten youths were interviewed on how they frame and reflect upon their existential experiences in Norway. Adopting a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach, it explores and analyses how they feel their existential experiences impinge on their self-perceptions, meaning-making and social relationships and how these affect their existential health.
The findings show that they experienced existential challenges related to poverty, loneliness, meaninglessness and fear of death, which undermined their existential health. Nevertheless, they had dreams and hopes for the future, and there is a need to try to encounter their existential needs, enable them to build adequate relational support and mobilise their hopes and dreams.

Lennart Lorås,
PhD, Professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and adjunct professor at VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway.
Terje Tilden,
PhD, Senior Researcher at Modum Bad Research Institute, Vikersund, Norway.
Jan Stokkebekk,
PhD, Senior Adviser/Family Therapist MA, National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services.
Kristoffer Whittaker,
PhD-candidate at Modum Bad Research Institute, Vikersund, Norway, psychologist at Norwegian Family Counselling Services Nedre Romerike.
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Part 1: Systemic practice and research: Dilemmas and possibilities. (Lorås & Tilden)
Part 2: The need for a unique research training program in systemic practice. (Stokkebekk & Whittaker)
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Although the field of systemic couple and family therapy (CFT) represents a multitude of therapeutic approaches, a handful of influential systemic CFT researchers select only limited methodological approaches based on their own preferences. We find this concerning as it implies that systemic practitioners may earn biased attitudes towards certain systemic approaches with relevance for clinical practice as well as research. In contrast, this workshop will rather advocate the common principles of Evidence Based Practice as they capture the entire variety of systemic practice’s existing knowledge as well a guidance for conducting research. From this perspective, systemic CFT research should be described in a unique training program that covers all relevant research approaches and designs. The acknowledgement of our field being multidisciplinary with inspirations from a variety of ideas and professional traditions, conducted by practitioners with different professional origins, needs to be reflected in such a program. A systemic CFT research program is also reasoned by the growth of systemic family therapy as an academic discipline in line with the goal of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA), that is: "to achieve recognition for family and systemic therapy as a distinct, scientifically-based form of psychotherapy practice and to ensure rigorous standards of training and professional practice throughout Europe". Our presentation will point to novel research method advancements that should be acknowledged as very relevant for our field of study. Accordingly we advocate the future family therapist being characterized by making use of research-based approaches as well as conducting own research.
Mirjam Østevold,
Family therapist, Department of Oncology and Medical Physics, Haukeland University Hospital
Assistant Professor, VID Specialized University.
mirjam.ostevold@vid.no
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This presentation will present my doctoral research with men post cancer treatment.
Findings displayed the men's thoughts related to being a man with reduced functional capacity, how they wanted to display self to their surroundings in line with their experience of expectations of their role as men.
It seemed the illness changed the self of the men. Through the different groups, a pattern of the individual men struggling alone and to live up to their masculine ideals emerged. The groups enabled them to re-construct masculinity based on their shared position, within a positivity discourse. The study described the context in which the men create meaning, by showing a divergence from the relations to female values, the influences of the masculine hegemony and their relations to each other. The findings from this study may give systemic therapists an expanded understanding of Norwegian (or Nordic) ideas about gender differences. It may provide tools to challenge thoughts and ideas about masculinity, which can help men create narratives about themselves as competent and in control of their own lives after suffering from illness.
Munch wrote: «In us are worlds”. I believe this presentation may reflect how masculinity of these men constantly move and develops between themselves and their surroundings.
Lotta Beskow
A granddaughter wishing to honour her grandmother, who could portray the spirit of nature like no other.
Elsa Beskow invited us all to share the flowers’ dance But are her fairy tales today of any relevance?”
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Elsa Beskow, born Maartman (1874-1953) was
a Swedish – or half-Norwegian – artist and author of children’s books. Beskow was a contemporary of Edvard Munch, but being a woman, she had slightly different preconditions for her artistry. Beskow completed her art education at Tekniska skolan (later Konstfack) in Stockholm and she worked as a teacher for some years before starting to create picture books. Her books have been translated to 20 languages all over the world and read to generations of children. At least in Sweden, they are still being printed in new editions and varieties and they sold more than 50 000 copies in 2022.
Being a grandchild of Elsa Beskow, I have of course grown up with her pictures and stories. For me, Elsa’s art and her world of fairy tales is a flourishing world that I carry within. Although we never met, she has taught me some of her ways to view the world. Inspired by the theme of the congress and honouring Elsa Beskow’s 150th anniversary, I would like to explore and present some of Elsa’s less well-known works. Some of her fairy tales comment on themes which seem very relevant today. The dissemination will include loved paintings as well as trolls, kings and clever princesses, an absent-minded professor with an unruly son and a bold blueberry mountain. Some questions seeking answers: Is education best managed by a machine? How should the authorities handle a piece of wild nature, when suddenly placed in the middle of a town? And what is this thing called truth?
Ingrid Myhr Hough
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Clinic at Nord-Trøndelag Hospital Trust is one of the few clinics where systemic theory and practice is the main approach. The child is the referred patient but the whole family stays in an apartment located at the hospital, participating in the treatment process. Families are referred from out-patient teams in the clinic, where basic assessment and treatment has started. A multi-disciplinary team consisting of family therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists tailors treatment to families and helping systems identified goals.

A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN POINTS:
One of the core components of treatment is focusing on families as “expert by experience”. The team holding expertice in facilitating a context for circular curiosity and change, as well as clinical expertice.
While the child is the primary focus for the treatment, the parenting system is given the responsibility for creating a context for change, first and second order. The system; both extended family and professionals in the community are included in the process.
Reflecting processes and transparency are valued, creating space to bring forth multiple voices within the family and the helping system. The teams reflection opening up for difference.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:
In our experience a systemic perspective is an important supplement to other treatment methods. Aiming to bring forth excisting narratives in and around the child and family, witnessing new narratives towards the end of admission.
Rune Zahl-Olsen,
Sari Lindeman
Sari Lindeman (PhD), Family Therapist, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
slin@hvl.no
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There are licensed leaders of the Gottman Seven Principles Couple Enhancement Program (G7P), offering the course in more than 45 countries. In Norway, more than 200 leaders have been trained and offered the program to couples in schools, kindergartens, churches, and online to several hundred couples.
Methods: In this oral presentation, a qualitative and a quantitative study will be presented. The qualitative study interviewed participants about their experience with the course as well as its usefulness. The quantitative study included 490 participants and 242 people in the control group. The revised dyadic adjustment scale (RDAS) was used to assess the quality of their relationships before and after program participation and at the six-month follow-up.
Findings: From the quantitative study: Using propensity score matching, people from the control group were compared to participants providing causal estimations. The results show evidence that the Gottman Seven Principles course leads to improved couple relationships and that it is equally effective when delivered in person or online. Furthermore, it does not matter whether there are professional therapists delivering the course. From the qualitative study: Four interconnected themes with related codes were identified: 1) Reasons to attend; 2) Experiences of course organisation; 3) Impacts of the course on couple relationship; 4) Motivation to devote more time to couple relationships.
Conclusions and implications: For the practice field, it is of interest that large online courses can be experienced as successful as smaller and more intimate in-person courses with few participants if the course is well planned and led.
Pål Erik Carlin and Jan Frode Snellingen
Pål Erik Carlin is a Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist and Jan Frode Snellingen is a Social Worker/Clinical Specialist and Family Therapist
They are both working in the national resource and development team on family violence and high conflict within the Norwegian Family Counselling Services. In addition to clinical work with couples- and families and development work within the organization regarding violence, they are now both undertaking a part-time, public-sector Ph.D. at VID specialized University
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This oral paper presentation will present preliminary findings from and reflections on an overarching mixed methods research project consisting of two complementary work packages and employing two public sector Ph.D. candidates, with interlinked studies combining both in-depth qualitative and large-scale quantitative survey data. Work package 1 focuses on addressing and disclosure of family violence in couple therapy when violence is not part of the presenting problem and Work package 2 examins clients' and therapists' experiences and reflections on the possibility of engaging in and continuing with conjoint couple therapy when partner violence has been disclosed.
The research context is the Norwegian Family Counselling Services (NFCS). The NFCS is a state-funded, no referral and free generalist couple and family therapy service employing about 500 therapists and giving services to about 54 000 families yearly. The project is a collaboration between the East Regional Office for Children, Youth, and Family Affairs, The Research Council of Norway, and VID Specialized University.
Åse Holmberg
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To be human is to be spiritual. The spirit, which comes from the word “breath”, is our vital essence, the power of life. The spiritual force is important for living a meaningful life by ourselves and others in a global and diverse world. We can use different words to explain the spiritual; like soul, life-philosophy, religion, meaning, the sacred and existential questions and answers to life.
We often have limited constructions of spirituality and religion created by our culture, traditions and experiences, and acknowledge that spiritual wisdom is far greater than we can comprehend. Spiritual wisdom is more a synthesis than analysis, more paradoxical than linear, more a dance than a march. A non-dualistic thinking is preferred, embracing the ability to read the moment without judgemental or exclusionary attitudes. If there are parts we do not understand, we will live with openness – and we will let them speak to us.
The presentation will be based on a PhD study where a “map of spiritual and existential literacy” was developed into seven perspectives:
• Recognition of clients’ spiritual or religious experiences, practice and culture.
• Working systemically in dialogue
• Bridging linguistic uncertainty
• Increasing personal awareness and competence
• Working with personal hindrances
• Breaking the silence in the public space
Both clients and family therapists were interviewed, and constructivist Grounded Theory was used as a research method.
The presentation will also reflect how students experience this topic, and how it can be included in education and supervision.
Hilde Gunn Jensen, Åse Simonsen and Marit E. Reinertsen
We, Hilde Gunn Jensen, Åse Simonsen and Marit E. Reinertsen, work at the Family Welfare Office in Vest-Agder, Region South. Our practice consists of couple and family therapy as well as mediation. Every Thursday we work together in a team consising of 9 therapists, where the therapy is based on reflective processes.
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Background for purpose of presentation:
Autoethnographic study on our own practice at the family welfare office. We are three therapists who work together. We have researched how each of us experience reflective processes and working together in the various human meetings every Thursday. "What is it about this Thursday?" We wanted to find out/research what makes Thursday different from the other days. Our point of view is on the therapist role.
Summary of the main points of the presentation:
Our curiosity is about the experiences of reflective processes in systemic practice. We share a concern about losing the systemic perspective in our daily work. We wonder if the strong focus on streamlining, standardized procedures and production affect our clinical approach.
Through our research, we became attentive with our experience of reflexivity, vulnerability and the fellowship of being together as a "we".
Implications of their presentation for practice:
*Increase reflexivity/self-reflexivity as part of the therapist role
* Self-care as therapists, among other things, being aware of our own vulnerability
*Contribute to immersing ourselves in the systemic practice.
Sandra Elizabeth Furset
Family therapist and Chief Executive Offiser at Vest Agder Familiy Counselling Center (Familievernkontoret I Vest-Agder)
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Stories and experiences of using interventions in group therapy sessions, like creative writing, fine art, refined literature and poetry can help handling with complex grief when a relationship ends.
When a relationship ends, it is common to have experiences of grief. For some, it becomes complex and difficult, and more help to recover is needed. At Vest-Agder Family Counseling Center we offer group therapy, where the participants have in common personal struggles with complex guilt and grief related to ending cohabitation with partner.
This workshop will focus on personal "stories" from group participants , and intend to illustrate some examples on how selected therapeutic group interventions, such as: creative writing, refined literature, poetry, and studying fine art, can be utilized to enhance expressing of emotions and initiate healing processes.
The participants of the workshop will be invited into dialogue and reflection both about the topic of complex grief and about the possibilities that lies in using creative intervention methods from the art world.
Duration: up to one hour.
Mattis Danielsen and Johan Inge Greff
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Åarjelsaemien healsoeviermie / South Sámi Health Network
Public Health, Sami Cultural Heritage and Life Skills
The Project was in Røros municipality in 2021 and 2022.Includes 300 pupils in primary school from 4th grade to 10th grade. In addition, 100 teachers, special educators and assistants. Cultural heritage walk in a Sami base area. Ridalen.Røros
Røros is a Sami language management municipality. In this connection, we want to convey Sami cultural understanding to students and teachers in Røros municipality. This combined with a focus on Life coping for children and young people in school.
In the encounter with Sami children and young people, it is important to be familiar with basic cultural traits, social conditions and ways of life. Understand what it means to be in a minority. Know Sami history, know how the past interweaves with the present. Thus, contribute to an inclusive vibrant local community for Sami and non-Sami residents.
This is based on Sami cultural heritage
Sami cultural understanding: Cultural heritage
Sami culture and tradition are based on sustainability and transience, where things have to go back to nature and then be resurrected.
The inherent nature of reindeer herding and the Sami way of thinking is boundless, and based on nature's premises. This is in stark contrast to the majority society's social model, and has thus often led to conflicts.
These are the same mechanisms that indigenous peoples and natural peoples have encountered, and encountered, in all parts of the world.
In addition to nuanced history and creating understanding between different cultures, this will build bridges and provide a common foundation in the local community.
Conflicts are fuelled by exclusion and different perspectives based on inadequate understanding and knowledge.
Taking a starting point in a landscape and where history and nuances lie in many layers can thus be a very rewarding starting point for a larger and comprehensive understanding of people and society.
Public Health and Life Skills
Public health and life skills as an interdisciplinary topic in school shall give the pupils competence that promotes good mental and physical health, and which provides opportunities to make responsible life choices. During childhood and adolescence, the development of a positive self-image and a secure identity is particularly crucial.
Conclusion: Increased Sami cultural understanding among pupils/teachers in Røros municipality through visibility of Sami culture. Increased Sami cultural safety among Sami pupils.Dismantling barriers between the majority and the minority
Yngve Kolltveit
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In this workshop, we will give a presentation on our current research on EFST in a specialized mental health care clinic. Additionally, we will invite participants to gain firsthand experience with the use of a newly developed scale for measuring the quality of therapy.
EFST is a parent guidance intervention with the aim of alleviating mental health difficulties by guiding parents to assist their children in recognizing and coping with their emotions.
Due to a lack of research into the effects and mechanisms of change in EFST in specialized mental health care, we began with two doctoral studies. We will present this research:
1. Effectiveness of EFST: Presenting a Randomized Controlled Trial. By Linda Severinsen. The RCT project will be presented along with preliminary results.
2. The mechanisms of change: How does EFST cause change? The primary aim of this mixed-methods study is to provide knowledge and possibilities for improvements in EFST. By Yngve Kolltveit
In the last part of the workshop, participants will gain insight into how we have developed the EFST scale to measure quality in therapy. Participants will have the opportunity to put it into practice by scoring a therapy session on the EFST scale. Finally, there will be room for reflection and discussion on how we can use the scale in daily clinical work in general and in further development of EFST.

Lennart Lorås,
PhD, Professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and adjunct professor at VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway.
Terje Tilden,
PhD, Senior Researcher at Modum Bad Research Institute, Vikersund, Norway.
Jan Stokkebekk,
PhD, Senior Adviser/Family Therapist MA, National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services.
Kristoffer Whittaker,
PhD-candidate at Modum Bad Research Institute, Vikersund, Norway, psychologist at Norwegian Family Counselling Services Nedre Romerike.
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Part 2: The need for a unique research training program in systemic practice. (Stokkebekk & Whittaker)
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Although the field of systemic couple and family therapy (CFT) represents a multitude of therapeutic approaches, a handful of influential systemic CFT researchers select only limited methodological approaches based on their own preferences. We find this concerning as it implies that systemic practitioners may earn biased attitudes towards certain systemic approaches with relevance for clinical practice as well as research. In contrast, this workshop will rather advocate the common principles of Evidence Based Practice as they capture the entire variety of systemic practice’s existing knowledge as well a guidance for conducting research. From this perspective, systemic CFT research should be described in a unique training program that covers all relevant research approaches and designs. The acknowledgement of our field being multidisciplinary with inspirations from a variety of ideas and professional traditions, conducted by practitioners with different professional origins, needs to be reflected in such a program. A systemic CFT research program is also reasoned by the growth of systemic family therapy as an academic discipline in line with the goal of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA), that is: "to achieve recognition for family and systemic therapy as a distinct, scientifically-based form of psychotherapy practice and to ensure rigorous standards of training and professional practice throughout Europe". Our presentation will point to novel research method advancements that should be acknowledged as very relevant for our field of study. Accordingly we advocate the future family therapist being characterized by making use of research-based approaches as well as conducting own research.
Andreas Breden
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There is a lot of research and theory on the male gender and the same goes for men attending group therapy. However, the main body of research for the latter is on men being abusive, violent or are abusing drugs or alcohol. Men’s suicide rates and alcohol abuse are higher than those of women, and research shows that men of all nationalities and ethnicities, ages, and social backgrounds are less likely to seek therapy than women. The focus on gender in family therapy training and teaching have diminished since the 90s, despite the fact that we still have a gendered society and culture with masculine dominance and patriarchy.

During this presentation I will give an overview of the findings of my systemic doctoral project where I have invited eight men to participate in a combined project of group therapy and a Cooperative Inquiry where we investigate what makes meaning for men in (group) therapy and how therapy could be conducted to be sensitive to male needs. The men recruited were men attending couples therapy, and who experienced being in conflict with someone in their family. I will also present my findings from a narrative analysis using The Listening Guide as a framework and give a discussion on my findings related to relevant theory.
Mats Widsell, Copenhagen
Reg. psychotherapist and fil. Mag. Chairman of STOK.
mats@widsell.dk
I am working parttime with psychotherapy with individuals, couples, and families, and as supervisor and teacher in different systemic and narrative approaches. For the last ten years, I have had a special interest in the Open dialogue and network-practice and have been committed with introducing it in a community in Jutland.
I am also Chairman of STOK, the Danish Society for Systemic, Narrative, and other relational practices.
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Abstract for a workshop at the Nordic Family Therapy Congress in Bergen 2024.
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The Miracle Club as Open Dialogue
The Irish movie The Miracle Club is about four women and a little boy, all of them with traumas from before. They go together from Dublin with a (catholic) priest to get healed in Lourdes in France, a place that is known for its miracles through a special ceremony. The healing doesn´t happen in the wished or expected way. They then start to talk each other about the conflicts and circumstances from the earlier days and what kind of miracle they now had hoped for. When they can slowly tell their stories, and for real listen to each other, they understand more about the acting of each person, and a radical change happens in the group. It is not the religious miracle that is the miracle, but the dialogues that leads to the forgiving and reconciliation for the women that is miraculous.
Often conflicts contain trauma-experiences that have being going on for a long time and indeed have a lot of sorrows and feelings that hurts. Conflicts like these are hard to handle for a professional if you will make a difference that make changes in the relations between the participants. It can be a in a family, in an organization or in some community where people live together, e.g. a neighborhood.
My workshop will show how a change can be possible in an Open Dialogue conversation. I will show a few sequences from the film to illustrate how the purpose for such a conversation is not to go to the solutions of the problems and conflicts (although this can happen and is welcomed) but to get the opportunity to have the missing and healing conversations through a dialogue. For one person to get the possibility to tell the story, and get the opportunity to heard, and at the same time, being an observer and a listener to the others’ stories in this same kind of way, can be a possibility if a person leads the conversations in a special way. This person is a kind of guarantee for the time for talking and the time of listening, the time for reflecting and time for experiencing. This can open the dialogues that have not been possible before, and can lead to understanding, forgiving and reconciliation like in the movie, but now in the real life.
The participants in the workshop will be introduced to an exercise, to illustrate how the special way an Open Dialogue meeting is structured led, and the way the reflecting can be done.
Kristi J Solheim and Janne Vinkler Rasmussen
Det nasjonale spisskompetansemiljøet for foreldreoppfølging etter omsorgsovertakelse, Familievernkontoret i sør-Rogaland
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The family welfare service has developed a program for parents deprived of custody for their children as a supplement to the child welfare's obligation to follow-up. A standardized conversation process has been developed as a framework for the service. Attempting to maintain the essence of interaction between humans, and the systemic fundamental attitude, without imposing methodological directives. A systemic approach appears to be useful in addressing the complex challenges faced by these parents Syrstad and Slettebø (2020). Various interventions have been tested to meet the parents' needs. This presentation will focus on an intervention that has shown to be effective for the parent group.
PRESENTATION FORMAT The standardized conversational process will be briefly presented through PowerPoint and oral descriptions. The emphasis will be on the presentation of interventions, tested both in groups and individually, where parents are trained to initiate repair work with their children by taking responsibility for difficult past events. The intervention is derived from Emotion-Focused Skills Training for Parents (EFST) J. Dolhanty (2015) but is also inspired by narrative approaches and letter writing. Participants will be given tasks related to this and will witness one of the interventions executed in practice through a chair work exercise.
EDUCATION POINTS/LEARNING GOAL The goal is for participants to have a bodily and mentally experience of what it's like to receive such a repair from their own parents through the exercise. Additionally, it aims for participants to be inspired through the practical demonstration to try it out in their own context.
Rebekka Skaar and Siv Sæveraas
Rebekka Skaar (52) is a family therapist and certified Gottman therapist, working in Bjørgvin Familiekontor in Bergen. She is married mother of three, and will never be too old to play soccer.
Siv Saeveraas (62) is a family therapist and certified Gottman therapist, working in Bjørgvin Familiekontor in Bergen. She is a mother and grandmother, but that does not stop her from traveling the world.
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Gottman Method Couples Therapy is developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman. The approach represents a link between research and practice in the field of couples therapy.
It aims to reduce conflict, increase intimacy and affection, and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship. It includes assessment and a large number of interventions, based on the research-based Sound Relationship House Theory.
In 2021, Rebekka Skaar and Siv Sæveraas were among the first Norwegian family therapists to complete the certification track in the research based Gottman Couples Therapy Method. Since then, they have combined practice with education, presenting the Gottman method to family therapists from all over Norway. They have also renewed and redesigned the Norwegian translations of Gottman´s research and interventions.
Siv and Rebekka use the Gottman Method in their work with couples and families every day. They regard the Gottman’s combination of research and clinical experience as a unique gift to the field of family therapy.
In this workshop you are invited to join their journey to certification and education. They will present highlights from Gottman´s research and its implications for practice, and will share with you some of their favorite interventions in working with couples. They both work as family therapists at Bjørgvin Familiekontor in Bergen.
Anette Holmgren
I am a Danish clinical psychologist. I work as a therapist, teacher and writer. My field is narrative therapy and trauma therapy. My lates book (2019) is called: The psychology of the complex trauma – telling’s of the unbearable.
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“My fathers anger came out of nowhere. It was explosive and situations went from normal to a matter of life or death within a second.” “My father’s anger came out of frustration. Any situation that was not under control, or even a loud noise, could turn it on”. “My father’s anger made me scared. I still am.”
In my clinical practice I talk to people that are working hard to overcome past everyday violence and its effects. Everyday violence is the things that parents, do, that scare children. Very often it is anger. The angry voice of a parent is hard to leave behind. It travels from childhood to adulthood where the fear is still alive.
In many cases anger is reinforced by patriarchy. It might even be founded in dominating ideas about masculinity and fatherhood. This presentation will tell stories of growing up with anger; it will investigate aspects of how shame leads to anger towards others and towards self; and it will look at what it does to a body not to have a verbal voice. If everyday violence in the family has to do with patriarchy, and patriarchy operates by shame, and shame has to do with anger – then demasking patriarchy structure and the verbalization of voice becomes an important part of the therapist’s work.
Tone Grøver
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One of the most painful forms of longing that I encounter as a therapist, is the longing for oneself; often expressed with the sentence “I have lost myself”.
As I started an exploration of the phenomenon of “losing myself”, I spent 10 days at a hotel in Valdres, to have some concentrated time for writing. What is remarkable about this hotel is that its staff all share a past of having battled drug addiction. It turned out to be such a thought-provoking stay, and a treasure trove for understanding longing for oneself, as I got to hear their stories. They made me rethink so many aspects of therapy, as well as the question of what the Self that we may long for, is. It became clearer to me that we may have lost a deeper and more profound understanding of what the Self is, and thereby of what existence is. The understanding they represented gave me insight not only into how therapy can be an obstacle for healing, but also into how the longing for oneself can be a key to understanding ourongoing destruction of Mother Earth.
Elin Okkenhaug Bratland and Tone Lise Haraldseid
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Since 2016, Arendal Adult Learning Centre and Arendal Family Counseling Center have worked together to make the Family Counseling Center more relevant and available for multicultural families. This work has been described in an article published in 20201. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, many women and children have come to Norway as refugees. Based on this, our two different services have collaborated to start a conversational group for women from Ukraine. An article about this work is in process. Nora Bateson (2016) describes how we humans find ourselves in a transcontextual landscape and how this enables mutual learning2 . In an encounter with another human being, we are here and now, but at the same time we are outside time and space. It is an encounter with myriads of contexts and identities that overlap.
In our workshop we will present the work we have done and also challenge the participants to reflect with us and each other on overlapping identities, flexibility and how to make services able to meet multicultural families. We want to reflect on this from a system-, leader- and group level. This workshop will focus on the terms culturalising where aspect connected directly to being an immigrant can have an overfocus, and possible consequences of this; trans-contextual factors connected to the complexity of people and the interconnectedness; and the importance of feeling value and adding value.
Dyveke Barth - Master i famillieterapi
Bjørgvin Familiekontor, Bergen
dyveke.barth@bufetat.no
Cecilie Erichsen Lærkerød - Master i familieterapi
Bjørgvin Familiekontor - Bergen
cecilieerichsen.laerkerod@bufetat.no

Cecilie Kristiansen - Master i familieterapi
Bjørgvin Familieterapi
cecilie.kristiansen@bufetat.no
All are employed at Bjørgvin Family Counseling
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Who we are:
The 3 of us, work at Bjørgvin Family Office in Bergen as family therapists.
Our office provides counselling, guidance, courses and discussion groups, related to relational challenges.
We also conduct mandatory mediation with parents after a break-up. The offer is free and needs no referral. We value the systemic work with couples and families.
Together we have more than 60 years of experiences with children and families.
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Everyone knows someone who doesn't have children, but rarely do we hear the stories behind it. In this workshop, one of many stories is presented through reflection and the sharing of experiences. Using therapeutic questions provides space for the fantasy of having a child, the discoveries of traces the "child" has left behind, and how to live on without the child who never came.
Objective: We aim to present therapeutic work inspired by a narrative and systemic approach to expand understanding and knowledge about infertility and grief, and how it affects our relationships.
Hypothesis: There are prejudices, expectations, and taboos associated with infertility. We need more knowledge about infertility and how families and relationships are affected by it based on current discourses in society.

Workshop Framework:
- Brief introduction to the topic, research, and the agenda for the workshop.
- Video with an interview of someone living with infertility as a life grief (approx. 20 minutes).
- Conversation between a therapist and an individual.
- Narrative letter.
- Summary.

Summary of Key Points: To help involuntarily childless individuals find more satisfaction in life and increase awareness in society.
Implications for the Practice Field: Knowledge and openness about infertility and grief work for therapists. We aim to contribute to providing support to involuntary childless individuals who close the door and struggle with painful emotions, offering them assistance.
Feel free to contact us if you need more information.
Linda Myhren and Kristin H. WallentinLinda Myhren, Psychologist at Bjørgvin Familievernkontor
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Kristin Hauan Wallentin, psychologist at Familievernkontoret i Søndre Vestfold process of gathering information and subsequent analysis and was concluded with a written report. The main contributors were Child Welfare, Family Welfare, Court of Justice and Labour and Welfare Administration. In addition, several parental interests' groups and also a variety of other professional groups gave their input.
If accepted this presentation will focus on what became most evident during the process of information gathering and analysis:
• Professionals with the responsibility to handle such cases either legally or therapeutically, experience these cases as extremely complex and diverse.
• On the opposite, concepts used to describe these phenomena in public and political discourse, tend to put blame on only one part, e.g. blaming one parent for sabotaging the other parent's visitation rights or express concern about the importance of protecting children from violence. There is a noticeable resemblance between arguments used in the public discourse and those used by parents in individual cases.

Through our presentation we aim to inspire professionals to use polarizing concepts with extreme care, and inspire to seek to understand the complexity in systemic relations.
Link to the report:
https://www2.bufdir.no/Bibliotek/Bufdirs_publikasjoner/Dokumentside/?docId=BUF00005586
Hans Christian Michaelsen is a family therapist, supervisor and former assistant professor at VID Specialized University, Oslo. His academic background includes Nordic language and literature, English and American literature, psychology, medicine and Master in Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. He has formerly worked with theatre, intercultural understanding and teaching. In 1980- 2008 he was director of LEON, a foundation working with families suffering from relational and severe dependency problems, substance- and alcohol dependency, eating disorders, gambling, mental challenges, and family crises. The LEON foundation developed network programmes in local communities and prevention work. From 1989 they developed a multi-family group-therapy practice where several families (from 50 – 100 people) worked through weekends in various narrative processes.
Hans Christian Michaelsen was editor of the Nordic journal Fokus på familien and has written articles and book chapters. He was Chairperson of the Norwegian Family Therapy Association 2005-2009 and is currently President of the NFTO Chamber of EFTA and Vice President of EFTA.
He works today in his therapy practice as well as doing supervision and teaching in Norway and abroad.
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Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei (1957 - ) says:
Life is art.
Art is life.
I never separate it.

In Edvard Munch's art and life maybe these three themes are the most recognizable ones: Love, Anxiety, and Death. Maybe we all find these to be living dimensions around us and within us, behind many layers. As Tomas Tranströmer opens for it in his poem "Romanesque Arches" (Romanska bågar): Inside you, one vault after another opens endlessly. Also in the therapy room the great outside world and the many worlds within us reveal this interconnectedness between "the big in the small" (Munch), and vice versa.
This workshop aims to explore how we may get inspiration from Nordic fictional literature and art to find pathways to move systemically together with people between love and despair, desire and illness, the past and the moment, crises of the world and the love of life.

Rune Zahl-Olsen, Sari Kaarina Lindeman, Tina Feyling, Jeanne Maria Holm Jensen, Ellen Syrstad, Åse Holmberg, and Alicja Olkowska
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Early on in the development of couple- and family therapy, the developers were both clinicians and researchers. Presently, researchers are perceived by some clinicians as being distant from clinical practice. In our experience, a variety of research methodologies contribute positively to both clinical practice and the improvement of the methods we use. In this workshop, a diversity of research methods will be presented, along with the possible clinical use of results from studies based on these methods. Examples of studies will be presented. Importantly, these claims will be discussed in groups. You will be able to share how you have used or, in the future, will use results from these methods. The research methods to be presented are: constructivist grounded theory, metaethnografi, narrative interviews, collective memory work, semi-structured interviews, dialogically explorative conversations, participatory action research, naturalistic studies, RCT, and meta-analyses.
Sandra Nilsson
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ABFT as a method was presented in the Nordic countries by Magnus Ringborg (Swe), Pravin Isarel (No) for about 12 years ago. With this method there suddenly were a highly specialized family therapy method who turned to the depressed and suicidal adolescents and their families who got treatment from different health care /psychiatry systems.
With the manual which is structured yet flexible, were you as a therapist search for the most painful attachment ruptures from the stance of a structural family therapist and the heart of emotion focused therapy ABFT as a method has helped a lot of families all over the world.
Suzan Levy and Guy Diamond started ABFT international in the summer of 2023. ABFT has evolved from a method for the depressed adolescents to become a method which is perfectly designed for families with substance abuse, high conflict, blended families, anorexia and families where the parents suffer from mental illness and also adults who need to repair attachment ruptures with their parents who has suffered from substance addiction.
ABFT has also evolved a model for the therapist to become a perfect effective designed wounded healer- POTT- person of the therapist. This to find those painful attachment ruptures and working the family system to become the safe base and secure harbor the child/adolescent need. This from using the therapists own attachment story very present in the room.
Merethe Langsethagen Linn, Trude Skoglund
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What about us? This is a timely question for parents who has a child with disabilities. The purpose of this presentation is to pinpoint how important it is for helpers to remember to focus on the relationship of the parents in a demanding situation, and to share information about this important service.
“What about us?” is workshops for couples and single parents. It started as a project over 20 years ago, when institutions in Norway were built down. The workshop is arranged during a weekend, and there are up to 10 couples or 15 single parents participating. The target group includes parents who have children with a chronic and, or serious disease, or disabilities. The content is similar to other couple courses, but with a focus on their special situation. In addition, it is of importance meeting others in similar situations, who understand their situation. To be away for the weekend can also be for the first time for years or since the child was born. It gives the participants the opportunity to focus on their relationship and to get replenishment and energy.
Today, the states family centres are offering the workshops. The authorities in Norway invests in improving the situation for children by helping provide high-quality and easily accessible services that can assist in strengthening the quality of relationships and parenting.
After this presentation, you will get knowledge on what diversity means and what couples and parents of children with disabilities needs to strengthen the quality of their relationship.
Ulrika Ernvik
MSW, Licensed psychotherapist with family and systemic orientation
Supervisor, speaker and author
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During the pandemic I started to meet with families outdoors – in the forest, in parks, at the lake. Families enjoyed the outdoor time. Children, teenagers and adults found it easier to talk as we walked. Play became a natural part of the sessions, and the nature always had a message for us. To create a solid scientific base for my outdoor family therapy I started to read and learn about the healing powers of nature and movement, and wrote the book ”Ekopsykoterapi – psykoterapi i och med naturen för vuxna och barn” (Ecopsychotherapy – psychotherapy in and with nature for adults and children). I love to share about this and encourage family therapists to meet with families outdoors!
When family therapy is offered in nature, we not only work with strengthened relationships within the system of the family, but we also help the family to see that they are part of a larger system – the ecosystem. Time in nature brings joy and calm and becomes an important ingredient in the family´s life. Besides an idea of what family ecotherapy can look like, the presentation will include glimpses of research about how nature can bring physical and emotional healing, the Nordic tradition of being outdoors, and family therapy interventions that can easily be done outdoors.
Terje Tilden, PhD, family therapist, senior researcher,
Modum Bad Psychiatric Center
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In couples therapy clients often suffer from a blend of severe relational distress and individual psychiatric symptoms. Clinically, the decision of whether to address the symptoms, the relationship dynamics, or both represents a considerable challenge. From a systemic point of view it could be assumed that focusing on one or the other has marginal significance, as change one place in the system would impact the adjacent systems in a circular interchange. It could also be argued that the focus of choice in treatment is not the therapist’s task, but should be directed by the clients’ wish, need and goal. Viewing this dilemma from a research perspective, it becomes imperative to scrutinize theoretical, value-based and ideological perspectives that accordingly could complement systemic theory with empirical support. Studies on whether relational change predicts symptom change or vice versa are however so far inconclusive. The body of knowledge on this topic also addresses appropriate analytic approaches in order to capture the nature of couple therapy. In particular, it is recommended to analyze quantitative data on a dyadic level and not only at an individual level. This presentation will report results from dyadic analyses done on a sample of 138 couples attending couple therapy at the Family unit, Modum Bad, Vikersund, Norway. These results will be discussed in relation to previous findings that applied analysis at an individual level. Potential clinical implications of the findings will be discussed.
Øyvind Kalsås, PhD, Family therapist, Western University of Applied Sciences
Øyvind Reehorst Kalsås, PhD, is a clinical social worker and family therapist focusing on substance use and addiction. He develops family and social network-oriented therapeutic practices, writes, gives lectures, and completed his PhD on family interactions and social health in individuals affected by drug-related deaths.
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Traumatic deaths, such as drug-related deaths, are associated with significant health declines in those bereaved. The social health domain understood as the quality of social relationships, the sense of belonging in a community, and the capacity to manage social life, plays a vital role in post-loss adaptation. This presentation is based on a doctoral thesis investigating the social health and support needs of individuals grieving drug-related deaths.
The thesis employs mixed methods, with two quantitative studies drawing from a survey of 255 participants, and a qualitative study exploring the experiences of 14 drug death-bereaved parents. The studies explore aspects of social health, family interactions, help requirements, and experiences with professional support.
The survey sample scored lower on social health dimensions than other populations; most reported a need for professional assistance, and the children`s needs were especially stated. Parents experienced that family members often had significant individual needs, and relational family challenges revolved around emotionally oriented conversations and family flexibility. Increased closeness in the family was linked to better post-loss adjustment.
Promoting social health should be one core focus of professional bereavement care; consequently, I propose a family- and network-oriented approach to psychosocial bereavement care. These supportive measures can be integrated within a Compassionate Communities framework, drawing inspiration from Open Dialogue principles. This approach leverages the naturally occurring networks in the lives of the bereaved as the foundational source of assistance.
Jan Stokkebekk, Ingeborg Huglen, Thomas Nordvik
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Jan Stokkebekk, PhD in Family Psychology, Family Therapist MA, jan.stokkebekk@bufetat.no.
National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services, The Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat)
Ingeborg Huglen, Clinical Psychologist, and Specialist in Family Psychology, Ingeborg.huglen@bufetat.no National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services, The Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat)
Thomas Nordvik, Clinical Psychologist, Thomas.Nordvik@bufetat.no
National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services, The Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat)
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In this workshop we want to present the resilience-informed and child inclusive therapeutic approach “Strengthening Children in 2 Homes” (SC2H) for families who have lived with parental conflict more than 2-3 years after divorce or separation. The SC2H model was developed in a low threshold family counselling service by workshop presenters (Huglen et.al, 2020). Child and parents’ participants were interviewed as part of a PhD research project by one of the presenters (Stokkebekk, 2022). In 2022 a pilot training program was started, with the goal of implementing the approach in the Norwegian family counselling services, with participants from all regions of Norway. We will in the workshop present short clips of video interviews with the hardship of therapist-in-training to learn the approach (Nordvik et. al, 2023). We will present central concepts and show some ethical dilemmas of a resilience-oriented approach will be explored and discussed with workshop participants.
Most interventions towards postdivorce families focus on the interparental relationship, with the goal of conflict resolution. However, in contrast the SC2H approach focus on the development of resilience and parallel parenting. We argue that the development of parallel parenting is a viable alternative to the (often unrealistic) goal of establishing cooperative co-parenting in families where parents is entrenched in conflict. Nevertheless, a resilience-oriented approach involves dilemmas and re-learning that is counter-intuitive for therapists.
Joanna Rzadkowska, clinical psychologist and PhD candidate, Modum Bad Research Institute
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We know that low socioeconomic status or financial difficulties adversely affect couples and families with children. While there is considerable research on how children are affected by growing up in poverty, there are gaps in knowledge pertaining to how the adults are affected and what can be done by mental health services to ameliorate the adverse effects of poverty. There is a growing body of evidence on how couples can build resilience against adverse events, how modulating emotional states can benefit mental health and how couples affect each other during therapy. We are currently conducting a study at Modum Bad using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of couples undergoing therapy at the Family Unit and experiencing financial difficulties simultaneously. We are working with the research question that to experience financial difficulties is a situation of existential threat that may exacerbate mental health symptoms. Our informants are recruited by the clinicians at the Family Unit. The topic of the interviews is how the informants are affected, both emotionally and otherwise, by factors inside and outside the therapy situation. As the project is ongoing, the findings are preliminary. The workshop will be informed by the literature on the subject and tentative findings from the ongoing research project. Following a short presentation, there will be a discussion encouraging diverging interpretations and reflections on the data presented and the topic in general.
Ilze Norman and Lars Ljungman
Ilze Norman is a systemic therapist, supervisor, and teacher at GCK (Gothenburg’s Center for Development) since many years. She has experience as a systemic trainer in both Sweden and abroad.
Lars Ljungman is a systemic therapist, supervisor, and teacher at GCK (Gothenburg’s Center for Development) since many years.
GCK is a development company in Gothenburg with 13 co-workers. We have a systemic, narrative, social-constructionist approach and work with supervision, teaching, therapy, and community work.
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The not-knowing-position that was highlighted by Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian might be the most Important stance in systemic work with families, in supervision and in the training context. Communicating and reflecting from a not knowing position creates curiosity of how we can co-create possibilities of how to go on in ways that benefit a better life for people. This means that the not-knowing-position has a direct connection to our thoughts and ethics of what a "good life" might be. In a world that emphasizes quick and correct answers and evidencebased knowledge, the not-knowing-position is under threat of being diminished or seen as some second order knowledge.
In this workshop we will dig deeper in the possibilities (and maybe constraints) the not-knowing-position gives us when working with people in supervision and training. We will connect the position we take to power and the ethics we want to emphasize. We will also discuss how training a not-knowing-position can take place and the benefits of this position when we create a creative atmosphere at our working place.
Together with the workshop participants we will explore the not-knowing-position and peoples different experiences of how it is used in different contexts. We also want to explore with the participants how to maintain the not-knowing-position when it is threatened by strong ideas and correct answers.
Tone Grøver, Family Therapist, First lector, VID Specialized University, Oslo Norway
tone.grover@vid.no
Tone Grover is an experienced systemic and narrative therapist, who has practiced for more than 25 years in various contexts: as a family and couples therapist, psychotherapist, she is working with complex conflicts and with management in a wide range of organizations
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More than ever, we need to think about what conflict is, and what can be ethical in meeting conflict. The world is in deep despair – with cruel wars and crimes against humanity. This workshop is based on a chapter written by Inger-Margrete Svendsen and me in a book at Fagbokforlaget, spring 2024. Here we explore how we can embrace conflicts without going into the battle, and without loosing contact with the important values that are on stake in all conflicts. The workshop will thematize the profound meaning of and complexity of trust, hereby going into themes such as trauma and the self, intimacy and alienation, ethical stress, shame and ethical shame, power and responsibility, the division between intention and action, and to be consciously aware of our feelings. We ask if it is possible to understand humans as essentially good, or if we in fact can be evil “by nature”. We find ourselves leaning on ethics we can witness in people throughout the world, who never have read anything about ethics, but still are able to put conflicts aside to help each other when really needed.
The workshop will engage participants in reflecting on their own ways of going into conflicts, their own vulnerabilities and how they would prefer to meet conflict from the standpoint of their own ethical view.

Rune Zahl-Olsen, Sari Kaarina Lindemann, Tina Feyling, Jeanne Maria Holm Jensen, Ellen Syrstad, Åse Holmberg, and Alicja Olkowska
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Early on in the development of couple- and family therapy, the developers were both clinicians and researchers. Presently, researchers are perceived by some clinicians as being distant from clinical practice. In our experience, a variety of research methodologies contribute positively to both clinical practice and the improvement of the methods we use. In this workshop, a diversity of research methods will be presented, along with the possible clinical use of results from studies based on these methods. Examples of studies will be presented. Importantly, these claims will be discussed in groups. You will be able to share how you have used or, in the future, will use results from these methods. The research methods to be presented are: constructivist grounded theory, metaethnografi, narrative interviews, collective memory work, semi-structured interviews, dialogically explorative conversations, participatory action research, naturalistic studies, RCT, and meta-analyses.
Stine R. Winciansen and Marit Irene Vie National advisory unit on deafblindness
Marit Vie is a Clinical child welfare educator with a master's degree in Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. She works at Eikholt National Center on combined vision and hearing impairment/deafblindness. Marit Irene Vie
marit.irene.vie@eikholt.no
Stine R. Winciansen is a social educator. She is now taking a master's degree in Family Therapy and Relational Work. She works at Statped, Department Combined Sensory Loss and Acquired Deafblindness.Stine R. Winciansen
stine.rognaldsen.winciansen@statped.no
We are both senior advisers in National advisory unit on deafblindness. We are interested in systemic and relational approach and facilitating good conversation processes for people we provide services to.
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It is in the meeting with others that we create ourselves as individuals. What happens in the space between us when speaking to someone who is unable to hear the sound or tone of our voice, our laughter, or the sound of our cries? How do we maintain the relation through conversations when speaking to someone who cannot perceive facial expressions, body language, or eye contact?
In our context, as advisors and family therapists at National Advisory Unit on Deafblindness, we meet individuals with a combined visual and hearing impairment and their close relations. Living with a progressive sensory loss leads to everchanging alterations in forms of communication and ways of maintaining relationships with one’s environment.
In this workshop we aim to explore aspects of relational communication theory and a dialogical approach in meetings with individuals affected by a combined sensory impairment. We focus on ways in which we as conversation partners can maintain the relationship and communication when facing sensory challenges. We aim to have a closer look at the opportunities offered by dialogue, recognition, accessibility, and bodily presence in the meeting with individuals living with impaired vision and hearing.
We aim to share vivid stories from diverse conversations and interactions from our everyday practice. We hope that the presentation can provide ideas and thoughts related to the attendants’ own practice and increase awareness regarding analogue communication in meetings between people.
Petra Deij, EFT therapist and supervisor
April Holten, EFT therapist
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Spirituality has not been an obvious topic in the clinical practice of systemic family therapy; however, many people attest to its role in meaning-making. In fact, for many, spirituality is often part of finding strength amid challenges, and hope in uncertain times. Could we be missing a vital source of connection in many people’s lives if we do not include spirituality and existential themes in our sessions? “Nothing is small, nothing is big – In us are worlds.”
In this workshop we want to explore how to create space for spirituality and existential questions during therapy. We want to offer an experiential meeting where we explore ideas and possible implications for clinical practice together. We hope to co-create a space to share thoughts and understandings that can help us be aware of the multiple ways that various forms of spirituality can impact our clients´ lives. With experiential and reflexive exercises, we aim for an open and respectful atmosphere to incorporate spirituality in the family therapy process with our clients – and ourselves.
It might very well be that all of us leave the workshop with new questions to ponder. Hopefully, our curiosity will be piqued to explore this theme further in our own lives, with colleagues and with our clients.
Ragnhild Risholm
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Evaluation of implementation experiences of International Child Development Program (ICDP) for parents who have children in state care. A study of the collaboration between a government family welfare office and the NGO Kirkens Bymisjon. Rooted in a common goal of assisting parents with immigration background who have lost custody of their children, these organizations have collaborated for more than seven years.
ICDP is a group based parental guidance program. The findings from the evaluation concluded to a multiplier effect for the collaborative parties. Results were increased trust between users of state services and civil society, recruitment of marginalized parents to ICDP groups and collaboration between sectors.
In sum, the results and conclusions from this study can be understood from the witness position model (Weingarten, 2000), where services and their management have taken witness positions towards each other.
The implementation of this practice seen from social justice perspectives adds value to welfare and the country’s social capital by strengthening trust for both public institutions and the services to support a marginalized parent group. Parents’ participation in groups can be seen from a health equity point of view, where participation and focus on improving contact in meeting with children and more trust in services, leads to empowerment and improved health, as indicated in the WHO report on participation (2019).
Learning from the model can add to implementation on a larger scale for the target group. From strengthening parental skills when meeting their children with placement in state care to enabling the parents to be reunited with their children.
Ulf Axberg
Professor, Faculty of Social Studies, Unit of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, VID
Specialized University
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A large body of research has shown that children who display disruptive behavior problems (are at risk for severe long-term problems. Commonly, it is in school that the first official attention is drawn to the child’s behavior. The perceived problem becomes frequently described as purely individual in nature, and both child and behavior become separated from the context in which the behaviors exist. A self-reinforcing problem-affirming system sometimes develops around the child, in which family and school staff feels being blamed by one another.
To address this Marte Meo and Coordination Meetings (MAC) was developed as a systemic school-based intervention that combined two interventions that belong to different theoretical and philosophical traditions. The object of the present study was to evaluate and compare MAC with service as usual (SAU) in a naturalistic, randomized, controlled trial. Teachers' and parents' ratings of 99 children 3 12 years were collected pre and post-intervention and one year after the posttest. Teachers reported a significantly larger decrease of DBP for children who had received MAC compared to SAU post-intervention The decrease was even larger one year after, but the S A U group had caught up. However, maybe the main finding was that there were very few dropouts, in a group where the dropout rate usually is high ( 45- 65%). The results were promising, suggesting that the school might be a valuable context for systemic practice.
The study will be discussed considering the possibilities of combining methods from different theoretical and philosophical traditions in one single systemic intervention.
Ellen Syrstad, Astrid Flackè
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Professionals working with people face small or big conflicts in their work. Conflicts are inevitable, necessary and will always be present in interpersonal relationships. Conflicts can be constructive and lead to reorientation and growth, and they can be destructive. Sometimes both. How we should be able to understand and handle these conflicts is often under-communicated. In this workshop, we will present several topics from our new book Conflict – understanding and handling, where several professionals have contributed their perspectives, experience and research. Current topics for the workshop are conflict as a concept and various analysis tools, power, couple conflicts, parental conflicts, conflict between parents and public services, work conflicts, mediation tools in conflict, conflict in minority families, ethics, and whether conflicts are about the person or the situation.
Hege Helliesen Hadland
Systemic psychotherapist and doctoral student
I have practiced as a family therapist in different sections of the Norwegian Welfare system for 20 years. I currently undertake a professional doctorate in Systemic Psychotherapy at Tavistock and Portman, while working at the Family Welfare Clinic in Sør-Rogaland.
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I have undertaken systemic practitioner-research about clinical peer group supervision practice within the Norwegian Family Welfare Service. The Family Welfare Service is a state-run organization providing therapy, counselling and mediation on a low-threshold level to families experiencing relational problems, crises and conflicts, holding specialized competence in systemic practice and couples therapy. Peer group supervision provides a space for shared learning and holds a significant potential within the organization to support therapists experiencing stressful therapeutic situations.
Nevertheless, how to provide impactful learning processes and support in supervision is not given particular attention. The research aim of this study was to provide insight into peer group supervisory processes deriving from supervision requests where systemic practitioners display vulnerability, to generate ideas about strengthening peer supervision practice. The study was centered around the research question “What happens when systemic practitioners talk about their difficulties in peer group supervision?”, designed as an ethnography, including elements from conversation analysis and action research to make sense of relational processes. Findings indicated that organizational, relational, emotional and cultural elements intra-acted in restricting group processes, producing a frequent move from intimacy to distance in supervision conversations.
Barbara Simonič, PhD, Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Urška Kranjc Jakša Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Growing up with alcoholic parents can have a long-lasting impact on children and contribute to a variety of problems in adulthood. Alcoholics prioritise alcohol over family, neglect family and other responsibilities, become verbally and physically violent and withdraw from loved ones. All these dynamics are accompanied by aspects of emotional abuse of children, manifested in the form of ignoring, neglecting, humiliating, shaming, placing too much responsibility on children (parentification), etc. This often reinforces maladaptive behaviour, cognitions, and overall psychosocial functioning in children of alcoholics and is often difficult to overcome in adulthood. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA) are persons who grew up in dysfunctional families in which alcohol was a central problem. They show fairly homogeneous characteristics in psychosocial functioning, which are also the result of emotionally abusive experiences in childhood. In addition to these aspects, the paper will also present the process of dealing with the aftermath of emotional abuse in relational family therapy, focusing on aspects of emotion regulation, and some guidelines for the processing of painful ACoA experiences in psychotherapy.
Key words: alcoholism, family, abuse, psychotherapy, affect regulation
Allan Holmgren, mag.art. psych., adjungeret professor, CBS, Copenhagen.
NUTS: Narrative Therapy, Training and Teaching / DISPUK, Denmark
Allan Holmgren is the founder of DISPUK in Denmark, one of the leading institutes for narrative therapy and practice. Allan invited Michael White to come to Denmark already in 1987. He has collaborated with Michael White since then until his sudden death in 2008. Allan is an expert in family therapy.
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This workshop will show a video with a conversation with a mother, her father and a six-year-old boy who have witnessed severe and traumatizing conflicts between his parents. He was kicked out of three kindergardens. He behaved like a wild child.
The fundamental change in his behavior came when the boy’s feelings and fears were named in the room. A dramatic change happened. He was completely calm in the rest of the session.
The letters form the witnesses to the mother, the grandfather and the boy will be shown in the video.
holmgren@dispuk.dk
Jeanette Hayden Kristensen
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Multiple reports show a rise in antisocial behaviour in youths all the way down to the age of 10 in Norway. Considering the importance of early intervention for prevention of escalation of antisocial behaviour, it’s important to have good interventions in the frontline services.
Our team at the family counseling office (FCO) in Drammen-Kongsberg work with families of youths that are showing signs of antisocial behaviour. Using Relational focused therapy (RFT) we focuses on teaching techniques the families need to prevent further skewed development. As the only team in Norway using this technique in a frontline service we see a lot of benefits. Firstly the families can contact us directly, in that way we meet families earlier and contribute to reduce their need of second-line services. This effect increases with the fact that the whole family take part in the treatment. We have a multisystemic view, and see the child’s behaviour as a whole and the family in a system. Another big benefit of our way of working is that we are area and time flexible with weekly follow-ups.
As a team that has been in the FCO since 2019, it has proven it’s good effect for prevention of skewed behaviour. This model can be used for other frontline services to be able to help more families early on. Our experiences can help others to implement this into frontline services more efficiently.
Elisabet Wollsén MsPsy
Supervisor, Researcher, Trainer, Family psychotherapist
Stockholm, Sweden
PS Professionella Samtal/EW Psykologkonsult AB
www.lifestaging.se www.samtal.se
Elisabet Wollsén has supervised, meta-supervised and trained about 200 groups since 1979 in systemic/(later) narrative thinking. Done narrative research from which Life Staging® and other models developed. Having a broad clinical experience as a family therapist and are a painter and designer.
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Life Staging® Supervision: applying a systemic, narrative and artistic approach
Will the next wave of supervision/training - after a current verbally dominant and reflective practice - focus more on emotions, movement, non-verbal and dynamic co-creation?
In providing an exploratory arena where embodied and shared collective knowledge is given more space. A magical dance that moves away from preconceived ideas, prejudices and theories. That touches and surprises. Activating everyone's unique artistry that was always there, but often silenced. "When words are not in the way", what is there to see and hear?
Cinthe Lemmens, systemic therapist in a psychotherapeutic group practice in
Leuven, Belgium.
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This presentation is about psychedelics, specifically psychotherapy with the help of psychedelics. So do we need them? Aren't our own systemic frameworks enough? And drugs in the therapy room, is that really a good idea? What if clients become addicted, will experiences a bad trip, gets very anxious,… ?
The topic raises many questions, curiosity too, suspicion, perhaps concern.
In recent months there has been a lot going on in the media. The theme is very much alive, we would not be systemic therapists if we did not take into account what is going on in the world around us.
In this presentation we want to take you on a journey of discovery. We want to dwell on the following topics:
What exactly are psychedelics?
What do we already know about them and what not yet?
What happens in your brain and body when you are under the influence of psychedelics?
What do psychedelics have to do with complex systems?
What do we already know from scientific research?
How are they used in therapeutical context?
What is a safe treatment context?
How do we prepare clients for a psychedelic session?
How does integration take place afterwards?
In what ways can we work systemically with psychedelics and in what ways do psychedelics work systemically?
This presentation will inform you and will open a conversation about the broader field and perspective of this work.

Trym Aarstad and Sølvi Våge
Vestfold family counselling office by clinical social worker/ master family therapist/ sexologist Trym Aarstad. Family counselling office in Vestfold.
Drammen Family Counselling Office v / clinical spes in psychiatric nursing/ master family therapist/ sexologist Sølvi Våge. Family counselling office
As course leaders, we have a broad professional background and quality-assured education from
sexology education at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Agder.
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Verbal reflection – Experience sharing of Project
Internal training in sexology for couples and family therapists in the Family Counselling Service, BUFetat Sør 2023/2024

The sexological competence is a limited resource both in our family therapy field and our national family counselling under Bufetat. This service will ensure that couples and families receive an equal service that is accessible and of good quality - based on evidence-based practice. There is a need to increase sexological competence among couples and family therapists in family counselling, as there is generally little focus on sexology in both the vocational education programmes and the specialization for the therapists traditionally employed in family counselling, be it psychologists, social workers, or other health and social care programmes.
The Nordic countries all have their own and distinctive sexology programmes, with different roots in universities, health trusts and private sectors. The common denominator here is that they all have a limited access through few study places. This forms the background for our initiative to focus on internal training through a collection-based course series that extends over a calendar year/2 terms.
The focus will be on sexological couples and family therapy topics. The idea is that the training should be practice-oriented and adapted to already experienced therapists in family counselling.
The main goal of the training is that the therapists feel that they have gained greater confidence in encountering sexual issues with the client, having a language and competence that gives the clientthe opening and confidence to raise relevant sexual issues in different therapy constellations.
Karine Van Tricht
Psychotherapy research has indicated that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is the most robust predictor of therapeutic change. While the therapeutic relationship is even more important in family therapy than in individual therapy, it is also more complex. This makes the process of supervision exciting and challenging. When supervisor and supervisee look at a complex case, this comes along with a certain amount of tension. The supervisee feels vulnerable and hopes the supervisor will notice not only limitations but also strengths and capabilities. The supervisor is open and curious but also feels the pressure to add something valuable. In this workshop we’ll demonstrate the added value of a feedback oriented form of family therapy and supervision. Its goal is to enhance the capacity of the supervisee for self-supervision by means of client and therapist feedback and to address the complex alliances in therapy and supervision in a feedback informed way. A case example will illustrate the main ingredients of this feedback oriented supervision method. Two questionnaires; the Worries Questionnaire and the Dialogical Feedback Questionnaire are used as conversational tools
Tom H Olsen, Grete L Moen, Jeanne M H Jensen
We are three family therapists working in different contexts with children and adolescents, their families, and systems. We also teach family therapy at RBUP. Our reflections about clinical practice and teaching invites us to see family therapy process as a mutual opportunity to learn something from diversity.
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Working with families they become this family meeting me, and I become this family therapist meeting them, in this context, at this point, in this place. Being diverse as family therapists we bring different things with us, are moved differently by different families and different families connect differently to us. Making us attentive to this mutual way of connecting and how it effects the collaboration between us, we can be able to learn something about our development as family therapists.

Pedagogical method
A workshop inviting to connect experiences, feelings, outer and inner dialogues about experiences by using visual (pictures/film) and auditive senses (music). Bringing up reflections about family therapy that didn’t go as hoped is an invitation to search for learning and development as family therapist:
- What did you bring with you, what were you touched by, what did they see and where did this take you?
- What didn’t you see, and where could this have taken you if you had seen this?
- What do you learn about yourself reflecting about this experience in this way?

The workshop is for everyone working with relational work.
Sandra Mc Ginn
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“How the heck is this going to help me? Do you think I'm the bloody Dalai Lama?” the mother cried. Her family therapist was trying to explain the Hela Barn method.
She had been a victim of domestic violence for many years and was finally extricating herself from the relationship. She had left her child's father. But her son Gabriel still needed them both. She saw Gabriel suffering and just wanted him to be OK. The mother sought help even though she didn’t really believe it would be possible. And she was coming to understand that she would need to find some way to relate to her abuser, Gabriel's father.
We presented the Hela Barn conversation method at the Family Therapy Congress in Copenhagen (2023). We explained how it helps parents in conflict to improve parental communication for the benefit of their children.
Now we invite you to join us again to hear more about how our method can help warring parents achieve at least a functional collaboration. We’ll talk about how these parents sought help and worked really hard. About how small steps opened doors and paved the way for a change beyond anything these parents had dared to imagine. About Gabriel, whose life is now harmonious, whose parents can now talk to each other without fighting.
What happened? What were the small steps? Which parts of the method mattered the most? We talk about this and how one mother's story has inspired us to build upon our model to be able to help even more children and parents.
Jan Stokkebekk, Ellen Syrstad
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This presentation, that is part 1: writing in Fokus will be held in one of the Scandinavian languages, since Fokus på familien is a Nordic journal. However, we are systemic (adaptable) and will switch to English if need be. In part 2: we invite you to a workshop: a low threshold writing laboratory, where you will be able to get 1: 1 input from experienced writers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland
Anne Grasaasen et al
The collaboration group that will present at the Workshop:
Tor-Andre Ribe-Andersen, leader Follo SKF
Randi Orhammer, leader Haugalandet SKF
Andreas Breden, family therapist at SKF, and Ph.D. student, Professional Doctorate in Systemic Practice, University of Bedfordshire, UK
Hege Helliesen Hadland, family therapist at SKF, and Ph.D. student, Tavistock & Portman, UK
Marit Wold, master's student, and family therapist, SKF
Ingrid Heggelund, master's student, and family therapist, Modum Bad
Henrikke Fuglevik, master's student and social worker, Tønsberg Municipality
Arnbjørg Vedelden, master's student
Ulf Axberg, professor, Family Therapy and Systemic Practice at VID
Anne Grasaasen, associate professor, Family Therapy and Systemic Practice at VI
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This presentation, that is part 1: writing in Fokus will be held in one of the Scandinavian languages, since Fokus på familien is a Nordic journal. However, we are systemic (adaptable) and will switch to English if need be. In part 2: we invite you to a workshop: a low threshold writing laboratory, where you will be able to get 1: 1 input from experienced writers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
What is the unique nature of the Family Counselling Service (NFCS)?
A collaboration project between the Diaconal Family Services Foundation (SKF), students in the master's program in family therapy and systemic practice at VID, and the Family Therapy and
Systemic Practice research group (FAMSYS).
Abstract:
The report 'NOU 2019:20, “A strengthened family service, a review of the Family Counselling Service” stated an aim to preserve the nature of the family service (...) and to have a professional grounding in a family-theoretical and systemic tradition (p.184). The unique nature of the family counselling service is mentioned several times, but what does it really mean?
SKF wanted to research this, leading to collaboration with FAMSYS at VID. The research group, on their part, also wanted to carry out pedagogical development work on how to engage master students in practice-oriented research.
The participants in the workshop will be invited to discuss and reflect upon brand new findings about the nature of the Family Counselling Service, from a quantitative survey amongst all family therapists at SKF, and from four qualitative master studies that has the same common denominator, but each its own theme:
o The family service's encounter with the psychiatric diagnostic system
o What are family therapists concerned about in therapy with same-sex couples?
o How do the therapist's personal history, experiences, values, and ethics effect couple's conversations?
o What experiences and attitudes do therapists have about preserving the systemic nature of the family service in couples therapy?
We will also present the process of engaging students in collaboration with researchers, an educational institution, and the practice field. We also hope to stimulate students to engage in practice-based research. Many excellent master theses end up in a drawer, instead of contributing to new knowledge in the practice field.
Ulla-Karin Littorin
Tomas Carlsson
Björn Holmberg
Bosse Rundberg
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In our work with children and young people placed in foster care, we at the Family Care Foundation in Gothenburg have a habit of inviting parents and other important people from the client's network. We work with foster care placements in a therapeutic context, as we usually describe our model. In addition to the familyhome having a supervisor from the office, the so-called client also has a therapist from the office and parents/network has a person.
You don't come to the Family Care Foundation to stay for the rest of your life, but to do some work with yourself and the system you are a part of. The enhanced model, which is offered with a network of professionals around the youth and their system, as well as guidance and training for the foster homes, can be an alternative to institutional care.
In addition to putting words to how our model can be expressed in different contexts, we want to share the parents'/network's voices about what it has been like to be part of the joint work.
Trine Ekrem
Clinical psychologist and specialist in family therapy, Phd- student, Leader of National Resource and Development team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian family Counselling Services, The office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat)
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The paper is the third paper in a Phd project investigating children’s participating in divorce mediating and their adaption to everyday life during and after divorce, with the (invisible) help from their parents. In this paper we use a cultural psychological theoretical approach to discuss how the children make meaning to and adapt to their new situation after they learn about the divorce. We recruited 13 families, representing individual interviews with the parents, observation of the mediation and interviews with the children after they had participated in mediation and a follow-up interview one year later. The children were between 6 - 12 years old. The families belong to the group “ no- or low conflict”, representing the majority of divorcing parents. In this paper, the research- questions are: How do children describe their everyday life as their family is experiencing divorce? How do they use friends and their social surroundings to make meaning of their situation and eventually seek social and emotional support? We discuss our findings under the headlines: Learning about the divorce; being informed and making sense. Letting the other know; different strategies. Ordinary concerns; practicalities of everyday life, and adapting to their parents’ real or potential new romantic partners. You get used to it, but.. Our findings indicate that the children use cultural guidelines and became active agents in the process of being told and telling others. They could take this position because of their parents’ (invisible) help.
Vigdis F. Jensen, psychiatric nurse
- Drude F. Klavenes, psychiatric nurse, family therapist, sexologist
- Kristi Olsen, family therapist, social worker
- Asbjørn A. Heskestad, family therapist, social worker
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This is a multi-family treatment group that has run every year since 2005. It is a collaboration project between Sørlandet Hospital/ABUP and Vest-Agder Family Counselling Office, both situated in the city of Kristiansand, Norway. The group was initiated by Psy.S. Heine Steinkopf.
The group participants are the children from several families, together with one or more parent figure(s) to whom they feel safe together with. All the children have experienced domestic violence.
Either directly, or indirectly as witnesses. Each group consists of 15-20 two-hour sessions. The treatment is anchored in both systemic and psychodynamic therapy, as well as general trauma psychology. The main difference from single family therapy is that this setting enables the families to go beyond their own perspectives and make use of the resources of other families. Through role play, playing games and symbolic rituals, they can look back at their own experiences as well as their hopes for the future. This might help to feel less alone in the world, lead to a greater openness and less reluctance to explore possible changes that need to be undertaken. Through the principle of “therapist-de-centralisation”, the families become therapeutic to each other, building on the resources and strengths of the families.
In this workshop, we will outline the theoretical concepts, the structure and organization of the treatment approach through case examples and practical demonstration of interventions.

Juha Holma, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Psychology, Finland
Juha Holma is a professor of clinical psychology and psychotherapy research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research focuses on processes of interventions for intimate partner violence among others group treatment for batterers, couples therapy and virtual reality interventions.
Co-presenters:
Berta Vall, Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain
Aarno Laitila, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Psychology, Finland
Helena Päivinen, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Psychology, Finland
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Despite controversy over the indications of couple therapy for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), current research has indicated some benefits. Conjoint treatment does not seem to increase the risk of physical violence when the treatment is designed specifically for IPV and the participants are carefully screened.
The aim of two studies on couples therapy was to find out how couples who experience domestic violence discuss their relationship, abuse, parenting, and gender in couples therapy sessions. The analysis was based on recorded therapy sessions.
The results highlight the importance of therapists' awareness of the presence of violence, dominance, and power during sessions, and how cultural issues can prevent the recognition of violence. Responsibility and couple agreement on the violent behavior seemed especially relevant at the beginning of the treatment. The perpetrators used to downplay violence, put themselves in the position as a victim and lack of choices to reduce their own responsibility. Images of women constructed by men were more negative, while representations of men constructed by women were more neutral. Depictions of men were largely built on traditional masculinity such as power, independence, and heterosexuality.
Potentially useful therapeutic strategies are directedness, use of reflective dialogue, and continuous assessment. Findings also highlight parenthood as an important theme in IPV couple therapy conversations.
Cecilia Tibell, licensed doctor, specialist in endocrinology, internal medicine and functional medicine
Leena Källqvist, licensed nurse, licensed psychotherapist specialist in complex trauma and family therapist
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A presentation from the doctor’s and the psychotherapist office. How working together improves the patient outcome.
Our aim is to in a lecture present a number of cases highlighting the advantages of taking a systemic approach in the treatment of patients with somatic or psychiatric symptoms.
We are with this showing that you with an integrative approach can sometimes uncover adverse trauma events as an explanation to the psyhical symptoms patients present with as well as the opposite where patients seek the psychotherapist with psychiatric symptoms and we instead end up unrevealing somatic causes.
In our work together with a number of patients we can show what this can look like and how the combination also can lead to better results targeting somatic as well as psychiatric health in our treatments.
By working with all the aspects of life, body, mind and soul we can improves an better the outcome for most of our patient.
We also want to present the science and research that support this statement. Showing how for example av vitamin defiency can severly compromise psychiatric health and how psychiatric stress or emotionall overload can cause a number of psychical symptoms deteriating somatic health and wellbeing
Our hope is to awaken the curiosity and inspire more people to open up to this approach
Ingvar Kjetil Lysne, Clinical Psychologist, and specialist in clinical child psychology. National Resource and Development Team on Family Violence and High Conflict, Norwegian Family Counselling Services, The Office for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufetat)
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EEA is a therapeutic method for working with aggression control individually. It has been developed by psychologist Per Isdal within Alternative to violence (ATV) a non- profit non-governmental organization that provides treatment and professional expertise on violence with particular focus on domestic violence.
In 2018, Familievernet's center of expertise for violence started a project in Familievernet in collaboration with ATV, to try out EEA in the service, on a mandate from Bufdir (the Directorate for Children, Youth and Families). A prerequisite was to adapt the EEA to the service's systemic foundational thinking professionally and clinically.
We will present an ongoing professional development work in which we try out and establish a method for individual work with aggression control within a low-threshold systemic service, - Familievernet in Norway. The service offers help to couples, parents and families who are struggling. The help must have relationship, family system and context in focus for the clinical work. Individual conversations will have this as the overall framework.
Initially, the project and the EEA method will be presented. Issues, ideas, challenges and opportunities in the process of introducing and implementing such an individual method in a systemic field will then be discussed.
Steven Balmbra
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Configured dialogue is a form of practice that includes arrangements of figures and object in consultations about relationships. People set out overviews of their perceptions of their situation and this forms the basis of enquiry, which can proceed in accordance with a variety of approaches and methods. It has its roots in the family sculpting technique developed by David Kvebæk at Modum Bad in the 1970s. The inclusion of figures is a particularly effective way of engaging children in talking about their experiences and perspectives, facilitates narratives and influences dialogue in a number of ways.
Family refuge centres meet children and families in a particularly vulnerable situation, where they have to try to deal with powerful emotional and relationship issues, such as safety, attachment, loss, love, hate, fear, loyalty, responsibility, blame and shame. This is not usually a time for beginning therapy, but being able talk through and arrange their confusion lessens the harm of their experiences.
In the last two years, the team at Krisesenter Salten, the family refuge centre in the Salten district in Norway, have been practicing configured dialogues with children and parents of families seeking their help in the aftermath of violence.
They have found that boys and girls who previously have struggled in talking about situation have managed to express themselves in a clear and enlivened fashion. Parents have been better able to see their children’s points of view and then take this into consideration with making decisions of how to proceed.
In this presentation, retired family therapist Steven Balmbra will talk about the kinds of contribution configured dialogues makes to consultations about relationships and emotions. Wanja Sæther from Krisesenter Salten will present talk about their experience of introducing configured dialogues to their work and discuss the value of this form of consultation for increasing support and understanding, and preventing harm.
Rolf Sundet University of South-Eastern Norway
rosundet@online.no
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In our contemporary situation, there are reports and signs of crises. In all the different professions within health and social services people are leaving, the numbers on sick leave is reported to increase and worries about a rise in the suicide rate among professionals can be detected. At the same time, there are questions and reports that mental illness and unhealth are on the rise in the general population with queues of people in almost every service seeking help. The worry in the field of family therapy is that we are marginalized in many of these services. The workshop wants to put forth the following question for dialogue: Is this marginalized position of family therapy actually of the good? Does the choices that family therapy have done the last 40 years concerning research, knowledge and practice point towards what we have to do in order to create more productive and human services than we see today? Do the routes and roads taken by many family therapists concerning research, knowledge and practice, which certainly have pushed family therapy into a position on the margins, actually point towards ideas, ways of thinking and practices that can help us in our contemporary crises and predicament? Maybe the marginalized past and present of family therapy ideas and practices contains the path towards a just and equal mental health service of the future. The workshop invites the participants to reflective dialogues about these questions.
Reflectivity and reflexivity are pivotal when joining in and co-creating collaborative professional relationships like the therapist-client or the supervisory relationship. Though reflection is a natural process, (professional) reflectivity is not, and both reflectivity and reflexivity require practice. The difference between reflectivity and reflexivity is that reflectivity is about looking at a situation from an ‘about-ness stance’, whilst reflexivity is acknowledging a ‘withness-stance’.
The goal of this workshop is to invite participants to explore how they can optimally make use of incorporating inner values and dialogues that matter within the dialogue. Being a reflect/xive therapist and supervisor supports the systemic vision of valuing multiple voices and stories, as reflect/xivity helps in attuning to conversational partners with an open and inviting attitude lived and embodied experiences and broader contexts.
The workshop facilitates a short presentation about reflectivity and reflexivity and invites to use a model about incorporating these concepts for self-supervision, intervision (peersupervision) and supervision or training. However, the pith of the workshop lays in the coconstruction and learning in togetherness, it aims rather to be a co-creational space or a warm lab, than an ‘old school lecture’. We will co-create an enabling atmosphere in which participants are invited to explore how they can optimally make use of reflectivity and reflexivity with an open and inviting attitude to the conversational partners, lived and embodied experiences and broader contexts.
Bård Bertelsen is associate professor of psychology and clinical psychologist with a specialty in child, youth, and family psychology. His research focuses on the social organization of mental health and social services, and existential issues in therapeutic work.
Odd Kenneth Hillesund is assistant professor and family therapist, and head of the family therapy programme at UiA. He has done research on the education of therapists and the organization of knowledge in an intensive family therapy unit.
Tor-Ivar Karlsen is professor of psychosocial health. He has done research on obesity, particularly related to patient-reported outcome measures. Presently, his research interests are social science, public health and sexology.
In this workshop, we present a recent survey among Norwegian family therapy students, working family therapists, and leaders in organisations where family therapy expertise is presumed to be relevant.
Background
In the Norwegian context, family therapy has long been a popular area of specialisation for professionals with backgrounds in social work, nursing and education, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, for psychologists and psychiatrists. There are currently several continuing and further education courses in family therapy in Norway. Three universities also offer family therapy studies at a master's degree level.
In some services, such as family counselling and municipal family services, it is common to request formal family therapy competence when hiring staff. In mental health care for children and young people, family therapy has long been considered a valuable (but not essential) area of expertise. We know that family therapists work in other areas as well, such as child welfare, adult mental health services, social and welfare administration (NAV), refugee services, voluntary organisations, private counselling services and the education sector. However, there is no systematic overview of how their work is affected by their family therapy training or whether such training is considered and recognised by employers when hiring.
The purpose of this study is to explore how family therapy students, family therapists and managers in selected health and social and welfare organisations perceive the value of family therapy studies.
The survey seeks to find answers to four overarching questions:
1. What are the different educational backgrounds of family therapy students currently studying family therapy at Norwegian educational institutions?
2. In which organisations do family therapists work in Norway today?
3. How do family therapy students, working family therapists and managers in organisations that employ family therapists understand the relevance of family therapy education for professional competence and career opportunities?
4. To what extent do family therapy students, working family therapists and managers in organisations that employ family therapists feel that an education in family therapy provides competence to work with relational problem areas that are considered particularly relevant to society today (violence, addiction, sexual health, migration)?

Methods
Sampling and recruitment
Participants will be recruited from three groups of participants: current family therapy trainees, practising family therapists and managers in organisations where family therapy expertise is thought to be particularly relevant.

Questionnaire
The survey will contain multiple-choice and open-ended questions and will be designed to be completed in approximately 10-15 minutes. To ensure the reliability and validity of the survey, it will be reviewed by a reference group of family therapy experts before it is sent out to respondents.

Findings
In the workshop, we will present some preliminary data and trends in the data material, and invite participants to discuss the material presented as well as the current state and future outlook of family therapy as an area of expertise in the Nordic context.

Norsk Forening for Familieterapi