Family and Systems Therapy and Training in Portugal
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Family and Systems Therapy and Training in Portugal Ana Paula Relvas • Madalena Alarca˜o • M. Grac¸a Pereira
Published online: 7 March 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract The history of systemic family therapy in Portugal since its appearance until the present is discussed. Some data on systemic family therapists’ training is provided in the context of the Portuguese Society of Family Therapy and Academic Institutions. In Portugal, family therapy has been extended to various contexts, including medical and community services. Finally, future directions for family and systems therapy practice and training in Portugal are provided emphasizing the importance of family interventions as an important resource to empower families living with health chronic conditions. The Portuguese Family Therapy Society, every 2 years, organizes a scientific Iberian conference with Portuguese and Spanish speakers. This allows the exchange of clinical experience and research about family and systems theory. Keywords contexts
Family and systems therapy Family therapists’ training Family intervention
Introduction Due to an opening up to new ideas in the 1970’s, especially in political and psychosocial terms, it has only been a little over 30 years since family and systems therapy was introduced in Portugal. It may be recalled that there was a revolution in Portugal in 1974, which overthrew the Salazarist dictatorship and allowed not only the installation of a democratic regime, but also the subsequent incorporation of Portugal into the European Union. In the years that followed, the (almost frenetic) desire for change and the (almost A. P. Relvas M. Alarca˜o Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] M. Alarca˜o e-mail: [email protected] M. G. Pereira (&) School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal e-mail: [email protected]
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Contemp Fam Ther (2013) 35:296–307
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compulsive) need to connect with the rest of the world led to a whole series of changes which, inevitably and fortunately, were felt in the sphere of mental health and psychotherapy. So, it was in this context that Family Therapy came to Portugal, essentially in two ways: first, via a group of mental health clinicians (particularly psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers); and second, with a more epistemological and theoretical tendency, via a number of academics (particularly linked to psychology departments which were just then being created in Portugal). Thanks to the profound scientific and clinical changes that have taken place in Portugal and the rest of the world, the interaction between mental health workers and other professionals has become a new challenge for family therapy. Family doctors, nurses, lawyers and professors are just some of the groups of professionals for whom training and methodological intervention proposals, aiming at a systemic approach to reality, have led to a fruitful union with
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