EUROPEAN FAMILY THERAPY ASSOCIATION
CONNECTING FAMILY THERAPISTS AND TRAINERS
by Cinthe Lemmens
With Metaloog, a systemic knowledge network from Belgium and the Netherlands, we took part in Reclaiming Our Futures, an artistic–scientific festival organised by Radboud University, where scientists, artists and activists imagined the worlds we want to live in. Its motto, “The future is rhizomatic,” refers to roots like ginger that grow horizontally, through connection rather than hierarchy. For systemic practitioners, a familiar image.
We improvised through soundpainting and jazz, gave form to anger in a rage workshop, and facilitated a Warm Data Lab on “What is home in a changing world?”, sharing how Deleuze drew on Bateson for the concept of the rhizome.
A recurring thread was a critical look at AI: its consumption and pollution of drinking water, its capacity to manipulate knowledge, and the way it reinforces institutional racism through feedback loops. Because AI predicts what is most likely based on existing data, it tends to confirm what already is. The AI revolution is not inevitable; it calls for making room for what challenges power and what risks being marginalised.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST delivered by Maria Borcsa & Valeria Pomini on the last EFTA Book “Handbook of Online Systemic Therapy, Supervision and Training“
On 29 May 2026, Edgar Morin passed away in Paris at an advanced age, just short of his 105th birthday. He was born Edgar Nahoum on 8 July 1921 in Paris, the son of secular Jewish immigrants from Thessaloniki, and himself lived a complex biography: a fighter in the Résistance, a member of the Communist Party until 1951, then expelled from the party and a lifelong dissident vis-à-vis any orthodoxy. At the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), which he joined in 1950 and where he became research director, he worked at the intersection of sociology, philosophy, ethnography and biology. He received honorary doctorates from 38 universities worldwide.
Dear EFTA members and future members – CIM chamber, NFTO chamber and TIC chamber.
The goal of EFTA is to achieve recognition for family and systemic therapy as a distinct, scientifically based form of therapy practice and to ensure rigorous standards of training and professional practice throughout Europe.
To this end, EFTA has completed the process of periodically updating its training standards in line with developments in the various European regulatory and professional frameworks.
The new training standards are titled ‘ EFTA Minimum Training Standards 2025’.
Please find HERE the training standards for family and systemic therapists at the European level and training levels for membership of the EFTA Chamber of Training Institutes (TIC) and EFTA Chamber of Individual Members (CIM).
Dear Friends, the Lyon Congress has just ended and it has been an incredible event: many people (1660), many different formal encounters and presentations (505), an atmosphere of curiosity, energy, responsibility and awareness. Energetic alertness, fun to meet and many emotions in the many pause moments. I would love to bring all these moods and emotions in the next three years of our work together!
I am personally very satisfied also of the past three years, I only wish for more participation from each of you. I would like you to share with us your necessities and your workwise desires. What can we help you making come true? Who could we invite because you think it would be an enrichment for you and all of us? Which theme are you interested in?
The congress has started and ended with two videos about what is happening in the world. This does not mean I wish to “politicize” EFTA but that we need to be aware of what is happening, since each client brings the world with her/himself, even if it does not talk about it.
Agenda Upcoming events
It is with sorrow that I announce the death of Edgar Morin, the 29th of May at 104 years. It is with responsibility that I wish to pay a tribute to him. A researcher, an irreverent thinker, the father of complexity. I’ve met him many times – in Roma, Milano, Naples and abroad – and studied his books whenever I could.
As you all know, every three years, we hold the EFTA Conference. It’s a special moment when we shine a light on the work achieved over the past three years, honoring members of the Board with an award — usually two from each Chamber. This tradition is close to our hearts, as it gives us a chance to celebrate our journey, reflect on what we’ve accomplished together, and look ahead to what’s still to come.
Within the framework of international collaboration within EFTA and of the co-authors of a common book, Valeria Pomini, Mauro Mariotti and Peter Stratton took the initiative to reflect, as systemic thinkers, on pressing societal issues and crises — through a systemic lens. The group has been called Peace and War, then Systemic voices for peace. […]
HELP EFTA GROW!
- Encourage professionals, Training Institutes and National Federations you consider eligible to join. (Refer to the websites of the 3 Chambers for membership categories and criteria).
- Promote EFTA to students and trainees, supporting them to apply for associate membership.