Shinui Centro Di Consulenza Sulla Relazione Scuola Di Counseling Sistemico Pluralista Corso Di Mediazione Familiare
Centro di Consulenza sulla Relazione - Terapia individuale, di coppia, familiare, di gruppo - Corsi di Formazione Sistemico Pluralisti
Shinui Centro Di Consulenza Sulla Relazione Scuola Di Counseling Sistemico Pluralista Corso Di Mediazione Familiare

Counseling school - Bergamo

Gruppi di Formazione in Counseling SHINUI (ispirati a Matisse)
Gruppi di Formazione in Counseling SHINUI (ispirati a Matisse)

The three-year School of Systemic Pluralistic Counseling is one of the first schools started in Italy and promoted annually by the Center. The course, lasting three years, is 700 hours in total. The School cares constantly about the accreditation policies set by the counseling association (AssoCounseling) and it adapts to the requirements of the profession legislation in a national and European level.

Indeed, after Law 4/2013, which recognizes professional associations, in January we had the bond of an increase in hours to which we have immediately adapted.

Classes are held on Saturday from 09:30 to 17:30

Corso riconosciuto da
Assocounseling

Assocounseling

Definition

DEFINITION

The profession

The counselor profession was born in the United States in the nineteen thirties as a response to the two well known currents: psychoanalysis and behaviourism. Some approaches, notably "The third force" (humanism, existentialism and Gestalt), focus on the welfare and quality of life rather than on the discomfort and the suffering, on prevention rather than on care, on mental health rather than the disease; the practitioner is no longer seen as an "expert patient", but he helps clients, the active participants and protagonists of their own lives, to find answers, to make choices, to activate their own resources, to follow their paths.

Moreover, the economic crisis and its consequences, bring out a need for another type of help, quicker and effective. The following years counseling grew exponentially, creating a new culture in the helping and care relationship. In the fifties the profession arrived in Europe, especially in England and in this country it spread to all areas:

psychological, health, educational, social, business and legal.

Counseling was introduced in Italy at the end of the eighties and with the differentiating of the psychologist and psychotherapist figures, it became increasingly clear that there was a need to introduce a profession operating in situations in which psychotherapy was not strictly necessary: transition crisis, evolutionary processes, traumatic events such as illness, conflicts and relationship distress, orientation and existential decisions, improving the quality of life.

Counseling in Italy is now diffusing through schools, hospitals, law firms, businesses, the third sector (for example communities for mothers and children or minors), but also in the private practice. From 2005 counseling services were progressively introduces in the Family centres of the Emilia Romagna region. This was a big project that Shinui coordinated.

A specific aspect across all sectors is the taking of action in an intercultural context.

The word "counseling" is a term with its own meaning and it has not been translated in Italian because there are no terms in our language that can fully express these concepts and also because it would conflict with other professional roles (such as city councillor or business advisor). The word "counseling" can be written in Italian with an L (US English version) or two L (British version).

The following is the definition developed by the Scientific Committee AssoCounseling (which Edelstein is part of) and approved by the AssoCounseling shareholders on April 2, 2011:

Counseling is a professional activity whose goal is to improve the client's quality of life by supporting its strengths and its self-determination.

Counseling provides a space for listening and reflection, in which to explore difficulties for evolutionary processes, transition states and phases of crisis and to strength the ability to choose or change.

Counseling is an intervention that uses various methods borrowed from different theoretical orientations. It refers to the individual, to families, groups and institutions. Counseling can be provided in various areas, such as private, social, education, health and business.

Systemic Counseling

Here below the definition of systemic counseling, developed by Edelstein and published in her book: Pluralistic systemic counseling. From theory to practice. Ed Erickson, 2007:

"Counseling is a professional care activity which, through the relationship between the practitioner and the client (individual, family or group), intends to facilitate the processes of change, to reinforce evolutionary paths and improve the quality of life, enhancing both resources and relations with the surrounding environment. " (P. 21).

System thinking was born in the Thirties in the United States as a theory ("The General Theory of Systems", whose founder is considered Ludwig von Bertalanffy) and, in the fifties, has developed as a specific approach, initially directed towards the family and the couple. It shares the values of the "Third Force" (Humanism, Existentialism and Gestalt), but it differs in shifting its focus from the person to the relationship, paying particular attention to the environment, the ecology, the interconnection between all elements and to the complexity of living systems. In addition, it abandons the classic linear thinking of cause and effect in order to adopt a circular one. The new paradigm incorporates:

  • a holistic view of the world, considered as an integrated set of interacting parts;
  • an ecological vision that recognizes the interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as living beings, we engrave on and depend on the cyclical processes of nature;
  • a procedural vision that observes the systems in equilibrium and is continually changing.

These three elements work together to build a vision that enhances the legacy of the past (not deterministic), the dynamism of life (the present) and hypothetical future scenery.

Keywords are: system roles, boundaries, family, generations, communication, relationships, paradoxes... Emerged initially on the East coast and in the Western United States, the systems approach gave birth in the Seventies in Italy to a second generation (especially in Rome and Milan) and then spread throughout the world. The key words of the Milan Approach are hypothesis, circularity, neutrality, circular questions. Those of the US East coast and Rome are: genogram, (tri-generational), family sculpture, emotions, affections.

In the second half of the Eighties and in the Nineties, the post-modern period, it considers the "other" cultures as equally worthy bearers of values. It creates a new balance between cultures, classes and people, it aspires to a democratic and equitable system that accords dignity to every participant. The language becomes the main instrument to achieve the democratic goals. It "discovers" that reality is subjective, is a product of negotiation between the attribution of meanings of the participants in a communicative exchange. That is the era of Social constructivism.

Born from this, is the Narrative approach, with the belief that human thought has a form and a narrative structure, we focus on the importance of the multiplicity of points of view, trying to broaden the perspective of the stories, are co-constructed stories which offer greater freedom and autonomy, it introduces the dimension of memories and memory, expectations and desires, in a story lived in the present, which can change the emotions than in the past and the future.

You move away from the pretence of building true stories, you omit the need for tests and demonstrations, the objective conception of paradigmatic thinking.

Finally, there is no longer a normative model and ideal, but a pluralistic one, considering the various models with their own characteristics and functions. The key words are prejudices, assumptions, equality, co-construction, stories, narratives, autobiography, memory, possible horizons...

Gives rise to the individual systemic therapy, in addition to family and couple, and constructionist assumptions opens the gap to systemic counseling enriched from previous approaches.

Systemic schools are many, and they refer to different system approaches. But these approaches, though different, have some elements in common: all systems approaches work to achieve a desired change and negotiated between the professional and the client. All dwell on relations, work on resources, enhancing the individual and the environment.

Systemic Pluralist Counseling

The pluralist system model conceived by Edelstein and developed together with the teaching staff of the school, considers and intertwines different approaches of systemic schools instead of focusing one or two individual approaches: Milan (Boscolo and Cecchin), constructionist and narrative (post-modern), structural (Minuchin), communicative-humanistic (Satir) and Roman (Andolfi and de Bernart).

In this way the complexity is also considered through attention to the semantic and verbal, to space, but also to the body and emotions. The narration is born in the words, but also through expressive techniques such as collage or human sculpture.

In not strictly clinical settings, the systemic pluralist counselor approach works by focusing on relationships. It makes use of the tools of communication - verbal and non-verbal - enhance the resources of the different systems in the relevant contexts, to facilitate transformative changes and change processes. Particular attention is paid to the emotional processes and the relationship between counselor and client.

Also available: Italiano (IT)