E.I.S.T. is an Institute of systemic psychotherapy, training and clinical research, founded by Valeria Ugazio in 1999. E.I.S.T. has a school of psychotherapy recognized by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research and is authorized to provide four-year specialization courses in systemic psychotherapy, in Milan and Bergamo for licensed psychologists and medical doctors.
We provide psychotherapy for individuals, couples and the families. In addition, EIST carries out studies on the theory of family semantic polarities, developed by Valeria Ugazio, on phobic, obsessive-compulsive, eating disorders and depression. In collaboration with other psychotherapeutic institutes and universities, we are also doing research on the relational contexts of some psychopathologies, on therapeutic processes with eating disorders, phobic and obsessive- compulsive patients and with depression and mood disorders, on conflicts in couples and on couple therapy.

E.I.S.T.’s therapeutic approach is inspired by the systemic psychotherapeutic tradition of Gregory Bateson and the Palo Alto Group (Haley, Weakland, Watzlawick et al.) and is part of the Milanese School of Psychotherapy, known as the Milan Approach.
The attention to emotions, the central nucleus of semantics, to feelings, to explicative schemas and to the other aspects of individual experience, along with the interest to psychopathology and developing kinds of therapies for the psychopathologies for which therapy is requested, characterizes our Institute. Eist’s approach is based on a systemic interpretation of the subjectivity which draws on contributions from clinical cognitivism. This interpretation moves the focus from the family as a unit to the “co-positioning” of the individuals within it.Through our seminars, workshops, conferences and studies with our European and American systemic, cognitivist and psychoanalyst colleagues, we promote a culture of dialogue, fully convincet that comparing different positions stimulates knowledge and creativity.