Our clinical practice, as well as our clinical and research activities, are firmly rooted in the systemic-relational psychotherapeutic tradition. Gregory Bateson and the School of Palo Alto (Haley, Weakland, Watzlawick et al.) are our main source of inspiration. And it is here that Ugazio’s theory of semantic polarities, now recognized as one of the most innovative contemporary developments of the systemic model, finds its roots.
This tradition left us the legacy of a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at human problems and their construction. This perspective is not simply a set of techniques, easily manipulative when not originated from a new vision of reality. It is this way of thinking that plays an important role in the processes of change in therapy and training. For example, many of our new trainees do not already have a regular clinical practice, but they soon sense the therapeutic value of this perspective by applying it to their own life and experiencing the profound changes in themselves that the systemic thinking produces. Certainly, after a year of training they are no longer the same: their way of thinking and their perception of themselves and others, have change irreversibly.
Thanks to this new way of thinking it is possible to identify resources even with some traumatic experiences, an aspect that makes the systemic perspective particularly effective at a therapeutic level. In fact the therapist must leverage the patient’s resources during the process of change.
