cts convention

THE STRATEGIC THERAPY CENTER

The Strategic Therapy Center of Arezzo is the research, training and psychotherapy institute founded in 1987 by George Nardone and Paul Watzlawick. It is also home to the Postgraduate School of Specialization for Doctors and Psychologists in Brief Strategic Psychotherapy (Brief Strategic Therapy Giorgio Nardone's Model) officially recognized by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), for the release of the title of Psychotherapist.

The Institute was founded with the aim of evolving the model of Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto (Brief Therapy) in the direction of a more advanced therapeutic technology that would allow greater results in terms of efficacy and efficiency of treatments and make it adaptable to different cultures and fitting, thanks to strategies and stratagems built "ad hoc", to the most important forms of psychopathology.

This initial project has consolidated further 30 research projects realized that have led to the development of as many original therapeutic protocols that currently represent, in many cases, the best practice in the sector.
In this way, the original model that applied indifferently to all forms of disorder has become a differentiated model that makes therapeutic solutions fit the different psychopathological persistences.

At the Strategic Therapy Center in Arezzo, over 25.000 patient cases from all over the world have been treated directly by Giorgio Nardone or under his supervision; Most of these therapies have been videotaped and make up the most important clinical case archive in the field of psychotherapy. The studies carried out on the sample show a general efficacy of the model equal to 89% of cases and an efficiency equal to an average duration of the therapies of 7 sessions. Furthermore, the differential efficacy shows that for some psychopathologies the Model stands out even more in the results (see Publications and Research).

Dozens are the Publications international, scientific and popular, derived from all this research and intervention in the clinical field, some real best / long seller and other teaching texts in the best international universities. All this has made the Strategic Therapy Center in Arezzo the world reference point for brief strategic psychotherapy and communication oriented to change.

The working group and researchers which in the early nineties had about 10 collaborators has grown on an international scale, i official collaborators who carry out studies and research to further advance the intervention model and who faithfully use it under the direct monthly supervision of the "master" Giorgio Nardone, are over 200; operating on all five continents.

There are over 40 teaching and research offices all over the world (Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Russia, Romania, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay, United States etc.) which guarantee the teaching and updating of the model.

THE MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTE

  • psychotherapy, carried out directly by Giorgio Nardone and by four collaborators under his direct supervision (Dr. Elisa Valteroni, Dr. Susanna Scartoni, Dr. Alessia Salvi);
  • the neurology and psychiatry service, mainly oriented to the progressive reduction of pharmacological treatments until their extinction, in parallel with the psychotherapies in progress (Dr. G. Silvestri);
  • clinical research;
  • specialist training, aimed at graduates in Psychology, Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Doctors.

EVERYDAY LIFE INSIDE THE STRATEGIC THERAPY CENTER 

  • About twenty patients are received every day for five days a week and in two of these days the psychologists and doctors trained in the profession carry out the co-therapies under the direct supervision of the “Maestro” Giorgio Nardone.
  • Two days a week further didactic activities are carried out: training of trainers, theoretical application lessons. In addition to this, ongoing research projects are coordinated and carried out.
  • One day a month is dedicated to supervising "difficult cases" with Official collaborators (Official psychotherapists) from Italy and the rest of the world through direct participation or by video-conference. On this occasion there is also an update and comparison on the research in progress that continues to engage the entire international group of researchers of the institute.

PHILOSOPHY

Since its foundation, the Strategic Therapy Center has always supported the importance of giving equal weight to scientific research and clinical practice by considering them interdependent on each other. Research, in fact, is an essential means to make our clinical activity more effective and reliable, while therapeutic practice represents a real form of empirical-experimental research.
We have never been among those researchers devoted solely to scientific faith, often very far from concrete reality, but neither are we clinicians "lost" in the maze of psychopathology alone. We believe that the one who provides therapeutic help must be both a researcher and a clinician and that the two "souls" guarantee the first not to detach too much from the reality that one lives and to the second not to get lost in it.

In the same way, we believe that the synthesis between art and technology is fundamental in our field: the psychotherapist in his activity should constantly respect the rigor of the method as much as create something that goes beyond pure technique when needed.
Our constant effort is to improve ourselves every day, to identify and develop increasingly advanced techniques in terms of strategy, communication and therapeutic relationship.
Our philosophy is in line with Friedrich Nietzsche 's claim "everything that does not raise, lower" which is why we continue tirelessly to push in this direction in the hope of continuing to succeed.