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 50 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 30.000 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, associated researchers and psychotherapists, who carry out studies and research to further advance the intervention model and who use it faithfully under the direct monthly supervision of the "master" Giorgio Nardone, are over 500; operating in all five continents.

There are over 20 teaching and research offices all over the world (Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Russia, Romania, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, United States, etc.) which guarantee teaching and updating regarding the model.

THE MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTE

• Psychotherapy, carried out directly by Giorgio Nardone and the internal team (Dr. Elisa Valteroni, coordinator, Dr. Elisa Balbi, Dr. Ilaria Caponi, Dr. Sara Janni, Dr. Susanna Scartoni, Dr. Simona Zimbaro).
  The Team plays the fundamental role of responding quickly to requests for psychotherapy, avoiding the prolonged waiting list for direct requests with Prof. Nardone, who nevertheless carries out direct and systematic supervisions internally on patients followed by members of the Team. Another, not to be underestimated, characteristic of the work of the internal team is that of the cost of the sessions, which is decidedly lower than that of exclusive meetings with Giorgio Nardone. Therefore, the quality of the interventions is guaranteed, which can be activated quickly and at an accessible cost.
• clinical research; the CTS It was born with a vocation for research in the clinical field specifically oriented to the processes of change and their implementation. In fact, for over forty years, studies with qualitative methodology have been conducted relating to effective and efficient strategies to induce therapeutic change. In recent decades, quantitative and evidence-based studies have been added to these to adhere to the "questionable" (Nardone & Salvini, 2013) prevalent methodology in the medical-psychological field of statisfying the measurement of therapeutic efficacy. Both lines of applied research have demonstrated how brief strategic psychotherapy (Brief Strategic Therapy or BST) is effective and efficient in a superior manner to other forms of psychotherapy in its application to numerous forms of psychopathology, such as in the case of obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety and panic, eating disorders, etc. In recent years, research has been underway in collaboration with Brigham Young University on a global scale, using both qualitative and quantitative methodology, on the therapeutic outcomes of BST, made possible by the presence of clinical and research facilities at the CTS in over 20 different countries, with applications in real psychotherapy contexts and not in laboratories with case studies of university students, as in the majority of studies published with the evidence-based method, which is opening a new line of research methodology in the field of clinical psychology. The results of this monumental study will be added to the current series of research being published that highlight how brief strategic psychotherapy turns out to be a real "best practice" for some important psychopathologies.
• specialist training, aimed at graduates in Psychology, Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Doctors.
• Intensive training for foreigners

EVERYDAY LIFE INSIDE THE STRATEGIC THERAPY CENTER 

• For five days a week, approximately twenty patients are received daily and on two of these days, the student psychologists and doctors qualified to practice carry out co-therapies under the direct supervision of Giorgio Nardone.
• At the same time, the internal team of psychotherapists intervenes on the most urgent cases and on those who do not want to wait, on the waiting list, for direct therapy with Giorgio Nardone, who in any case sees them as supervisor in the therapy carried out with the internal collaborators of the CTS.
• 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. All this also concerns the work carried out in non-clinical contexts.
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.