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Deborah Schroder, MA, ATR-BC
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NEWS: SPRING 2008
Current International Issues in Family Therapy
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This spring I had the pleasure of participating in the World International Family Therapy Congress held in Porto, Portugal. The theme of the congress was “Transformation and Globalizations: Family Therapy in the 21st Century. 
I attended a number of excellent presentations and was perhaps most inspired by a speaker who proposed that family therapists were particularly well-suited to be global leadership development specialists. She encouraged the audience to think about what transformation could happen globally if there was a family therapist on the Board of every company, encouraging companies to be more humane through the use of family systems work within the company.
There were fascinating exchanges in the area of domestic violence and couples counseling. There were workshops and speakers who focused on new research about what is helpful and what isn’t, in a variety of family therapy models.
My own presentation: ”Family Art Therapy: A Postmodern Response”, was a joy to share because the participants were all family therapists who were excited to learn about art therapy. They were a little surprised when I got out the paper and drawing materials and asked them to make art, but as we know here at Southwestern experiential learning is the most exciting way to engage with a subject. Their eager questions and comments made me feel very happy to have the opportunity to share art therapy in that setting.
Deborah Schroder
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