Association of Systemic Therapists

Association of Systemic Therapists (AST) is a nongovernmental organization founded in 2005. The members of the Association are both internationally and nationally certified psychotherapists. They form a team of trainers who lead and carry out the systemic family therapy training program.

Training program in systemic family therapy is acknowledged and accredited by relevant national and international organizations: European Association for Psychotherapy, European Family Therapy Association , Serbian Association of Psychotherapists and Ministry for Labor and Social affairs of Republic of Serbia. AST has a status of European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute, issued by EAP.

Systemic family therapy is a professionally based psychosocial intervention aiming at moderating relationships within a family group. Systemic family therapy is based on an interactional method, understands family as a system which is in a constant change and an individual behavioral patterns as an epiphenomenon of interpersonal relationships. In the process of development of family therapy, concepts and basic paradigms change and follow developments in the field of clinical and especially social psychology and other psychotherapeutic modalities.

Presently, application of systemic thinking in the development of various psychosocial programs, counseling and therapeutic programs, is highly effective in different professional contexts (in domains of social work, education, health care, corporative organizations). Research and evidence based practice indicate significant efficiency and effectiveness of systemic practice in areas of mental health of adults, youth and children, couple therapy, coping with developmental difficulties, eating disorders, addictions, anxiety disorders, etc.

Some of the interventions are brief and can be offered by different professionals. For some interventions, there are already designed manuals which can be flexibly applied to the therapeutic work with families.

Psychoeducational sessions are delivered in many different formats: individuals, couples, families, family groups, organizational teams, etc. The training program and the entire curriculum have been created and are based upon the updated evidence-based practice. The continuous challenge for systemic therapists and the training programs has been to maintain coherence and comprehensiveness of the multi-modal approach when working with families.