Stiftung Systemische Therapie und Beratung

The ZSB Bern (Center for Systemic Therapy and Counseling Bern) is a federal foundation that integrates a systemic practice community, a continuing education institute, and project groups under one roof.

Further education and training

Since the 1990s, the ZSB has been imparting knowledge and skills from practice directly for practice.

• Continuing education on current topics in counseling and therapy
• Advanced training in systemic therapy and counseling
•    Supervision for individuals, teams, and organizations
•    Team development

Our training and continuing education courses are recognized by professional associations (SYSTEMIS.CH, SGPP) and professional bodies (FSP, SBAP, FMH).

All teachers at ZSB Bern have sound professional training in their field based on scientific principles and most have many years of experience in therapeutic and counseling problem solving in complex systems.

Continuing education

Continuing education

Supervision and self-awareness

Teachers

Publications

Practice community

The ZSB Bern is a network of independent therapists, whereby each therapist is responsible for themselves, i.e., each therapist runs a freelance practice—either on their own responsibility or under delegated responsibility.

To register, please contact the individual therapists directly. The ZSB Bern secretariat is responsible for continuing education and does not accept registrations for therapy or counseling.

The ZSB Bern only acts as an intermediary and cannot accept any responsibility for your request.
The ZSB cannot guarantee you a place in therapy.
If you are offered a therapy place, please ask your therapist about the administrative conditions (registration, billing, etc.).

Therapists

Courses, groups

Systemic therapy

What is systemic therapy?

Both the Swiss Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (SGPP)
and the Federation of Swiss Psychologists (FSP)
support concepts and methods that are based on one of the recognized psychotherapeutic models. These include:

• The psychoanalytic model
• The behavioral therapy model
• The systemic model.

These models are characterized by their scientifically proven effectiveness. All models are based on shared fundamental values, including human dignity, human rights, responsibility towards people seeking help, therapeutic professionalism, and maximum transparency of methods and processes (e.g., the professional code of ethics of the Swiss Association for Systemic Therapy and Counseling: PDF Ethics Guidelines systemis.ch).

Systemic therapy is an independent form of psychotherapy and can be defined as intervention in complex human systems (both psychological and interpersonal systems) with the aim of alleviating or eliminating suffering. To this end, conditions are created that allow patients to overcome processes that cause suffering, taking into account their concerns and possibilities. (Günter Schiepek: The Fundamentals of Systemic Therapy - Theory, Practice, Research; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, p. 30).
    
In a text by the Swiss Society for Systemic Therapy, SGS (now systemis.ch), dated May 19, 1991, systemic therapy and counseling are defined as follows:
The systemic view of human behavior draws on general systems theory and is based on various scientific concepts that focus on the interaction between the individual and his or her social environment. It understands psychological and psychosomatic symptoms as an expression of the individual's adaptation to the environment. Symptoms are thus an expression of interpersonal and other psychosocial conflicts and can also be seen as biological stress indicators.
The aim of systemic therapy is to stimulate stagnant developmental processes by activating and supporting the system's own strengths and possibilities.

In the practice of systemic therapy, the therapist forms an alliance with both the patient and their family and non-family caregivers to create a development- and solution-oriented "therapeutic" system. To build this system, the therapist promotes the binding cooperation of all participants, both during therapy sessions and in everyday life. In this way, he or she creates a socially binding formal framework for organizational and developmental processes.
Systemic therapy practice can draw on any psychiatric and psychotherapeutic methods as well as psychopharmacotherapy. Under certain conditions, therapy sessions can take place with parts of the therapeutic system, or the therapeutic system can be limited to the therapist and one other person. Systemic therapy is not identical to family therapy.
Documentation and intervision using audiovisual means are an indispensable part of systemic therapy work.