Dear colleagues, European Association for Psychotherapy decided to organize a conference, which is first of all oriented towards the needs of practitioners, and especially holders of European Certificate of Psychotherapist – ECP. This is a first conference of such kind, and we in Lithuanian Psychotherapeutic Society are very proud that this event will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, on October 15 – 18, 2014.
This main topic of the conference is embedded in its title – „How Art and Science Meet“. A subtitle explains this a little bit – „What practice and research can learn from each other“. In recent times the value and legitimacy of psychotherapy is questioned and attacked no less than many decades ago, despite the constantly growing evidence of long-lasting effects of therapy, and beneficial influence of it on health, life and relationships. Many practitioners see the decline of recognition of their efforts from the managers or officials, and in many countries of Europe psychotherapy is still not recognized as a profession in its own rights. However, the growing number of positive scientific data is often difficult to comprehend and use due to different philosophies of practice and science in these much interconnected fields.
This conference as a main goal for discussion sees an attempt to encompass both areas of activities and interests by sharing common ideas, mutual understanding and related problems. We hope that dialogue between these fields will show an important understanding (or misunderstanding…) to correct and enrich us for a benefit of our patients and clients, who finally are the only ones we should be concerned about in our work.
Last but not least – the conference will take place in Main Building of Vilnius university – an academic institution established in 1579 as one of the oldest in the region. Long standing traditions of psychosomatic understanding of the patients exist here since XIX century, and are continued nowadays in the education of all helping professionals – medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, etc. We are very glad of the continuation of these traditions and have among organizers of this conference both Lithuanian Psychological Society and Lithuanian Psychiatric Association.
We hope this conference will serve for all of us as a most needed inspiration in these hard times.
