Speaker: Prof. Mareike Wolf-Fédida

Professor of Clinical Psychopathology and Psychotherapy at Université Paris Cité. Her work develops the dialogue between psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and contemporary clinical practice, with particular attention to embodiment, subjectivity, and the epistemological foundations of psychotherapy. She contributes extensively to theoretical research on psychopathology and to the renewal of psychoanalytic thinking within interdisciplinary contexts.

Session Overview
This session examines how contemporary psychotherapy can sustain a meaningful dialogue with medicine, psychiatry, and the human sciences. Key themes include:

• The epistemological challenges faced by psychotherapy when engaging with biomedical models of mental health.

• How psychoanalytic and phenomenological perspectives illuminate the experience of subjectivity in clinical practice.

• The role of integrative thinking in preserving the complexity of psychological suffering within interdisciplinary care.

Speaker: Prof. Pierre Canouï

Psychiatrist and child psychiatrist, Doctor of Medical Ethics at the Paris Descartes University, and Honorary President of the Fédération Française de Psychothérapie et Psychanalyse. Former hospital practitioner at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, he has contributed extensively to clinical work in liaison psychiatry and psychosomatic care. His work explores the ethical, humanistic, and integrative foundations of psychotherapeutic practice.

Session Overview
This session explores the ethical and clinical foundations of integrative psychotherapy in contemporary healthcare contexts. It will address:

• The place of psychotherapy within complex medical settings, particularly in liaison psychiatry and psychosomatic care.

• The ethical dimensions of the therapeutic relationship in situations of vulnerability, illness, and existential distress.

• How integrative psychotherapeutic approaches support meaning-making and psychological coherence in clinical practice.

Speaker: Prof. Umberta Telfener

Clinical and health psychologist. Has been an adjunct professor at the Roma University La Sapienza, at the Post Graduate Health Psychology 4 years  Course for 20 years. She has taught "Epistemology" and  "Clinical Systemic Intervention". Responsible for Foreign relations for the Milan School of Family Therapy.

Session Overview
This session introduces constructivist epistemology as a framework for understanding therapeutic change within systemic practice. Core ideas include:

• How therapists co-construct meaning within relational and contextual systems.

• The role of reflexivity and observer position in systemic clinical work.

• The contribution of constructivist thinking to integrative psychotherapy models that bridge systemic, psychological, and social perspectives.

Speaker: Dr. Yaman Makké

Dr. Yamane Makke is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Vice Chair for Education at The George Washington University. He specializes in epilepsy and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), serves as Director of the Epilepsy Fellowship Program, and leads the multidisciplinary FND Clinic.

He completed medical school at the American University of Beirut, followed by a research fellowship in epilepsy at AUB under Ahmad Beydoun. He completed his neurology residency at The George Washington University, an epilepsy fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester, and a Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University.

His clinical and research interests focus on functional (psychogenic) non-epileptic seizures and multidisciplinary approaches to FND care.

Session Overview
This session examines the dialogue between neuroscience and psychotherapy in understanding psychological suffering. It will inform clinicians on how to:

1. Differentiate with precision—not assumption
Learn how to recognise when seizure-like presentations fall within Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures rather than epilepsy—and how to position your intervention accordingly, without over-psychologising or mislabelling.

2. Work effectively at the brain–mind interface
Move beyond “psychological causes” and develop a clinically usable understanding of Functional Neurological Disorder—integrating neurobiological insight into how you assess, formulate, and intervene.

3. Intervene within a multidisciplinary system—not in isolation
Strengthen your ability to collaborate with neurologists:
– align language and formulation
– support diagnostic acceptance
– reduce iatrogenic confusion and resistance
– improve continuity of care

This session is about clinical positioning, diagnostic clarity, and therapeutic effectiveness in complex presentations requiring multidisciplinary intervention.

Speaker: Prof Martine Nisse

Nisse is a family therapist, trainer, and supervisor of multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams in France, Europe, and Asia. She is the co-founder and director of the Centre des Buttes-Chaumont in Paris. She has served as a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Grenoble Alpes, in psychology at Paris VIII, and in social work at New York University. She is a member of the Board of the European Family Therapy Association and a member of the Asian Academy of Family Therapy.

Session overview:

Network-based family therapy for incestuous systems involves entering into the confusion generated by incestuous homeostasis and its strong resistance to change.

The more confused the communication, the more it neutralises attempts at care; the more communication becomes clear, the more children begin to speak, becoming aware of the importance of words. Destabilising the linguistic routines of practitioners, and paying meticulous attention to vocabulary, allows children to reflect on relationships, distinguishing between love and hate.

Deciphering the psychological contamination of the practitioner’s thinking by the incestuous system enables emotional expression and helps resolve resonance. Work with the system-analytic genogram structures the stages of the judicial process. Therapeutically authorising the expression of a legitimate right to hate—through the use of nicknames that caricature the aggressor—reduces the impact of fear and supports post-traumatic growth.

Professionals are often struck by how quickly these distressed, sometimes highly oppositional children show a desire to return to therapy. They are frequently surprised by this rapid progress, to which they have contributed—sometimes without fully realising it.

It is precisely their engagement and their capacity to question their own linguistic routines that contribute to the resilient synchronisation of this newly co-constructed, temporary system.

Speaker: Prof. Xudong Zhao

Psychiatrist, professor at Tongji University School of Medicine, and President of the World Council for Psychotherapy. He directs the Division of Medical Humanities at Tongji University and is a leading figure in cultural psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine in China. His work focuses on the cross-cultural development of psychotherapy and the integration of systemic models within diverse cultural contexts.

Session Overview
This session explores psychotherapy as a culturally situated clinical practice and examines the challenges of translating therapeutic models across societies. Key themes include:

• The cultural adaptation of systemic and relational psychotherapies in different clinical environments.

• The interaction between cultural frameworks, psychological theory, and therapeutic practice.

• The implications of cultural translation for the global development of integrative psychotherapy.