Social Construction and CARING Relationships: Moving beyond diagnosis and medication in therapeutic practices at the Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland, 18-19 May 2007

Taos Institute worked in collaboration with Centro Formazione al Dragonato and Taos Associate Christina Meier to present this conference. Taos presenters included: Kenneth Gergen, Harlene Anderson, Imelda McCarthy, Tom Strong

The conference  focused on central ideas and practices emerging within the dialogues on social construction. What are the central ideas of social construction? What new ideas emerge about the nature of self, relationships, meaning, and knowledge? What is the relationship of social construction to constructivism, cognitive behavioural therapy, and systemic approaches? What is shared? What is different? What new ideas emerge about the nature of human problems, suffering, and therapeutic practice? How can constructionist practices provide an alternative to drugs and diagnosis? How do practices of narrative therapy, brief therapy and reflecting teams fit into the picture? How do constructionist ideas and practices relate to issues  of global conflict and its reduction? To illustrate and amplify, the conference featured significant developments in therapeutic practice. Centre stage was given to:

• Postmodern Therapy
• Collaborative Counselling
• The Fifth Province Approach
• Buddhist Applied Psychology

 for more information on this conference email: Chrismeier23@bluewin.ch