Dear IARPP Members,

The most exciting event of these recent months has been to make FINALLY real our 18th conference. As you know it was waiting in standby since more than two years!!

Being back to meeting in person has been really moving. Perhaps we shouldn’t say “back” as if we were resuming from the previous conferences. The reel of time never winds backwards, and all the experiences we have had during these three years, individually and collectively, have been, and still are, so strong, unexpected, exceptional, that we really should say “it certainly won’t be the same as before.”

We used the current technological media to maintain a sense of connection in our community, and I believe that this effort has served us all very well. Even in Los Angeles, Zoom has been invaluable because it allowed us to be connected with colleagues and friends who were following the conference remotely, and specially with the colleagues who were following us from Ukraine.  I really hope they felt our deepest friendship and solidarity.

In these past few years our experiences as people and as therapists, our individual and collective experiences, our experiences of belonging, have greatly expanded: we have been ‘thrown’ violently and unpredictably into the unspeakable, first by the global pandemic and more recently by a war that dangerously teeters on the brink of a global conflict, the likes of which we have not seen in seventy years. I think we have all witnessed these events with bewilderment and horror, often remaining ‘speechless.’ Even now we are immersed in these processes so that it is difficult to talk about them other than partially; however, thanks to the conference, it was really meaningful to share ideas and experiences from our work.

Being able to share the same space at the same time with our whole bodies, that include our minds, has been really exciting. We have been so deprived of the opportunity to meet each other, so once again we have had to realize that beautiful things should never be taken for granted. Meeting to do therapy is quite special because in that case the experience we seek and intend to share is to find the motives and courage, but also the hope, for profound change, and this applies to both patient and therapist. In this sense it was really wonderful to have the opportunity to spend time together to talk about our work.

Coming together for a conference has a crucial meaning to keep alive a community: sharing experiences with attention, respect and concentration. Gathering together for a conference is also a ritual, a ritual of acquaintance and friendship, a ritual that brings us together in discussion and dialogue on what makes us similar and what makes us different.

I want to take this opportunity to convey once again all my gratitude and appreciation to all the participants — in presence or online — and specially to our ‘heroic’ co-chairs Hazel, Phil and Ilene, for their generosity, wisdom, and love. To make real this conference has been an Odyssey but also a huge and invaluable gift they offered to each of us individually and to our community.

In these difficult years we learned a lot, and so we are now working with much love to meeting us again for the 19th annual conference that will be held in Valencia, Spain, June 15-18, 2023.

Hoping to see you all there,

Very warmly,

Susanna Federici
IARPP President

Susanna Federici, Ph.D.
Rome, Italy
Email Susanna Federici