About E.B.T.A.
EBTA, founded in 1993 by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg and a group of European Solution Focused Practitioners, provides a European platform for people interested in Solution Focused Therapy as well as other forms of Solution Focused work, like coaching, pedagogy, etc.
Since 1994, EBTA conferences have been held throughout Europe. The conferences have turned out to be a source of inspiration for like-minded professionals. EBTA’s main aims are to provide a platform for like-minded professionals to share experiences, develop friendship, and support and share research.
For further information about E.B.T.A. please visit: www.ebta.nu
About EBTA 2015
The annual EBTA Conference will take place for the first time in Vienna/Austria from 11th to 13th September 2015.
The topic of this Conference is “Don’t think, observe!”, which was an often expressed sentence by Steve De Shazer in relation to an article called “Don’t think but observe!” written by him.
The location of this conference will be the Music University of Vienna. Currently we are able to host 220 people there.
These three facts focus on different aspects of Steve De Shazer.
The date was chosen around the 11th September 2015, which is the 10th anniversary of Steve’s passing. Vienna was the city, which he loved very much besides other places in Europe and where he related to even in his last book “Words were originally magic” (The title is a sentence expressed by Sigmund Freud). And Vienna is the city where he died 10 years ago.
The topic should express Steve’s focus on concrete data in working with people besides general theories about human behavior.
As a topic for this conference it should point out the actual developments of solution focused work in different contexts, where the solution focused approach is used in concrete projects. So therefore the contexts of psychotherapy, health and social care, education, training, coaching, counseling and research projects in clinical and other contexts of solution focused work should get a forum, where actual and different ideas and developments should be presented and shared in the sense of cooperation and common learning between different professionals of different countries.
At this moment we gain more and more speaker confirmations. Our keynotes will be given by Arild Aamboe (Norway), Mark Beyebach (Spain), Alasdair Macdonald (UK), Harvey Ratner (UK), and Peter De Jong (US).
The location of the conference, the Music University of Vienna, points to Steve’s passion for music.
On the evening of 11th September 2015 a small memorial for Steve is planned. A famous Austrian pianist, Roland Batik together with his Japanese wife Yuko Batik, who is also a fantastic pianist, will perform works of composers, who were Steve’s favorites like Bach, Shostakovitch, people of the 3rd Viennese School like Alban Berg, Jazz standards of Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and jazz compositions of Roland Batik himself.
We hope that this conference with its special program and location could be a opportunity to come to Vienna and to relax in vivid discussions and sharing ideas for future developments. So please come and join EBTA 2015 in the historic ambient of Vienna!