Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar;64(1):e13075.
doi: 10.1111/famp.13075. Epub 2024 Nov 5.

The Milan Approach today

Affiliations

The Milan Approach today

Umberta Telfener et al. Fam Process. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

When asked what differentiates the Milan Approach now from the period when Luigi Boscolo and Gianfranco Cecchin were alive, the teachers at Via Leopardi remain humble. This article aims to explore the current identity of the Milan Approach. What is now the specificity of the Milan model? Do we have particularities that differentiate us from other clinical or therapeutic models? We still work according to the notion of the observing system, and we apply the three directives of the 1980s: hypothesizing, circularity, and curiosity. Is there a specific direction in which our approach is heading? Rather than attempting to take a picture of a status quo, this article seeks to represent the questions and doubts that organize a constant process in progress-as clinical work usually is. In this article, we wish to underline some aspects that are important to us and that we hold dear. We assert that the premises we have in common allow us to be flexible enough to keep in tune with current events and to address social issues that are of political relevance, in order to adapt to cultural changes.

Keywords: Milan Approach; circularity and curiosity; hypothesizing; observing system; second‐order cybernetics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Barazzetti, A. (2021). Complessità della violenza. Mimesis Edizioni.
    1. Barbetta, P. (2017). Per riscrivere la storia della clinica sistemica. [To rewrite the history of systemic therapy].https://connessioni.cmtf.it/per‐riscrivere‐la‐storia‐della‐clinica‐sistemica/
    1. Barbetta, P. (2019). Una madre viene picchiata: Funzioni e origini della violenza inversa. [A mother is beaten: Functions and origins of inverted violence]. In P. Barbetta & U. Telfener (Eds.), Complessità e psicoterapia (pp. 27–44). Cortina Editore.
    1. Barbetta, P., Finco, R., & Rossi, F. (2018). Asylum seekers and refugees: An ethno‐clinical approach. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 39(3), 331–346. https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1319
    1. Barbetta, P., Krause, B., Cavagnis, M. E., & Telfener, U. (2022). Ethical and aesthetic exploration of systemic practice: New critical reflections. Routledge.

LinkOut - more resources