“The Institute of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice is a reality because a group of dedicated people believed in the sanctity of the family and human relationships, and were inspired by a vision that ‘forgot’ to see all the obvious obstacles to setting it up. Here, Romanian families and their members will have a place to find help and healing and professionals of all backgrounds and disciplines will find a place to study and develop their therapeutic skills.”

Hugh Jenkins, psychotherapist and trainer, London Institute of Psychiatry

Mission and values

Through its activities, the Institute adopts a holistic approach of the human being as a unique entity. The unanimous recognition of the complex paradigm in therapy, one cannot deny anymore the spiritual dimension of a person, nor exerting the spiritual valences that were dedicated to it.

Professional excellence, moral integrity and social responsibility are the professional coordinates of a practice in which therapy, training, research and personal development meet in a scientist-practitioner approach.

The history of the AREOPAGUS Institute of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice illustrate a dynamic of becoming as a response to the needs of a new reality that also solicits a new structural organization.

The matrix was the AREOPAGUS Center of Christian Education and Contemporary Culture, which wanted to demonstrate the relevance of Christianity in the transition from a post-communist context to the postmodern one and also, as an expression of globalization.

A pragmatic intervention in the social sphere imposed the development of a new structure; AREOPAGUS Regional Center for Social Integration and Human Development, created as a factor for social dialogue and integration of the human element in the uncomfortable context of the perpetual changes.

The social programs of the Center initiated by Silviu Rogobete, Ileana Rogobete and Fabiola Murariu have solicited systemic interventions conducted by dr. Ileana Ungureanu and dr. Ileana Radu, followed by supervision sessions with the participation of psychtherapists trained in a cooperation program under aegis of the „Eduard Pamfil” Psychiatric Clinic - Timişoara and Unite Familiale Hospitaliere Sainte Marie din Clermond-Ferrand, France, with the continuous participation since 2002 of Mr. Hugh Jenkins from Great Britain for supervision and training.

Geneva Global Inc granted the money for the “Improvement of the quality of life of the children and families affected by HIV/AIDS” ensured the funds necessary for building the therapy room with the one-way mirror and the observer’s room. Within this program Mrs. Erika Tonko Stevenson worked with professionalism and dedication until she passed away at only 28 years old. In memoriam, the Institute’s therapy room has her name.

During its development process, the Institute was supported by other similar institutes accredited by relevant European authorities. These institutes are: the Anthropos Institute in Athens, the BUCSAKI Family Therapy Institute in Budapest and the SHINUI Israeli Institute for Systemic Studies, Family and Change in Tel Aviv.

In 2006, the Romanian Federation of Psychotherapy and the Romanian College of Psychologists have accredited our Institute which organized the Second International Conference of Family Psychotherapy “Continuity and discontinuity in a time of change”.