Module 1. The historical perspective and the Romanian cultural context in education and stages of human development

The content of the curriculum

• The metamorphoses of the content of the educational process in the Romanian space. The socio-historical perspective.
• Restructuring of contemporary family.
• Punitive education and the communist belief system.
• Education in Romania on the Traditional-Modern, Rural-Urban axes
• Structural theory, the dynamics of roles and power in Romanian families.
• The influence of Functional Theory in child psychotherapy,
• The way the cultural dimension reflects in physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of the child.
• The punitive educational model vs. the positive educational model of the present.
• Ethnic interferences in a common geographical, social, cultural space.
• The ethnic dimension of abuse and oppressive practices.
• The phenomenon of abandonment and institutionalized children.
• The implications of system change and recession:
• labor migration
• the emergence of a new social category: children left at home by parents who went to work abroad (lack of parental and relational models)

Module 2. Overview of the relational development model.

            The content of the curriculum

• Attachment, separation, individualization
• Emotional attunement - Empathy
• Emotional stabilization
• Viable affects
• Neuroscience
• Unfulfilled Gestalt cycle
• Creative adjustment
• Introjection and osmosis (I)
• Shame – a hidden emotion
• Development of the intra-psychic structure
• Life script and interpersonal relationships
• Defense mechanisms and maintaining the status quo
• Repetitive impulse: Repetitive compulsion, Fixed Gestalt cycles
• Self-actualization and the need to fulfill the Gestalt cycle – propelling the moment of development
• The concept of "Good enough parenting"
• Empathic attunement and the therapist's presence
• Interdisciplinarity
• Completion of therapy

Module 3. Shame and Identity

Curriculum Overview

• Connections between affect and shame
• Shame and identity
• Shame and abuse of power
• Introjection and osmosis II
• Self-image
• Body image
• Defense against shame
• The Phenomenology of Shame
• Shame and Groups
• Shame and Ethnicity
• Shame and Education
• Shame and Addictions
• Shame and the Therapeutic Relationship

Module 4. From psychiatric diagnosis to relational integrative therapy.

Curriculum Overview

• Comparative diagnosis between Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and
• Integrative Relational Therapy
• Elements of psychopathology and DSM IV and V

Module 5. The integrative perspective based on field theory and life scenarios in integrative psychotherapy.

Curriculum Overview

• Life and transgenerational scenarios
• Defense mechanisms and interruption of Gestalt cycles
• Evaluation of contact functions in Gestalt

Module 6. Integrative applications in therapy with children I

The content of the curriculum

• Stages of development
• Emotions as a reflection of the mind in the body
• The transactional object in therapy

Module 7. Integrative applications in therapy with children II

Curriculum content

• Role play
• Art therapy
• Drama therapy
• Doll therapy (play therapy)

Module 8. Techniques and methods of intervention addressing unconscious processes I

Curriculum Overview

• Typology of transfer and countertransfer – proactive, reactive, laudatory, concordant
• Relational and developmental needs
• Co-creating the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic alliance
• The psychology of the self
• The theory of intersubjectivity
• From therapeutic neutrality to self-disclosure (Yalom)

Module 9. Techniques and methods of intervention addressing unconscious processes II

Curriculum content

• Dream and nightmare interpretation in therapy with children
• Principles of Ericksonian hypnotherapy
• Projective identification
• The parallel process
• Field theory and relational perspective.

Module 10. Child protection - Ethics in integrative therapy and elements of professional practice.

The content of the curriculum

• Ethics, law, and morality
• Child protection legislation in Romania
• The vision of the Institute and the presentation of the Code of Ethics
• The touch and language used in therapy with children in the Romanian cultural context
• Ethical issues in organizations and institutions for child protection
• Ethical decisions in therapeutic practice in Romania
• Ethical principles, child safety, confidentiality, and the competencies of the therapist
• The values promoted by the European Institute of Studies for the therapy of children and adolescents (IESTCA)
• The ethical code of the Institute
• The ethical code of the College of Social Workers
• The ethical code of COPSI
• The ethical code of the European Association for Children
• The humanistic values of psychotherapy with children
• Ethical principles
• Child safety in the therapeutic process
• Confidentiality
• The competencies of the therapist working with children

Module 11. Polarities between Performance and Failure I

Curriculum Overview

• Assessing the impact of socioeconomic and cultural conditions on relational models within the Romanian family
• The place and role of the child within the family.
• Optimizing school performance
• Integrating children with disabilities into family and society.
• Elements of children's sexual orientation

Module 12. Polarities between Performance and Failure II

Curriculum content

• The specific needs of children and adolescents
• Empathy, Education, and Transgenerational Relationships.
• Gifted children Assessment, Care, and Education
• Reflections on the manifestations of dysfunctional behavior in schools and educational institutions (drugs, alcohol, aggression, violence)
• The educational and creative role of the therapist
• Interdisciplinary collaboration

Module 13. The relational perspective in the context of emotional needs and manifestations. From Suffering to Joy. I

Curriculum Overview

Integrative intervention methods and techniques for:

• The perception of loss, pain, and death in the Romanian cultural context
• The loss of a friend, family member, home, school, pet, etc.
• The loss of physical health
• The loss of trust

Module 14. The relational perspective in the context of emotional needs and manifestations. From Suffering to Joy. II

Curriculum content

• Psychotherapeutic intervention strategies for children and adolescents in the case of a divorce
• Techniques for enhancing well-being and joy
• Elements of reintegration and harmonization in therapy with children and adolescents

Module 15. The influence of scientific research in integrative therapy.

Curriculum content

• An overview of major historical philosophical paradigms
• Phenomenological research, heuristics, and ethnography
• Building a research design
• Data analysis and interpretation
• Elements of ethics in research

Module 16. Transcultural influences in the integrative approach.

Curriculum content

• the child/adolescent and the family
• the child/adolescent and the school
• the child/adolescent receiving social assistance
• the abused/trafficked child/adolescent
• abandon – adoption
• child and adolescent protection and medical-social structures

Module 17. Stress and trauma from an integrative perspective.

Curriculum content

• risk factors and reactive or adjustment disorders
• reactive pathology and adjustment disorder
• emotional and relational difficulties /mental pathologies of natural and/or social parents
• families in emotional divorce/institutional divorce, blended families, single-parent families, the natural-social blended family

Module 18. Psychosomatic disorders – the integrative perspective

Curriculum content

• infant psychopathology (wake-sleep cycle disorders, eating behavior disorders, etc.)
• toddler psychopathology (wake-sleep cycle disorders, eating behavior disorders, etc.)
• child psychopathology (wake-sleep cycle disorders, eating behavior disorders, etc.)
• adolescent psychopathology: the physiological and psychopathological bases of sexual differentiation; the psychological and sociological bases of the difference between sexes
• manifest and masked pathological behaviors of the child and adolescent: lying, stealing, running away, addictive behaviors

Module 19. Eating behavior disorders and their manifestation at different ages

Curriculum content

• early essential anorexia
• anorexia from the second childhood
• mental anorexia of adolescent girls - socio-cultural models
• obesity: the personality of the obese child/adolescent, the obese child/adolescent and their family, the obese child/adolescent and their body, the phantasmagoric life of the obese child/adolescent
• deviant eating behaviors: bulimic crises, mannerism and selective disgust, potomania, pica, coprophagia.

Module 20. Final assessment