Published: March 2025

Keywords:
Systemic approach, family therapy, diagnostic tool, projective test, relationships, children, adolescents.

Anna Emmanouilidou

Anna Emmanouilidou is a Clinical Psychologist, PhD in Psychology from the University of Mannheim, Germany, Systemic Therapist-Trainer-Supervisor, trained at the International Society of Systemic Therapy of Heidelberg (IGST/ New School of Heidelberg).

She was born in 1967 and grew up in Athens. Since 1985 she has been living and working in Thessaloniki, where she did her first studies in Philosophy and Psychology. In 1989 he participated in the first attempt at deinstitutionalization at the State Hospital of Leros. From 1992 to 2001 she continued her studies in Psychology and worked in Germany, where she obtained her PhD and completed her training in Systemic Therapy at the International Systemic Therapy Society of Heidelberg.

Since 2001 she has been living again and working in Thessaloniki, in the Children and Adolescents Unit of the Greek Center for Mental Hygiene and Research of the Greek Ministry of Health. She has worked in the field of gender-based violence counseling (KETHI), in the field of addictions (OKANA) and in the Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture and other forms of ill-treatment of Thessaloniki. In 2002 she co-founded the Observatory for Rights in the Field of Mental Health, an ever-growing collective, which defends the protection of the human rights of people with psychiatric experience in the field of mental health and develops alternatives to the current psychiatric reality, with Thessaloniki as its core. From 2009 until today he teaches in institutes and training companies of psychotherapists in systemic therapy in Greece and Cyprus. At the same time, she maintains private clinical practice and personal educational activity on issues of Psychotherapy of children and adolescents, systemic psychotherapy of psychoses, specialization in systemic techniques, couple psychotherapy, etc.

annaemmanouelidou@yahoo.gr

Abstract

The present article introduces the Map of Relationships as a diagnostic technique for children and adolescents. Although projective in its conceptualisation, its implementation and decoding lie within the systemic tradition. It emphasises extracting information given as clearly as possible by participating children and adolescents themselves, moving away from "assumptions" and "interpretations". It is a tool that has been used extensively by the author, with significant results regarding important information from children and adolescents and its usefulness in the analysis of family dynamics and systemic hypotheses formulation. Hereby, a concise and detailed guide on the test's administration is presented along with the principles that should govern it under a systemic approach umbrella and, of course, the systemic reading of the findings that can be facilitated. The tool's emphasis is on social and relational variables. Finally, the extracted information becomes clear and friendly concerning the formation of hypotheses, making it a valuable tool for systemic therapists.