EGO STATE THERAPY INTERNATIONAL (ESTI)
Newsletter 1 of January 2012
Dear Ego State Colleagues and Friends!
It is indeed a great privilege for me to announce the establishment of Ego State Therapy International (ESTI). A group of highly motivated Ego State Therapists met on 25 November 2011 in Heidelberg, Germany to establish this Association. Dr Woltemade Hartman from South Africa acted as co-ordinator and convenor of this meeting. The idea was to establish such an Association to honour the pioneering work of Prof John G. Watkins and Helen Watkins. This has now become a reality.
Ego State Therapy has become a very popular therapeutic technique, especially over the last decade. Its popularity escalated tremendously in Europe, especially in the German speaking countries. Before our meeting in Heidelberg, the following ten countries agreed to participate namely, Austria, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America. Most of these countries sent representatives to our meeting in Heidelberg to establish ESTI.
At this meeting it was agreed upon that those present would want to establish a confederation of countries to jointly advance Ego State Therapy as therapeutic approach worldwide. We all favoured the idea of forming a confederation of nations as this is exactly what the theory of Ego State Therapy advocates – a family of Self! It was decided that all interested countries will have representation on the committee and that the name of the new Association will be Ego State Therapy International and the acronym ESTI will be used in future.
The following office bearers were elected to serve on the executive committee for the next three years:
• President – Woltemade Hartman Ph.D (South Africa)
• Vice-President – Gordon Emmerson Ph.D (Australia)
• Secretary and Treasurer – Eva Ferstl (Austria)
• Additional members
▪ Representative of the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) - Matthias Mende Ph.D (Austria)
▪ Training - Susanna Carolusson M.Sc (Sweden)
During the meeting attendees agreed on the following aims of the new Association:
• To advance Ego State Therapy (EST) as a therapeutic approach internationally.
• To establish an International Association for Ego State Therapy with representation for all countries.
• Such an International Association should not be a separate Foundation or Society, but should rather co-operate with existing Societies of Hypnosis and recognized Hypnosis Institutes internationally.
• To establish, co-ordinate and promote minimum training standards for Ego State Therapy internationally.
• To promote research amongst students, researchers, clinicians and professionals internationally.
• To establish a website for an Ego State Therapy Association, to create homepages for participating countries and to link these homepages with each other.
The newly elected committee will immediately start to draw up a constitution and to formulate a vision and mission statement. It is envisaged to co-ordinate the training of Ego State therapists internationally and to set minimal training standards. Each country will formulate their own training model and standards of training according to their respective national requirements.
It was also decided to establish an International Ego State Bibliography which will be placed on the website of ESTI. We are taking this opportunity to ask you to please forward all references on the topic of Ego State Therapy that you might have to Dr Woltemade Hartman at info@meisa.co.za We have already started compiling such a list of references. Your submission should be according to the APA-6 format. This will help us to compile a comprehensive list of references which will be of great value for all of us.
The ESTI website address is www.esti.at. The following countries already have Ego State Therapy websites: Austria, Switzerland, Australia and Germany. Herewith the website addresses for your information:
• www.egostatetherapie.at (Austria)
• www.est-a.de (Germany)
• www.egostatetherapie.ch (Switzerland)
• egostatetherapy.com. Australia)
We would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) Congress to be held in Bremen, Germany from 17 – 21 October 2012. Visit the website at www.hypnosis-congress.com for more information or contact Daniel Bass at danielbass@meg-rottweil.de Dr Hartman will co-ordinate the Ego State Symposium at the congress and should you be interested to present on Ego State Therapy at the congress, please contact Dr Woltemade Hartman at info@meisa.co.za The symposium will consist of 30 minute paper presentations. You may also be interested to present one and a half hour (1½) workshops and abstracts may be submitted directly on the congress website at www.hypnosis-congress.com
Sadly, I also have to inform you of Prof Watkins’ passing on 12 January 2012. My family and I had the privilege to spend 3 days with him at his home in Denver, Colorado, just before Christmas 2011. Although frail, he was his jovial self. We had long academic conversations, chats about the purpose of life – we cried, we laughed, made jokes and just had a wonderful time together! Of course – his dear “Helyanthe” (Helen) was always the centre of the discussion ....! His gifts to all of us, family, friends, colleagues and students were so varied and numerous that it is difficult to apportion their relative significance. On a sloping, verdant hillside, which faces the towering Montana mountains, across the nestling valley, there is a large ash tree where Helen was laid to rest. Beside her, under that same tree, is his place to rest ..... The memorial service was held in Missoula, Montana on Thursday 19 January 2012.
I am quite sure that his legacy will continue to leave a trail of wisdom for all of us to follow and to make sure that ESTI become the body that he and Helen Watkins envisaged.
All correspondence can be sent to Dr Woltemade Hartman at info@meisa.co.za or to Eva Ferstl (secretary) at office@eva-ferstl.at She is Austrian and very efficient!
Warm regards from a very hot South Africa
Woltemade Hartman
President of ESTI
