YVETTE FONTENOY-LILOT

SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY

What is Family Therapy
In many cultures, the family is the smallest system. Each system, as it passes through periods of change, seeks to reconstruct its uniqueness, its system. Generally, families go through the 'normal' stages of development or crises, resolving them within the family itself. Their family life continues, integrating new experiences and re-adjusting. However, there are periods when a family, or one of its members, may be faced with a particular problem or series of problems which leads them to decide to seek professional help.

For example, a child may have problems with his or her siblings or parents, at school, be bullied or start bed-wetting, etc….; a family member may go through a period of anxiety, depression, there may be a problem with addiction; with physical or mental illness; the family may be coping with change:- a new baby, a young adult moving out from the family home, a new job, relocation - even to a new country - with unemployment, separation or divorce, illness, bereavement….. Sometimes, changes are obvious, other times they seem to have developed over time and to be less tangible. Each person's, each family's experience is unique.

International background      
I have dual British and French nationality as my parents each had one French parent. The eldest daughter in a family of nine surviving children, I was born in South Africa, then moved to Canada, lived for many years in the UK, and have spent the past twenty years in France. I have two children whose father is Burmese and four step-children, whose father is Belgian, I care very much for children and young people who are finding it difficult to come to terms with problems.

Qualifications and Experience
I am a family therapist, with an honours degree in Psychology (Open University - UK), followed by four years training in France in Systemic Family Therapy and I am a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS). My training did not just concentrate on the Systemic approach but insisted on the flexibility of working with all the main psychotherapeutic approaches, including the Contextual, the Psychodynamic, the Gestalt, Brief Therapy Work and many others.

Previous to that, I worked for several years in HR, mainly in recruitment, at INSEAD, the international business school in Fontainbleau. Just before moving to France, I was working with the Mental Handicap Team for Chatham Hospital, based in Rochester, Kent. I am currently living and working just outside Caumont sur Durance, near Avignon.

In practice
I work with those members of the family who can and wish to participate, with a couple, or with an individual, usually within the context of the family.

I meet my clients on a confidential and non-judgemental basis, where my aim is to create a warm and secure setting within which clients can talk freely in their search for the modus vivendi that suits them. If distance makes face-to-face work difficult, I can also consider work via the telephone

The first meeting is always free as it is important that all those involved in therapy should feel comfortable working together. Sessions last for one hour. Therapy may consist of just a few sessions or it may continue over a longer period, not usually lasting more than between ten and eighteen months. I ask 60€ per session for a family, and 45€ per session for a couple or individual (terms and conditions can be supplied). I abide by the code of ethics of the BPS.

If you would like to find out more, please contact me on 0033 490 31 80 84 or by email: yvette.lilot@gmail.com

Siret no: 487 458 630 00018