Esteemed colleagues and ISTFP members,
My name is Mathieu Norton-Poulin and together with Veronica Steiner I have the pleasure to chair the ISTFP Public Relations and Communication Committee. It is with great enthusiasm that I write today in the first newsletter of our society. I am proud to belong to a group of exceptional professionals who dedicate their lives to ease the suffering of people burdened by personality disorders. I hope that the actions of our committee will help support us all towards that goal.
Before sharing our mission and objectives, I would like to tell you the story of our team. But don’t worry, I will keep it short!
At the beginning we were just six strangers, all we knew about each other was that Dr. Frank Yeomans and Dr. Luis Valenciano thought we’d be interested in working together.
Mathieu Norton-Poulin
Co-Chair, Canada
Veronica Steiner
Co-Chair, Chili
Diana Tellez
Member, Mexico
Silvia Bernardi
Member, USA
Glauco Valdivieso
Member, Peru
Theophilus Kok
Member, China
As you can see, since the very start, we represented the richness of our society. Harvesting the strengths and benefits of real diversity took time and intention. We had to nurture small and continuous interactions between each other on every possible media. We stayed neutral, curious, open and reflective to each other, following TFP values. With each interaction our differences became known, while at the same time, our group identity grew and started to bind us. We now rely on each other with knowledge and reciprocal appreciation, hoping to inspire our experience of enrichment in diversity in all members of the ISTFP.