Psychomotricity in Europe –Dynamics and Perspectives

Randers, August 2010.

Lone Helleberg Frimodt, Denmark

It is a pleasure for me as president of the European Forum of Psychomotricity to be

here to-day. Thank you very much for inviting me.

I have been very impressed by what I heard this morning at the presentation of your
projects.

I’ll start by introducing myself:

I have been a psychomotor therapist since 1988.
I worked with school children from 6 to 16 years of age and with preparation of
women for maternity for 10 years.
I have been vice-president of DAP, the Danish organisation fr psychomotor therapists
for 10 years.
Since 2003 I have been the president of the European Forum of Psychomotricity.
It has been so exciting to follow the development in the various countries – and to
participate in influencing the political system in the countries and in the EU into full
acceptance of our profession.

European psychomotricity has existed as a concept since the 1940’ies. We have

different levels of psychomotor development, several realities in education, research
and professional training - but yet a common way of approaching the human being.

Psychomotricity is a profession that develops, spreads and constantly gets an

increasing reputation.

Each country has its own psychomotor history, its own level of education and of
recognition of the profession and its own specialities and methods to achieve their
goal.
But in spite of the various diversities of the countries and no matter if the concept has
developed from the fields of sports, or dance, or ballet, everybody agrees in a
common understanding of the human being as a unity as a foundation for their work–
they have a common understanding in approaching the human being.
 Over the years the concepts have developed parallel to each other in the various
European countries without much contact. So the similarities can be understood in the
light of our common cultural history. Some countries have a long tradition, others
only started a few years ago. Over the years the European associations have had
informal contacts. Today they are united in the organisation The European Forum of
Psychomotricity (the EFP) with 15 member countries. The EFP was founded in 1996
– only 14 years ago.

It all started with in Marburg in May 1995. Here representatives from the 15
countries were invited to a meeting.Among others came from Swizerland the Swiss
mother of psychomotricity Suzanne Naville, from France the boss of ISRP in Paris
Gerard Hermant, from Portugal one of the Portuguese fathers of psychomotricity Rui
Martins, from Holland Jan Koene and from Denmark myself.
This meeting was followed by other meetings and in September 1996 the statutes of
the EFP were signed.

Your countries have all been important members of the EFP from the very beginning.
They have all hosted as well a student’s academy as important meetings.
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The General Assembly and the presidium of the EFP are working for the promotion
and recognition of psychomotricity on all levels and on achieving political goals as
well. The EFP works for the spread of psychomotricity in all European countries and
for the development of a psychomotor education on a Bachelor level in all member
countries as soon as possible.

In the different European countries psychomotricians play a part in several areas such
as health, prevention, ré-education, education and research – and they apply to all
ages and all groups of population.

Definition:

The common definition of psychomotricity in which all 15 member countries agreed:

Based on a notion of unity between body and mind, psychomotricity is concerned
with the integration of cognitive, emotional, symbolical and bodily aspects of the
individual and with the individual’s ability to interact in a psychosocial context.

Psychomotricity is grounded in the medical, psychological, neuro-psychological and

pedagogical sciences.
It is important to emphasise that in the search for a common identity, the respect for
the particularity of each approach must be preserved.

Organisational Chart, General Assembly and Presidium

A General Assembly is held every year with the 15 delegates – one from each
member-country. The GA makes the overall decisions.

Between the annual assemblies the presidium with its 5 members elected from the
General Assembly works to carry out the decisions of the GA.

The photo shows the delegates at the last general assembly in Paris in September
2009.
The next General Assembly will take place in Madrid, Spain in 4 weeks.

Commissions.

The EFP has 3 commissions working:

- for psychomotor education,

- for science and research
- for the profession.
They have a defined mission to carry out and they meet once a year.

The members of the commissions are enthusiastic professionals from all 15 countries
who all want to contribute to the development of the psychomotor idea by putting
their energy into the work of the EFP. They exchange and use each other in
promoting the concept and the profession to the benefit of professionals, students,
teachers, researchers and politicians in all Europe.

They have produced valuable result such as:

- the EFP common, minimum program of education based on European Standards,
- an information brochure on psychomotricity in each of the 15 member countries
- a list of psychomotor journals and books.

The work going on right now is:

For the commission of profession:

Elaboration of a list of competences for a Bachelor and Master degree in
psychomotricity.
For the commission of education:
Establishing an overview of all psychomotor educations in the 15 member-countries
– listed according to their level (Bachelor, Master, Further education courses etc)

For the commission science and research:

Establishing a list of methods and a list of research projects.

Psychomotricity is a recognised profession in several European countries. Our goal is

to make the education and the profession recognised in every member country as
soon as possible by supporting the national efforts in their way to recognition, with
the respect of each county’s distinctive character.

We want to guard the common base and the feeling of unity that we all experience in
exchanging with psychomotricians from all 15 member countries.

The EFP initiates different events such as a yearly Students’ Academy and every 4
years a European Congress.

Congresses

We have had 4 EFP congresses until now.

A congress is an important instrument in the process of making this platform visible–

it is a political manifestation.

At the first congress in Marburg in 1996 with the theme: Psychomotor Activity and
Human Development, the different European concepts had for the first time the
possibility of gathering to present their respective way of seeing psychomotor work
and to get a mutual inspiration.

At the second congress in Strasbourg in the year 2000 the theme was: Psychomotor
Education and Therapy in a Society of Change on the Threshold of the Third
Millenium. Four years of collaboration had passed and the feeling was more like
presenting a unified, common profession.

At the 3rd congress: Psychomotor Identity: Similarity and Diversity, in Lisbon in

2004 we had a profession to unfold. We had a platform to present to the political
Europe – a platform that gives us the possibility of establishing a recognised
profession throughout Europe.
At the fourth congress in Amsterdam in 2008 the theme was : Crossing Borders. In
many ways this theme could be seen as an image of our professional psychomotor
reality. We have to keep our borders to other professions – and at the same time open
up our own national borders within psychomotricity to profit from each other.

The next EFP congress will take place in Bologna, Italy in May 2012 and the theme
will be: The Future of the Psychomotrician in the European Space.
Students will be very welcome.

Students Academy:

In 1999 the very first Students Academy of the European Forum of Psychomotricity
took place in Denmark.
Then we had academies in ………..
The ninth Students Academy gathered students from all over Europe in Geneva,
Switzerland in April this year.
The popularity of these academies is shown by the fact that there was a long waiting-
list this year.
Next year Portugal will host the Students Academy again.

This event is an important manifestation for the EFP. For us the work for and with
students play an important role because the future psychomotricity is based on the
students of to-day.

Both a Students Academy and a congress give the possibility of exchange, it gathers
all Europe, and it gives inspiration to take back to the home-countries.
Therefore these events are very important for the EFP.

EU politics:

The EFP wants to play an important political role for the European Commission
when it comes to all psychomotor matters such as curriculums of psychomotor
education and recognition of the profession.

In 2007 we achieved an important political goal:

A recognition by the European Commission in Brussels.

The presidium had a meeting in Brussels with the head of office of Internal Market,
Regulated professions.
 The meeting was successful and now the EFP appears on the homepage of the
European Commission and is the organisation to be heard in matters of
psychomotricity.

The EU Commission points out a directive from 2005 as an important step in the
process of recognition of professional qualifications and of the free movement of
professionals in the European Union.

They underline the importance of co-operation between the member states to make
sure that citizens can use their right of free movement but at the same time ensure
that they have sufficient qualifications.

The initiative of creating Bilateral Charters, that is supported by the EFP, was very
much appreciated by The European Commission. A bilateral Charter means 2
national organisations signing an agreement to facilitate the mobility of professionals
between the two countries. It is seen as a self-regulation of the profession.
This has already been established between EFP member countries in several cases –
for instance between Holland, Portugal, France, Denmark.

In 2009 the presidium had another meeting with the EU commission in Brussels. This
time with the General Directorate for Education and Culture. The purpose of the
meeting was to be informed about the European policy for education and training and
to analyse the possibilities to use their programmes to support some EFP initiatives.

So we are progressing in our effort of increasing the visibility of psychomotricity

and of the EFP on the European political level.

Recently Portugal has sent a demand for subventions for next year’s Student
Academy to the EU Commission.

Over the years since the creation of the European Forum of Psychomotricity, the
educations and practices of the different countries have come closer to each other.
The mutual inspiration and knowledge of each other have opened and increased the
interest of learning from each other.

A project directly related to the EFP has achieved subventions from the EU for the
first time this year. These Intensive Courses taking place here in Randers.
A big thanks to our Danish colleagues for organising these 2 weeks for you.
And next year they will take place again in Holland. Bravo!
.
The amount of scientific work and the scientific co-operation between the countries
are increasing - to the benefit of the reputation of our profession.
Research is very important. Without a lot of research results in the field of
psychomotricity we will never be fully academically accepted.

Every country has something to contribute to the development of psychomotricity.

We are exchanging on several levels:

-The inter-European mobility among students, teachers and among professionals has
enormously increased.
-On a scientific and professional level we are exploring the important question of our
scientific and professional identity
-And politically we are working for getting recognition of the profession in all
European countries.

The EFP is working on getting more member-countries because the more we are, the
stronger we get. Greece will hopefully soon become the 16 th member of the EFP.

The EFP is confident for the future of psychomotricity – even if there are still
challenges and a way to go.
But the fact that so many countries are working together on all levels gives energy
and strength.
I am sure you all have experienced the feeling of unity in exchanging with
psychomotor students from 4 other countries during these past 2 weeks.

The students of to-day are the psychomotricians of to-morrow.

We need ideas from you to new initiatives, to the renewal of the EFP home-page etc.
So please contact me or your National delegates if you want to contribute.

May these Intensive Courses be another positive step on the way for the development
of psychomotricity in Europe– and help those who can benefit from psychomotor
interventions.