AFTA Award to Gladis D'Avila Mello Brun

Innovative Contribution to Family Therapy

By Lois Braverman

Gladis D'Avila Mello Brun is one of the most influential teachers and trainers of family therapists in Brazil. I first came to know her work when she and her colleague Anna Hoette presented on training psychoanalytically trained psychiatrists to think systemically at an AFTA meeting in the early 1990s. The round table group was electrified and I soon integrated many of her exercises into my work with my own trainees. It was not until the summer of 2000 that I had the opportunity to connect personally with Gladis at the Brazilian Family Therapy Association (ABRATEF) meeting in Brasilia, Brazil. There, I saw the enormous influence Gladis has had on several generations of family therapists throughout Brazil and saw in action what Janine Roberts wrote about her: "She is a woman who bridges languages, cultures, and worldviews about therapy, a woman generously attentive to complex dynamics, nuance and detail, and the ways that changing families teach us to shift our theories and ways of working" (AFTA Newsletter, June 2001).

The geographic migrations of Gladis' personal life paralleled her theoretical migrations. Born in Rio De Janeiro, she left her country in the 1967 for political reasons and migrated to Chile. This migration was not just geographic. Here, a theoretical shift took place—from psychoanalytic to systemic theory and from child focused therapy to family therapy. She moved from Chile, again for political reasons, to Argentina, and then, finally, from Argentina back to Brazil.

In 1976, returning from Argentina after working closely with Maria Rosa Glasserman, the founder of CEFYP, she began to do workshops throughout Brazil, and organized study groups where she shared her ideas about a contextual approach. In 1980, she began a long term collaboration with AFTA member Anna Hoette, and they established several institutes together. The Family and Couples Center (CEFAC) was the first of these, offering clinical practice and a place to study new ideas about systemic therapies.

By 1987, she, Anna Hoette, and others had founded the Family Institute of Rio de Janeiro (ITFRJ), where she served as Director from 1987 to 1997. Here, she and her colleagues developed a formal systemic training program and a research project connected with clinical practice on family and couple issues. She progressively refined methods of teaching family and systemic ideas to psychoanalytically oriented therapists. This institute influenced the formation of other institutes throughout Brazil and many of them note Gladis as their mentor, their resource, and their inspiration. The faculty of the Family Institute of Sao Paulo write: "Gladis opened to us at the same time: the doors of her Institute, her knowledge about constructivist-constructionist therapies, and her friendship and generosity. Learning, sharing and being legitimized as colleagues were crucial experiences that made it possible for the six of us the build our own institute in San Paulo that will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary. In these ten years we became known in the field, in our country. . . in a ways made possible only through the generosity of Gladis."

As family therapy ideas and practices developed, Gladis and her colleagues believed a journal was needed to reflect family and systemic thinking in Brazil. In 1991 the journal, Nova Perspecitva Sistemica was founded, with Gladis as its founding editor. She served until 1996.

In 1997, Gladis ended her institutional responsibilities as editor of the journal and director of the institute and shifted her attention from a professional audience to a non professional one. One of her personal convictions is a belief in the importance of bringing the ideas and experiences from the family therapy field to the public at large. Aside from her numerous professional articles, she began to write fiction—stories about marriage, divorce and step families infused with concepts in family and systems thinking. Her first book, Pais e Filhos & Cia. Ilimitada, (Parents, Children and Company) is a story about divorce and remarriage, "written with accuracy, tenderness and humor, where coherent premises are embodied in everyday language." Pais e Filhos & Cia. Ilimitada was nominated for the major book award in the category of Human Sciences and Education--Premio Jabuti 2000. Her second book Bem me Quer, Mal Me quer—Retratos de Divorcio (Love me, Love Me Not: Images of Divorce) tells the stories of nine fictional women all divorced under different circumstances who create new post-divorce lives. 

AFTA is honored to recognize Gladis' dedication, leadership and innovation in spreading ideas about families and family therapy and to present her with the AFTA Award for Innovative Contribution to Family Therapy. I congratulate my dear friend Gladis Brun upon receiving this award from AFTA and praise AFTA for giving her this well deserved recognition.

Lois Braverman, MSW is in private practice in Des Moines, Iowa. She has served as an AFTA Board member, AFTA secretary , Program Chair, and Membership Chair. She has written on feminism and family therapy.