My name is Ulrika, and I am authorized social worker and licensed psychotherapist with a family therapy focus. I am also a trained tutor and teacher and offers supervision with a systems theory focus primarily to social workers, psychotherapists, deacons and family homes, but also to other professions and organizations. I am a author to six books, and I lecture at universities, on theme days and theme evenings in social services, schools, associations, churches, and in other contexts where there is a desire to learn more about children, family life, parenting, conversation, trauma, interpersonal neurobiology, family therapy, ecopsychotherapy, psychotherapy on a Christian basis, cultural competence, conflict management and much more. I have created the trauma recovery model SafetyStories, which is based on research on interpersonal neurobiology, including the polyvagal theory, as well as memory reconsolidation and the healing power of stories. I am also certified nature guide, and is happy to take groups, families and individuals into nature.

I love leading families and groups through processes, and seeing how they create new knowledge, find new paths and build bridges to each other within the group and beyond. I enjoy working with many different methods and being creative, both in the discussion room and in lectures. And I get all warm inside when I see in conversations and in other contexts how people get closer and deeper relationships to each other and to the larger contexts we need to belong to. I think it is important that we have knowledge about the neurobiological processes that affect how we feel and how we relate to each other, and how what we experience affects the connections that are constantly being made in the brain. I am fascinated by the power of stories to heal and empower, and the importance of play, movement, nature and belonging for our well-being.

I am the parent of five children who are now adults, and the grandmother of their children. I am the wife of my husband, the mother of my dogs, the friend of my friends … and in the middle of all this I feel so rich! What my children have taught me, what other parents and children have taught me, what I myself remember from being a child, what I have gained from living in several different cultures both as a child and as an adult, what I have discovered in life and what I have learned and read in education, courses and books, I have tried to collect on this page, because I want to share it with you. My hope is that you will be able to find new thoughts and ideas to use in your work, in your life and in your family. Not everything will suit you, because we are all different, but pick and choose.

In my company I offer

• calls – via video link or in my office in Mariestad
• guidance with a systems theory focus
• lectures and brainstorming sessions – preferably in schools, social services, organizations working with young people’s mental health, organizations and companies that want to explore how relationships can be strengthened and security created
• webinars on Safety Stories, Creative Family Conversations and Third Culture Kids
• theme days and training days for municipal, regional and private sector employees, groups, organizations and associations
• moments in nature to improve health and strengthen relationships.

Some facts about me

I am a licensed social worker, with a master’s degree in social work. I also have a master’s degree in psychotherapy and am a licensed psychotherapist, specializing in family psychotherapy. I am a trained counselor and teacher in psychotherapy with a system theoretical focus. I am also a certified nature guide. I have worked in the past:

• several years as a stay-at-home parent – the years that perhaps taught me the most!
• many years in social services, especially with children and young people – as a social secretary with responsibility for investigations and interventions, as responsible for the establishment of a family center, and as a family counselor
• a couple of years as a children and family pastor
• eleven years in Thailand at an international therapy center where I also developed parent support programs and lectured around Asia on family therapy and trauma processing.

In 2014 I started my business Family Joy and started offering talks, mentoring and lectures. If you want to see videos of lectures I gave at the 2015 Family Therapy Congresses, on the theme “How do we do family therapy with more than words”, click here, and in 2023 on the theme “Safety and happiness in the world of treatment”, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyXIw0L8ldw&t=203s

Ulrika Ernvik
familjegladje.se
ulrika.ernvik@gmail.com