PTW | #outofthebox Workshop Series on Trauma: Rethinking Mental Health Treatment in Slovenia

On Thursday 12 June 2025, SFU Vienna hosted another insightful #outofthebox workshop featuring Univ.-Prof. Dr Miran Možina, MD, psychiatrist and psychotherapist from SFU Ljubljana. The event addressed the challenges of the dominant biomedical approach to mental health in Slovenia, particularly the overdiagnosis and medicalisation of children and adolescents.

Dr Možina shared experiences from the SFU Ljubljana Outpatient Clinic, where approximately 20% of 650 cases involve children, adolescents, and their families. He highlighted widespread dissatisfaction with biomedical treatments, often characterised by long waiting times, poor therapeutic relationships, and ineffective or harmful medication use.

Using a case study, Dr Možina demonstrated the benefits of the biopsychosocial model — a more holistic approach that contrasts sharply with the biomedical model’s limitations. He advocated for psychotherapy as an autonomous scientific discipline, emphasising personalised, integrative, and process-based methods that tailor treatment to each client’s unique context.

With his extensive background in psychiatry, systemic family therapy, and psychotherapy regulation, Dr Možina’s presentation offered a hopeful vision for improving mental health care in Slovenia through more humane, individualised approaches.