Are We Prepared When Safety Collapses? Human Rights and Social Responsibility

Committee EAGT

Thessaloniki 2016

Guus Klaren Gestalt therapist, supervisor, trainer, prior president of Dutch NOGT Till 2016 Chair of HR&SR EAGT

Joanna Kato Gestalt therapist, supervisor, trainer

Chair of HR&SR EAGT

Kiew 2016

Eduardo Salvador

Joanna Kato

Dieter Bongers

Nurith Levi

Michela Gecele

Peter Schulthess Ivana Vidakovic

Guus Klaren

Major global human crisis and challenges

• The euphoria over the fall of Berlin Wall the world changed dramatically after 9/11

• The global world as battle ground of identities: race, religion, sexuality, place of birth….deprevating human dignity

• Fear of diversity• Not being connected but excluded

• ‘The major dillema in the world is learning how to manage differences and influence the environment for social welbeing’

• (Joseph Melnick and Edwin C.Nevis in ‘Mending the world’Social Healing Interventions by Gestalt Practitioners Worldwide)

Major changes in Greek society

Globalization Economic crisis, unemployment Refugee crisis

What are the consequences we observe as therapists? How did the changes affect our life and work?

Dialogue with participants

Where were you when the planes flew into the Twin Towers at 9/11? How did you react?

The last big earthquake in Athens in 1999? and the fire in 2012? Do you remember where you were? What was your reaction?

Living in a country in a county that is in crisis….. What is your reaction? What is your reaction when you hear economic crisis? Refugee crises?

Human reactions to traumatic events and crisis

Interruptions in awareness……… Disconnected Desoriented

FoggyAbsent

DesensitezedImmobilized

Denial of reality….

…as the most available reaction to survive in a dramatic situation .

The foundation of Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committeea brief history

•The attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11 shocked the world and the Gestalt community•EAGT conference in Stockholm went on as if nothing had happened in the world….•Restored awareness after the conference•In Prague 2004 the Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee was founded: a growing urgency was felt to reclaim political roots and values and working beyond the therapy room

Mission of Human Rights and Social Responsibility CommitteeA renewed accent on cultural, social and political demensions of field theory

•To explore the interface between Gestalt Psychotherapy and the cultural, social and political context•Specific references to Human Rights and Social Engagement•To promote implementing Human Rights and Social Responsibility in training curriculum and daily practice•To be actively involved in healing process in traumatized communities, organisations and societies where human rights are curtialed

The foundation of Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committeea brief history

•From the beginning Gestalt therapy was directly involved in social change•Deep convinction of our founders that psychotherapy is always part of a cultural, social and political field•Last decades of 20th century Gestalt therapy shifted more and more to working with the individual. Focus more on liberation of the individual than community thinking and support

Activities Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee

•Small informal conference in Tel Aviv for dialogue on Israeli-Palestinian issues•A voluntary support program for activist of Peace Brigades International•A survey on Psychotherapists EAGT members working outside therapy room•Organizing a conference ´Social, political and cultural relationsships as therapy´s ground´ in Venice 2011•Publishing 1st and 2nd edition of ´the book ´Yes we care!´

Human rights and social responsibility in Gestalt Therapy Training

“… any Gestalt psychotherapy training program need to incorporate and underline social, cultural, political and ecological awareness in its curriculum”, EAGT, AGM Krakov 2013

Activities Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee

•Promoting Social Responsibility and awareness of social political perspectives in therapeutic work with workshops and lectures in many conferences in and outside Europe•Promoting to include Human Rights and Social Responsibility issues in EAGT training standards

Ukraine : Working with Crisis , loss and traumatization, train the trainers program

Peace Brigades International:Supporting PBI volunteers with free Skype sessions and personal accompaniment for returnees Supporting PBI volunteer trainings Training standards and

training practice – social responsibility of the therapist

Support Local InitiativesGreece, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Norway

Greece Supporting Babel Center workers and volunteers /workshops & lectures/Supporting volunteers on Lesvos island /skype sessions/

HR&SR Committee work: a manifestation of contemporary developments in Gestalt theory and

practice

• Reclaim political roots and values • Shift focus from the individual to society• Shift focus from individual freedom to autonomy in

relation• Figure and ground• Renewal of the Field Theory – Gestalt Therapy as the

therapy of the situation

The true aim of Gestalt Therapy is to create healthy citizens and nourishing communities (Paul Goodman)

Other issues

• Each of us is a political subject and we cannot forget it even inside the therapeutic room.

•Awareness about this issue is to be developed more and more in accordance with our roots, our theory, our practice.

•As psychotherapists /we/ cannot be fully present at the contact boundary unless we experience the social/cultural ground from which the relational figure comes from.

Responsibility for the self inevitably includes responsibility for the others who share our world. No self can be separated from its environment. Having empathethy and taking care for the vulnerable persons we are caring for parts of our self, regaining our own power and autonomy in response/able connection to the world.

(Clarkson &Cavicchia, 2014)

Social Responsibility

Why are we actively engaged in HR&SRc?

What is Voluntary Work?Voluntary means – done, made or given willingly, without being

forced or paid to do it

The noun volunteer, in 1600, "one who offers himself for military service," from the middle French voluntaire

Since industrial revolution the term ‘work’ was reduced to ‘paid’ work. Forms of unpaid work moved to the background.

The word volunteering has more recent usage - community service

Revival of voluntary work in the 20th centuryforms of self-organisation centred around an actual social

problem.

The importance of an organized and professional voluntary work / with clear boundaries, goals, safety, support/

Τι είναι ο Εθελοντισμός;

ἐθελοντής, από το ρήμα ἐθέλω - επιθυμώ, κάποιος που προσφέρει τις υπηρεσίες του

Η προσφορά αυτή είναι η ενσυνείδητη, βασίζεται στην ιδέα της ανθρώπινης αλληλοβοήθειας.

Voluntary work as a response to society needs

• As Gestalt therapists and citizens we are also responsible for the environment

• Voluntary work as ‘the ability to respond’ society needs

• A Gestalt association as ground to provide well organized professional support in a liquid society where the support of the other is devaluated

• A ‘safe haven’ for professionals and those who need our support is ground building

• To be ready when safety collapsesDon’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your

country (J.F.Kennedy inaugural speech 1961)

Think Global Act LocalA local Greek committee? Why join?

What are the needs of the local society?

How it will work?

What do I gain?

What could a HR&SR Committee do Here in Greece Today?

What people are already doing?

Support groups for unemployed

Support for

Offering voluntary counseling or even therapy

“I believe that my work is political work. If one works with human beings to attain more autonomy and start to think independently than this is political work. It has an impact on society even if the therapist works only with a small number of persons”. (Parlett M.,1999 after Schultess P., 2013)

Η Gestalt είναι κάτι περισσότεροαπό μια ψυχοθεραπευτική προσέγγιση

L. Perls :“Η ψυχοθεραπεία είναι και ένα πολιτικό έργο. Όταν εργάζεσαι με ανθρώπινα όντα και έρχεσαι στο σημείο, που αρχίζουν να σκέφτονται ανεξάρτητα - είναι πολιτικό έργο και έχει αντίκτυπο στην κοινωνία, ακόμη και αν μπορούμε να δουλεύουμε μόνο με ένα μικρό αριθμό ατόμων” (Schulthes P. quote from Μ. Parlett , 1999)

Δουλεύοντας στην ψυχοθεραπεία δουλεύουμε με ανθρώπινο πόνο (σε ατομικό και σε κοινωνικό επίπεδο)

Vision for the Future of HR&SR “It takes effort from the privileged ones as well as from the weak ones in order for social change to happen.

It needs the powerful to regain the responsibility for their prejudices, guilt, anger and rejection of the self”.

“The trick for those who want to be agents of social change is to find the change side in many people, from

many walks of life and all social classes, and to bind together in common purpose all who want to move

forward a new world of equality”.P. Lichtenberg