The 24th 4-day Gestalt psychotherapy workshop of our center was successfully completed, hosted in Agria Volou, at Valis Resort & Spa, from Thursday 19/5/2022 to Sunday 22/5/2022.

The general theme of the 4 days was "The human body is the soul and the soul is the embodiment" which, as Merleau-Ponty states, "The flesh is not matter, it is not spirit, it is not substance. We should demonstrate it, use the ancient term element, as one would use it to speak of earth, water, air, fire, that is, in the sense of a thing in general […]. The flesh is thus an element of Being."   "Merleau-Ponty: We must get our hands dirty" - Christos Konstantinou (Athens 2013, Spanos Publishing)

For Merleau-Ponty, as bodies we are already from birth "in state" with the world, that is, within it. The body (le corps propre- idiom) is in the world like the heart in the body. It feeds and is fed through the tangible experience - in constant flow and movement - forming with it a dynamic system of perpetual evolution and change. In Gestalt therapy the body is the main pillar and axis of her theory.

During this four-day period, through the specific topics of the coordinator trainers, 15 in number, the aspects and dimensions of the body were explored, both on a personal, group and social level, as well as its creative dynamics in the therapeutic process of Gestalt psychotherapy.

A total of 129 trainees and 27 professionals participated who, together with the trainers, reached 171 people who generally admitted that it was a very fruitful scientific meeting but also a highly creative experience that they enjoyed through this special atmosphere of this 4day Gestalt meeting!

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, 18: 30-20: 30, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, psychologists Irini Koutela & Sofia Menier Boulanze held a presentation on:

"… Parenthood, adoption, foster care… life relationships…"

This presentation was an open invitation - discussion about the difficulties and challenges related to the process of parenting through conditions of adoption or foster care.

References were made to stereotypes and prejudices about the meaning of parenthood and different family formations, such as same-sex parenting, single-parenting, short-term-long-term adoption… but also expectations, frustrations, adjustment times, color, the race…etc.

Finally, on the occasion of the saying of the people: "the child comes out of the belly and the man out of the arms" followed an extremely warm and fruitful discussion with the participants who were thrilled with the experiential character of this meeting !!!

Irini Koutela, Mental Health Counselor, Gestalt Psychotherapist, M.Sc., I-MBA, M.Sc. Litt., Member of HAGT, EAGT and BACP.

Sophia Menier Boulanger, Professor of Biology, University UCLB of Lyon, France. A graduate of the Gestalt Foundation, Psychotherapy and Gestalt Training center. Graduate student M.Sc. Psychology, University East of London.

On Friday, March 18, 2022, 19: 00-21: 00, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the psychologist Dimitra Chantziara conducted a presentation on:

"TASTE AND FRAGRANCES: A poem begins with enjoyment and ends with wisdom" (R. FROST)

The presentation was about the two senses, smell and taste, which are chemical senses and are often called "sisters", as they are interconnected.

As Mrs. Chantziara mentioned, smell and taste, with breathing and food intake are essential functions for our survival and based on these senses we perceive and categorize our experiences, within the continuum defined by the ends of attraction and repulsion. Especially the information we receive from the sense of smell is recorded in a part of the brain that is connected to emotions and are the oldest memories that we can recall and the last ones that we forget.

In this presentation, Mrs. Chantziara, together with the participants, explored their experience in these senses, from attraction to repulsion, the emotions associated with olfactory and taste experiences as they are contained in the present, the past and the future and experimented and felt the subjective definition of pleasure.

Chantziara Demetra BSc (Hons) Psychology – Gestalt Psychotherapist,  Supervisor and trainee trainer.  Member of EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy) and member of the Hellenic Association for Gestalt Therapy (HAGT). Coordinator of group therapies, women support groups, training and supervision groups for volunteers who support cancer patients, individual counseling for parents, individual psychotherapy sessions. Trained in the EMDR Traumatotherapy method.

On Thursday, February 17, 2022, 18:00-20:00, Exarmenia Pappa, psychologist, psychotherapist and Gestalt trainer, conducted an experiential workshop to the registered members of the SNFCC on:

"Touch-Contact: Meeting myself and the world through touch"

Mrs. Pappa started by saying that our skin is the place of meeting and interaction between ourselves and everything around us and that it is our window of contact with what is outside of us. Through the skin our whole-body listens and receives stimuli and informs us about where and how we are, how we move in space, how we feel and what we think and only through this encounter can we get to know ourselves.

In this two-hour experiential workshop, the developmental, relational and social dimension of touch was discussed and through exercises and improvisations the experience of touch as a way of contact with the world, as a collective memory, as a desire and creation to reach that focusing on the now of touch one discovers that touch, as a physical experience, enriches our mental and spiritual dimension.

Exarmenia Pappa, BA in Psychology (National Kapodistrian University of Athens), MSc Mental Health Studies, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Trainer. Member of EAGT and HAGT, PgCert Gestalt Body Process (Trained by James Kepner) Certificate in Performance Studies in Dance (Birkbeck College London). She runs a private practice in Athens, Greece. She facilitates groups and workshops that combine Gestalt therapy with movement and dance, support groups for teachers in secondary education and educational workshops for Gestalt therapy trainees. She is particularly interested in exploring movement, dance and somatics methods and applying them in her therapeutic work.

On Sunday 20/02/22, 12:00-14:00, Despina Balliou and Costas Michailidis participated as speakers at the 26th Two-Day Conference EES 2022 with an experiential workshop on

"The Silence of the Hidden Rivalry"

In this two-hour experiential workshop, the two speakers attempted to explore with their audience, experientially and creatively, the answers to the relevant questions that arise, such as whether there is a hidden rivalry in the fraternal relationship, whether it appears, if allowed, and even what it means inside in the contact and interaction of a family and what is the bridge after all! The workshop was completed when its presenters finally developed how it approaches the counseling process through the perspective of Gestalt therapy theory.

Balliou Despina, M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Trainer & Supervisor, ECP holder (European Certificate of Psychotherapy). Member of EAGT’s Training Standards Committee (European Association for Gestalt Therapy). Founding member of Gestalt Foundation and of HAGT (Hellenic Association for Gestalt Therapy).

Michailidis Costas, He studied Forestry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In the course of his career, he changed field and devoted himself to the science of psychology. He is a graduate of TEESSIDE COLLEGE, in Counseling and Psychological Science. He is Gestalt therapist and trainer, supervisor, member of EAGT and of HAGT & ECP holder (European Certificate of Psychotherapy). He works, as an individual therapist, in his office at Ag. Dimitrios, with groups and couples.

On Saturday, January 29, 2022, at 10:00 - 13:00, Mrs. D. Balliou participated in the 17th online postgraduate training meeting of the National Organization of Psychotherapy in Greece which aimed at the psychotherapeutic approach of the topic "Physical and Emotional Abuse - Survival by Trauma" through several psychotherapeutic approaches

Entitled "Self-Functions and Gestalt Therapy", Ms. Balliou's presentation included both theory and experiential practice.

Among other things, she stated that the functions of the self are the means, tools and possibilities through which the self organizes and integrates its experience, as it interacts with its environment. As a consequence of abuse - trauma, self-functions such as the ability to self-regulate, the ability to make choices, the ability to connect, support and grade emotions, the ability to manage boundaries, intensity and arousal, perception of reality and so on. -are under-developed or are limited in the course of the development of the abused person.

She then referred to the way in which these functions are developed, organized and integrated into the therapeutic process so that the wound healing begins to emerge and the pattern associated with it changes.

Balliou Despina, M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Trainer & Supervisoror, Founding Member of Gestalt Foundation, Psychotherapy and Training Centre and of HAGT (Hellenic Association for Gestalt Therapy).

On Thursday, January 20, 19:00 - 21:00 Mrs. D. Balliou made a presentation for the members of the foundation on "Senses".

A presentation for the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch through the perspective of the Gestalt psychotherapeutic approach and their importance in our lives! For the senses that activate the body, its emotion and expression. They enliven our contact with the environment and enhance our creativity and the art of "living well", as when we come in contact with them, we become painters, film directors, sculptors, composers, poets of our lives enriching it fruitfully.

In this presentation, Ms. D. Balliou explored and experimented with the public through the process of awareness and by discussing, everyone shared their experience with great response!

Balliou Despina, M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Trainer & Supervisoror, Founding Member of Gestalt Foundation, Psychotherapy and Training Centre and of HAGT (Hellenic Association for Gestalt Therapy).

On Friday, December 10, 2021, 18:00 - 21:00, our center held a three-hour free online talk on:

"… parenthood, adoption, foster parenthood… life relationships…"

An open invitation - discussion about the difficulties and challenges related to the process of parenting through conditions of adoption or foster parenthood.

The speakers, Katia Hatzilakou, Maria Farmaki, Irini Koutela and Sofia Meunier Boulanzer, referred to stereotypes and prejudices about the meaning of parenthood and different family formations, such as same-sex parenting, single-parenting, short-term - long-term foster care… expectations, frustrations, adjustment times, support… gender, color, race… emphasizing that people tell us: "the child comes out of the womb and the man out of the arms".

Their talk, which was addressed to future parents, prospective parents, parents with children, parents with adopted children, couples in foster caring period as well as to mental health professionals, took place through the online ZOOM platform, ensuring a very large participation (120 people) and a response to the audience who warmly thanked the speakers for such rich but also so sensitive information as well as for their so constructive and fruitful attitude in the discussion that followed

Speakers:

Katia Hatzilakou, M.Sc. Social and Clinical Psychology A.U.Th., Gestalt Psychotherapist, Trainer & Supervisor, member of A.G.P. & EAGT. ECP Holder Founding member of Gestalt Foundation, and of H.A.G.T.

Maria Farmaki, Psychologist, Nursery, B.A. Gestalt Therapist & Supervisor.

Irini Koutela, Mental Health Counselor, Gestalt Psychotherapist, M.Sc., I-MBA, M.Sc. Litt., and

Sophia Meunier Boulanger, Professor of Biology, University UCLB of Lyon, France. Graduate of the Gestalt Foundation. Graduate student MS. Psychology, University East of London.

On Thursday 18/11/21, 18:30 - 20:00, at the Book Tower of the SNFCC, Mrs. Y. Yiamarelou, M.A. Clinical Psychology, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Trainer & Supervisor, a founding member of the Gestalt Foundation, made a presentation to the members of the Foundation on " “Istimi *", the beacon of human existence and coexistence "(* I exist, I have a presence).

In this meeting, through the theme of "Discovery", a discussion was held about the importance of human existence and coexistence.

Mrs. Yiamarelou developed her topic, starting from the unprecedented speed of change that occurs in the world and in the history of mankind (climate & geopolitical changes, internet, artificial intelligence), pointed out that the ability of man to stand, process and choose what, where, when and how it communicates, creates the "web" of relationships through which our world is collectively woven.

On Sunday, November 7, 2021, at 8:00 pm at the Mexican restaurant Diferente, Ventiri 7, 115 28, in Athens, the staff of the Gestalt Foundation Athens met with all the associates, trainers of the center, to eat, drink, celebrate and welcome. together with the "return" to the new kind of "normality".

Due to the pandemic of Covid 19, everyone went through a difficult, very painful and demanding period which still does not seem to have come to an end. Everyday life with all its habits was overthrown, socializing became a threat, communication, contact and sharing required new channels and ways.

The Gestalt Foundation of Athens organized this dinner wanting to thank warmly its collaborating trainers who, with their fast creative adaptation to the new data, their complete professionalism, their willing and systematic cooperation and their dedication to the task, contributed to complete without losses, all the educational activities of the center and the Gestalt Foundation to look worthy of the expectations and the trust of its trainees!

The dinner turned into a very fun night, as in the past, up close, since all those present were vaccinated, realizing how much they have missed this close contact and sharing in their daily lives!