Welcome to this EAP Newsletter. Our March Annual General Meeting, Board and Committee meetings took place on 14 – 16 March 2024 at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna. Here is a brief summary:
There have been no officer elections this year (elections take place every two years) and therefore no changes. Christina Winkler has been confirmed as the new ‘Chamber of Individual Members’ (CIM) Chair person following Nicole Aknin’s retirement last year. Alexander Reider, our Treasurer will step back next year and EAP are looking for somebody to step into this role. Some finance or business skills would be desirable as well as some familiarity with Austria since EAP is registered there. If you are interested, please contact Alexander for a conversation at alexander.rieder@europsyche.org.
Support for Ukraine and other crisis zones: The Board received and discussed reports about the UUAP – EAP symposiums and European Room for Listening (ERL) activities. Board members also received a report about the ‘Leszno declaration of support for mental health for all psychotherapists’ ( https://lesznodeclaration.pl/the-declaration/) You will find updates and further information about ERL and the UUP-EAP Symposia in this Newsletter.
The Board also heard and discussed a report about moving towards digital ECP Certificates. The technical details are still being explored before any decisions can be taken but the intention to move from paper to digital ECP Certificates itself seemed generally agreeable.
The next Board and Committee meetings on 17 – 19 October will online it was decided and the deadline for contributions to the next EAP Newsletter will be 6 September – in time for the October meetings.
For further details about the Vienna meetings, please contact newsletter@europsyche.org for a copy of the provisional Board and provisional AGM minutes.
With warm wishes
Tom Warnecke
EAP General Secretary
“Standing Beside Ukrainians in Their Dark Hour”
Patricia Hunt FRSA, Chair of the Ukrainian and European Psychotherapy Alliance
Former President of the European Association for Psychotherapy
Amidst the chaos and fog of war, the Ukrainian and European Psychotherapy Alliance - a group of a dozen senior Psychotherapists from Ukraine and the European Association for Psychotherapy - are resourcing Ukrainian Psychotherapists through presenting a series of online Symposia. The Symposia are very successful, and they seem to be offering an important resource as more than 1000 Psychotherapists from Ukraine and Europe, and even the US and Australia, have registered for each of the four Symposia we have held so far.
The first one, focusing on Ethics, was held on the first anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2023. It was Carl Jung who said that for Psychotherapists it is our first task to understand the psychological situation of our time, and to see clearly the problems and challenges which people are facing. The psychological situation and major events of our time, including the war in Ukraine, is of social devastation, displacement and a refugee crisis. The existential challenges manifested by these social realities present us with dilemmas challenging our established basic principles and ethical norms. Ethics are particularly important for Ukrainian Psychotherapists in helping individuals to live in their new and rapidly changing conditions.
The theme for the Fourth Symposium, marking the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion, was “The Tragedy of Childhood in the Time of War.” Our focus on the children of Ukraine – both children soon to be born, and children in their infancy and adolescence – united everyone involved. It united us in compassion for them; in anger and outrage at the horrors they are facing which we wish with all our hearts would stop; in anguish for the children separated from their families and their Fathers and their homeland; in tears for those children who have lost their lives in the war; and in despair for children who have suffered psychological, emotional and physical injury as a result of the war.
And also we were united in joy for the miracles that have happened to children. Like Roman, a young boy badly burned by a Russian missile. His Mother died in the blast and he suffered 80% burns, but miraculously he is recovering. Before the war he loved ballroom dancing, and now he has begun to dance again, he dances beautifully, and he has returned to school. He has not given up, just as the entire Ukrainian people have not given up. Their spirit is incredibly strong.
The Symposia unite us and connect us. This is so important during the war where there is disconnectedness, isolation, fear and uncertainty. Through the Symposia and through our speakers we are creating a body of wisdom, inspiration, and primary research. Everything is available in English and Ukrainian on our website. https://uasymposium.online. We organise discussion groups to give the opportunity for dialogue between Ukrainian and European Psychotherapists, to share experience, and emotions, to support and have empathy for each other, and to help each other. Hope is such a precious thing especially in the current trauma of the Ukraine War. From the feedback we get it seems that the Symposia give the participants renewed hope. The light of hope can so easily go out, and yet we can help each other by re-kindling the light.
We are supporting Ukrainians in their aim to be strong in the face of aggression. They find that the aggression they are facing evokes hate, but ways can be found not to give in to hate. Hate can become internally negative and destructive, and it is better to use the same energy to stay on the high ground, and hold dignity and integrity. Ukrainians are teaching us and modelling this for us at the moment.
The Ukrainian and European Alliance, which organises the Symposia, is a very significant and important group in itself. We have been meeting every three or four weeks online for over eighteen months, and we have become very close to each other. The meetings are conducted in English and Ukrainian and there is rich dialogue, laughter and shared humour – enhanced in translation, not lost in translation. Whilst war rages around the Ukrainian colleagues at times literally only a kilometre away, they do not despair, they do not allow themselves to take on a victim persona, and they feel embarrassed if we express too much compassion. They hold incredible courage, dignity, integrity, honour, and hope so that within our group we are partners, we are equals. Our work on the Symposia reflects this atmosphere, and in a parallel process way the Symposia express what is best in Ukrainians and in humanity - courage, dignity, integrity, honour and hope.
We have been surprised how successful the Symposia are even beyond the world of Psychotherapy: the second Symposium attracted the patronage of President Petr Pavel of the Czech Republic. It seems that we are reaching a wide audience, and this is very powerful.
No-one knows how long the war will go on for, but the Alliance are committed in their work together to continue to support Ukrainian Psychotherapists in their traumatic work for as long as the war lasts. We are standing beside them in their dark hour.
The next Symposium is on Friday June 14th 2024. Please join us!
“It is so valuable to belong to a vast group of Psychotherapists across Europe through these Symposiums. It empowers me in my work, in my life and in my being. It means so much to me.” Ukrainian Psychotherapist
European Room for Listening ERL - Support to and learning from Ukrainian colleagues
The European Room for listening is a project created one year ago by EAP-members as a listening space for our colleagues in Ukraine, living the difficult experience of war every day- and being psychotherapists and supervisors. The need they expressed, was to be heard and feel supported from especially Western Europe. The need from Western European psychotherapists was to show support, empathy and love - and do whatever our Ukrainian colleagues would express is needed.
The ERL is a space to share and witness each other. Ukrainian psychotherapists share what they live through, talk about their personal and professional life, and share how this intertwines the therapeutic relationship and alliance. The psychotherapists outside of Ukraine share their experiences being “outsiders”, but also their thoughts, fears and hopes in time of war in Europe.
Up to now, we met between 5 and 8PM the last Wednesday of each month with a group of about twenty experienced psychotherapists. Most of them are also trainers and supervisors. The group is composed of half Ukrainian and half European (Danish, French, German, Kosovar and Polish) psychotherapists.
Unfortunately it seems that the war is going to go on for a while. As psychotherapists we felt that we have the duty to witness and communicate learnings from this situation. Working as a psychotherapist under these circumstances is extremely challenging and exhausting - and they need support, not for themselves, because they know how to get that, but from the European community to go beyond burn-out and the challenges of the violence’s they live. And the world needs knowledge! How do we work in this area of fear and traumatic experience? What do we learn?
In the ERL, we realized step by step that this war brought up a lot of trans-generational and collective trauma trespassing largely the Ukrainian boarders. We think that this is a very important topic to be brought into the community of psychotherapists as a situation that cannot be escaped from and of something that concerns all of us more than we are aware of.
A first huge step had been taken by the WAPP Support Project Association from Poland who developed the Leszno declaration of support for mental health for all psychotherapists. Every organization concerned by this issue can sign the declaration immediately here: https://lesznodeclaration.pl/the-declaration/
We are about to take the next step for the ERL, which became a lab of reflection for the small continuing group that has formed. We have just started a dialogue with the EAP symposium-group in order to create flow and communication between the two initiatives.
Now we would like to invite all EAP members to be part of this further development of the project on how we together can support Ukrainian psychotherapist and learn from their experiences at the same time. Are you interesting in joining the group do not hesitate contacting us by sending a mail to Christina Winkler, who is the chair of the working group.
Christina Winkler, FF2P mtcgestalt@gmail.com
Obituary Erving Polster (1922 - 2024)
Dick Lompa sent us this contribution remembering the great Gestalt Therapy pioneer who passed on 13th April:
My first meeting with Erving Polster was when I participated in the advance training program from Erving and Miriam Polster in La Jolla California in the 80’s. It was an inspirational experience with a man whom was so dedicated to the theory and practice of gestalt therapy. He was additionally dedicated to the sharing of his professional expertise with others from all around the world. He was an example of how to enjoy one’s life and the work that he loved. Erv was a creative, compassionate, and sensitive man with a wonderful sense of humour and wit. I will always remember the time we spent together and all that he taught me about gestalt therapy. He has left a lasting legacy concerning life and gestalt therapy to all of us everywhere that follow.
Dick Lompa, Amsterdam, April 2024
Event announcements
5th UUP and EAP Fifth Joint Online Symposium – 14 June 2024
“Relationships in the Time of War”
This is a free online only event. For further details, please check the EAP website or here: https://www.uasymposium.online/
International Society for Bonding Psychotherapy ISBP Conference 2024
‘A walk from trauma to thriving and joy’
12-14 September 2024, Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia-EU
https://www.bonding-psychotherapy.org/isbp-conference-2024/
6th UUP and EAP Fifth Joint Online Symposium – 15 November 2024
Title – to be announced
This is a free online only event. For further details, please check the EAP website or here:
https://www.uasymposium.online/
7th UUP and EAP Fifth Joint Online Symposium – 21 February 2025
Title – to be announced
This is a free online only event. For further details, please check the EAP website or here:
https://www.uasymposium.online/
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