Conference Programme & Abstracts
Crisis & Hope - 4th European Conference for Existential Therapy
- Thursday 19/MAY/2022 starting time: 13:30 UK summer time / 14:30 CEST/ 15:30 EEST
- Friday 20/MAY/2022 starting time: 07:30 UK summer time / 08:30 CEST / 09:30 EEST
Crises are an inevitable part of life. Be it a personal crisis, an inter-personal, cultural, national, universal or existential. What is the role of crisis in humans' life? How would one survive it without hope? What happens when we lose hope? Is it the therapist's role to keep that hope? what happens to us when we witness other people's crisis? Is it true that only through crisis one can grow? or is it just our way to creat meaning in challenging times? Existential questions in times of crisis and hope.
The 4th annual conference of FETE is an on-line event. It will take palce on the 19-20/May/2022 (Thursday afternoon and Friday all day) via zoom.
Confirmed Speakers:
- Prof Emmy van Deurzen ;
- Prof Alfreid Langle;
- Prof Digby Tantam;
- Dr Christian Schulz-Quach ;
- Dr Katerina Zymnis ;
- Ms Monica Hanaway ;
- Dr Evgenia Georganda ;
- Dr Peter Donders;
- Dr Gideon Menda;
- Mr Edward Boyne
- Dr Claire Arnold-Baker
- Dr Jak Icoz
- Mr Yali Sar-Shalom;
- Dr Nancy Hakim Dowek;
- Mr Semyon Yesselson
- Dr Keren Ben-Itzhak ;
- Ms Anna Lelik
- Dr Betty Woodman
- Dr Julia Kukard
- Mr Isak Erling
- Mr Carl Anton Waltersson
- Dr Anastasiia Zynevich
- Dr Alina Krasnova
- Dr Werner Kierski
- Dr Marc Boaz
- Mr Parham Khanmokhtari
- Mrs Jennie Cummings-Knight
- Mr Nimrod Drori
- Mr Konstantinos Morfis
- Mrs Inbal Shani Greenberg
- Dr Dionysios Sourelis
- Dr Pnina Shefi
- Ms Orly Eizik
- Ms Katerina Denyskova
- Ms Elena Kaminskaya
- Ms Liat Graf-Afargan
- Dr Monika Ulrichova
- Mrs Parisa Aghamohammadi
- Ms Sabina Musliu
Abstracts - Keynote Speakers - Thursday 19/May/2022
Prof. Emmy van Deurzen - From Crisis to Freedom (Thursday, 19/May/2022 at 16:50 EEST/ 13:50 GMT)
As we emerge from crisis, we can realistically only be stronger if we have been able to learn from the challenges we were confronted with and are prepared for future ordeals. It is vital for therapists to understand how to work with existential resilience if we are to enable our clients to build strength and buoyancy in dealing with difficulties and challenges to come.
When people have been affected on all dimensions of life, at the physical, social, personal and spiritual levels, it means that their bodies need to recover, their relationships are changing, their sense of self is being altered, and their beliefs and values are shaken up. For most people this is a very difficult experience to encompass as it leads to a revolution of their established patterns, routines, and habits. It involves loss and therefore leads to feelings of bereavement and sorrow as well as experiences of confusion, fear, anger, doubt and panic.
To move forward from this place of perplexity and chaos towards a place of hope and confidence requires a clear and steady path and strong purpose. How can we, as existential therapists, become an inspiration to those who feel despairing and overwhelmed? What are the steps that can take us in the direction of life affirming promise and prospects? What is the relationship between the shattering of our most reliable connections to the world and the finding of new meaning? And how can we not just repair, but improve the structures of a person’s life to provide a steadier base for revival? In limit situations we are personally challenged to create a new vision, that can support the radical changes we are faced with. How can we accompany people in this process of transformation? We shall consider the role of courage, communication, community and transcendence.
Ms Monica Hanaway - The ‘Crisis’ and Legacy of the Covid-19 Pandemic (Thursday, 19/May/2022 at 17:30 EEST/ 14:30 GMT)
At the start of the first lockdown in the UK I began making notes of my hopes, fears, and general reactions to living in a pandemic. I noted my thoughts, dreams, and embodied lived experience during this strange time. I opened a dialogue with others who use existential approaches in their work to hear about their pandemic experiences. These included therapists, coaches, clients, musicians, and academics. The result of these discussions forms the book ‘Existentialism in Pandemic Times’, due for publication by Routledge in April 2022. This presentation draws on the research for the book. In doing so, it considers how key existential themes such as - anxiety, connection and isolation, freedom and responsibility, uncertainty, time and temporality, and the search for meaning came to the forefront of people’s thoughts and lived experience. The presentation also considers what we understand by ‘crisis’ and ‘threat’ , and what hopes and learning we can take from these experiences.
Dr Evgenia Georganda - “The Virtue of Hope”, the “Leap of Faith” and our Connection to Others: Tools for Dealing with Crises (Thursday, 19/May/2022 at 18:30 EEST/ 15:30 GMT)
Human beings are born completely helpless and dependent for their survival on others. What happens in the early years of life inour connection to others is vital both for physical survival as well as for psychological, emotional and neurobiological functioning. Affect regulation theories and neurobiological research provide ample evidence that secure attachment to mother, or other caretaker, will affect the ability for regulation of affect and self-state. Such regulation helps us deal with crises, i.e., remain stable and regulated under difficult circumstances. Life and relationships are full of unpredictable and challenging moments that we have to respond to and be resilient towards. For Erikson the establishment of trust and the ensuing development of the “virtue of hope” are the successful outcome of the first psychosocial stage. This trust is in a constant dialectic with mistrust; feelings of safety and security created from a consistent and caring attachment in a dialectic with feelings of insecurity, fear and uncertainty resulting from ruptures in our connection to others and life. It is suggested that Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” may be related to this initial connection to a “good enough mother”, or later in life to the presence of a “good enough therapist”.
Dr Gideon Menda When Hope Passes Away (Thursday, 19/May/2022 at 16:30 EEST/ 13:30 GMT)
Facing crises throughout life is an inevitable part of human existence. As part of the tidal cycle, we all move upwards and downwards, experiencing the beauty of life as well as its agony. When moving downwards, as crisis grows, it is hoped that it lets us believe things can get better. But what happens when even hope passes away? From an existential perspective, we all share similar ontological givens. It is their personal manifestations that differs from one person to another. Nevertheless, they are all rooted in similar elements of existence. By completing at least one circle in which we lose hope, survive, and manage to recreate it, we may face our next crisis equipped with a treasured memory of hope. In this presentation, I will show the role of hope in one’s life from personal and theoretical perspectives. It is all about life and hope.
Roundtable discussion: Psychotherapist in Times of Crisis: Beyong Political Borders:
Prof. Emmy van Deurzen, Prof Alfried Langle, Mr Semyon Yesselson, Ms Anna Lelik, Dr Nancy Hakin Dowek, Dr Gideon Menda (Tursday, 19/May/2022 at 19:15 EEST/ 16:15 GMT)
What is our role as therapists, in times of political conflicts and crisis? Do we have any particular role or stand? does the existential approach has anything to offer in such dificult times? can we go beyong political borders and offer help to human beings, regardless of their faith, origin, culture or belief? In these turmoil times we must bravely look at those issues. This roundtable discussion includes existential therapist from various countries including UK, Austria, Ukraine, Russia and Israel.
Prof Digby Tantam - concluding the first day of the Panel (Tursday, 19/May/2022 at 20:15 EEST/ 17:15 GMT)
Proffessor Digby Tantam will conclude the first day of teh conference, looking at the themes that came up throught the day and sharing his thoughts on the topic.
Abstracts - Keynote Speakers - Friday, 20/May/2022
Dr Katerina Zymnis - Is hope a choice? The co-creation of hope as a transforming process of change (Friday, 20/May/2022 at 10:15 EEST/ 07:15 GMT)
Over the last decades our world experience has been extremely challenging, dangerous, and mostly disappointing. Numerous contributing factors can be linked to conflicts between countries at a macro-level and to shattered relationships between and within individuals at a micro-level. Traumatic breakages in the human condition leave limited room for the development of hope and the vision of a better present and a brighter future. Persistent economic and financial struggles, mostly affecting the weaker populations of the planet, natural disasters, the adverse effects of climate change, the devastating impact of the pandemic, and finally a catastrophic new war within the European continent, a war that underscores the calamitous armed conflicts simultaneously taking place in different parts of our world, are factors which, among others, leave little room for hope in a better future. The calamities taking place in the world today are exerting a corrosive and debilitating effect on each human being’s sense of worth, self-respect, feelings of self- validation, and faith in the human potential to individually, or collaboratively, transform current circumstances and envision future possibilities. This presentation will address the crucial concept of hope as an antidote to despair and as a transforming process of change in times of crisis and profound pain. It will examine the role of existential psychotherapy as a contributor to the co-creation of hope and eventually change.
Dr Christian Schulz-Quach - Existential Courage: How to overcome the risks of institutionalization after the COVID pandemic (Friday, 20/May/2022 at 10:55 EEST/ 07:55 GMT)
According to shock and crisis theory in sociology and political science, institutions change as a result of exogenous and indigenous shocks to a system. The COVID pandemic is one such profound shock with impact on the provision of healthcare around the globe, including for patients with life-limiting illness and end-of-life care. In this presentation, I will examine the dilemmas and changes brought about in the experience of Being-with-others-in-the-world during the five recent waves of the COVID pandemic within a Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada. I will argue that political, sociological, as well as psychological features of institutionalization have become prominent in the tail end of pandemic cancer care. These consequences need to be addressed with courage if we want to return to a more existential and humanistic approach to cancer care.
Dr Keren Ben-Itzhak - The Resilient Mind – Manage the conflict instead of trying to resolve it (Friday, 20/May/2022 at 11:50 EEST/ 08:50 GMT)
The parts of our brain cannot be classified as good or bad, real or fake, justified or unnecessary. The human brain consists of many parts, and each one gives its own voice. These voices are not always consistent, and sometimes even contradictory. However, they are all real, act in concert, and create the same reality.
The root cause of some crises is a conflict that’s happening inside our brain. The attempt to “resolve” it, or even deny it, can lead to repression that will enhance distress. But what will happen to our brain if we manage to accept and listen to those different voices?
In this lecture, we will understand the unique characteristics of the “resilient brain” – a brain that can conduct a dialogue between urges, emotions, fears, and rational thoughts.
Mr Edward Boyne - The existential poetics of crisis and hope (Friday, 20/May/2022 at 16:15 EEST/ 13:15 GMT)
Poetry can both confront and transform existential truths and can introduce elements of the marvellous where least expected. There is a long and varied tradition of existential poetics in many cultures. I will focus on English poetry across the span of time (Shakespeare and Larkin) and Irish poetry across the span of sensibilities (Heaney and Kinsella). Somehow we will also be visited by Fernando Pessoa who tends to like to have the last word in these matters. Participants will be enjoined to begin writing their own 'existential poem' entering the force-fields of crisis or hope or both. If enough participants later email me the final product we will have enough for a collection!
See Full Programme and Timetable: click here
Abstracts - Parallel Sessions
Parallel Sessions Cluster Number 1: time: 12:35 EEST / 09:35 GMT
Dr Peter Donders - The hope to become whole: Existential therapy at the Viken senter, Norway
The team for existential therapy at the Viken senter (Norway) offers group based therapy for in-patients suffering from trauma and trauma-related disorders. Though trauma and trauma-related disorders vary in appearance, we assume a common denominator is shared among our patient group: the disability to tie close, intimate relationships to others. Both the sense of a clear enough identity and the courage to be oneself in relation to others are compromised. Many patients do not know who they are, and do not dare to show who they are to others. This gives trauma disorders a deeply existential dimension, as without these two component it is nearly impossible to experience life as one’s own or as meaningful. Existential therapy at the Viken senter offers a therapeutic framework to develop these two areas in a synergetic harmony. In this presentation I will describe the background and goals of this the framework, and focus on the way we use group therapy as an arena for interpersonal learning. I will try to relate the hope contained in this framework to the world at large.
Dr Jak Icoz - Existential therapy when the waters are rough: Working with crises and trauma
Based on existential philosophy, working with uncertainty and anxiety is intrinsic to existential therapy. Even when our lives seem to roll on their daily routines, the nothingness of life lays in the foundations of all. And what we call crisis or trauma is only an encounter with our ontological conditions, which we tend to ignore as things turn out the way we expect. This short lecture aims to give an outline of how we can work in times of crises and in the face of traumatic experiences as existential therapists. The lecture focuses on the philosophical underpinnings of existential work with crises and trauma, which would be followed by directions and recommendations of therapeutic action.
Dr Betty Woodman - Design for Belonging: A Model of Existential Analysis for the Workplace
The FETE “Crisis & Hope” conference occurs at a time of intersecting crises of war, climate change, unsustainable forms of capitalism, and a global pandemic, all of which significantly affect people’s lived experiences. The urgency of these crises motivates us to consider the potential of applying existential analysis as an educational approach for groups in the workplace. This presentation describes a model of existential analysis that illuminates power dynamics for workplace culture and authentic leadership development programs. The model is applied for the workplace because of the influence of corporations on world events as well as the larger number of people employed by businesses worldwide than are likely engaged in existential therapy. This existentialist approach promises to encourage not only increased appreciation of the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of workplace culture on behavior and decision-making but also additional insight into community and global issues, with reflection, creativity, recognition of choice and the possibility of change inspiring hope. In this session, I welcome feedback from and dialogue with existential therapists about this approach as well as any suggestions about company prospects for a pilot program this summer.
Dr Julia Kukard - Steve Biko: An Existential Philosopher for our time
The existential community tends to look to the west for inspiration and wisdom. This session is an opportunity to explore African existential thinking, just a little. Some people may know Steve Biko as a South African liberation hero, tortured and killed by the Apartheid government. He is considered the founder of Black Consciousness, an existential philosophy focussing on how to “free” one’s inner world so that you can “free” your outer world more sustainably. Biko understands the critical mechanisms of oppression as being self-alienation, essentialisation and entitlement. While Sartre writes of radical freedom, Biko speaks of radical responsibility. I will explore these dynamics in the session including how they can be value to you and your clients in coaching and therapy. This presentation draws on my doctorate in leadership stuckness completed at the NSPC, Middlesex University and partially funded by the Hans W. Cohn Scholarship Fund.
Isak Erling & Carl Anton Waltersson - Crisis and Hope in the process of aging: An existential group treatment approach on psychological problems related to aging.
Even though anxiety, depression and suicide are common among older people, older adults are offered psychological treatment to a lesser extent than younger people. The aim of this project is to evaluate an existential psychological group treatment for older adults adapted to a primary care setting. The treatment is based on existential therapy in which involuntary loneliness, limitations, concerns of death and meaning are seen as important psychological factors for understanding mental health problems, not least in the process of aging. The 7-session treatment was developed at a primary care center in Gothenburg, Sweden 2017 and evaluations from the clinical development study showed that participants found the treatment helpful and relevant. In recent months this project has received research grant setting it up for a three-year scientific evaluation project where the method will be evaluated in a quantitative and qualitative study.
---Parallel Sessions - Cluster number 2 Friday, time: 14:25-15:05 (EEST)---
Dr Claire Arnold-Baker - Motherhood in Times of Crisis
Motherhood is a time of existential crisis for women (Arnold-Baker, 2020) as they confront the very tenets of their existence and are faced with existential challenges on all four dimensions. However, in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis or times of war and conflict, these challenges become magnified and highlight the fragile nature of human life. Whilst our relationality highlights our dependency on others and therefore our vulnerability, it can also be our salvation. Motherhood is a place of paradox: of life and death; freedom and responsibility and connection and isolation. This presentation will explore how these existential elements contribute to the existential crisis of motherhood and how it is intensified in times of crisis and will discuss how existential courage is needed in this transformational stage of life. New meanings in life can emerge through facing adversity and confronting the personal challenge that comes with bringing new life into the world, against the background of loss and death.
Mr Semyon Yesselson, Dr Anastasiia Zinevych & Dr Alina Krasnova - Technologization of thinking as a factor of crisis of the culture of psychotherapeutic schools and the hope for its overcoming
Dr Werner Kierski - The next generation of existential psychotherapy
Advances in neuro-biological understanding of how the brain connects with deeply held psychological dread requires existential psychotherapists to address these deeply embedded dimensions. By their very nature, these deeply embedded dimensions tend to be unconscious yet can dominate a client’s life. Traditionally, existential psychotherapy relied heavily on conscious processes and language to address what is un-conscious. The same dynamics exist around cognitive behaviour therapy where a critique is that it does not address deeply held underlying emotions. Cutting edge research, for example by Ruth Lanius at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada or Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University have shown how such deep layers both activate certain brain regions and hide behind language. Supporting clients who deal with the challenge of bare existential dread therefore require existential psychotherapists do help them to grasp these neuro-biological dimensions in order to fully benefit from therapy. A recent development in trauma treatment, which provides a path towards addressing the bare nature of existential dread provides such a method. This is a modality called Comprehensive Resource Model developed by Lisa Schwarz.
Dr Marc Boaz - Interpersonal trauma and the ethics of (re)(dis)covery
Drawing on the ideas in his new book 'An Existential Approach to Interpersonal Trauma', Boaz will describe the existential movements that people make through their traumatic confrontations with the reality. In doing so, he will give an overview of the ways in which people can disillusion and re-illusion themselves, and how this becomes incorporated into their modes of existing in the world, and in relation to others. Finally, Boaz will offer an invitation to embrace an expansive ethic of (re)(dis)covery in the wake of trauma.
Mr Parham Khanmokhtari Modify the Definition of Anxiety
Anxiety (Angst) is a kind of emotion that if one's couldn't regulate or adjust to it, would be harmful to the mind, body and as the result shows psychosomatic disorders. Courage is the capacity to adjust the anxiety which arises toward freedom. I become free, I am not free, and in this duration that I am becoming free, I'll meet the anxiety more and more. In my presentation, I tried to demonstrate the definition of anxiety from Soren Kierkegaard, Erich Fromm and Rollo may viewpoints. According to Martin Heidegger( the great 20th-century philosopher) when I look through the anxiety I shall empty my mind and be ready to the Being open itself to me and I may experience that mood (anxiety), what I have written in this presentation is to illustrate a better concept of anxiety. At the end what Kierkegaard said anxiety is the dizziness of freedom I can relate it to the Two Men in Town(1973) movie by the acting of Alain Delon is apparent.
---Parallel Sessions - Cluster Number 3: Friday, time:15:20 EEST / 12:20 GMT---
Mr Yali Sar-Shalom - It is all in the Head: From Crisis to Hope through Existential Guided Imagery
Existential crisis is often characterized by a feeling of lost and helplessness. A strong feeling of loosing control of one's ability to function and to understand what is happening. Guided imagery is a method that guides us to the deepest sources of our inner knowledge. it does so through exercise our inborn ability to transform feelings unto images. In this amazing process a choice is being made by another dimension than the psychological or the emotional dimension. It is a choice made by the spiritual dimension the one dimension that encompasses all other dimensions. Guided imagery enables us to find new avenues to confront our crisis and work with it towards finding meaning and hope.
Mrs Jennie Cummings-Knight -The Pearl and the Oyster: Falling or Flying at Times of Crisis?
Delving deep (under the sea) with the oysters and flying up high onto the crags with the eagles, this workshop in Existential Crisis will reflect on crisis and hope in the light of recent world events (including Covid 19 and the Environment) and their impact: how do we cope with crisis, and where can hope be found? Existentialist author Hannah Arendt separates work, labout and action in her book “The Human Condition”(1958: second edition, 2018) - and it’s the “action” part that we will look at in this workshop. Arendt had her own personal crises to deal with, including her agonistic love affair with her tutor, Martin Heidegger. the What kind of action is appropriate in the face of crisis? What holds us back from taking action? What tools do we need to widen our perspective in the face of unbearable situations, or while living with chronic anxiety? Perspectives from the natural world, along with existential authors including Arendt, Viktor Frankl and Julia Samuel will give us some insight into these questions.
- Mr Nimrod Drori - Transcending illness and crisis through Meaning: From victim to narrator
Many times I've witnessed patients recovering from illnesses, as if in a miracle. One of the first cases i recall was a young patient of mine named Francis (pseudo). The therapeutic bond between us was so powerful and so was the impact of the sessions. He was all alone in a foreign land, an open hearted young man, seeking out his fortune, a true meaningful relationship and rediscovering his routs. I remember it as it was yesterday: Francis came to the session all feverish; he even had some feavor, and to the both of is it seemed as a mild flue. he was so dedicated to the meetings, since he was never in therapy, and was very thankful to me, regarding me devotion and very curious about the world and him self, as a young child would, although he was in his early 30s. These days there was no COVID, but never the less, i encouraged him to speak to his physician later on and we just kept our distance during the session. I offered Francis to take some time and start a guided imagry session that we would adapt for him. I was a devotee of meditation and guided imagry, after taking a clinical seminar on mindfulness during my B.A, and practiced myself different kinds of meditation as often as i could. Francis gladly took my proposal and after a very short relaxation procedure i usualy do, which is manifested mostly as a kind of a body scan, i started transferring energy which seemed as condensed light, from the tip of my head to his, as i am describing that energy as healing and cleaning the body. I used those techniques after researching psychoneuroimmunity during my thesis research, as it was connected to data on spontaneous healing from autoimmune illnesses. After I aimed at the location of his uneasiness, guiding him to connect to this part and converse with it. Francis started sweating all over his body, ears, his face was all wet, and suddenly the feavor was all gone. We were both deeply surprised and excited.
- Mr Konstantinos Morfis - Between teeth and emotions: a crisis of meaning
My presentation revolves around an experience I had working with a woman. Call her K. K is a dentist and a psychotherapist. One of the problems she brought up was finding herself whilst fixing people’s teeth. Her workplace anxiety, being fast and precise, prevented her from enjoying the practice. Her predicament made me wonder about the extent to which she was willing to reveal her other self to her patients. Apart from being a mechanic of teeth, K was a caring person. How does one combine these two traits? I was aware of the boundaries she wanted to put between the two practices. I was also aware of her need to treat the patient as a human being. I was challenged to help K navigate through this dilemma. My instantaneous response was putting forth questions that touched upon the application of therapy to dentistry. But I soon came to realize a more pressing question in our discussion. How far should K go when doing such application? Exploring this question made me reconsider K was dealing with meaning in her life.
- Mrs. Inbal Shani Greenberg - Home away from home - working with alienated mother
This is a case study of an online therapy work with Tamar, a separated 52 years old woman, who has been cut off from her 4 teenaged children, for over two years. This is a journey started by a run a way from the family home, of a woman who lost herself in her marriage, looking to find if there is still something inside her that can help her re-build her life again and re-connect her dearest children. This is a journey from the search for freedom to the acceptance of the responsibility that comes with it. This is a journey from the depth of pain and emptiness to the creation of wholeness and meaning again. This is a journey to find love. A healthy, comforting and safe love even in hostile surroundings. This is a journey of courage. The courage of a woman, who decide at the age of 50, to start creating her path in life for the first time in her way. This is a journey of two souls, me and her, meeting on a cross roads and sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings together.
- Dr Dionysios Sourelis - A search for meaning during financial crisis: An interpretative phenomenological study of highly educated and unemployed Greek young professionals (doctoral research)
The main objective of this study was to understand what meaning young Greek professionals make of the Greek socio-financial crisis. In addition, it explored the impact of the crisis in their daily life and how and if the crisis affected their attitudes and values in life. Eight volunteers, highly educated and unemployed young Greek people were interviewed about their experiences and meaning making processes while living in Greece during the ten-year (2009-2019) economic crisis. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to extract seven key themes: meaning making in the financial crisis, negative impacts of unemployment, positive impacts of unemployment, attitudes in the financial crisis, values in the financial crisis, dominant emotions, social observations and culture. The findings show that the educated and unemployed young professionals who live in Greece choose additional studies to create meaning and opportunities, while they spend more time with significant others; they love the natural environment of the country and use art and psychotherapy for their meaning making processes. Additionally, they keep their values unaffected, have an overall optimistic attitude for overcoming the crisis by accepting the harsh situation, while they critically reflect on the positive and negative impacts of their unemployment. Moreover, the study aimed to help counselling psychologists have a better understanding of existential psychology concepts such as the search for meaning and in particular the way it can affects the lives of young unemployed professionals who live in crisis, hoping for a contribution to their practice.
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- Dr Pnina Shefi - Crisis & Hope in Wislawa Szymborska's Poems
Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2013) was a Polish poet and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1996. Her poetry deals with existential issues and focuses on the clarification of human existence. The poems enrich us – philosophically and intellectually. Szymborska considers existential limits such as: death, failure, loneliness, weakness, guilt, anxiety, despair and love. Szymborska's work touches the existentialist philosophy's prism, primarily through the contemplation of Heidegger Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and others (Shildkraut, 2021). In this presentation we will examine her poetry about human's destiny that is tossed from side to side between crisis and hope. the Crisis and Hope themes will be presented through the three following poems that were written in different stages of her poetic and life development and are included in her book: “Moment” (2012): (a) Vermeer; (b). A Cat in an empty apartment; (c). Nothing twice. As existentialist therapists, we identify with Szymborska’s poetry because we instinctively feel that she is really interested in us and what we have to say as human beings. References Shildkraut, M. (2021). Enraptured Presence: The Other Side of the Absurd: an Existential Look at the Poetry of Wislawa Szymborska. Jerusalem: Carmel. Szymborska, W. (2012). moment (Selected Poems). Ibstytut Ksiazki, Poland.
- Ms Orly Eizik - Unheimlich: Crisis at Home
"My life is a rollercoaster", said Tamra, my 22 years old client whom her parents immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel. She yearned for her homeland, although she was born in Israel and never visited Ethiopia. A daughter, to parents with 11 children (ages 5-30). She missed her culture and community and felt she was thrown into a violent and racist world, not belonging to anyone nor anywhere. She didn’t even feel comfortable in her own skin, "being a black woman in a white country" as she described it. Her ground of existence included severe physical abuse in her childhood. Like her siblings, she was sent to a state dormitory, in which she hid both her femininity and vulnerability. In her inner world, she lived in an experience of an on-going crisis, experiencing loneliness, and hopelessness. She was a terrified survivor ready to defend herself, her family and her whole community from the threatening brutal world. Being "home-less" is an existential experience of alienation and detachedness. Unheimlich as Heidigger named it. In our sessions we tried to build her inner home. The hope is that our therapeutic relations created a wider range of possibilities, where she could finally feel at home.
- Ms Katerina Denyskova - The lifesaving voice of anxiety: the experience of one refugee
The report is devoted to the description of the experience of living with warning anxiety against the background of an impending catastrophe (war).
- Ms Elena Kaminskaya - Life as a refugee: every day as a new one
The report attempts to communicate a personal experience of being a refugee in 2014 and 2022. It will highlight, how to make every day choices in a new way in conditions of instability and uncertainty. And how to search for answers, based on one's own values, responding to the challenges of fate.
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- Ms Liat Graf-Afargan - Existential Psychotherapy in Parents of Preterm Infants. From Crisis to Hope
Premature birth, before week 32, can intensify the inherent stress combined with any normal birth. The uncertainties associated with premature infants can induce complex emotional reactions to parents and families, such as post-trauma symptoms, stress, guilt, anxiety, and depression within the parenthood system. Studies indicate that emotional therapy programs with preterm parents improves the parent’s emotional state and enhances the parent-infant interaction. Objective: to describe a newly developed psychotherapy approach which followed the emergence of therapy programs with preterm parents. The therapeutic intervention leads to a better experience of parents in the present and future, serves as a resonance of the trauma and the emotional storm that parents are going through. The therapy supports parents in their complex struggles in various ways such as:
- Processing the CRISIS –according to the 4 existential dimensions, luck of organizing, dealing with complexity in relation to self, parenting, etc.
- Bridging the gap between the current situation and reality (present) Vs. the expectations and the fantasy about the baby to be born (past).
- The HOPE - Finding internal powers for long-term coping with challenges.
- Clients are invited to walk through a proactive attitude while focusing on the “here and now”.
- Dr Monika Ulrichova - Death - Crisis and Kairos
The whole human being - in spite of all the possibilities and offers of a free society, tends to have a certain limit. Day alternates with night, love oscillates on a thin edge with indifference, work turns into rest, sociability turns into solitude and birth leads to death. Together with Martin Heidegger, we could say that man is actually a being facing the death, that he is the only being on this planet who knows that he will die. Why - even though we know that life will end one day - is this fact traumatizing us and causing us tension? To think about death is to think about life… So what is that "lost" life and when is it really lost? And are we really losing something when we know from the beginning that our existence is temporary? This article focuses on kairos in death and moments that seem meaningful when dying. The author of the article based it on her psychotherapeutic practice in the care of the dying at the oncology clinic.
- Mrs Parisa Aghamohammadi - The deindividuation caused by "phenomenon of follower attraction through displaying their desires on social media"
One of the silent crises that has affected human life in recent years is the “"phenomenon of follower attraction through displaying their desires on social media" Economic problems and also unexpected COVID-19 pandemic have affected the lives of many people. They have also destroyed people's hopes for a brighter future, and make them to pursue their wishes on social media, thinking they could never be reached. This has given rise to “displaying luxury lifestyle for getting followers” which is not a problem itself. The crisis begins when people lose their hope and belief in making changes in their life and seek their dream life in internet instead of finding the meaning of their lives. The reason is to escape living as a Dasein. The increasing of lifestyle bloggers number who do not have any skills, professional and educational backgrounds with so many followers, is an ominous for deindividuation. Following these accounts reduce meaninglessness and isolation outwardly, but the resulted existential anxiety persists and will turn to anger and disappointment in many people, which quickly spreads if not controlled with treatment.
- Ms. Sabina Musliu - Discussing the givens of life in psychotherapy sessions: The perspective of counselors-in-training
Although counselors regularly address existential issues in therapy, little is seen in the literature on the lived experiences of professional counselors or counselors-in-training (CIT) during their practicum or internship experiences (Pierce, 2016). The experience might be anxiety-provoking for the counselor because the givens of life have been described as inherently threatening to most individuals (Yalom, 1980). Thus, given that there is a limited understanding of how discussing existential issues in therapy affects CIT, this study explored the lived experiences of counselors-in-training when addressing existential factors of death, isolation, freedom, and meaning in life with their clients. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Six superordinate themes were identified, each supported by the related subordinate themes. The superordinate themes include the emotional experience in the session; transference/countertransference; factors that influenced counseling effectiveness in helping clients when discussing existential factors; differences in approaching existential factors throughout the training; perspective on existential factors; and counselors’ inner experience, in the here and now, when discussing existential issues. The study revealed several recommendations for counseling programs.
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