Research activities
2012
December 2012
Between 11 and 15 December, Renos Papadopoulos was in Libya
as consultant to the International Organisation for Migration. The main purpose
of his visit was to continue the first training he offered in September on
‘Psychosocial Assistance for Crisis Affected Children, Youth and their Families
in Libya’ as part of the IOM project ‘Psychosocial Response in War Torn
Societies’ that is funded by the Italian Development Cooperation. The training
to 35 members of staff from various organisations and services from seven
different cities and towns all over the country was offered in conjunction with
the University of Tripoli on its campus and was attended again by the Deputy
Minister of Social Welfare as well as by several University professors
(including the Head of the Department of Psychology).
Matt ffytche gave a talk titled 'The Embryo Individual:
Early twentieth-century psychodynamic perspectives on the origins of selfhood'
at UCL on the 11 December 2012. The paper discussesed certain representational
problems in the theorisation of 'individuality' within psychoanalysis, before
examining a particular juncture (from 1911-1922) when the experience of the
foetus and the ‘birth’ of the individual was variously traced in works by C. G.
Jung, Sandor Ferenczi and Sigmund Freud, culminating in Otto Rank’s The Birth
Trauma. In particular the paper concentrates on tensions between the possibility
of a psychodynamic developmental psychology, and the function of the foetus as a
metaphor within a quite different kind of moral argument.
November 2012
Bob Hinshelwood was in Turin on Saturday 24 Nov, at an event collaborating
with Salomon Resnick, before an audience of 250. Then on Monday 26 he was in
Como as keynote speaker for a conference on groups and everyday life in
therapeutic communities for adolescents.
On Saturday 17 November, Renos Papadopoulos offered a day
webinar on 'Narrative and Family Approaches to Working with Trauma Survivors'
for the 'Istanbul Trauma Studies Program' that is organised jointly by the
Psychology Department of the Istanbul Bigli University and the 'International
Trauma Studies Program' of the Columbia University of New York. The webinar was
attended by 57 trainees all of them professionals working in the field of trauma
in different contexts, e.g. refugees, survivors of torture, sexual abuse,
domestic violence, trafficking, natural disasters, etc.
October 2012
Bob Hinshelwood was in Helsinki on 26-27 October for a
Workshop he led for the psychoanalytic group Psyko-Analysis - on
Countertransference. Now, this weekend coming, he will be in Las Palmas, Canary
Islands for the conference of the Spanish Group Psychotherapy Society, giving a
paper on links and words.
On Wednesday 24 October, Renos Papadopoulos was at the
Refugee Council (RC) where he met with Angelina Jalonen, the Manager of the
Therapeutic Casework Services, and they jointly developed a framework for
potential collaboration that would include the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding between CTAR and the RC, the placement of students from the MA/PhD
in Refugee Care at the RC, joint research projects, assisting the RC with the
development of a new therapeutic model, etc. In addition, he offered her
consultation with regard to a specific case of a Sudanese refugee.
On 22-24 October, Chris Nicholson attended the 1st Annual
Conference of the Consortium of Therapeutic Communities (CTCT) held at
Cumberland Lodge in Winsor. Formally, two separate organisations, the
Charterhouse Group and the Association of Therapeutic Communities, CTCT is a
lively new organisation supporting and speaking for the work of Therapeutic
Communities, their values and practices. During the conference Chris was
nominated and voted in as one of a team of Directors for the charity.
On October 19-20, Karl Figlio attended the conference,
Psychoanalysis and Politics, organised as an offshoot from the Nordic Summer
University and held at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, where he presented a
paper, 'The Differences Between Private and Public Mourning'.
Between 13 and 20 October, Renos Papadopoulos was in Sudan.
As consultant of the 'War Trauma Foundation' (WTF), he offered a follow up
training to the newly established 'Ahfad Trauma Treatment and Training Centre' (ATTTC)
that is based at the Ahfad University for Women in Khartoum (Omdurman). The
training was attended by 15 mental health professionals who are already engaged
in work with trauma in various services and agencies covering most of Sudan.
This training is part of an ongoing project between the ATTTC, the WTF and CTAR.
On 5 and 6 October, Roderick Main and Ann Addison
(who is a PhD student in the Centre and also a Jungian analyst) presented papers
and participated in a panel discussion at the 'Meaningful coincidence: found or
created? Deepening understanding of synchronicity' conference organised by the
Jung Forum at the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP), London.
Roderick gave a paper on '"Shaking the security of our scientific foundations":
synchronicity and the problem of meaning in science' and Ann gave a paper on
'Body-mind experience in the consulting room: synchronicity or not?' The
conference was fully booked with 72 attendees.
September 2012
Between 27 and 29 September, Renos
Papadopoulos was in Tripoli as consultant to
the International Organisation for Migration. The main
purpose of his visit was to offer training on
‘Psychosocial Assistance for Crisis Affected Children,
Youth and their Families in Libya’ as part of the IOM
project 'Psychosocial Response in War Torn Societies'
that is funded by the Italian Development Cooperation.
The training to 35 members of staff from various
organisations and services from seven different cities
and towns all over the country was offered in
conjunction with the University of Tripoli on its campus
and was attended by the Deputy Minister of Social
Welfare as well as by several University professors
(including the Head of the Department of Psychology).
From 23 to 27 September, Roderick Main
participated by invitation in the International
Interdisciplinary Workshop on 'The Pauli-Jung Dialog and
its Impact Today' in Filzbach, Switzerland, where he
presented a paper titled '"Shaking the security of our
scientific foundations": Jung, Pauli, and the problem of
meaning in science'.
On Saturday 22 September, Renos Papadopoulos
offered two presentations. In the morning, he offered a
half-day training to the trainees of the Association of
Jungian Analysts on issues concerning severe trauma and
on working in non-traditional settings, and in the
afternoon, he was one of the keynote speakers of the day
event on 'Making Connections' organised by the British
Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). The
title of his presentation was 'Connecting Together:
Meaning, Resilience and Adversity-Activated
Development'.
On 21-22 September, the Conference on 'Psychoanalysis
in the Age of Totalitarianism', jointly sponsored by the
Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies (Essex), the British
Psychoanalytical Society and Birkbeck College (Pears
Institute for the Study of Antisemtism) was held at the
Wellcome Collection in London. The conference was
co-organised by Matt ffytche (CPS),
Daniel Pick (BBK/BPAS) and Michael Rustin (Tavistock/UEL),
and was the first in a series of conferences planned by
the BPAS and intended to explore the relations between
psychoanalysis and various academic disciplines. The
conference proved incredibly popular, with all 160 seats
selling out in advance, and fielded an array of
distinguished international academics working in the
field of psychoanalysis and history including Eli
Zaretsky, José Brunner, Jacqueline Rose, Ruth Leys, John
Forrester, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Sally Alexander, Stephen
Frosh, Derek Hook, Joel Isaac, Michael Roper, Michal
Shapira, Peter Mandler, David Armstrong, Nick Temple and
Michael Rustin. The initiative arose from a couple of
workshops on psychoanalysis and the second world war
convened by Matt ffytche and Daniel Pick at Birkbeck in
2009-10.
Panels addressed the following themes: 'Totalitarian
States of Mind', 'The Third Reich, Antisemitism and
Psychoanalysis', 'Totalitarian Century? Freudian
Century?', 'War and Infancy' (chaired by Jan Abram),
'Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Social Sciences',
'Reconstructing Democracy', 'Cold War Psychoanalysis'
and 'Legacies of the Past: is the problem of
totalitarianism still central to psychoanalysis?'
Michael Rustin in a report for the BPAS reviewed the
event as 'making a significant contribution to the
history of psychoanalysis in the post-Second World War
period'. The sessions were recorded, and we are working
towards making some of this content available as a
podcast on the Centre website, and Matt ffytche
and Daniel Pick are also working on plans to develop the
material into an edited book.
On Monday 10 September, Chris Nicholson
was invited to the Planned Environment Therapy Trust in
Toddington where he gave a talk to a number of Directors
of therapeutic Residential Children’s Homes on
Residential Childcare and Psychoanalysis. The event was
run by a newly established organisation, The Consortium
of Therapeutic Communities.
On September 9-11, Karl Figlio
attended the first conference of the New Imago Forum at
Jesus College, Oxford. He is a member of the Academic
Liaison Committee of the Forum, set up by the Institute
of Psychoanalysis to further psychoanalytic clinical and
academic collaboration. The conference topic was evil,
and he presented a paper, 'Evil, Memory and Reparation'.
On Friday 7 September, Chris Nicholson
gave a plenary lecture at St John's College Oxford on
the poet Robert Graves entitled '"Where art and Agony
Meet": Robert Graves, T.S. Eliot and Modernism'.
August 2012
Bob Hinshelwood was guest at the
Summer School of the Krakow School of Psychotherapy,
held in the mountain holiday resort of Kakopne, 30
August - 1 September 2012.
Between 21 August and 20 September, Renos
Papadopoulos was working in Cyprus. The main
areas of his work included the following:
- With the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), (a) he reviewed the
progress of the project on bi-communal
development with representatives of the
Greek and Turkish civil society in
Cyprus (following the activities in May
in London at the House of Commons) and
planned further initiatives, and (b)
consulted to them in connection with
using the 'Adversity Grid' in developing
a pioneering new way to measure progress
towards reconciliation, in the form of a
Social Cohesion and Reconciliation
Index.
- With the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR),
he reviewed the developments (a) of the
training he offered last December on
working with tortured asylum seekers and
planned a follow up training next year,
and (b) of the drafting of the new
Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
that is currently taking place in Cyprus
now that Cyprus holds the presidency of
the European Union.
- With the European workgroup that now
is drafting the CEAS in Cyprus, he
continued his contribution towards the
finalisation of this important document.
- With one of the candidates for
President of the Republic of Cyprus at
the forthcoming elections in February
and his close associates, he consulted
personally on issues of mental health
and asylum policies.
- With the director of psychological
services of the Ministry of Health, he
discussed the development of a specific
project of a family psychosocial
community centre.
- With the Exarch of the Patriarchate
of Alexandria in Cyprus (i.e. the
ambassador in Cyprus of the Orthodox
Church in Africa), he discussed the
development of community psychosocial
project in Mozambique (which they will
initiate during a visit in January).
- With the directors of the Cyprus
Think Tank Thucydides, he consulted on
issues of mental health and asylum
policies.
- With a senior member of staff of the
Ombudsman's Office, he consulted on
issues of asylum policy and psychosocial
practice.
- With senior staff of the European
University of Cyprus and of the
University of Nicosia he discussed their
requests for developing collaborative
projects.
Between 12 and 19 August, Renos Papadopoulos
was in Colombia after an invitation by the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) to offer training and
consultation in relation to psychosocial assistance to
victims of political violence. His programme of
activities included, inter alia:
- a three day training workshop on
'Psychosocial Dimensions in Reparation
and Assistance to Victims of Violence'
offered at Rosario University in Bogota
to 134 participants who are actively
working in this field;
- several consultation workshops with
the director and senior staff of the
Special Unit for the Integral Attention
and Reparation of the Victims of
Violence that was established at the
beginning of this year to develop a
comprehensive service to this group of
people;
- consultations to the teachers of the
course Developing psychosocial
dimension within the victims assistance
process that IOM will start offering
this autumn to 400 civil servants;
- consultations to various sections of
the IOM working in relevant fields,
including research with ex combatant
children; and
- meetings with staff of Rosario
University and with the USAid office in
Colombia.
One of the concrete impacts of Renos' work is that
the official 'Registry of Victims' in Colombia is now
going to be revised (according to the 'Adversity/Trauma
Grid') so that it will provide a more holistic,
humanising and three-dimensional profile of each victim
that would include material about victims that would
also acknowledge their strengths and abilities so that
these can then be taken into active consideration in all
assistance and interventions.
July 2012
The Centre had a very strong presence at the IVth
International Academic Conference of Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies,
co-organised by the International Association for Analytical Psychology and the
International Association for Jungian Studies and held at the Portuguese
Catholic University, Faculty of Philosophy, Braga, Portugal from 18 to 21 July.
Plenary papers were delivered by Professor Andrew Samuels (‘The Return of
"The Individual". A Jungian Arrow Shot to the Heart of Academic Orthodoxy: Our
Newest Contribution to Political Liberation’) and Professor Roderick Main
(‘Secular and Religious: Analytical Psychological Doubleness and the
Problem of Modernity’), as well as by Dr Lucy Huskinson, an alumna and
former fellow of the Centre (‘The Sublime and the Numinous: Architectural
Blueprints for Conversing in Jungian Psychology’). Other presentations
were made by Dr David Henderson (‘Nkisi Nkondi: An Image of Transference
and Projective Identification in the Analytic Process’), Guilherme
Scandicucci (‘Graffiti: Soul and Pathologizing in the City of Sao Paulo’),
and Amanda Hon (‘Rethinking Virginity’), all graduates of our MA Jungian
and Post-Jungian Studies, and by our current doctoral students Mathew Mather
(‘The Red Book: An Astrological Perspective’ [poster presentation]) and
James Anslow, co-presenting with Dr Helena Bassil-Morozow who
teaches part-time at the Centre (‘Identity Crisis in the Age of the Trickster’).
Two of our alumnae, Lucy Huskinson and Ruth Williams, were on the program
committee. The conference was the fourth of a series of conferences
involving both academics and clinicians working in Jungian psychology, the first
of which was hosted by our Centre here at Essex in 2002. The vibrancy of
this Essex-initiated collaboration among Jungian academics and clinicians and
the strong presence of our Centre at the Braga conference are signs of the
continuing outstanding importance of our Centre to this field.
Bob Hinshelwood
recently visited Korea where he was guest speaker at a conference of their newly
founded Institute for Therapeutic Communities. This was followed by a
workshop on Kleinian psychoanalysis to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and
then a further workshop for art therapists. Bob the went on to Australia
and gave a talk to the Institute of Psychoanalysis in Sydney, and started a
series of teaching seminars in Adelaide on Kleinian concepts which will continue
for 2 months by teleconference.
Naz Keval
gave a paper on ‘The Struggle to Metabolise Race in
the Psychotherapies’, at a conference titled ‘ Building bridges- East & West
Psychology and Psychotherapy Practice organised by the BPS Division Of Clinical
Psychology, Faculty on Race & Culture which took place on 4th July
2012 in London
June 2012
David Bennett
(Visiting Fellow) and Andrew Samuels will be involved in the
'Psychoanalysis and Sport' Conference, which will be held at the Freud Museum on
30th June -
http://www.freud.org.uk/events/74677/sport-and-psychoanalysis/
Between 20-24 June, Renos Papadopoulos was in Pisa
(Italy) offering training at the Summer School on 'Psychosocial Interventions in
Emergency Displacement' that was co-organised by the University of Santa Anna
and the International Organisation for Migration. Renos is one of the three
co-directors of this unique two-week residential course that is offered
annually; this year it was attended by thirty senior staff of international
(mainly UN) organisations that are directly responsible for responding to
emergency displacement. Participants came from all over the world,
including Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Ivory Coast,
Finland, Georgia, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Macedonia, South
Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Spain, Sweden, Timor, The Netherlands, Philippines,
Vietnam, Yemen.
On 28 June Renos Papadopoulos was the keynote
speaker at the annual Conference of the 'Association for University and College
Counselling' and his presentation was entitled 'Meaning-attribution processes:
Trauma, resilience and adversity-activated development'. The conference,
that was held at the University of Worcester, was attended by about 120
counsellors from all over the UK.
On 29 June Renos Papadopoulos was the keynote
speaker at a day event organised by the 'The Forgiveness Project' and 'St
Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation and Peace' under the title ‘Stories that
Heal - Stories that Harm. Working with personal and community narrative’ and was
held at the 'The London Inter Faith Centre'. In addition to his plenary
presentation (entitled ‘Therapeutic Witnessing and Storied Communities: Trauma,
Resilience, Adversity-Activated Development’), Renos also ran one of the
workshops. The event was attended by over one hundred professionals.
Chris
Nicholson recently
attended the Community of Communities Annual Forum at the Royal College of
Psychiatrists. He chaired a panel looking at Belonging as a clinical
category and Support Groups for family members of those with Personality
Disorder. Later that day he attended the First Meeting of the International
Network of Therapeutic Communities where he was invited to become a Founding
Associate. The two essential features of this group are its international focus
and its interest in psychoanalysis.
On Thursday 7 June, Renos Papadopoulos , in his
capacity as a member of LARG (Language and Asylum Research Group), participated
in the day-long closed research seminar on the international group on LADO
(Language Analysis for Determination of Origin) that is used in order to
identify the origin of asylum seekers. The seminar, that was held on the campus
and organised by Professor Peter L Patrick (Linguistics) had the title "Issues
of Expertise & Recognition of Professional Standards" and was attended by
experts from Australia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, as well as from
several other UK Universities.
Research Student Kalina Stamenova recently presented
a paper co written with Bob Hinshelwood at an OPUS Scientific Meeting in
London on ‘Envy at Work: Social and Organizational Aspects of Envy’ .
On 1 June, Renos Papadopoulos was the invited keynote
speaker at the Tenth Annual 'All Wales Psychotherapy Network' (AWPN) Conference
that was held in Abergavenney. The Conference, that was attended by one hundred
psychotherapists from all over Wales, had the theme ‘Transitions and
Transformations’ and Renos' presentation was on "Traumatising transitions:
Resilience, Adversity-Activated Development and the varieties of ‘Therapeutic
Inputs’". His presentation had a great deal of impact and several Welsh
psychotherapy organisations asked him to offer specific input in their training
and supervision.
Frank Röhricht was invited
by the International Organisation for Migration / IOM and provided a one-day
training course on prevention of staff burnout amongst border officials working
with migrant and traumatised people in Tallinn / Estonia on 28.5.12. Frank
will also partake in a Closed Roundtable focusing on 'Embodied and Narrative
Practices' on 10 September 2012, organised by Professor Daniel Hutto, aiming to
explore new theoretical frameworks for the provision of mental health care and
in order to initiate a debate with major stakeholders and commissioning bodies.
May 2012
Between 23 - 27 May, Renos Papadopoulos was in Athens
as a guest of 'Babel', the only organisation in Greece that is responsible for
the mental health of refugees. During his stay he offered training, consultation
and supervision to 'Babel' staff as well as other collaborating organisations,
services and agencies. In addition, he was the main speaker at a half-a-day
event (on 23 May, entitled 'People in Movement, Societies in Crisis: between
Vulnerability and Resilience') that 'Babel' organised with other agencies at the
'Drakopoulos Amphitheatre' of the University of Athens, in the centre of the
city. The event was attended by about 200 professionals and members of the
public and it was extremely lively, addressing not only issues of refugees but
also the multiplicity of consequences of the current economic crisis.
Finally, Renos consulted to the central agency of the Ministry of Health
and UNHCR that are responsible for the reception and accommodation of asylum
seekers (with reference to their developing new guidelines that include ASPIS -
from the EVASP project), as well as to the staff team of 'Mosaic', a specialist
agency that works with refugees who are depended on substance abuse (with
reference to future training courses).
Renos Papadopoulos was invited by the All Party Parliamentary Group on
Conflict Issues to assist with the planning of an intervention in Cyprus,
activating the Civil Society now that the official talks between the Greek and
Turkish leaders came to an end, failing to find a solution to the Cyprus
problem. Eight prominent members of the Cyprus Civil Society from both
communities were brought to the UK and on 15 and 16 May there were several
meetings in the House of Commons culminating in a large meeting that was
attended by members from both Houses. Simon Hughes MP (who chaired the meeting)
asked Renos to comment on the presentations of the visiting Cypriots before
inviting participation from the floor. Another meeting took place at LSE on the
16 May that was open to the public and where some of the ideas developed at the
House of Commons were presented and discussed. Renos was asked to remain
centrally involved in this initiative.
Mike Scott and Sue Kegerreis were in
Switzerland 11th – 14th May as staff members on the
Building on Talent leadership programme at the Institute for Management
Development (IMD).
Naz Keval gave a training workshop for Clinical Psychologists
titled ‘ Thinking Under Fire’: Understanding Self Destructive Clients and their
Impact on Staff Teams. This was part of the CPD program for the Division of
Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society which took place
yesterday in London.
Between 3 and 8 May, Renos
Papadopoulos was in Sudan. As consultant of the 'War Trauma Foundation'
(WTF), he offered training to a new Centre ('The Ahfad Trauma Treatment and
Training Centre') that will start operating as from July and will be based at
the Ahfad University for Women in Khartoum (Omdurman). The training (with CTAR
as co-organiser) was attended by 17 mental health professionals who are already
engaged in work with trauma in various services and agencies covering most of
Sudan. This training is part of an ongoing project between the new Trauma
Centre, the WTF and CTAR.
April 2012
On 25-26 April Renos Papadopoulos offered staff training to
IOM and other relevant agencies and Government services in Dublin on the
psychosocial dimensions of programmes of ‘Assisted Voluntary Return and
Reintegration’ (AVRR) of asylum seekers.
On 24 April Renos Papadopoulos was an invited speaker at the
'International Dialogue on Migration' (IDM), the flagship annual event of the
International Organisation of Migration (IOM) held in Geneva. The title of this
year's IDM was ‘Migration Consequences of Complex Crises’ and was attended by
senior diplomats from all 146 member states as well as representatives from most
relevant international organisations, e.g. the World Bank, the European Union,
The International Red Cross, etc. Renos spoke at the session on ‘Internal
Displacement’ and specifically on ‘Long-Term Measures and Cooperation
Mechanisms’ where he presented his approach to consultancies in this field.
March 2012
Frank Rohricht and Renos Papadopoulos were
in Cyprus (Frank from 26 March to 6 April and Renos from 23 March to 6 April)
and together they were involved in the following:
- In connection with the planning of the Cyprus National
Health Service scheme, they met with two senior officials of the
Ministry of Health, the director of mental health services ( Dr
Y. Kalakoutas) and the director of the psychological services
(Dr K Kyranides).
- They participated in the meetings to develop the Health
Policy document of the Cyprus Think Tank ‘Thucydides’ ; Renos is
a founding member and Frank is an external consultant to this
Think Tank.
- 3. Both were invited by to join the International Advisory
Board of the ‘Cyprus Health Journal’
Frank was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of
Nicosia and on 29 March gave his inaugural lecture at the new
Medical School of the same University.
Renos was also involved with the following activities:
- He followed up the training he offered for the UNHCR on
working with survivors of torture; the feedback has been
extremely positive and further activities were considered
- He consulted to Kalliopi Kampanella a senior officer of the
Office of Commissioner of Administration (Ombudsman) of the
Republic of Cyprus and a member of the Cyprus committee assigned
to lead the implementation of the long-awaited ‘Common European
Asylum System’ (CEAS). Cyprus is due to take over the rotating
presidency of the European Union (between 1 July and 31 December
2012) and, inter alia, it is planned to implement CEAS.
- Was appointed consultant for psychosocial issues to the
Eastern Orthodox Christian Church in Africa. More specifically,
he met with the Head of the Orthodox Church in Africa (the
Patriarch of Alexandria who was visiting Cyprus, at the time)
and the permanent representative of the same Patriarchate in
Cyprus and planned future activities in Africa in the field of
psychosocial assistance.
Aaron Balick took part in the special three-hour show on Radio 1
on Sunday night dedicated to discussing and answering questions
about all aspects of sexuality.
On Wednesday 7 March, Renos Papadopoulos offered
consultation/training/supervision to the Refugee Council at their headquarters
in Brixton. The meeting was intended for the members of the Therapeutic Team
(led by Angelina Jalonen) but was also attended by two of our students who are
doing their placements at the Refugee Council. These were Wendy Griffin (a
student of the MA in Refugee Care) and Dena Alinejad (a PhD student). One of the
issues discussed was the use of ASPIS (the instrument developed by the EVASP
project) to monitor and evaluate their services, as it is also done by the
'Freedom from Torture'.
Aaron Balick recently presented a paper discussion "The
Hidden Adaptive Potentials of Seemingly Pathological States." at the
International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Conference (IARPP).
February 2012
Between 16 and 19 February. Renos Papadopoulos was in Milan,
as a guest of ’Terrenueove’ a specialist organisation (social cooperative) that
works with refugees and organises training courses. During his visit, Renos
offered a training event under the title 'Working with refugees: trauma,
resilience and adversity-activated development'; he was the speaker at a public
event sponsored by the Municipality of Milan, and offered consultation to the ‘Terrenuove’
staff team of psychotherapists.
The training event was part of the ’Terrenueove’ course ‘Displaced persons
and refugees: reception and therapeutic relationships in the country of asylum’
and was attended by 18 professionals from various disciplines working with
refugees and migrants in various services in many parts of Italy. The public
event (entitled "Dilemmas in working with Refugees: a psychosocial perspective")
was ‘Terrenuove’s’ annual public lecture and was held in the hall of the Civic
Aquarium in the centre of Milan.
The lecture was preceded by an account by Dr.Giancarla Boreatti (the chief
officer responsible for the Social Services department for Refugees and
Immigrants of the Comune di Milano) about the approach and activities of her
department. Access to the lecture was by advance application and the number of
applications far exceeded the 130 seats available. The audience (who were
professionals and other workers with refugees and migrants from northern Italy
as well as members of the public) were given a list of Renos’ publications in
Italian as well as copies of four of his recent published articles.
On 9 February, Renos Papadopoulos had another of his
periodic half-day meetings with 10 senior staff of the 'Freedom from Torture' (FFT,
previously 'Medical Foundation for the Treatment of Victims of Torture') at
their London headquarters as part of his regular consultation to them. More
specifically, FFT have been using ASPIS, the instrument Renos developed (in the
EVASP project), as a way of monitoring their work and he assists them in
adapting it to address increasingly more facets of their work, e.g. with
families and groups.
On 8 February Renos Papadopoulos offered a seminar on
'Psychosocial dimensions of Human Rights' to the Masters students of Human
Rights on the campus. About fifty students attended and there was a very
engaging discussion about the relevance of this perspective to the theory and
practice of Human Rights.
On 2 February, Renos Papadopoulos gave a half-day training workshop on 'Working
with Involuntarily Dislocated Persons; issues of diversity and cultural
competence' at 'The Place To Be' in London, to trainee school-counsellors who
already work with children who experience a wide variety of emotional and other
psychosocial difficulties
January 2012
Between 26-27 January Renos Papadopoulos was an invited speaker
at the Second National Conference of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy. The
Conference, held in Dublin Castle, was opened by the Irish President Mr Michael
D Higgins who, quite unexpectedly, praised Renos’ work mentioning him by name
twice during his brief opening address. Renos gave a lecture ('Trauma and
beyond: a psychosocial approach to Resilience and Adversity-Activated
Development') and a workshop ('Varieties of therapeutic inputs; using
therapeutic principles in extraordinary contexts'). The reception was extremely
positive and several services and organisations extended invitations to him to
offer specialist training for them. The conference was attended by 170
psychotherapists from all Irish counties and from abroad. In addition, and
independently from the Conference, Renos met with Theodora Suter, the Chief of
Mission of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Ireland to
finalise the plans for a two-day training module for Assisted Voluntary Return
and Reintegration (AVRR), that Renos was invited to offer to IOM staff in
Ireland later in the year.
Between 14 and 15 January, Renos Papadopoulos
was in Italy where he was invited by ‘EtnA’ (Etnopsigologia Analitica) to offer
training to its members and in particular to 35 mental health professionals from
the Puglia region that work with asylum seekers and refugees. The training was
attended by over 60 professionals and it was held at the offices of AIPA (L'Associazione
Italiana di Psicologia Analitica) in Rome.
Between 2 and 13 January, Renos Papadopoulos
was in South Africa. During his visit he worked in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha,
the African Townships near Cape Town, on the Nontsikelelo Arts Project mainly
consulting to Ntombi Magantsela, the project director, and Evgenia Sofianos, a
senior consultant to the project.
In addition, he gave two lectures and had two
relevant meetings: on 5 January he gave a public lecture on ‘Psychology and
Orthodoxy: complementary or contradictory?’; the lecture was attended by over 60
mental health and other professionals as well as members of religious
organisations and of the general public.
On 11 January he gave a presentation on
‘Working with phenomena of unipolar archetypal manifestations in “traditional”
and “non-traditional” settings’ at the Jung Centre in Cape Town that was
organised by the South African Association of Jungian Analysts; the presentation
was attended by a dozen Jungian analysts who are interested in developing
expertise in working with these types of phenomena.
On 11 January, he had a
meeting with clinical psychologists involved in the training of clinical
psychologists both at the University of Cape Town (Dr Debbie Kaminer and Dr
Anastasia Maw) and the University of Western Cape (Dr Umesh Bawa) and explored
together possibilities of collaborating with CTAR in community projects that
would combine training components.
On 13 January, Renos met with Miranda Madikane (director) and Daniele Boccalon (Welfare manager) of the Scalabrini
Centre in Cape Town that offers a wide range of services to refugees, including
trauma counselling and discussed possibilities of collaboration. Finally, Renos
reconnected with Robyn Rowe, an alumna of the ‘MA in Refugee Care’ who is now
the ‘Trauma and Healing Coordinator’ of the CWD (Catholic Welfare and
Development) an organisation that (among other services) runs the only refugee
shelter in Cape Town. Robyn is interested in continuing with her studies at our
University doing a PhD based on the work she does with refugees in South Africa.