The document discusses the founding and mission of the Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee of EAGT. It begins by noting major global human crises like 9/11 and the refugee crisis that interrupted awareness and disconnected people. The committee was founded in 2004 in response to these events to promote social responsibility in Gestalt therapy training and practice. Its activities have included supporting organizations working in conflict areas and promoting inclusion of human rights issues in training standards. The document argues that Gestalt therapy has always had social and political dimensions and the committee works to renew this focus. It then discusses establishing a local Greek committee to support needs in society through organized voluntary work.

1. Are We Prepared When Safety
Collapses?
Human Rights and Social Responsibility
Committee EAGT
Thessaloniki 2016
Guus Klaren
Gestalt therapist, supervisor,
trainer, prior president of Dutch NOGT
Till 2016 Chair of HR&SR EAGT
Joanna Kato
Gestalt therapist, supervisor, trainer
Chair of HR&SR EAGT

2. Kiew 2016
Eduardo Salvador
Joanna Kato
Dieter Bongers
Nurith Levi
Michela Gecele
Peter Schulthess Ivana
Vidakovic
Guus Klaren

3. Major global human crisis and challenges
• The euphoria over the fall of Berlin Wall the world
changed dramatically after 9/11
• The global world as battle ground of identities: race,
religion, sexuality, place of birth….deprevating human
dignity
• Fear of diversity
• Not being connected but excluded
• ‘The major dillema in the world is learning how to manage differences
and influence the environment for social welbeing’
• (Joseph Melnick and Edwin C.Nevis in ‘Mending the world’Social Healing Interventions
by Gestalt Practitioners Worldwide)

4. Major changes in Greek society

Globalization

Economic crisis, unemployment

Refugee crisis
What are the consequences we observe as therapists?
How did the changes affect our life and work?

5. Dialogue with participants
Where were you when the planes flew into the Twin
Towers at 9/11? How did you react?
The last big earthquake in Athens in 1999? and the
fire in 2012? Do you remember where you were? What
was your reaction?
Living in a country in a county that is in crisis…..
What is your reaction? What is your reaction when
you hear economic crisis? Refugee crises?

6. Human reactions to traumatic events and crisis
Interruptions in awareness………
Disconnected
Desoriented
Foggy
Absent
Desensitezed
Immobilized
Denial of reality
….
…as the most available reaction to survive in a dramatic
situation .

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

8. Mission
of Human Rights and Social Responsibility Committee
A renewed accent on cultural, social and political demensions of field theory
•To explore the interface between Gestalt
Psychotherapy and the cultural, social and political
context
•Specific references to Human Rights and Social
Engagement
•To promote implementing Human Rights and Social
Responsibility in training curriculum and daily practice
•To be actively involved in healing process in
traumatized communities, organisations and societies
where human rights are curtialed

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

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

11. Human rights and social responsibility in
Gestalt Therapy Training
“… any Gestalt psychotherapy
training program need to
incorporate and underline
social, cultural, political and
ecological awareness in its
curriculum”, EAGT, AGM
Krakov 2013

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

13. Ukraine :
Working with Crisis , loss and
traumatization, train the trainers
program
Peace Brigades
International:
Supporting PBI volunteers with
free Skype sessions and personal
accompaniment for returnees
Supporting PBI volunteer trainings
Training standards and
training practice
– social responsibility of the
therapist
Support Local Initiatives
Greece, The Netherlands,
Germany, Italy, Norway
Greece
Supporting Babel Center workers and
volunteers /workshops & lectures/
Supporting volunteers on Lesvos
island /skype sessions/

14. HR&SR Committee work: a manifestation of
contemporary developments in Gestalt theory and
practice
• Reclaim political roots and values
• Shift focus from the individual to society
• Shift focus from individual freedom to autonomy in
relation
• Figure and ground
• Renewal of the Field Theory – Gestalt Therapy as the
therapy of the situation
The true aim of Gestalt Therapy is to create
healthy citizens and nourishing communities
(Paul Goodman)

15. Other issues
• Each of us is a political subject and we cannot
forget it even inside the therapeutic room.
•Awareness about this issue is to be developed
more and more in accordance with our roots, our
theory, our practice.
•As psychotherapists /we/ cannot be fully present
at the contact boundary unless we experience the
social/cultural ground from which the relational
figure comes from.

16. Responsibility for the self inevitably includes
responsibility for the others who share our world.
No self can be separated from its environment.
Having empathethy and taking care for the
vulnerable persons we are caring for parts of our
self, regaining our own power and autonomy in
response/able connection to the world.
(Clarkson &Cavicchia, 2014)
Social Responsibility

17. Why are we actively engaged in HR&SRc?

18. What is Voluntary Work?
Voluntary means – done, made or given willingly, without being
forced or paid to do it
The noun volunteer, in 1600, "one who offers himself for military
service," from the middle French voluntaire
Since industrial revolution the term ‘work’ was reduced to ‘paid’
work. Forms of unpaid work moved to the background.
The word volunteering has more recent usage - community
service
Revival of voluntary work in the 20th
century
forms of self-organisation centred around an actual social
problem.
The importance of an organized and professional voluntary
work / with clear boundaries, goals, safety, support/

19. Τι είναι ο Εθελοντισμός;
θελοντήςἐ , από το ρήμα θέλωἐ - επιθυμώ,
κάποιος που προσφέρει τις υπηρεσίες του
Η προσφορά αυτή είναι η ενσυνείδητη, βασίζεται στην
ιδέα της ανθρώπινης αλληλοβοήθειας.

20. Voluntary work as a response to society needs
• As Gestalt therapists and citizens we are also
responsible for the environment
• Voluntary work as ‘the ability to respond’ society
needs
• A Gestalt association as ground to provide well
organized professional support in a liquid society
where the support of the other is devaluated
• A ‘safe haven’ for professionals and those who need
our support is ground building
• To be ready when safety collapses
Don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country (J.F.Kennedy inaugural speech 1961)

21. Think Global Act Local
A local Greek committee? Why join?
What are the needs of the local society?
How it will work?
What do I gain?

22. What could a HR&SR Committee do
Here in Greece Today?
What people are already doing?
Support groups for unemployed
Support for
Offering voluntary counseling or even therapy

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

24. Η Gestalt είναι κάτι περισσότερο
από μια ψυχοθεραπευτική
προσέγγιση
L. Perls :“Η ψυχοθεραπεία είναι και ένα πολιτικό έργο. Όταν εργάζεσαι με
ανθρώπινα όντα και έρχεσαι στο σημείο, που αρχίζουν να σκέφτονται
ανεξάρτητα - είναι πολιτικό έργο και έχει αντίκτυπο στην κοινωνία, ακόμη και
αν μπορούμε να δουλεύουμε μόνο με ένα μικρό αριθμό ατόμων” (Schulthes
P. quote from Μ. Parlett , 1999)
 Δουλεύοντας στην ψυχοθεραπεία δουλεύουμε με ανθρώπινο πόνο (σε ατομικό
και σε κοινωνικό επίπεδο)

25. Vision for the Future of HR&SR
“It takes effort from the privileged ones as well as
from the weak ones in order for social change to happen.
It needs the powerful to regain the responsibility for
their prejudices, guilt, anger and rejection of the self”.
“The trick for those who want to be agents of social
change is to find the change side in many people, from
many walks of life and all social classes, and to bind
together in common purpose all who want to move
forward a new world of equality”.
P. Lichtenberg