Page 206 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 6
P. 206
Symposium
Stefania Botez
EMCAPP Symposium
Rome, October, 2014
Being attracted by the EMCAPP activity which eming intervention of the divine Parakletos in
we discovered by reading the e-Journals they his practice.
publish, we wanted to get to know closer the
people involved and their work. Thus, we par- In a manner typical of American practical sen-
ticipated in the 13th EMCAPP Symposium se, Shannon Wolf (USA) presented the seminar
which this year was held in Rome, Italy. entitled: “Exploring Professional Therapists’
Worldviews through the Lens of Christian Psy-
The goals of our participation (otherwise achie- chology”. She stressed the importance of axio-
ved) were to meet specialists in Christian psy- logy in psychology. She also analyzed whether
chology to better understand the perspective of the tools and the naturalist model can interfere
this movement as well as to build relationships with the Christian approach. In the dynamic
for future collaborations. of her approach, in order not to slide into ar-
bitrary syncretism, Shannon underlined how
The specific atmosphere of well known Rome - important it is to relate to the holistic-biblical
the place where art, history and culture blend perspective as a reference framework.
together in a perpetual dance - lent the sympo-
sium some of the color of its rhythm- a sym- Elena Strigo (Russia) through the seminar
biosis of communion, information sharing, “Spiritual Components of Mental Suffering”
good practice and philosophy, great mood and facilitated a deep sensitive approach to men-
reflection, experiencing and conceptualization. tal suffering. In a very elaborate presentation,
With international participation from Germa- Elena illustrated the meanings of the spiritual
ny, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, USA, component in the dynamic of psychic suffering.
Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and Romania the sym- This is often meant to ‘penetrate’ the shield of
posium encompassed four days of fruitful semi- the human mindset, opening horizons to man’s
nars and discussions. spiritual, eternal dimension.
There were various topics and great speakers Trevor Griffith (Great Britain) stimulated the
that impressed us a lot by their professionalism participants’ interest (most of them being
and deep thinking. Here are some great speakers practitioners in psychology, anthropology and
who touched our heart and raised our interest: Christian psychotherapy) with his seminar “
Wolfram Soldan (Germany) with the seminar Speaking Life: Bringing order out of emotional
“The Christian psychological model of sexuali- chaos during times of change”. Trevor proposed
ty - a basic for therapy”. This lecture highlighted a theory and a model of therapeutic interven-
the idea of knowledge, deep sharing through tion. His approach blended notions from neu-
the analogy between intimacy and spirituality. rosciences and holistic-biblical psychotherapy,
The opportunity of knowing one another, a ge- shaping a method that promises a cognitive-
nuine and fulfilling relationship transcends and emotional restructuring. Through educational-
embodies the timeless perspective of God-man therapeutic techniques, the client is empowered
communion. to appropriately handle his emotions, impulses
and behavior, later being able to offer support to
In his seminar “Clients with schizophrenia: pa- people in similar situations.
storal and psychological experience of work”
Andrey Lorgus (Russia) made reference to his The seminars were followed up by thematic
own practice. We admired his dedication and workshops and useful discussions. We enjoy-
openness to capturing and facilitating the rede- ed an atmosphere of truly collegiate spirit,
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