Atrapos.eu » Reading

Anglo-Saxons and ID development

atrapos — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:53:18 +0000

Something that seems to emerge in my PhD research is that many British (or Anglo-Saxon) people i dialogue with in research interveiws and elsewhere appear to have a difficulty in holding into awareness issues related to cultural identity etc. I compare that with my own case where, coming from Greece, a culture thathas been masively invaded and as a result our cultural identity has been repetitively attached and under threat, issues of cultural identity maybe (just maybe) come out more easily and accesible in our process (althouh, still, many of my Greek fellows appear also to be ’sleepy’ or ignoranmt about this whole area, vaccilating from extreme nationalistic views to total dismiss of heritage or anything relevant in the name of being ‘european’ = good enough). This is a very controversial issue. (more…)

Implications of PhD for counsellor training (reading Lynch, 2002)

atrapos — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:36:41 +0000

One of the motivators of conducting this research has been to gain some insight around the ‘fit; of transferability of counsellor training from one country to another, given that many counsellors who train abroad may be returning to their homeland, sometimes to be pioneers in counsellor training at their original culture, especially if counselling in the original culture is a new filed (like in my case, Greece). The question is that there must be a need for considering the fit between host and original cultural context. For example, (more…)

Reading Storti (The Art of Crossing Cultures, 2001- the Art of Coming Home, 2003)

atrapos — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:43:20 +0000

Today I have been reading those books by Storti which i have read before, but this time i was more ‘detecting’for interesting quotes that i could possibly use for my presentations. I am working on the review panel presentation and am still not entirely sure how to structure it. I have already prepared a few slides but I need to make a decision on the style of my presentation. The time limit is quite a strain, ho much to say and include in just 15 minutes that does enough justice to the topic. (more…)

Reading “Reflexivity” (by Finlay & Gough, 2003)

atrapos — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:55:21 +0000

I have been reading this excellent book: Finlay, L. & Gough, B. (2003) Reflexivity: a practical guide for Researchers in Health and Social Sciences. Oxford: Blackwell. As the authors state this book is about how to do reflexivity in practice.The concept and application of reflexivity is a central theme in my research journey given that i could be one of the research participants myself and wanting to be transparent and open towards the meaning making process taking place during the whole process. Before i return the book to the library, i want to record a few quotes that am sure will enrich my future writings: (more…)

Grounding (earth, culture, ecopsychology, Jung etc)

atrapos — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:28:58 +0000

After having spent much time with reading, writing, agonising over research dilemmas (in conjunction with many dilemmas and conflicts in my personal life, deeply related to the process of finding peace with my ‘roots’ and working towards integrating my host and original cultures within) i felt the urgent desire to connect with nature and be nurtutred by it. I went for a walk with JP at a park and after walking around in the greek, feeding ducks etc, we lay down on the soil. I so much needed to feel the sun on my skin and be connected to the Earth…is there something around the need for grounding? (i somehow see this as very necessary for anybody in a heuristic research journey, as it appears quite demanding for the person).

This makes me think about what we call Ecopsychology and i guess that since location and space,place, ground are concepts deeply connected with the topic of culture, this area doesnt seem at all irrelevant. (more…)

Reading ‘counselling/therapy texts’ in my mother tongue

atrapos — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:18:27 +0000

As I am preparing for the ‘cross-cultural workshop’ to be delivered in Athens, I am reading counselling/therapy texts (books, articles etc) in my mother tongue. I observe this not to be that easy since my counselling identity is formulated via the english language, I have been practising in english since the beginning of my training and i have been exposed to related written material in english etc for so long. As i read the text in greek, i find myself trying to translate the counselling terminology in english so that i can make some sense…this is emotionally confusing I shall say, to some extent, in ways that I am not totally aware of or that i can explain. It feels as if I am Greek as a person (although even that is blurred because my person-hood is deeply influenced by the english culture…I could describe myself more as bi-cultural and bi-lingual) and I am English as a counsellor/professional. The question that inevitably emerges here is how to sit comfortably with those two (or even more, am sure) aspects of the self in a Whole, in a self that feels united and integrated…what is the me in me really? I think that this question involves quite a process at an unconscious level. I am just posing this question to the Universe for now and let it rest and maybe reveal its nature as time and self-inquiry unfolds…

The Culture of Therapy (or ‘therapy culture’ book)

atrapos — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:55:43 +0000

Interesting book to look at by Frank Furedi:

BOOK:

Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (by Frank Furedi)
Frank Furedi is professor of sociology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is also, perhaps, the nation’s best known sociologist, partly as a result of popular books such as Therapy Culture, which has been extensively reviewed in the national press.Frank Furedi is professor of sociology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is also, perhaps, the nation’s best known sociologist, partly as a result of popular books such as Therapy Culture, which has been extensively reviewed in the national press.
In Therapy Culture he argues that the language and sentiment of psychotherapy have now spread outside the confines of the clinic, widely infecting society at large. As a result emotional vulnerability has become the defining feature of people’s psychology, leading to a “unique sense of powerlessness.” Furedi questions the widely accepted thesis that psychotherapy as an ideology represents an enlightened shift towards emotions. But is it really the case that people didn’t feel powerless before? (more…)

RESILIENCE from a cross-cultral perspective (reading on Prof. Gunnestad)

atrapos — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:05:42 +0000

What an excellent and inspiring article i discovered! It is so helpful both for my writing of the Book chapter around integration of original and host cultures and for the PhD literature review…as i was reading about resilience, i found that this is actually a positive concept i could focus on, sth that will give more positive flow and flavour to the project, beyond the trauma and pain involved in the experiences of ‘cultural shock’, losing sense of at-homeness, non-belonging etc. There are also some interesting reflections on the metaphor of the tortoise (also mentioned by P. Laungani). The tortoise is able to live, function and survive in two cultures: earth and water…will work on that when writing the book chapter. Here is the link of the interesting article by the norwegian Professor: Gunnestad’s article on Cross-cultural Resilience

Reading on Narrative Inquiry

atrapos — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:12:22 +0000

Today I have been having many ’stories’ in my head around how many of my autobiographical STORIES may be affecting the research process. This is something I have discussed with WW during a supervision session in the past and it also came up as a theme on a number of occassions recently, one when attending Kim Etherigton’s workshop in November and another when talking with Sophia B. in Crete about her own PhD. I think it would be helpful if I did some reading on this topic. A good start would be the following books: (more…)

Multiculturalism and the ‘Transpersonal’

atrapos — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 23:00:14 +0000

I was asked to teach a session on TRANSPERSONAL APPROACHES TO COUNSELLING for the MA students on Tuesday, 6th February…how great, I love this topic!. I will present a powerpoint presentation with my beloved Jung, Wilber, Assagioli etc. Am also looking forward to the contributions from the group and their feedback.

As I was doing some reading around transpersonal theories earlier today, I saw that cross-cultural psychology has been, from its origins, multicultural and as Davis, J. (2003, An overview of transpersonal psychology. Humanistic Psychologist, 31 (2-3), 6-21. [Special edition on Transpersonal Psychology. Guest editors: Harris Friedman and Douglas Macdonald. ) highlights:

“transpersonal psychology requires us to challenge our culturally-defined views of mental health and psychotherapy and to draw cross-cultural insights into its practices and applications”. (more…)

(Cultural) Identity Development Models

atrapos — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:12:24 +0000

The construct of IDENTITY inevitably plays a prominent role when we talk about cross-cultural work. I know (tacit knowledge) from my personal experience of living between (or within) two cultures (referring to ‘countries’) that my identity (not only cultural) has been affected in a number of ways, something difficult to put into words. As a Greek, growing up at the far East corner of Europe – with a Cypriot father – I ‘carry’ features of both East and West…and yet I was trained as a therapist in a very western (UK) environment and have been living in it for a few years now. Although, my country is a member of EU, politically governed by ‘democracy’ etc, we are yet a nation that has been historically repeatedly invaded until recent years…and dominated by nations with whom we presently seem to have ‘equal’ rights, according to EU standards…the boundaries of dynamics of power become kind of blurred at this point. When thinking about all this, C. Lago (2006, Identity Development and its role in Therapy) sent me this excellent paper where he critically reflects on identity development models and challenges therapists in considering the following: (more…)

“Power” within Counselling/Psychotherapy

atrapos — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 21:39:18 +0000

Reflecting on my own cultural background and the observations I made around relationship dynamics in the different cultural environments I have been exposed to, I became very aware of the role of the use of ‘power’, especially when acknowledging the existence of ‘dominant’ and ‘dominated’ cultures, and how such tendencies inevitably come into play in the counselling room. And, although those involved in delivering psychological/support services are in a ‘caring’ role, I think it is of paramount importance to remember Contenuto’s saying, not to encourage fear towards one’s role but to cultivate the necessary humility within those ‘helping’ roles. (more…)