On the feast of the Holy Spirit, on June 9, 2025, the workshop series of our center’s Continuing Education program on the topic “The Existential Hypostasis of the Therapist”, which began in Athens, was completed in the island of Sifnos.

A workshop series, a cycle of experience dedicated to the development, care and exploration of the existential hypostasis of the therapist.

Through this cycle, the concepts of intersubjectivity, intentionality, experience and its complexity, otherness and inter-human encounter were explored in depth. The concept of the phenomenal field, as the horizon of all possible forms, was also explored, as was the concept of the phenomenological field, as the place where phenomena emerge and experience is shaped. Finally, the necessary and essential qualities of interpersonal contact were explored, such as emotional attunement, resonance and optimal response, presence, inclusion and affirmation, and how they contribute to the “here and now” of the “future becoming” (now-for-next) through the encounter with otherness.

All of the above qualities indicate the relational, field process of Gestalt therapy that is necessary in cultivating the ground, so that the emergence of self and other and the understanding of the organization of experience, as well as the exploration of the developmental-relational needs that arise in the field, are made possible.

Emphasis was also placed on the hermeneutic process as a process of existential meaning-making of experience.

The workshop in Sifnos was hosted at the Fyrogia Monastery, which also served as the starting point for the journeys on the paths. Through the body, movement, narration, dialogue, personal and supervisory work all participants walked the paths of stone… connected with white… with blue…

The coordination of the workshops of the program was carried out by Despina Balliou, Dimitra Chantziara, Elena Antoniou, Konstantina Gkioni and Kostas Michaelides.

Upon completion of the program, all participants expressed their enthusiasm and satisfaction for the completeness and scientific methodology and theory with which all the above topics were approached and covered.

Despina Balliou, M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, Psychotherapist, Gestalt Trainer & Supervisor, holder of ECP (European Certificate of Psychotherapy).

Dimitra Chantziara, B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, certified Psychotherapist, Supervisor

Elena Antoniou, Psychologist, BSc (University of La Verne), MSc Counseling Psychology (University of Hull). Gestalt Psychotherapist and Supervisor

Konstantina Gkioni, Psychologist (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), M.Sc. Mental Health (Academic University of Athens), Gestalt Psychotherapist & Supervisor

Kostas Michaelides, He is a graduate of TEESSIDE COLLEGE, Counseling and Psychological Science. He is a Gestalt psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor