Calliope

Tina Lygdopoulou from Greece, she attended seminar Europe Matters-Europe Works in Štúrovo, Slovakia, told us that Popi is shorter, popular name of Calliope one of the 9 muses. It is interesting to find roots of names to history, mythology, ... So, who is Calliope?

She was daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for the Iliad and the Odyssey.

She had two sons, Orpheus and Linus by either Apollo or the king Oeagrus, of Thrace. She was the oldest and wisest of the Muses, as well as the most assertive. She was the Muse of eloquence and epic or heroic poetry. Her name 'Calliope' means "beautiful voice". She was the judge in the argument over Adonis between Aphrodite and Persephone, giving each equal time with him. She was represented by a stylus and wax tablets.

She is always seen with a writing tablet in her hand. At times, she is depicted as carrying a roll of paper or a book or as wearing a gold crown.

Here we are :)

So here we are, the phase II students from Slovakia :)

Sarah Kašáková








Sylvia Ondrisová




 





Boris Sopko - I finished my study of psychology in 1996, I wrote thesis about Qualitative Analyses of Dreams of Blind Children. Since 1995 till 2006 I was very involved in the field of Mental Health. Since 2007 I am building my private therapeutic practice. Originaly I grew up in the very East of Slovakia - little city Humenné, now I am living in Senec, and one of my strongest resources is the little garden;)

Slávka Takáčová - After finishing my psychology studies at the
university with a final project on gender-based violence in 1997, I worked as a psychologist in a hospital at the psychiatry ward for adults. There I was mainly providing individual therapy for all kinds of people coming and seeking support, and doing diagnostics too. For the last two years, I have been on maternity leave with my 1.5 year-old son Samuel :) and this is my world and teaching at present. I like arts (also traditional ones) and I am interested in alternative ways of life and ecology. :)

 

Brigit Trimajová

POPI-Slovakia now

The Process Oriented Psychology Institute (POPI), an instituton, that organizes and coordinates the education in processoriented psychotherapy, counseling and facilitation (in short processwork) in Slovakia and Czech republic, is one of the accredited training institutes of the Slovak Psychotherapeutic Society (SPS). After more than 12 years of existence it is becoming more and more visible and known among professionals. This year the Slovak Psychotherapeutic Society with its training institutes became the only organization trough which professionals can get the license for psychotherapy work in Slovakia and created common rules and specifications for psychotherapeutic trainings. SPS is also the member of the European Psychotherapy Association, so the graduates of its training institutes can apply for the European psychotherapy certificate.
One of the most important visions of the organization is to start organize Diploma trainings in processoriented psychotherapy. We hope that the first will start 2010 / 2011 after some of our phase II students get their Diploma and can teach and with support from teachers from abroad. Important is, that the (preliminary) structure of the PW training is already accredited by SPS and the Slovak Ministry of Health- we have now only to discuss it with IAPOP, because there are specific Slovak conditions, so that it will be acknowledged also as an PW Diploma training .

Our Teachers

Since 1990 many teachers from abroad came to Slovakia. I already wrote about Ivan Verny and Miro Roth, who brought process work to Slovakia. Ivan Verny is the most important person for our community since the beginning till today. During the training and few years after the training our basic teachers except Ivan were: Jean Claude Audergon, Arlene Audergon and Lane Arye. During training came also some other teachers here: Annie Morgan, Ursi Jean, Michal Wertheimer. Since 1990 till today were many Diplomates which kept coming to Slovakia, some of them came once, some of them many times. (It is quite difficult to remember all of them. If you know anybody who is not apreciated here and belongs here, please write us.) Diplomates whome we do remember are: Adam Zwig, Salome Schwartz, Sebastian Elssaesser, Marianne Verny, Reini Hauser, Barbara Zust, Alexandra Vassiliou, Lena Aslanidou, Leslie Mones. Their interest in our country and comunity helps us very much in moving further, especially in fulfiling our dream - to become an independent training center accepted by the international process work community. Our deep apreciation belongs to everybody with whom we got to contact and especially to Ivan Verny, Jean-Claude Audergon, Arlene Audergon, Lane Arye, Reini Hauser, Alexandra Vassiliou, Lena Aslanidou, Barbara Zust.

New organizational team

In May 2007, Andrea Sváková and Katka Labašová joined our team of organizers. We decided to divide our roles in the directory and created an organizational part, which will focus mainly on organizing events and running the organization and the experts part (phase II students- Brigit, Sylvia, Boris and Sarah) which is focused more on finishing studies, giving support and lectures and promoting by various projects and events PW in Slovakia and Czech republic :

Here is the new organizational part of our team:

Andrej Jeleník

Katka Labašová

Andrea Sváková

Quo vadis POPI-S?

Thomas Diener came to facilitate processes inside of organization and I think, this seminar was very crucial for our future. We as a organization decided to change our direction. We decided to become an umbrella organization. It was big shift for us. Instead of fulfilling only wishes and dreams of people in PW community, we decided to create space and support for ideas, but not to realize them only by ourselves. People from the organizational team were in that time all also phase II students and had not enough energy to keep the organization and study at the same time. This decision freed a lot of energy for us. After many years of depression we started to feel energized :)) We also realized that the shortest way to organize a new training here in Slovakia is first to finish our phase II studies and then with support from teachers from abroad we can realize it. So since that time we go for it very strongly. The following are few photos of sculptures representing POPI-Slovakia :

Processing

Many years we seemed as an organization stucked. It was very hard especially for people from the organization team. In that time the team changed completely except Sylvia. So we were: Andrea Vanyová, Brigita Trimajová, Boris Sopko, Keša Mrkvicová, Martina Fedorová, Slávka Takáčová and Sylvia Ondrisová. We felt criticized and we also criticized people which we perceived as our critics. We processed very much our relationships, it took a lot of energy and time. All of us were also phase II students. It was difficult to follow the study, because we were very focused on relationships. After few years of processing some people left and we worked together as: Brigita Trimajová, Boris Sopko, Keša Mrkvicová, Sarah Kašáková, Slávka Takáčová and Sylvia Ondrisová. There was also phase II student Magda Panáková, but she is not studing in the moment, we do not have much connection with her. In that time we believed in our dream to organize a new long term training in PW here in Slovakia. After processing it with teachers from RSPOPUK, Zurich and Greece during 2005 we were in a really big crisis. We saw the training as the only and best way how to support pw community, how to revitalize it. But it did not work. Around this time joined us also Andrej Jeleník. The strongest edge during last years was to take the role of the leader of organization. Nobody wanted to become the head. We decided to organize a seminar out of Bratislava focused on the further direction of POPI-Slovakia and PW in this region. Few months later we processed the role of the director and we asked Tao for help (spinning a pen helped us) and the new head of organization became Andrej Jeleník.

Years after

After finishing the training POPI-Slovakia kept organizing seminars, most of them were focused on specific fields and supervision. POPI-Slovakia kept going, but with time it started to be difficult. People from organizing team started to feel burn out and we were thinking more and more about our next direction. But in the same time we gave also birth to our journal Kanál (Channel) , which lived for 2 years. The organizing team grew from 3 up to 7 people - Anty Heretik, Anty Hugo Heretik, Mária Andrášiová, Zlata Šramová, Eva Vohlídková, Pavel Vohlídka, Sylvia Ondrisová, Keša Mrkvicová (see photos). They worked together for several years. Some people from training were interested in passing the phase I exams and they found support for the idea in teachers from training program. I think since that time we became a sister organization to RSPOPUK. In 2002 13 people passed phase I exams in Slovakia. Our examiners were Arlene Audergon and Annie Morgan from RSPOPUK. And probably around that time the organizing team has changed very much. It was connected probably with crises in the organization - relationship crises and also crises about fulfilling our dreams.

Anty Heretik


Anty Hugo Heretik


Mária Andrášiová


Zlata Šramová

Eva Vodlídková


Pavel Vohlídka


Sylvia Ondrisová

Keša Mrkvicová

Training

After organizing many open seminars, in 1995 POPI-Slovakia organized the 3 years training program in process work. The training was focused on training pw skills and metaskills needed or helpful while working with individuals, relationships and groups. Organizing the training was an important step for POPI-Slovakia. POPI-Slovakia since that time became a member of the Slovak psychotherapeutic association (SPS) and is a member till today. The training created for Slovak conditions and fully accredited by SPS was focused mainly for professionals, but some students were people from other professions (IT technologies). After finishing some participants became official psychotherapists. Teachers in training were Jean-Claude Audergon, Arlene Audergon, Ivan Verny and Lane Arye. During the training some more Diplomates came once or few times - Ursi Jean, Annie Morgan, Michal Wertheimer. We were 40 students, around 38 students finished training by exams. Our favourite place, where the training took place was Modra - Harmonia.

Here are some photos from that times :)

JC

Arlene & Anty

Ivan

from left: Eva Vohlídková (translator), Arlene, JC, Lane, Anty Hugo & Jano Šebík

Lane Arye

Worldwork

In 1994 POPI-Slovakia - official organizer of process work seminars in Slovakia, organized with the help and support of a team of people from Portland, USA the Worldwork in Slovakia - Stupava. Many professionals from Slovakia and Czech republic participated. Among them were lot of students. For some of us it was the first experience with process work. And it was also a very clever decision from organizers as a preparing ground here in Slovakia for a long term project - the 3 years training program in POP, which started one year later - in 1995.

Here are some photos of some of us from that time:) :

from left: Sylvia, Andrea, Arny, Boris and Miro


from left: Brigita, Miro, Maja (in the middle), Sylvia, Slávka, Anty Hugo, Boris

Organizational team

For many years the core of the organizational team was:

Anty Heretik (1992)


Mária Andrášiová a Anty Hugo Heretik (1992)

Beginnings

Within 2 years (1990 - 1992) Anty Heretik sr., his son Anty Hugo Heretik, Maria Andrašiová and other people organized 10 process work seminars. Ivan Verny and Miro Roth had also an lecture at the Czechoslovak psychotherapeutic conference and received great feedback. In 1992 Anty Heretik translated Arny´s book Working with the Dreambody into Slovak language. Next year appeared the first translation of Arny´s book Dreambody in Czech language. Czech and Slovak languages are very close.

Beginning

All that started with the change of political situation in Czechoslovakia in 1989. Our country after many years being locked opened widely in that time. Among many new informations, possibilities and new people coming to our country were 2 psychotherapists - Ivan Verny and Miro Roth, who came to Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia). Both are Slovaks but living for many years in Switzerland. They came 1990 and offered their knowledge to professionals and students in Czechoslovakia. First they came to visit the Department of Psychology at the Comenius University in Bratislava and there they "randomly" met Anty Heretik. And this meeting is probably the unofficial start of process work in Slovakia.