Published: October 2022

Keywords:
Meaning, Process, Group, Synchronicity, Community harmony, Self-Regulation, Authenticity, Multilevel Intervention, Long-Lasting, Commitment, Networks, Change, Emergence, Co-Evolution, Transitions, Innovation, Grief, depression, Dialogue, Cultural change.

Mina Polemi-Todoulou

Mina Polemi-Todoulou, PhD, CGP, ECP, psychologist, systemic family and group therapist and organization consultant; Associate of the Athenian Institute of Anthropos (AIA) since 1976, member of its Scientific Council of senior trainers, therapists and supervisors. She has taught psychology and systemic epistemology at higher education institutions and trained professionals at home and abroad. She works therapeutically with individuals, groups, couples and families and offers group supervision for mental health, prevention and educational institutions. Her research addresses issues of child development, families and the wider socialization environment. Her training and interventions focus on the use of group process in dealing with crisis and in promoting cooperative human relations in institutions and communities, developing methodologies for appreciative communication, group forming and positive social-emotional climate. In a nation-wide teacher training program of the Ministry of Education, she designed and coordinated the section on promoting functional relations among school community members as the basic axis for enhancing learning. Her texts on the use of group process for training are widely used. She has contributed to the development of the systemic professional community, involved in the founding and running of Scientific Societies in Greece and Europe (EFTA, HELASYTH), having served as President of ETHOS-Hellenic Federation for Systemic and Family Therapy.

Giannis Panagopoulos

Giannis Panagopoulos is a psychotherapist and adult educator. He has studied physiotherapy and he has been employed as a physiotherapist for 7 years. He has attained extensive training at the Systemic Approach to the Athenian Institute of Anthropos (AKMA), where he is now an associate. He has worked and collaborated in various commercial contexts (e.g., TNTSkypak, PlayMobil, ELPEN, SEB, NOVARTIS, VOLVO etc.), educational organizations (ALBA, OPA/ASOEE, KEK Municipality of Athens, etc.) and many schools. He works as a psychotherapist on a private basis and in collaboration with the Association for the Social Support of Youth – ARSIS, where since 2016 he has been the Coordinator of a Family Shelter for migrants. In addition, he collaborates with Syn-eirmos Social Solidarity NGO – Babel as a supervisor and MHPSS (Mental Health and PsychoSocial Support) counsellor for staff working for various organizations & NGOs in the context of the migration crisis (e.g., Solidarity Now, IOM, UNICEF). For more than 15 years he has been in various activities, excursions and multi-day camps for children and adolescents as part of his voluntary contribution to the Hellenic Scout Corps.

Abstract

Personal meaning is born within the relationships, in an ongoing multidirectional dialogue, at many different levels of the environment we are part of.

The characteristics of the relationships, the continuous reverberations, the time, place and the particular context define each time the specific subset or “bundle” of concepts that will be encouraged to emerge as a compass in this search.

Accordingly, in this interview on the subject of Meaning of Life, in the interaction between two colleagues of different generations, we experienced the emergence of a specific and unique constellation of concepts relevant to such processes of human development as: Synchronicity and Harmony, Self-Regulation Authenticity, Belongingness, Long-Lasting quality, Reception of Change, Emergence, Co-Evolution, Transitions, Commitment and Networks, Initiative and Action.