Karni Ishai
Meeting the other within ourselves
At present, we live in a changing world, where the migration of nations is bringing about a confrontation between cultures and is destabilizing the former equilibrium. The gaps between the different values, beliefs and cultures are emerging now from under the surface.
This confrontation embodies the essence of the encounter with the "otherness" outside of us, yet, within us.The xenophobic expression of this encounter - a hatred of strangers or foreigners,is presently growing in the Western world. This expression is actually a kind of personal and collective dissociation that projects its own shadow parts on other ethnic groups. Therefore, a transformative and rehabilitating opportunity lies precisely, in redirecting this projection, towards ourselves.
This workshop invites us to meet the "other" who is out there outside of us, through encountering "the otherness" in us.
The workshop will be carried out in a safe and containing framework, and by means of both a personal process and an interpersonal encounter. Through these, we will expose the built-in tension and the mutual relations between these 'othernesses'.
Also, we will give up the 'rational' that characterizes western thinking,in favor of returning to the body, our natural home inside of us,which is the source of the profound knowledge of ourselves as Jung phrased it "The body is the primal symbol of human experience".
We will materialize this by means of the 'Active Imagination' and its expressions through the body and the movement, as reflectors and navigators of the personal and collective psyche, as one.
We will further broaden and deepen the experience through additional channels (amplification) such as drawing, drama and intuitive writing.These creative channels will enable,on the one hand, the direct and incisive observation of ourselves as being strangers or 'others'unto ourselves, and on the other,the creation of a space for empathy and acceptance of who we are, with both,our 'light' and 'shadow'parts inside us.
Nina Kanevskaia
Bringing back connection with the body while working with trauma.
This workshop can be as self-depended workshop and a continuation of the paper suggested above as well.
Loss of grounding is one of the criteria of dissociation from the body and of fact that traumatic experience took place and/or is being constellated. On workshop it will be offered to participants to get the experience of such body-felt phenomenon like grounding, to investigate existing connections in the body as a way to work with dissociation from the body.
Since traumatic experience of the patient can awake intense somatic countertransference, this can become an effective tool for an analyst himself/herself to bring back connection with his/her own body.
Another part of workshop will be devoted to process of investigation the polarities, seeking the transitional space between them. This experience invites participants to embody and to facilitate the possibility for transcendental function to be activated.
In atmosphere of playful movement and dance there will be opportunities to see how joy and interest can create a «container» transformation is possible to occur.