European Association for Gestalt Therapy

HR&SR COMMITTEE

Mission, vision and plan of activities HR&SR Committee EAGT.

 

• Introduction.
With the installation of the Human Rights And Social Responsibility Committee at the EAGT Conference in Prague 2003 we stepped back in the footsteps of our founders. In their opinion Gestalt therapy was not only psychotherapy but also a way of taken responsibility in our society.
In recent decades the psychological concept of Gestalt therapy has dominated. In today’s fragmented world manifests the need to restore human connections among people, communities, organisations and worldwide among nations.
Gestalt therapists are faced with individual suffering of people. Individual suffering is also an expression of suffering of the world and pathology of the world.
A consequence of our field theory, the ongoing exchange organism-environment is that we also have a job to do on social, ecological, cultural and political level.

 

• Mission.
The mission of the HR&SR Committee in general is to contribute to the improvement of mental health, quality of life and psychological growth and specific for vulnerable societies, groups and communities to strengthen their capacities for the adjustment to the rapidly changing society.
Our focus is to strengthen self organisation and self responsibility of societies and to empower them with necessary skills.

 

• Vision.
The HR&SR Committee wants to contribute to the European Society and other places where EAGT is active, where human rights are curtailed and (vulnerable) groups need support in the restoration of human connections.

 

• Aims.
The HR&SR Committee aims to establish and promote good practice in work with (vulnerable) groups, to advocate in front of stakeholders and decision makers. The Committee plans actions in direct work with (vulnerable) groups or indirect through training, supervision and (team) coaching with people working with them. The committee also plan actions to influence Training Institutes to include social, political and cultural items in their programs.

 

• Action plan.
For the next three years (2011-2013) the Committee is committed:
To strengthen the cooperation with Peace Brigades International and to support this organisation and its volunteers in all phases of voluntary work.
To find entries in the Palestinian society to contribute in resolving the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
To organize a conference ‘social, political and cultural relationships as therapy’s grounds’ in Venice in October 2011 and to advice Gestalt Training Institutes about including social, political and (inter)cultural matters in European Training Programs.
To study and build a database how Gestalt Practitioners include social, political and cultural matters in their professional or voluntary work and to encourage potential writers to contribute to an edition of a Gestalt book about this issue.
To create an EAGT emotional support network for emergency crisis situations in the world and to offer this network and our expertise to international organisations like the EU Commission of Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection.

 

• Partnership with Peace Brigades International.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is an international grassroots NGO that has promoted non-violence and protected human rights since 1981. PBI’s international volunteers accompany threatened human rights defenders upon request. They are backed up by an international support network. The objective of PBI's presence is to protect the political space of human rights defenders and other civil society activists that suffer repression for their non-violent work in favour of human rights, peace, and social justice. PBI volunteers are currently placed in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Nepal ( www.peacebrigades.org  ).
PBI and HR&SR Committee of the EAGT discussed the aims and objectives of both organisations and the services needed for PBI. PBI has developed minimum standards for providing emotional support for volunteers in the different phases of voluntary work: preparation, field work and reintegration in their own situation. EAGT and her members offer additional support to PBI volunteers on a voluntary basis. PBI volunteers have access to mental health professionals from EAGT during and after their engagement with PBI. EAGT also offers other forms of support such as training of buddies or the possibility of coaching teams in the field.

 

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