Therapy
Therapy at the Athenian Institute of Anthropos follows the Systemic – Dialectic Approach, upon which the operation of the Institute is based.
This approach is a Multi-level and Multi-focal intervention Model. The aim of therapeutic intervention is not only to relieve the symptom that the “identified patient” presents, ie the person for whom the family initially asks help for but mainly to reorganize the inter-family process, in order to promote the advancement of the family as a whole. The proposed treatment is a synthetic work of individual therapeutic procedures, on which family members are invited to join . Group therapy and family sessions held at regular intervals, to complete the overall therapeutic process.
Individual Therapy
Individual systemic therapy aims at “painting” dysfunctional relationships within the framework of individual lives (i.e. family, relationship, work) and not to detect troubled individuals. It does not underestimate in this way, the linear relationships among the “pathogenic” causes related to the specific individual-“patient”, but it integrates them through a more complete acknowledgment of the framework of two-way interplay within which the above mentioned relationships develop.
Group Therapy
In the framework of the therapeutic group, an atmosphere of trust and reciprocity is being evolved, a fact that allows the members of the group to develop an open and sincere communication among them, entering emotionally into each other shoes. In this way, group members realize their cognitive and emotional processes and as a result they acquire greater self-awareness which in turn helps them define and pursuit the fulfillment of their personal goals, as well as, most importantly, they learn to act under their own initiative, based on behavior types that promote their intrapersonal relationships inside and outside the group.
Couples Therapy
By creating an atmosphere of trust and affinity, the couple cultivate among themselves open and honest communication, emotionally putting themselves in the other persons’ shoes. In this way the couple become aware of their own cognitive and emotional processes, acquire more self-knowledge that helps them to define and pursue the fulfillment of their relationship. Most importantly they learn to act on their own initiative, based on behaviors that promote their interpersonal relationships within and outside .
Family Therapy
Family therapy constitutes AIA’s cornerstone, since family, in all the forms it acquires nowadays, is considered the primary social group in which each and every one of us ensures his survival and his development. The family therapist sees family as a system and his interventions focus on interpersonal relationships and not on an individual situation. His/her target is to abolish the advancement of the family as a whole and, in order to accomplish this, he/she does not operate as a mere observer, but, after securing his/her boundaries, he/she actively participates in this interpersonal process.
Couples Group Therapy
By creating an atmosphere of trust and affinity, the couple cultivate among themselves open and honest communication, emotionally putting themselves in the other persons’ shoes. In this way the couple become aware of their own cognitive and emotional processes, acquire more self-knowledge that helps them to define and pursue the fulfillment of their relationship. Most importantly they learn to act on their own initiative, based on behaviors that promote their interpersonal relationships within and outside .
AIA’s Child Psychiatric Team
AIA’s Child Psychiatric Team deals with the promotion of the health of families, who seek help due to psychological or psychiatric disorders of their children, in which the “referred as patient” is a child (or adolescent). It is composed of mental health specialists (child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, special educators, speech therapists, occupational therapists), who, in addition to their common training in the systemic approach, specializing in the various dimensions of child psychiatric disorders. The operation of the team is supervised by the director of the Athenian Institute of Anthropos, Child Psychiatrist, Mr. Petros Polychronis.
The diagnostic assessment and the overall therapeutic process, applied by the child psychiatric team, are based on dialectical-systemic epistemology, which is the basic principle of the operation of AIA. The therapeutic approach is multilevel and multifocal, with the main axes being family and group psychotherapy, experiential seminars, as well as the animation groups of children and adolescents.
