5th European Congress of Existential Psychotherapy
ISTANBUL | MAY 24–25, 2024
Building Bridges
We Exist Because we Connect, and we Connect to Exist
The 5th European Congress of Existential Psychotherapy, held on May 24–25, 2024, in Istanbul, concluded with great success. Seeking existential pathways that create shared bridges, a large group of existential psychotherapists — including trainers, students, and many alumni of Gignesthai — participated actively over two days in the Congress themed “Building Bridges”, organized by the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe (FETE). Highlighting some of the presentations: on Friday, May 24, 2024, Katerina Zymni-Georgalou, Ph.D., ECP, spoke about bridges between existential and systemic approaches; Eugenia Georganta, Psy.D., ECP, explored the dialectic of the self with others; and Anna Kourti, Post-M.A., M.Sc., B.A., addressed the concept of bridging and the journey from the tragicomic aspects of existence to the therapeutic encounter and back.
Building bridges was not only the Congress theme but perhaps also a metaphor for existence itself. The presentations and workshops were filled with concepts of connection, relationship, human contact, and responsiveness. Bridges connect peoples, individuals, and nations; here, we gathered in a city where East meets West. Bridges also exist within us — some we build day by day, while others we struggle to dismantle in order to construct new, more stable ones.
By building bridges, representing the coexistence of the old and the new, the past and the future, the sea and the land, the nostalgic and the contemporary in Istanbul, and maintaining open dialogue with numerous existential themes, all participants demonstrated, in their unique ways, how bridges can unite, seeking a common existential path in the human journey and experience. In the challenging times the world faces today, they explored existential psychotherapy through the unifying power that bridges symbolize.
