Workshops in Turkey for Greek Cypriot psychologist

THE RESULTS of efforts to tackle domestic violence in Cyprus have raised interest in Greece and Turkey, resulting in one therapist being invited to train colleagues from both countries.

Andreas Orphanides, a psychologist specialised in marriage, family and sex therapy, is an associate of the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family.

For the last four years, Orphanides has been working with the association on implementing the US programme called ‘Love without Hurt’ in Cyprus.

Orphanides was keen to work on the programme and adapt it to the needs of Cyprus after noticing that services were provided to the women survivors of violence, but nothing on the male perpetrators.

“We don’t use the terms victim because we consider you are labelling someone as being victimised, whereas a survivor survives the violence,” he said.

The programme is geared towards both the survivor and the perpetrator.

“It’s not anger management. It has to do with changing perceptions so we don’t wind up feeling angry or abused, neither the survivor nor the perpetrator. It’s about waking up people to a feeling of compassion for oneself and others,” he said.

“When you understand, you don’t get angry. If you don’t understand, you end up blaming that person for the way you feel.”

The programme was implemented on a pilot basis in 2007 with “great results” and subsequently repeated for another three years. “It helps reduce violence and anxiety, and increases self-esteem,” explained Orphanides.

“We entered a European project along with Spain, Bulgaria and Finland. We implemented the same programme in the Cyprus prison. I have to say we had the best results,” he said.

The programme was going so well it attracted the interest of psychologists, and even ministries in Greece and Turkey.

This year the programme is not being run in Cyprus because Orphanides and the association are focusing on training other trainers to expand it across Cyprus and Greece, which has shown much interest.

The Greek Justice Ministry has expressed interest in implementing it in Greek prisons, after hearing about the programme during Orphanides’ presentation of his work in Brussels.

In the same way, Dassana centre in Istanbul heard about his work through the Council of Europe and recently invited him to spend ten days there, conducting workshops on the domsetic violence programme.

“They were very enthused about what was going on. While I was there, a Council of Europe press conference on domestic violence was going on and the statistics in Turkey are very high,” he said.

During his stay in Turkey, he also had the chance to see people privately, where he established a great need for the programme. “All of them had been sexually abused from childhood,” he said.

The association is now working with the Dassana centre to organise the training of 200 psychologists in Istanbul while Orphanides heard that the chief of police of a nearby city, some three hours drive away, also heard about his work and wants him to go train his people there.

via Workshops in Turkey for Greek Cypriot psychologist – Cyprus Mail.