STAVROPOL REGIONAL PSYCHOANALYTIC ASSOCIATION

ACTIVITY REPORT
“CHRISTMAS-TIDE MEETINGS - 2001”
(“SVIATKY”)

Dear friends and colleagues!
Every time we set about writing a report on our festival, we face the difficulties of the most distinct nature: it’s hard to be unbiased towards our dearly loved creation. We want to share with you the whole variety of feelings and impressions which are connected both with preparation of “Sviatky ”-festival during the year, and with those which the four crazy days of the festival leave behind. We feel like addressing to those  who have visited “Sviatky”: well, you understand…; and to those ones who haven’t: just come and live it through with us, because “Sviatky” is a little life.

Vladimir Tsapov (Saint-Petersburg Psychoanalytical Group, candidate of International Psychoanalytical Association, St. Petersburg): I always don’t like many things in “Sviatky”-festival. But I know a great number of professional non-profit organizations in Russia, and I don’t know any of them living real life. All of them have legal life, all of them are busy with something , but this is the only organization , the one which organizes this festival which I may say about that it lives. I love to live, not to simulate something, that’s why I come here, and I hope that this will last for a long time.

But there are objective results of “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001”, and as this is still an official report, we’ll begin with them.

The seventh festival of practical psychology and psychotherapy “Sviatky” have been taking place from the seventh till the eleventh of January in Yessentuky in a comfortable and hospitable sanatorium  “Ukraina”. This time the quantity of participants and guests has amounted to 73 persons, who had arrived from different parts of the country. The program included 11 workshops, 3 group supervisions, 4 theoretical reports, a seminar, 2 discussion groups concerning psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic education, 2 large groups, a community meeting, 2 hours of professional groups’ presentations, and besides that evening entertaining events. As a result, 8 of 11 official nominations of the festival found their prize-winners.

These are just numbers, and they can’t give a true if any notion of  the main - the uniqueness of  “Sviatky”. It’s different every time and it’s changing and developing from year to year. We can say once again: “This “Sviatky” surprised us”.

Even at the first stage of preparation for the 7-th festival it became abundantly clear that the organizational committee should have been increased, as three or even four “really wilds” couldn’t cope with the whole amount of work connected with organizing the event. This year we were six: Alexey Koryoukin (managed the whole process, as usually), Ekaterina Loskoutova (ran the paper work, as usually), Denis Sevryougin (was busy with spreading of information-advertising production of  “Sviatky”), Ivan Korolevsky (computers, booklet preparation, etc.), Alexander Shilkin (arranged entertainment), Natalia Zviagintseva (contacts with the mass media). Unfortunately, the two of our colleagues engaged into this work  had to stop it because of valid reasons. It’s a pity, because even taking into consideration that the organization committee was twice as bigger as in the previous year, we were  acutely shorthanded all the time.

We are grateful to all those who helped us and who ran special jobs (for example, a web-master Leyla Svekolnikova and an accountant Anastasia Goncharova), and technical works (our dearly loved volunteers). We can’t help mentioning here regional representatives of the committee. Now it’s hard to imagine that “Sviatky” has been doing without organizational assistance of people “in the provinces” before.

It’s still harder to believe that organizing of the first festival took a little more than a week. Now everybody who is going to be involved into organizing of “Sviatky” realizes that at least half a year of intense work lies ahead. The work which begins with long-run planning, distribution of duties and discussions of conceptual problems. The work that doesn’t stop neither with the opening of the festival, nor with it’s official close. The work that is not simple, that consumes much time and energy, but which brings satisfaction undoubtedly.

Alexander Shilkin (Stavropol Regional Psychoanalytic Association, Stavropol): It’s not the first time I’m here. But it’s the first time I perform myself as an organizational committee representative. It was interesting to look and  try what it is, not just to criticize the organizers. Now I know it from experience. Everything is O’K. It’s even better than one could expect.

It’s remarkable that everybody involved into organizing of “Sviatky-2001” still have will, fervor and ideas for running the next “Sviatky”-festival, and we know now that there are many people willing to join this activity.

Nevertheless, the experience provided by “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001” shows us that the work for organizing of the festival not only have to become more intense, but it’s quality also should be changed. We feel that “Sviatky” has matured considerably. The festival’s age and its popularity make its area that enormous that one can easily go astray in this diversity. Though we’ve provided participants abundantly with the opportunities to choose and determine their interests and priorities by themselves, we still have failed to provide enough support for the festival’s spirit which integrates the whole diversity of events and gives everybody a feeling of belonging to the united festival community that has already been living for seven years.

Sergey Ivanov (Member of the SRPA Working Group, Stavropol; Chairman of the Jury of the festival “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001”): For some reason many people have an impression that  this “Sviatky” was less festive than the previous ones. Perhaps, that was not accidentally. And right now the best wits are working already on how to make more of this festive mood. /…/. Though in any case, “Sviatky” are still “Sviatky”. I’m ready to discuss how it should be arranged, but whether it should exist or not,-- this is not a question for me.

So, how was the “Sviatky” carried out and what was going on there?

In the first place, the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001” was provided by exceptionally comfortable living conditions. We’d like to thank once more the head physician of the sanatorium “Ukraina” Nickolay Ivanovich Bocharnikov for all sorts of support and for the opportunity to carry out the festival in such a beautiful place. We are glad that the participants not only enjoyed workshops and the other festival events, but were also pleasantly surprised by high-quality service and modern interiors. All that gave the festival some bourgeois flavor.

Vladimir Tsapov (Saint-Petersburg Psychoanalytical Group, candidate of International Psychoanalytical Association, St. Petersburg ): My impressions of the “Sviatky” are very good. I’d like to emphasize two things: first is that the “Sviatky” has attained to the living conditions which makes it just a pleasure to live here, and the second, as it always happens on the “Sviatky”, and this time too,--loyalty of some participants to this activity really strikes me.

Our colleagues from Voronezh, Novgorod, Petersburg, Novocherkassk, Rostov-na-Donu, towns of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region and from some other towns of the Stavropol region arrived to the “Sviatky”. Unfortunately, though our foreign colleagues had been showing great interest to the “Sviatky”-festival, they failed to get there.
If our Internet site ( http://sviatky.narod.ru ) is supposed to be a part of the festival’s space than it’s worth saying that more than 500 persons from more than 40 cities of Russia (from Moscow to Uzjno-Sakhalinsk), and from more than 20 countries (from Ukraine to South Africa) have visited it.

Representatives of the following professional organizations attended the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001”: Stavropol Regional Psychoanalytical Association; Non-profit organization of psychologists and social workers “Anima” (Rostov region); Association of Development of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (Stavropol); European Association of Transaction Analysis; European Association of Psychotherapy, All-Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League; Association of Training and Psychotherapy (St. Petersburg); Voronezj Psychoanalytical Group; Non-profit organization “North-west Gestalt Center”    (St. Petersburg); the “South-Russian Gestalt Center” (Rostov-on-Don); Saint-Petersburg Psychoanalytical Group; International Psychoanalytical Association (a candidate).

Four days representative and mixed society of  the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001” were living a saturated, sleepless and restless life and we were being taken away by the vortex of events. The Devil made the Jury to swear on the Freud’s book. There were even a little more new faces than usually at “Sviatky”-festival. In the intervals between the  events we had to move about almost at a run. In the evening we gathered in the hall and began singing and drinking tea. Motions from room to room  didn’t ceased far after midnight. Three workshops simultaneously—that was a difficult choice. “Funeral” mood of the big group… oceans of information…what was going on there at last and how to form a correct estimate of it, - those were the typical questions at the community meeting. The Jury made its choice. Dancing. What really mattered was to say and to do something important that one hadn’t managed to, and not to forget to exchange addresses with each other.

Elena Petrova (Association of Training and Psychotherapy, St. Petersburg): Yesterday I watched a moon eclipse for the first time in my life. That was very symbolical, because I used to read about it in my childhood and tried to watch it several times, and there was a real moon ellipse here which could be seen from the balcony. It was night, Petersburg was icy, dark and cold then, while here was a real holiday. For me the “Sviatky” may be symbolized with this, because this is something unusual, something that overlaps the border. /…/ All that turned out to be a very good combination of professional work and individual recreation.

Everything is possible at “Sviatky”-festival and everyone chose what was close to his/her heart from the whole variety of possibilities. Someone tried to use every minute for communication with one’s old friends, someone was looking for the new ones. Someone attended workshops, the others attended discussion groups and supervisions only. Someone went in for one’s own experience and inner life analysis bravely, while some participants showed steadfast attention for a conductor’s work.

Larisa Priceman (Stavropol): I’ve liked “Sviatky”. I felt myself comfortable enough here. There were several situations connected with workshops when I discovered for myself something unknown in me. I consider this to be important.

Different schools and trends of psychotherapy were represented at the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001” and the program was as fully as never. The participants had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with how professionals in the sphere of transact analysis, gestalt-, art-, and bodily oriented therapy work, to attend workshops or to listen to the theoretical reports of  psychoanalytically oriented experts.

At the “Sviatky-2001” the following workshops were presented:
•    “The Script of Life and its Producers”, V. Gusakovsky (St. Petersburg)
•    “A Gloomy Morning”, D. Sevryougin (Stavropol)
•    “Try to Lay a Finger on Me and You’ll See What Will Happen!”, M. Kamarzayeva (Stavropol)
•    “Art-therapy and Psychosynthesis Methods for the Work with Posttraumatic Distress”, G. Zamshina (Novocherkassk)
•    “Gestalt on the Edge of Mystery: What the Children’s Frightening Stories are for”, E. Petrova (St. Petersburg)
•    “Maps of Dreams and Imaginations”, E. Romanova (Voronezh)
•    “Once upon a Time There Was Me or We Shall Play a Fairy Tale”, A. Gorshkova (Stavropol)
•    “The Journey Back and Forth”, V. Berezuyeva, N. Zviagintseva (Stavropol)
•    “A Principle of a Spermatozoon”, E. Zubtsova (Zhleznovodsk)
•    “Authentic Motion”, G. Nestsrenko (St. Petersburg)
•    “A Pasture for the Son”, E. Yesina (Nevinnomysk)

and besides, the following theoretical reports:
•    “The Notes of the Young Psychologist ( A Year of My Work in the Children’s Polyclinics)”, E. Toporova (St. Petersburg)
•    “How Should Non-profit Professional Organization of Psychoanalytical Orientation in a Post-totalitarian Society be Operated?”, A. Koryoukin (Stavropol)
•    “Gestalt and Folklore”, E. Petrova (St. Petersburg)
•    “The PTSD of the Patients infected with AIDS”, M. Antonov (Stavropol)

and discussion groups:
•    “A Native Among the Strangers, a Stranger Among the Natives “, A. Sklizkov (St. Petersburg)
•    “Psychoanalytical Education Outside the Sadovoye Koltso”, V. Tsapov (St. Petersburg).

The Jury consisting of S. Ivanov – Chairman (SRPA, Stavropol), an honorary visitor of the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001” V. Tsapov (SPPG, St. Petersburg), a member of the Supervisors’ Council of SRPA M. Chmikhova (SRPA, Stavropol), and E. Koryoukina appointed according to the decision of the participants of the festival were sworn in and they approached to performing their duties with full responsibility. Resting on judgements of the participants of the “Sviatky” and after long discussions the Jury made its verdict and determined the prize-winners of the festival “Christmas-tide Meetings-2001”. The winners received laureate badges, diplomas and prizes of the festival. This year exclusive ceramic figures of Baba-Yaga (charming “Oscars” of the “Sviatky”) were presented.

Those ones who have received their Baba-Yagas are:
* Denis Sevryougin (SRPA, Stavropol) for The Best Workshop of the “ChM-2001”. By numerous accounts, “A Gloomy Morning” was a real success.
* Yevgenia Toporova (St. Petersburg) for The Best Debut of the “ChM-2001”. In contradiction to the  conventional practice of recognizing one of creative workshops as being the best debut, this year the nomination was won by a theoretical report for its affective charge and skill.
* Vladimir Tsapov (SPPG, St. Petersburg) as The Most Demanded Supervisor of the “ChM-2001”. Vladimir has enjoyed great popularity, as he is famous for being an outstanding expert and as he kindly agreed to carry out charge-free individual supervisions for the participants of the “Sviatky-2001” during the festival.
* Konstantin Vdovydchenko (Inozemtsevo) as The Best Client of “ChM-2001”. Konstantin is a person who could use the community meeting for solving his personal problems.
* Elena Petrova (the “North-West Gestalt Center”, St. Petersburg) as The Healthiest Person “ChM-2001”. In spite of taking part in the “Sviatky” for the first time, she managed to join festival life successfully which she demonstrated at the community meeting.
* Elena Aryamkina (Moscow) for The Best Practical Joke of the “ChM-2001”. Elena is the first person in the “Sviatky” history who has become its laureate without being present at the festival. Elena “played a joke” on the organizational committee mainly: although she paid her participation, guest fee for her husband, and reserved a fine de luxe room in the sanatorium (for this reason, we expected her to get a title of the Wealthiest Person of the “Sviatky-2001”), but she never showed up. We found it out in the first day of the festival only, that Elena’s intentions had changed, when being anxious with her absence we contacted her on the telephone. As a result we had no alternative but to place the organizational committee office in Elena’s room. The working conditions were exceptionally comfortable, so now and then we recalled her gratefully. We hope that next time Elena will come and we’ll have an opportunity to thank her personally for this experience which made us understand what accommodations are necessary for effective work of the organizational committee during “Sviatky”-festival.
* Irina Kondratenko (Donskoe) as The Wealthiest Person of the “ChM-2001”. As usually, a prize in the nomination The Wealthiest Person of the “ChM-2001”  was the only and unique sounding-lead of the “Sviatky” auction. Irina strove for and won it, thereby she made her financial contribution into arranging of the “Christmas-tide Meetings-2002”.
* Mikhail Antonov (Stavropol), Elena Zubtsova (Zjelezjnovodsk) as Sex-Symbols of the “ChM-2001”. What can be said about them? The most charming and attractive…
* Anna Skliskova has been presented by the challenge teapot as a Lamer of  “Chm-2001”

The Jury didn’t defined winners in such nominations as “The Best Discussion Group”, “The Best Team of “Sviatky”-festival”, and “The Scum of “Sviatky”. On the other hand, some participants were awarded by incentive prizes. The Devil (Alexander Shilkin), Baba-Yaga (Natalia Zviagintseva) and Solokha (Marina Kamarzaeva) were given prizes for creating festive atmosphere. Anna Gorshkova was awarded for a specialized workshop for children who arrived at the festival. Andrew Sklizkov was awarded for having covered the longest way in order to reach the festival and besides, for having brought many brave ones around (by the way, we consider this idea to be rather interesting, and maybe the list of nominations will be refilled with one more: the “Rabid Dog”, because according to one of Russian proverbs, it doesn’t matter for a rabid dog whether to go seven versts round or to take a short-cut). Besides that, this year the participants of the festival were very active and proposed their prizes and competitions.

The time of the festival slipped by, and as usually there were a sensation that the festival should be exactly one day as longer. But unfortunately,  the holiday can’t last eternally, and we had to go back to our homes, work and everyday life. Everybody parted unwillingly with each other. We derive consolation only from being sure that after a year those experts concerned with expansion of professional contacts and exchanging experience will get together and the festival of psychotherapy and practical psychology “Christmas-tide Meetings” will be opened solemnly in order to make us understand: we are able to resist the drab routine.

Elena Djola (Novocherkassk): It’s so pleasant to see everybody and to be here. /…/ Thanks to everybody, many thanks to the organizers for this festival. It gives the charge of emotions and memories for such a long period of time that , you know, the life goes from the “Sviatky” to the next “Sviatky”, and so on and so forth… I hope that this will last for a very-very long.

Thanks to everybody who spent these four days with us and who made their contribution into the festival so that it could be held.

See you next year!

THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY FESTIVAL “CHRISTMAS-TIDE MEETINGS-2001” THANKS FOR THE RENDERED HELP AND SUPPORT:
•    North-Caucasian Social Institute and its rector personally – E.N.Shiyanov, doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor, Honored teacher of the high school of Russian Federation, laureate of the RF Government premium in the sphere of education.
•    OAS Stavropol distillery “Strizjament”.
•    “Yessentukskie electrosety” and its director Gordienko Nikolay Ivanovich personally.
•    ANO “North-Caucasian Resource Center”.
•    Broadcasting station “Moscow’s Echo”.

And also:
Andrey Anatolievich Sklizkov, Elena Mitrofanovna Romanova, Elena Nikolaevna Zubtsova, Irina Nikolaevna Borisova, Irina Alexeevna Arkhangelskaia, Tatiana Burmistrova, Tatiana Fedorovna Yesina, Elena Anatolievna Djola, Jorge Eduardo Bustos, Svein Ingeman Haugsgerd, Igor Anatolievich Bylim, Vladimir Alexandrovich Tsapov, Konstantin Vdovichenko, Nikolay Cheremisov, Andrey Parstin, Alexey Ognev, Sergey Zaytsev, Galina Mikhaylovna Karpenko, Larisa Nikolayevna Devisheva, Leyla Girikhanovna Svekolnikova, Ludmila Vasilievna Tarabikina, Anna Zotova, Marina Anatolievna Undina, Leonid Markovich Kroll, Galina Viktorovna Moskotinnia, Sergey Viktorovich Bobryshev, Catherine Pechurichko, Roman Nikolaievich Spichukov, Vadim Balaginin, Janna Vladimirovna Blagininana, Svetlana Mikhailovna Bratsikhina, Anna Nikolayevna Gorshkova, Marina Viktorovna Isayeva, Ulia Stadnitskaya, Natalia Pesotskaya, Catherine Mikheeva, Catherine Shevchenko, Oxana Tatarenko.