The Self-Help Promotion Program will participate in the 19th Panhellenic Congress of Psychological Research, which will take place in Ioannina 7-11 May 2025.
The participation of the project concerns the organization of a symposium entitled: The use of the principles of Community Psychology in the prevention and treatment of addictions and other psychosocial problems.
The symposium will take place on Sunday 11/5 at 12.30.
Title of the Symposium
The use of the principles of Community Psychology in the prevention and treatment of addictions and other psychosocial problems.
Organizer: Sotiris Lainas, Psychologist, MSc, PhD – Self-Help Promotion Program , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Hellenic Open University
The large increase in the indicators of contemporary psychosocial problems, many of which are also characterised as major public health problems, intensifies the debate on how to deal with them effectively. In the international debate on the creation of effective and sustainable psychosocial interventions for the prevention and treatment of these problems, a distinctive position is held by the current of Community Psychology. In the last decade, Community Psychology, having adopted more critical approaches, is, according to some theorists, returning to the radical assumptions that defined the field in the first place and can play an important role in addressing contemporary psychosocial problems. One of the key features of the renewed current of Community Psychology, beyond its critical epistemological and scientific approach to contemporary psychosocial problems, is the development of a meaningful and ongoing dialogue with other disciplines beyond psychology.
The present symposium attempts to contribute to the above problematic with four contributions concerning the theoretical background and examples of applications of the renewed currents of Community Psychology. The first contribution attempts to link the contemporary critical currents of Community Psychology with the current of Liberation Psychology at the level of theory and implemented interventions. The second contribution concerns an action research that utilizes intervention art in order to promote community development and strengthen community values in a community with particular socio-economic conditions. The third submission presents a study of self-help/mutual help groups in the field of addictions in the light of gender studies and the impact of the prevalence of androcentric perspectives on the community climate within the groups. The fourth contribution concerns a critical review of the literature on the phenomenon of behavioural addictions. It discusses the role of Community Psychology in the prevention and treatment of these phenomena, as well as its contribution to the development of effective policies to curb them.
1st contribution: Enriching psychosocial interventions with the principles of Community Psychology and Liberation Psychology
Presenters: Valentina Dimitriadou, Psychologist, MSc – Self-Help Promotion Program , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Katerina Surlatzi, Psychologist, MSc – Self-Help Promotion Program , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The dominant epistemology in the field of mental health, while recognizing that the individual is not an entity separate from its social world, insists on designing interventions that follow an individual-centred direction, intervening unilaterally in the affected individual. According to the current of Community Psychology and Liberation Psychology as expressed by Martin-Baro, in the above contradiction lies the main failure of mainstream psychology, which attributes to the individual characteristics that are in fact rooted in our social relations. Drawing on the principles of Community Psychology and Liberation Psychology, this paper will focus on the individual-community dialectic and the ways in which psychosocial interventions in the field of addictions and other psychosocial issues can be enriched. By highlighting the concepts of community reconstruction, empowerment, citizen participation, critical awareness of the socio-political and cultural context and power relations, this paper will seek to lay some theoretical foundations and open a dialogue around a community and critically oriented design of psychosocial interventions.
2nd contribution: Interventionist art and community empowerment: a living example from Havana
Rapporteur: Ersi Roumelioti, Educator, MSc – Self-Help Promotion Programme, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
This research examines the role of intervention art in solving community problems and strengthening community values in a Havana neighborhood under Cuba’s specific socio-economic conditions, such as the embargo and the health crisis due to COVID-19. The research focuses on the implementation of artistic interventions that aim to empower the community and promote critical consciousness, based on Freire’s theory. The research highlights the importance of community activation, collaboration and mutual understanding of social problems through art. The method of interventionist art is used as a tool to enhance community values of justice, equality and solidarity, focusing on the creation of collective artistic actions that emerge through interaction with residents. Art offers residents the opportunity to identify the problems that affect them and find collective solutions, strengthening social cohesion and solidarity at critical times. By combining the socio-historical context of Cuba with the concept of critical awareness, this research seeks to offer an example of the application of interventionist art that can help prevent and address psychosocial problems, while enhancing community participation and action.
3rd contribution: Approaching Narcomaniac Anonymous self-help/mutual help groups in the light of gender perspectives.
Presenters: Sotiris Lainas, Psychologist, MSc, PhD – Self-Help Promotion Program , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Hellenic Open University, Manolis Halepoudis, Psychologist, MSc – Self-Help Promotion Programme , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The gender studies approach to the phenomenon of addiction has developed over the last decade, contributing to a deeper understanding of the causes of the phenomenon. This research, which is part of a broader ongoing research on self-help/mutual help groups in the field of addictions in Greece, addresses this area. More specifically, it attempts to investigate Narcomaniac Anonymous groups in the light of gender perspectives and in particular in the light of theories of hegemonic masculinity. The research was based on a qualitative methodology with interviews with 21 members of Narcotics Anonymous groups in Greece. According to the findings, the prevalence of an androcentric culture in the groups leads women and members of the LGBTQ+ community to face difficulties of equal participation and a number of concomitant problems. At the same time, as highlighted by the findings, groups have built-in mechanisms for dealing with similar phenomena. Of particular importance according to the research is the recovery process of the members of a self-help/mutual help group, as it determines the climate created within the groups. The findings of the research are discussed in terms of the principles of Community Psychology for self-help/mutual-help groups and alternative perspectives and practices are proposed for both the groups themselves and for professional interventions that harness the potential of these groups.
4th contribution: The contribution of Community Psychology to the interpretation and treatment of behavioural addictions.
Presenter: Sotiris Lainas, Psychologist, MSc, PhD – Self-Help Promotion Program , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Hellenic Open University
Behavioural addictions, with problematic relationships with online gambling, online games, but also phenomena such as excessive online involvement with pornography, social networks, excessive physical activity, excessive consumption, constitute a serious psychosocial problem, which is becoming a public health problem. In this context, an important debate has developed in the field of addictions on the causes and ways of dealing with the phenomenon. Community Psychology can contribute to the debate on both the interpretation and ways of dealing with behavioural addictions.
This paper, which is based on a critical review of the international literature on these issues, combined with the field’s experience of working in the Self-Help Promotion Programmes of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, reflects the contribution of Community Psychology to the understanding and treatment of behavioural addictions. More specifically, emphasis is placed on the role of the sociopolitical and cultural context associated with the rise of these phenomena and the dynamics of peers and local communities in addressing them. The use of key concepts of Community Psychology, such as the empowerment of individuals and communities, the protagonist role of stakeholders, self-help/mutual-help practices and participatory action research, in renewing our knowledge of the causes and ways of dealing with these phenomena is also discussed. Finally, it presents as a case study, in the light of Community Psychology, the policy framework currently proposed by the Council of Europe for the prevention and treatment of problems arising from online gambling and online gaming.
