HUMAN RELATIONS, AUTHORITY AND JUSTICE: EXPERIENCES AND CRITIQUES
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN RELATIONS
New Bulgarian University, Sofia
(A self-study)
by Toma Tomov and Robert M. Young
1. General description
I.1. Stated mission of the Institute The Institute studies the unconscious dynamics of human interactions at all levels: individuals, groups institutions, cultures. This includes: the connection between the unconscious processes and the participation in groups; the influence of the unconscious human interactions on the norms rules and activities of groups and organisations; the role of the individual and group unconscious in the formation of leaders and the practice of leadership; and the unconscious dynamics of the interactions between groups.
The Institute studies, promotes, implements and develops the theories and practice of object relations and group relations including systemic approaches) schools. To this end it organises group relations conferences and trains in the skills of running them; prepares and delivers courses; provides organisational counselling and trains in this area; develops care, intervention and therapeutic programmes for health and social care, for the educational system, for the police and criminal justice sector, and for the non-governmental sector and trains in their application; and investigates the role of unconscious processes in the functioning, malfunctioning and abuse at all levels - groups, families, organisations and communities.
The Institute sees itself as an umbrella organisation which facilitates and supports relatively autonomous projects, offers paradigms of structuring and functioning and expects in return high standards and accountability to peer groups.
1.2. Past history The Institute of Human Relations (IHR) developed out of the Department for Behaviour Studies which was founded in 1992, shortly after the New Bulgarian University was established. The transformation of the university department into an institute is fairly recent. It resulted from the rapid increase of research involvement and from the growing demands for provision of intervention and care programmes, consultancy and supervision. The IHR was created in order to face these demands coming from individuals, groups. organisations and institutions undergoing change in the transition to democracy. At the same time the Institute has preserved entirely the functions of a university department in the training of students in social work, clinical psychology, group and family therapy, psychoanalysis and related areas.
1.3. The current Institute Presently the Institute has reached a solution to the organisational format which is seen as both innovative and corresponds to the reality of Bulgarian culture, two key aspects of which warrant special mention:
• Scarcity of financial resources for investment in human growth and development (constant concerns about physical survival cast a dark shadow on visions of the future)
• Bewilderment and uneasiness with the notion of the unconscious which introduces by implication the idea that uncertainty is in-built in all choices resulting from the deliberation of
one's own and others’ minds.
At present the Institute has a modular organisation. All its activities fall into three types: programmes, projects and teams, and each activity is formulated in terms of specific contents, expected output, time-frame and financial source. The addition of a new activity and the closing of an old activity are strategic decisions taken by the two Co-directors (Toma Tomov, Professor of Psychiatry, Medical University of Sofia and Robert M. Young, Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Sheffield) assisted by a three member Board of Directors. The day-to-day running of each activity is a managerial task performed by the leader of the group of associates entrusted with the activity and co-ordinated by the Manager and the Secretary of the Institute who operate through a Management Board on which each activity is represented and of which the Co-directors are members.
The Institute has an Advisory Board of fifteen members which meets annually to discuss the report submitted by the co-directors and to make policy recommendations.
The Manager and the Secretary are the only full-time employees of the Institute. The associates of the Institute contract their services with the Manager of the Institute for the time of their involvement with the specified activity. Some of the associates may be promoted to Members of the Institute or be given Professorships and other forms of affiliation by the Academic Council of the New Bulgarian University on the nomination of the Co-directors.
The programmes of the Institute are of two types: investigations, training programmes and public service programmes. The training programmes are either degree oriented or certificate oriented. The latter do not confer an educational degree. See Annex 1.
The public service programmes are in two fields. The care programmes target specified conditions and populations and belong to the mental health and social care sectors. They are normally developed jointly with partners from these sectors. The contributions of the Institute are typically to the programme design, the training of staff, the provision of supervision and consultations and are made on the basis of case studies. Several such case studies are in progress now. See Annex 2.
The second type of public service programmes are in the field of consultancy to organisations. Typically these clients want to start non-governmental or private services in the sectors of health, education and social welfare and less often in the field of the small business.
1.4. Human relations studies The field of human relations at the Institute is approached in terms of studies stimulated by the demands of the educational and public service programmes. Five areas of special interest to the Institute have so far been identified. They are: the building of the NBU as an academic environment; the promoting of helping environments in health and social institutions; the enhancing of the capacity of the school environment to handle conflict; the study of the human environment of Roma (gypsy) culture in Bulgaria; and the consulting of organisations on issues of human relations.
1.4.1. Building NBU as an academic environment A dimension missing from the public discourse at NBU (and Bulgarian academic life in general) is the contribution of academic environment to the formation of good character. A process of
disavowal is at work in this as part of a legacy passed onto academic life by the state of total control. To illustrate the relevance and importance for Bulgaria of this line of work in the human relations field one need only glance at the human qualities which become exposed to the public eye by the vicissitudes of political life, such as pathetic clinging to power, unappeasable aspiration to dominance, cynicism, hopelessness, disinclination to trust groups and work with them.
A discourse on good character is possible at the Institute, because the view of the person, with which staff and students operate, incorporates emotionality and value systems. Furthermore, at the Institute it is recognised that a component of emotional life (essential as it is to motivation) lies beyond awareness. And there is an acceptance on the part of those who study the domain of human relations at the Institute that both they and those who constitute the object of their study are, by virtue of their human nature, equally engrossed in relations of emotionality.
In its pursuits the Institute names and thereby brings into awareness qualities which go with good character, e.g., civic participation, setting of explicit goals and measuring performance against them. It is in position not only to research successfully such matters but also to precipitate self knowledge on them on a large enough scale among the students of the NBU so as to make a sizeable impact on public discourse.
The Group Relations Project of the Institute is central to the achievement of this task. Group Relations conferences have been run successfully in the ambience of the NBU. A team of rapidly maturing conference staff has been formed, and experiments with adapting the conference format to educational and other needs are being made systematically.
The special feature of the group relations conferences and related approaches is the focus on the study of participation in group events while they are in progress (experiential learning) and on inferences concerning various other participatory experiences of the members outside the conference. When seen as educational events, group relations conferences cut across the traditional didactic and practice-based methods of acquisition of knowledge and skills and invoke a meta-learning which is akin to real-life experience and yet is safeguarded by the capacity of the conference team to contain distress and aggression. In the process, the habitual distinction between student and teacher is blurred, as is the traditional notion of the classroom as the learning environment. In addition, group relations conferences involve a constant reappraisal of the extent to which the NBU meets its stated goals.
Significant past activities in this vein are the Group Relations Conferences in 1992 and 1996, directed by David Armstrong; the Group Relations Seminar in 1996, with David Armstrong, Gordon Lawrence and Robert Young as invited speakers; the Conference on Academic Accreditation in 1996, directed by Toma Tomov, the Seminar on Object Relations (1996) prepared and taught by Maya Mladenova and S. Vassilev; the Human Participation Event, run annually since 1993 and directed by T. Tomov, Roumen Petrov, Zlatka. Mihova, Kimon Ganev and others; the Experiences in Groups Reading Seminar (1996) by K. Ganev, etc. Most of this work was supported by grants from the HESP Open Society Fund.
Partners of the IHR in the above activities are the Experiences in Groups Club, founded in 1994, with K. Ganev as president and the Department of Social Work of the Bourgas Free University, chaired by M. Ganeva.
1.4.2. Promoting helping environments Institutional defences which operate largely through unconscious processes in the minds of personnel members who are cast in institutional roles, can transform institutional environments into hostile settings which victimise those in need of their services. This applies to all institutions in the health, social and educational sectors, to the criminal justice system and to all levels of government and the public sector. By abolishing professional autonomy the state of total control has driven these process of ’institutionalism’ beyond acceptable limits. For example, the helping professions (e.g., general practitioners, psychiatrists, social workers) in Bulgaria at present do not practice team work, are not required to operate with case formulations and to train in therapeutic behaviour, and do not receive clinical supervision at any stage of their work with patients/clients.
As the transition to democracy puts society through severe crises, interpersonal violence rises rapidly and — in the absence of a tradition of civility — produces victims and perpetrators at an amazing rate. The demand for services on the institutions and on the helping professions is huge, but they reject them, being, as they are, in the grip of primitive defences. and respond, instead, with institutionalised violence.
A major IREX-sponsored study of the social work practice with gypsies done at the Institute reveals unacceptable levels of disrespect for principles of professional ethics, human rights and individuality. Clinical supervision by members of the Institute of the work with victims of violence (battered women, abused children, victims of rape) done at three non-governmental psycho-social centres (Dynamica ‘95, Animus and Nadia) in Sofia brought acutely into focus the crucial role of containing human environments and the imperative need for such care programmes to provide this kind of human environment. Furthermore, the reason why this obvious need is so massively disavowed by the state institutions was traced to such aspects of institutionalism as power hierarchies, caste structures, primitive defences (e.g., splitting and projection) and, first and foremost, to the professional incompetence of the front-line employees in the practice of helping. These people, who take on the burden of demands without being equipped to do so, are in the full sense of the word themselves victims of the institution.
The Institute adopted two-fold approach to the task of re-instating good practice standards in the professional void left behind by the total control state. On the one hand, work was initiated on developing care programmes for specific problems and populations and protocols to them. Priority is given to disadvantaged groups and neglected needs. This approach counteracts the whole-sale institutional approach of pigeon-holing individual problems into taxonomies of deviance leading to relegation to institutions. Examples of care programmes currently developed are:
Women victims of domestic violence (N. Kostadinova);
Individual therapy for rape victims (V. Ivanov);
Child abuse (V. Kapitanska);
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy for borderline individuals (M. Mladenova);
Delinquent behaviour in youths (I. Ivanov)
On the other hand, training modules are being developed, training events and programmes are being designed, teaching skills are being actively acquired, and, most importantly, training
principles appropriate to the emotional participation inherent in helping interactions are being introduced. As a result the Institute evolved a culture which respects individual autonomy, encourages and extensively utilises creativity and group processes, is open to participation from outside without threat of disintegration and has a big capacity to absorb professional inputs and know-how from abroad. A sound relationship with the Human Nature Trust (UK) and the Free Associations Educational Programme (UK) has led to regular visits of consultants and has enabled several dozens of young professional over the past several years to gain substantially from clinical supervision, organisational counselling and even incidental personal therapy at workshops. These now constitute the core of the Institute and enact — through their networks of relations and alternative professional identity — a substantial and believable alternative to the widespread cynical and opportunist institutionalism which dominates the wider society.
Partners in this extensive activity in addition to the three psycho-social centres above are The Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of Sofia (T. Tomov), The Bulgarian Psychoanalytic Group (L. Jivkov), The Bulgarian Psychiatric Association (S. Kirtcheva), The Bulgarian Association of Social Work (G. Markova), The Bulgarian Association of Psychiatric Nurses (B. Tosheva), The Bulgarian Mental Health Society (R. Ratchev), The Bulgarian Association for Psychotherapy (N. Atanassov), etc.
1.4.3. Evolving conflict mediation in school environments Acknowledging rather than disavowing conflict in the classroom, allowing for experiencing conflict by facing it as an aspect of psychic and interpersonal reality, and becoming aware of its multiple ramifications at various levels of experience while still remaining in touch with the spontaneity, typical of childhood, has important implications for individual development and emotional growth. The potential which non-traumatising exposure to conflict has for the evolving of good character cannot be overemphasised. Yet, it must be sadly recognised that the school, which is uniquely placed as a human environment to utilise this potential, has bitterly failed in this task in Bulgaria.
Mechanisms of perpetuating institutionalism through unconscious individual and group processes, similar to the ones shown to be operative in the case of the health and social care environments above, were found to be at work in the school system. In a series of study groups with teachers' professional organisations, workshops, conferences and seminars, a lot was clarified about approaches for redressing the situation of the school which appear promising.
As a result of this work the institute developed and piloted a programme in school psychology which combines experiential learning, based on action methods (e.g., psychodrama) which are particularly appropriate for work with children in groups, and theoretical studies which introduce relevant topics from psychoanalysis, object relations, attachment theory, group relations, group and family therapy.
A central module in this programme is a conflict mediation technique which is fully tailored to the role of the teacher in school as a key person to whom conflict is addressed for handling on a daily basis. This is usually done with the expectation that being a figure of authority the teacher should be in a position to provide instant answers to all situations of conflict. Typically, school children project intra-psychic conflict into interpersonal rivalries and moral righteousness which teachers are not prepared to handle for lack of knowledge of explanatory schemes provided by various theories which recognise unconscious processes. As a result teachers feel ill at easy with the constant fighting in the classroom and try to suppress it by outlawing all conflict. To this end they become judgmental or disciplining or rationalising or have recourse to various other mechanisms of defence. The consequences are dire for both the children and the teachers.
Conflict mediation training puts the teachers relatively at ease with conflict, because it equips them with skills to contain the anxiety that accompanies conflict and facilitate the parties in coming to grips with their interests and in proceeding to negotiation. A whole new school culture soon evolves as a consequence. Learning to regard conflict as a source of valuable learning experience is central to that new culture.
The Institute has developed a programme for the provision of supervision of teachers who adopt the conflict mediation approach and a consultancy service to help them cope with the implications for the school as an institution. Partners of the Institute in this are The Conflict Mediation Club (R. Petrov) and Initiative 127 teachers' organisation.
1.4.4. Supporting Roma/Gypsy culture as a human environment A significant departure from the popular view of Gypsies as a marginalised group of outcasts who fail to adjust to the demands of reality was made at the Institute in the course of an IREX-sponsored project which undertook to study the mismatch between the expectations of Gypsy clients and the response of social workers to these clients. Having traced many of the failures in the interactions with Gypsy clients to primitive believes, prejudice and lack of information among the social workers, the project proceeded with a programme which attempted to redress the situation.
Ample evidence that Gypsies constitute a culture apart from Bulgarians was provided through studies of folk stories, legends and myths. A cultural pattern which had been a winning strategy for centuries at times critical for survival but was failing under the current transition of society, could be identified experienced through direct exchange in groups of mixed ethnic composition and critically appraised. Items of central importance to comprehending xenophobia, racism, stereotyping and the like were brought to light and seen to pertain to early emotional life and primitive defences, such as splitting, virulent projective identification, denial, omnipotence and devaluation. These responses are in play in much of the world — the outsider or ’Other’ as feared and despised scapegoat.
Building on the results of this research a workshop design was proposed by the ethnically mixed project team which dwelled on the dynamics of a big group brought together to enable the participants of Gypsy and Bulgarian background to explore their feelings when facing each other as partners and to try to express these feelings openly. A variety of training methods, teaching materials and group formats were developed to that end and made available afterwards to other teams of mixed ethnic composition which emerged out of the big group and decided to engage in similar exercises, patterning, their work on their experience at the workshop.
The patronising stance towards the Gypsies, being a subtle expression of victimisation of the ethnically different, could be exposed openly, seen for what it is, discussed and convincingly demonstrated to be destructive of the autonomy of the individuals of Gypsy background, of the self-reliance of the Gypsy community and of the social cohesion in the country. Most encouragingly, demands for partnership and collaboration addressed to the Institute followed on the part of several non-governmental organisations which planned activities in the social field and which had been started by participants in the workshops. A clear frame for a partnership relationship has been established and collaborative work could proceed from a position of equality. The defensive blaming of all deplorable aspects of Gypsy life styles on the repressive and discriminatory attitude of Bulgarians could be transcended, and realistic and constructive work could be initiated with the Gypsy community following ideas and design prompted by Gypsy leaders .
A partner of the Institute in a project on community development in a Gypsy ghetto is the “Spravedlivost" organisation.
1.4.5. organisational environments Organisations exist variously in the minds of people who are their members depending, among other things, on the place and role of the person within the organisation. Often people do not even suspect that such differences are possible and act upon the assumption that everybody else shares the image they have constructed in their mind. Organisational leaders may benefit significantly if given the possibility to realise that such differences are possible and indeed inevitable and act upon this fact.
Relating to one’s organisation can be approached and interpreted from a psychoanalytic point of view as a relationship to an object (as in ‘object of affection’ or ’object of hatred’), a relationship which is usually patterned after early experience with authority figures. Exploring this relationship brings into focus the emotional overtones which one carries in oneself — ones which evade conscious awareness and which may he a key to finding meaning in seemingly senseless flaws in one's performance in the organisation and in one's reasoning about it.
Organisations, living systems as they are, undergo internal and external conflict, can be stressed, overwhelmed and frustrated and can be defensive. In this they take on qualities, the manifestation of which is only possible through the capacity of their members to relate to environmental stimuli experientially — be happy or sad, have fear or joy. Learning about organisational malfunctioning through analysing the accounts of organisational members about what it takes to be a member can be very revealing and helpful.
Temporary organisations brought into existence as a result of agreement among their founding members (e.g., non-governmental organisations), and having an explicit task to accomplish before they dissolve (e.g., carry out a project), may need to supply their membership with the opportunity to explore purposefully (in terms of the experiences associated with participation) the difference between these organisations and the statutory bodies patterned after the totalitarian ideal of the de-individuated human crowd. The variety of stumbling blocks to human participation internal and external — of motives in setting them up, of ways of circumventing and overcoming them, etc. — may need to be explored to facilitate the right outputs from such undertakings in any particular case.
The Institute has undertaken to work along these lines with several such non-governmental organisation, the Mental Health Association of Sofia being among them.
2. Objectives and approaches of the Institute: an analysis
2.1. An overview Approaching the legacy of totalitarianism in terms of structures in the mind is promising on two grounds. Firstly, it creates a territory, that of the mind or inner world, which is separate from the physical reality and different from it, in that it allows operations with virtually no limits on the representations it holds. Secondly, it immediately refers to available knowledge and methods developed by several related schools, including psychoanalysis, object relations, group relations and systems theory for approaching unconscious phenomena.
The approach taken by the Institute puts into sharp contrast (1) daily life under the institutions of the ’total state’ with (2) civil participation and treats these as two very different human experiences. It utilises specially designed training events such as conferences and groups to enable the participants to identity (in terms of emotional overtones) states of the mind such as spontaneity and authenticity which are subject to repression and disavowal under the ’total institution’ but are found natural and stimulating under democracy (at its best).
Against the background of social learning facilitated by the group work methods of the Institute, the introduction to theoretical knowledge and to practical skills of a very different nature to those taught under ’socialism’ meets with far less suspicion, resistance and disqualification from the students. The interdisciplinary contents of the training, which ranges widely from theories of democracy and human lights, to social policy and public administration, to organisational management and computer literacy, is much less confusing and better received as it dwells on a unifying principle — the shared experience of free social and group participation. The various contributions coming from a host of disciplines which have no prior tradition of working together within the same curriculum do not mix mechanically but complement each other in gradually building the cognitive representation of democratic living glued together by the group experiences during the events in the classroom.
The practice of the Institute is clearly an ambitious project both in terms of educational objectives, such as attitudinal change and personality growth, and in terms of training methods, such as experiential learning and dynamic group processes. The educational objectives of the Institute meet a vast social and personal need for reformed thinking and social action in a number of professions such as public administration and the whole range of helping, legal and educational professions, all of which have been deliberately stifled for decades by the total state. The training methods of the Institute match these objectives in that they have a generic link to human creativity which constitutes the core of professionalism and of its various identities in the open society.
2.2. Special considerations.
The Institute’s objectives and approaches have numerous implications, several of which need special consideration in terms of the strategy for its future and the business plan for its activities. In the first place there is an obvious demand for a flexible modular organisation of the teaching units so as to enable the students from various backgrounds, age and interests to adapt the curriculum to their personal goals.
In the second place, the duration of the training should match the time frame which changing aspects of the human mind such as attitudes and personality requires and which corresponds to the time dimensions of the dynamic processes in human groups.
In the third place, the format of delivery of the training should change with progress and circumstances, since the specific teaching objectives of the introductory phase, such as sensitisation and build-up of group cohesion, are radically different from those in the advanced stages of the training, e.g., cognitive control over experience.
In the fourth place, big numbers and a rich variety of trainers are demanded on a part-time basis, but they must at the same time be fully attuned to the culture and ethics of the Institute and share its objectives and approaches. Many of them are indispensable to the Institute's programmes exactly because are primarily involved elsewhere, for instance, in the capacity of managers or key figures in non-governmental organisations or projects.
Last but not least, the formative nature of the training design developed by the institute requires a lot of out-of-class contacts and joint activities, as it dwells on a notion of learning as enhancement of personal integrity. The architectural, space and internal design aspects of the physical environment of the school, as well as the possibility of blending academic activities and territories with more mundane aspects of life such as meals and recreation acquire a special role. This is particularly relevant to teaching events which involve foreign teachers, students and languages.
3. Institute of Human Relations: a three-year strategy The pursuit of the Institute's objectives in the following years will be guided by an institutional strategy the central components of which are outlined below.
The contracting of services with teachers and trainers from other departments of the NBU, from other schools and from non-educational organisations and institutions will be accompanied with special efforts to introduce them to the culture of the Institute and not just to the objectives and methods of its programmes. To this end three key strategies will be employed:
• Membership in group relations conferences of teachers and trainers will be strongly encouraged through targeted campaigns; • Incorporation will be undertaken of teachers with a background in law, public administration, medicine, education and of people working in custodial settings. These will be combined into teams running training events at the Institute.
• Input of training modules prepared at the Institute into curricula and training organised by other departments will be increased.
The training needs which the Institute attempts to meet will be described and made known to the students as part of a public relations programme. This strategy will enable many to discover in the training activities of the Institute topics relevant to their individual projects as students. A student counselling programme will follow.
The Institute will develop a course in Community Studies (Eastern Europe) which will combine:
• experience of group participation through membership in various groups and the analysis of it;
• theoretical courses on democracy, human rights, social policy, minorities, etc. and
• practical knowledge and skills in managing of non-governmental organisations.
The course will be delivered in both Russian and Bulgarian, will have a modular structure allowing for a lot of diversity, will be in a distance learning format of one or two years duration and will confer a certificate or degree. Following a pilot edition in 1997/98 the course wilt be finalised and marketed in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The Russian Language will be introduced in addition to English and Bulgarian in the practice of teaching at the Institute.
A network with non-governmental organisations running programmes in the field of counselling, advocacy, human rights, minority rights and the like will be developed to support the field placement of students and to diversify the community projects they run.
Publicity for the Institute's programmes among sponsoring organisations in EU and the USA will he sought. For example, we have already established and e-mail forum, a web site and an ejournal under the title Human Relations. Authority and Justice and leading figures from several countries have agreed to serve on its editorial board:
An effective managerial team will be employed and a project of institutional development will he designed to attract sponsorship and consultancy. Special emphasis will be put on the interface between the university administration (with its enormous capacity) and the managerial style of the Institute.
Arrangements will be sought to be made for comfortable and inexpensive accommodation or students (foreign students in particular) visiting for training events.
4. Finance and planning
4.1 Income sources:
Tuition Fees
Project Grants:
Non-violence (Phare)
Child abuse (Open educ.)
Group Relations (HESP)
Organ. Development (?)
Community Studies (Phare'?)
NBU Self-study (Open Society)
Supervision, Consultancy, etc.
4.2.Expenditures:
Wages of staff
Rent
Office equipment
Overheads
Travel
Accommodation
Fees
4.3.Business plan To begin with, support from NBU will be sought to employ a manager and a secretary who will set up the office of the Institute, will develop a project proposal for institutional development and will receive consultation on office management.
Office space will be requested from the NBU to establish the Institute's office and to enable the institutional development project to go ahead. As a result of this project the activities of the Institute and their teams will be started, their time schedule will he developed and the Institute's plan of work will emerge.
Contractual agreements will be made with organisations, departments, teams, etc. which will specify the contributions of the Institute in terms of consultations, supervisions and other services and in which the financial aspects will be agreed.
A high priority will be given to the development of the Community Studies programme, financial support for it will be actively sought and much publicity will be given to attract students from Eastern Europe and the former USSR whose tuition will be sponsored by EU major funding bodies. Once established in about three years time this income will be stabilised and will balance the Institute’s budget.
Annex l
TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Institute of Human Relations, New Bulgarian University
Clinical Social Work
Four semester diploma programme (MSc)
Co-ordinator: Galina Markova
Since 1992 (?)
No. of students: 15
Description: Emphasis is on case work and counselling skills acquired through training in small groups and in one-to-one relationship with a trainer, e.g., tutoring, supervision, written essays, seminars, field practice, etc. The orientation is psycho-dynamic (Freudian, Ego-psychology. object relations) and systemic. Credits: An overall of _ credits are requested:
Courses: Psychoanalytic studies (2), Human groups (2), Dynamic interviewing (2), etc. Field practice (?), Small group experience (?), Research project (?) and Written thesis (?).
School Psychology
Four semester diploma programme (MSc)
Co-ordinators: Mila Danailova, Rayna Velzova
Family Therapy
Four semester diploma programme (MSc)
Co-ordinator: Zlatka Mihova
Case work with Roma clients
One semester certificate programme
Co-ordinator: Galina Markova
Introduction to case work for social welfare officers
200 hour week-end format certificate course
Co-ordinator: Markova
Group psychology for business managers
Co-ordinator:
One semester 60 hour (4 credits) module for a diploma programme in business administration
Social participation conference
Co-ordinator. Roumen Petrov
Experiential 30 hour (2 credits) intensive 4 day course
Annex 2
CARE PROGRAMMES (CASE STUDIES)
Institute of Human Relations
Youths with deviant behaviour:
Co-ordinator: Ivan Ivanov
Consultants: Zlatka Mihova, Toma Tomov
Since: December 1996
Description: A case study based set of protocols developed for deviant youths with problem behaviour referred by police and probation services. The protocols cover assessment, case formulation and three types of intervention (individual, group and family). These protocols are part of a community programme which includes also:
• Workshop for teachers (Responding to children who revealed the fact of their abuse);
• Workshop for police and probation officers (Victims turned perpetrators);
• Training for fostering (The needs of a child whose parents failed him);
• Training for guardians ad litem; Protocol for forensic psychiatric assessment for suspected abuse. This community programme is being developed under the IHR managed project on child abuse. (See the section on projects in this report).
A Model Service for Victims of Violence
Co-ordinator: Nadejda Kostadinova
Consultant: Gordon Lawrence, Toma Tomov
Since: May 1996
Description: A case study based protocol describing the therapeutic environment which is conceived as a set of criteria by which the procedures, rules, links and regulations of an institution should abide and the requirements which its physical setting should meet. The emphasis is on how the therapeutic environment is enacted by the staff and on the individual contribution of each staff member through self-control and communication skills. This protocol is part of a joint project of the IHR and "Animus” Association on domestic violence. (See the section on projects in this report).
Care programme for rape victims
Co-ordinator: Valeri Ivanov
Consultant: Toma Tomov
Since: October 1996
Description: A case study is being done with the aim to develop and field test a protocol for individual therapy of victims of rape: alleviation of the distress; facing the consequences for the self image; integrating the fact of rape into own history; warding off the liabilities of adaptation to reality. This protocol is part of a joint project of IHR and ~Animus" Association on domestic violence. (See the section on projects in this report).
Care programme for women victims of domestic violence Co-ordinator: Nadejda Kostadiniva
Consultants: Robert Young, Toma Tomov
Since May 1996
Description: A case study conducted to identify steps in a protocol for responding to appeals of battered women: facing the choice of an alternative self image; living up to the choice made; support through the necessary legal, medical and other procedures; assessment for emotional problems and therapeutic interventions. This protocol is part of a joint project of the IHR and "Animus" Association on domestic violence. (See the section on projects in this report).