Tag: Copenhagen

Arriving into 2025: Where is My Time?

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Invitation to a self-reflection and self-exploration workshop

We are in the 4th week of the New Year, 2025. I would like to offer a time and space to reflect on how this year can unfold for us.

Something to ponder about:

“Life takes place in time and life will appear where I have time. ..”

“That which I have time for is that which I live for. “

In this workshop I would like us to explore the mysterious concept of time, consider it from the psychological perspective. It is also a time and space to reflect on what you wish for yourself to happen during this new year, how to find time for it, or how to create conditions to give your time to those projects, people and wishes.

I have a few reflection questions to discuss in the group format. I have a few hands-on activities to do on own and perhaps together. I have quite a few different tools I can tell you about how to become friends with time.

I am thinking about an in-person workshop in Copenhagen either in the evening of Wednesday, February 5, 2025 (tentatively 17 to 19ish) or in the morning of Saturday, February 8, 2025 (10.00 to 13.00).

Let me know if you would like to attend and when it best suits you. Otherwise I am in Copenhagen between February 3 and February 10 and still have a few openings for in-person individual sessions.

Looking forward to hearing from you! And hope to see you while I am in Copenhagen!

Kind regards,

Anna

Matter of Choice – part 2

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Yesterday we had the second part of the in-person workshop “The Matter of Choice” in my Creative Time Studio in Copenhagen. It was great energy and interesting insights regarding what is the difference in what we feel about what we have chosen and something that happened which was not our choice.

We touched upon the conscious choice and inner consent, choosing our responses and being aware of habitual automatic reactions. We discovered that sometimes procrastination can be like an incubation period and protection from perfectionism.

And that sometimes “last minute panic” can be a great tool 🙂 ‘Negative’ events in our biographies can be a fertile ground for opening up to various opportunities that were not visible for us before.

Great question to ask oneself when faced with the situation of difficult choice: “Do I really see my options? Or do I need to look at the situation from a different perspective? Maybe I need to make a step back in order to move forward.”

If this resonates with you and you would like to explore the matter of choice as well – I will run the workshop online, two sessions on June 13 and June 20.

Warm welcome!

https://system.easypractice.net/event/matter-of-choice-online-c796a

#choice #workshop #creativetimestudio #existentialanalysis

Procrastination, Habits & Future Self: Finding Time for What Really Matters

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There was quite some interest in our joint workshop with Konrad Piotrowicz, Change Consultant of Surrounded by Monkeys , however, the date did not work for many. Therefore we are shifting the workshop to Tuesday, June 4, 2024, 18.00 to 20.00.

Join us in this interactive space to explore the fascinating dynamics that arise when we introduce change into our lives. Whether it’s embarking on a new health initiative, pursuing a course to acquire new skills, or committing to a set of New Year’s resolutions, we often find our initial enthusiasm waning over time.

Our level of commitment and dedication is high at the start, but over a (not so long) while it fades… as if something was preventing us from acting in our own best interest.

In this workshop, we will explore the underlying reasons behind these common experiences and seek to understand:

  • Why does it feel like someone is stealing my time?
  • Why do we procrastinate?
  • Why is maintaining high motivation so challenging?
  • Why do time management techniques work for some people, but not for others?

We will investigate these questions collectively, providing a supportive environment to share experiences and insights. The workshop aims to:

  • Uncover the Psychological Barriers: Understand the mental and emotional factors that hinder our progress.
  • Explore Procrastination: Learn about the phenomenon of procrastination and how to deal with it.
  • Enhance Motivation: Discover strategies to sustain high levels of motivation over the long term.
  • Tailored Time Management: Find out why time management techniques vary in effectiveness and how to find what works for you.

Let’s explore a different way to set goals and create conditions for forming better and healthier habits for ourselves. We will also introduce tools that can help you hack your habits.

Workshop Details

  • Location: In-person in Copenhagen, Creative Time Studio on Rantzausgade, 2200
  • Date and Time: June 4, 2024, from 18:00 to 20:00
  • Price: 800 DKK
I want to join you guys!

We are going to have a blast!

Matter of Choice

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Yesterday we kicked-off the in-person workshop “The Matter of Choice” in my Creative Time Studio in Copenhagen. Different professional backgrounds and different cultural backgrounds provided a very fertile ground for various perspectives and insights.

We looked at our first reactions to the topic of choice, what associations we have, and the etymology of the word in our mother tongues. We looked at how does the choice shows up for us in different domains, such as personal life, emotional life, professional life, and family life. We talked about the basics of existential phenomenology and how choice is approached in that line on thought.

This first part of the workshop already left me enriched and I am looking very much forward for the second part of it! There we will look at the existential choices.

If this resonates with you and you would like to explore the matter of choice as well – I will run the workshop online in June. Warm welcome!

Register here: https://system.easypractice.net/event/matter-of-choice-online-c796a

“Music is like glass mirror, it reflects who you are”

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“Music is like glass mirror, it reflects who you are; what you want to say – I understood something and want to talk to you about it today” – Ustad Bahauddin Dagar

Hindustani Classical Music has been fascinating me for quite some time now. My first encounter with it was during the 4th International Time Perspective Conference in Nantes, France back in 2018. Since then I have switched from learning the Turkish flute, kaval, to learning Indian bamboo flute, bansuri, but mostly learning about the whole new universe that is contained inside the Hindustani Classical Music and its theory.

I will be slowly writing up about a few things that I have learned along the way and during my few stays in India in my newsletter on Substack – https://creativetimestudio.substack.com/

My friend and colleague, Nikhil Ghorpadkar, pakhavaj player from Pune, Maharashtra, India, most likely will be in Copenhagen in the first week of June – and we are thinking to organize a little workshop, an introduction to the Hindustani Classical Music, where I would be happy to share what I have discovered so far. Do let me know if you would like to join this workshop – be it in person or online.

Matter of Choice: Self-Exploration Workshop, May 2024

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Recently the topic of choice has been very present in various domains around and therefore I have designed a workshop for self-reflection and self-exploration on this matter, the matter of choice. 

It would be great to see you there!

Kind regards,

Anna 

The Matter of Choice:
Self-reflection and self-exploration workshop

In-person in Copenhagen:

May 15 and May 22, 2024
18:00 to 20:00
Price: 550 DKK
Registration: https://system.easypractice.net/event/matter-of-choice-d56ed

Online:

May 14 and May 21, 2024
17:00 to 19:00
Price: 550 DKK
Registration: https://system.easypractice.net/event/matter-of-choice-9cd9a

This workshop is a space to reflect on the matter of choice, what do we associate it with. How does it manifest itself in our daily lives, in our professional and personal lives, in our emotional lives, where is it most present with us?

What are the choices we make or have already made and was there something that happened to us that we did not choose? How do we live those experiences?

Are our attitudes, moods and emotions, values and beliefs, a matter of choice?

Looking at the choices we make, how do they unfold in our personal history, but also in the history of the previous generations in our families, what is the greater context of choices (cultural, historical, etc.), where do those choices lead us? Is there a way to know it? How do we deal with the uncertainty as we must choose without knowing in advance about the outomce and consequences.

We might touch upon the topics of existential choice, conscious choice, values, time, comparisons we make, inner consent, sorrow, regret or joy, forgiveness and gratitude, freedom and responsibility.

Workshop leader:
Anna Sircova, PhD

Clinical psychologist, researcher and educator. Practices Existential Analysis and Logotherapy. Specializes in transitions and endings, psychology of time, existential questions. Passionate for cross-disciplinary approach, visual arts and other creative endeavors.

Her work concentrates on saying “yes” to life, on finding your personal time, core essence, meaning and fulfillment. Denmark is the sixth country that became her home (Latvia – USA – Russia – Spain – Sweden – Denmark). Founder of Creative Time Studio, with over 20 years of research experience in exploring the concept of time.

TEDx speaker, expert in creative processes, well-being, psychology of time, futurization and so much more.

Some things to contemplate on:

“Life is a sum of all your choices” ~ Pythagoras

Lewis Carroll’s Alice tells the Cheshire Cat: “I don’t much care where … so long as I get somewhere.“

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

Theodor Geisel / Dr. Seuss “What Pet Should I Get?”
The cat?

Or the dog?
The kitten?
The pup?
Oh boy!

It is something
to make a mind up.
Then I looked at Kay.
I said, “What will we do?

I like all the pets that I see. So do you.
We have to pick ONE pet
and pick it out soon.
You know Mother told us
to be back by noon.”
“I will do it right now.

I will do it!” I said.
“I will make up the mind
that is up in my head.”
The dog…? Or the rabbit…?

The fish…? Or the cat…?
I picked one out fast,
and that that was that.

Baldwin
Nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.

“When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” ~ Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

Workshop: Genogram Method with Ekaterina Zhuikova | Feb 20 or Feb 21 | Copenhagen

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I cordially invite you to join me and my colleague, Ekaterina Zhuikova (Nafplio, Greece), at our event: The genogram method: History of family relationships and their impact on our lives. 

We will run the event a few times and in different languages – so hopefully, one or the other time would work for you! 

Dates: 

Monday, Feb 20, 11.00-13.00 – in English

Monday, Feb 20, 18.00-20.00 – in Russian

Tuesday, Feb 21, 18.00-20.00 – in English

Venue: Creative Time Studio, Rantzausgade 34A, st. tv (Det Blaa on the buzz)

Cost: 300 Dkk

Ekaterina is a Clinical Psychologist, Family and Child Psychotherapist with 20 years of counseling experience, focusing on studying the influence of family history on actual life patterns and the intercultural context in human life.

Together with Ekaterina, you will investigate the methods of exploring your family’s history to understand the need that arises in moments of life when we are trying to comprehend our identity and expand our sense of ourselves. 

With the genogram method, we will display the family history holistically, compare the dates of key family events, explore the losses and difficult events experienced by the family, and build a sociogram of the relationship between your family members.

Together with Ekaterina, we will go more in-depth into studying your family history using the genogram method. That visually will support us not only in learning about our ancestors but also about relationships, experiences, significant events in their lives, and how they influenced the family’s life, our ancestors’ decisions, and intra-family relations.

You will be able to learn from practicing the method and look at the principles of building a genogram. Looking deep into your family’s history is a need that arises in moments of life when we are trying to comprehend our identity and expand our understanding of ourselves.

Registration:

Feb 20, at 11.00 (in English)

Feb 20, at 18.00 (in Russian)

Feb 21, at 18.00 (in English) 

We hope that you will be able to join us and share your reflections with us!

Sincerely, 

Anna

On Environmental Depression

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Recently a colleague reached out with a question if I could lead a session on climate/ environmental depression during class time as students have specifically requested a psychologist to talk to them about it.

Some of the questions asked were:

  • How to manage climate anxiety?
  • How to avoid depression, when working in climate science and ecology?
  • How to cope with feelings, while maintaining objectivity in work? How to avoid nihilism and despair? 
  • How can one working in the environmental science field manage a good work life balance, such as being able to enjoy life and stay happy knowing all the scary things we learn and see on a daily basis. 

We talked about the foundation on which ‘non-anxiety’ can be built, such as having the feeling of support, space and protection, trust and endurance. In terms of working professionally with the highly touching topics – to be able to protect oneself, to know own borders, capacities, abilities and inabilities, personal scope – what is possible for me personally in this particular context and circumstances? I shared my own experiences in becoming a clinical psychologist – while visiting various clinics during my studies I have realized that I am not able to work in child psychiatry – I couldn’t see myself as able to provide good help there. I have huge respect for those colleagues who can.

We talked about the importance of:

  • preventive measures of emotional burnout – possibility of having something similar to supervision process, peer groups or intervisions.
  • knowing own values – knowing what is important for oneself and why it is important? Doing check-ins with oneself by the end of the day: Have I lived my values today?
  • being selective with consuming the information that comes in from various directions. Not reading the news everyday and really paying attention to the news with positive initiatives, because they are there, but might not have all the spotlight attention on them.
  • finding the healthy outlet for difficult emotions that might be directed to specific people, entities, previous generations. Emotions need to be recognized and then it becomes possible to see the situation in more productive and solution oriented way.

And most importantly to give oneself permission to live. To be true to own values and not to get overwhelmed by new contexts, making our best in not falling into conformism. To remember that even the small actions are important, as they continue to live in one form or the other.

If your organization has a similar need – to have a questions and answers session on the topic of climate / environmental depression or dark future anxiety – please reach out!

Workshop: Introduction to Art-Therapy for Developmental Disorders | DIS – Study Abroad | 30.11.2022

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Final workshop for DIS this semester was on Art-Therapy. During this workshop I have introduced the students to the basic principles of Art-Therapy, we talked about what mediums can be used in art therapeutic setting, some of the themes that can be explored with the help of art therapy and how a typical session would look like with kids or adults.

I have also presented various cases where I have used art therapy to illustrate the main underlying principle of the approach – that once we figure out how to make a symbolic change, we can also invite that change in real life.

This fall semester is almost at the end, and students enjoyed their time in the Studio expressing various emotions and impressions that have accumulated throughout their study abroad stay in Denmark. They really got engaged in the activity and were totally ‘hands-on’. It is always such a pleasure to work with future colleagues!

Do reach out if you would like an art-therapy session yourself or as a workshop for educational purposes. I enjoy developing workshops, so I would be happy to fine-tune it to fit your organization, class or group’s needs.

Invitation to the exhibition opening, Dec 9, 18:00

Letting Go

Dear friends and colleagues,

With great delight I am inviting you to a little exhibition of my recent art project: Letting Go.

December 9 at 18.00

Gadens Galleri

Ryesgade 4, Copenhagen N

The exhibition will continue throughout the month of December till the beginning of January 2023. In case you can’t make it to the opening, I would be happy to meet with you personally and have a “private view”

Hope to see you for a little gløgg and a chat!

kind regards,

Anna