Conference Agenda

Dementia is a growing global health issue, affecting not only those diagnosed but also their close environment, particularly family members who take on caring responsibilities. Literature highlights the disproportionate burden placed on women caregivers, underlining the need for in-depth study of this phenomenon. The present study aims to explore the experiences of women caring for people with dementia within the Greek sociocultural context, focusing on the difficulties they face, the strategies they adopt, and the psychological mechanisms they use to cope. The study is grounded in the phenomenological paradigm, seeking to highlight the subjective experience as it is lived and given meaning by the participants themselves. The participants were 12 women caregivers of different ages and social characteristics from three major Greek cities, who care for or have cared for relatives with dementia in the past. Data were produced through semi-structured interviews that integrated appreciative inquiry activities and multimodal methods, such as photo-elicitation and projective cards, which contributed to the emergence of personally meaningful multimodal narratives. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used, through which common themes were identified regarding the practical and emotional challenges of caregiving, its impact on relationships and roles, fears and existential concerns, loss management, and personal sources of meaning and resilience. Caregiving was found to be an experience accompanied by a wide range of emotions, where anger, guilt, and frustration coexist with love, hope, and acts of self-care. The study concludes that caring for people with dementia is a complex and multidimensional experience, going beyond the practical aspects. As such, it requires greater recognition and support at both social and institutional levels, particularly in relation to the psychosocial support of caregivers.

This study examines romantic relationships during the period of emerging adulthood, with a particular focus on Southern European countries, specifically Greece, Italy, and Spain. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological, and interpretative approach, it seeks to explore the lived experiences of romantic relationships within the broader sociocultural environment that shapes them. The research addresses a significant gap in the existing literature concerning romantic relationships in Southern Europe, particularly the impact of prolonged co-residence with family on relational development and autonomy. The study is grounded in Arnett’s theory of emerging adulthood, as well as the developmental frameworks proposed by Shuman & Connolly and Hochberg & Konner. Data were produced through multimodal interviews with 11 participants aged 18 to 24. The interview design integrated narrative, visual, and appreciative inquiry techniques. Thematic Analysis was employed using the QualCoder QDA software, through which five central themes were identified. The findings indicate that early cultural narratives contribute to the formation of idealized expectations regarding romantic relationships, which gradually evolve into more realistic conceptions over time. Participants demonstrated an ambivalent orientation toward love, intimacy, and commitment, reflecting a tension between the longing for deep emotional connection and the desire to maintain personal freedom. Within this context, technology plays a dual role, facilitating communication and connection while also enabling controlling and intrusive behaviors. Finally, family involvement was found to delay the process of individuation and restrict the exploration of sexuality. Within this context, technology serves a dual role, facilitating communication and connection while enabling controlling and intrusive behaviors. Finally, family involvement was found to delay the process of individuation and restrict the exploration of sexuality. Overall, this study adopts an intercultural approach, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between cultural norms, family structures, and individual experiences in shaping the meaning and expression of romantic relationships among emerging adults in Southern Europe.

Background: Refugee experiences are often examined through a pathogenic lens that prioritizes risk, disorder, and deficit. However, complementary evidence shows notable resilience among forcibly displaced people.

Purpose: To explore how young refugees living in a CCAC in Greece experience daily stressors and the ways they cope and strengthen resilience, in order to inform Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services.

Methods: Nine male refugees aged 18–24 participated in three mini focus groups, each organised by native language (Arabic, French, and Farsi). A thematic analysis was conducted through a salutogenic lens, attending to how experiences and behaviours relate to Sense of Coherence (SOC) and Generalised Resistance Resources (GRRs).

Results: Three main themes emerged, each with subthemes. “Refugee experiences” encompassed (a) traumatic migration trajectories—exposure to war, violence, loss, and perilous journeys—and (b) post-migration powerlessness within the CCAC, marked by uncertainty, restricted freedom, hostility, discrimination, bureaucratic barriers, and unmet needs. “Psychological processes” included (a) negative emotions (fear, anxiety, grief), (b) dysfunctional reactions (psychophysiological disturbances, risk behaviours), and (c) coping strategies grouped into six modes: emotion regulation, meaning-making, self-denial, self-enhancement, seeking support, and avoidant distraction. “Social support” comprised (a) community shared values (solidarity, mutual respect, collective action) and (b) a sense of belonging (attachment, group identity), which function as GRRs that strengthen SOC. The findings are organised and presented via a thematic map that illustrates how these factors interact to enhance refugee well-being.

Conclusions: MHPSS interventions that prioritise peer-led support, brief skills training, everyday resilience activities, and dignity- and rights-based operations can translate a salutogenic approach into measurable gains in refugee mental health.

Background: Since 2021, Greece has operated Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCACs) on North Aegean and Dodecanese islands to accommodate refugees arriving by sea. While the mental health harms of residing in such places are well documented, far less is known about the everyday factors that foster resilience and protect mental health within these restrictive settings.

Purpose: To identify resilience-enhancing factors among adult refugees residing in a CCAC.

Methods: A photovoice approach was employed to elicit participants’ lived experiences. Nine asylum seekers from Palestine and Sierra Leone residing in the CCAC produced photographs depicting what supported their resilience, wrote captions, and engaged in facilitated group dialogues. The data comprised images, captions, and discussion transcripts. Thematic analysis was conducted collaboratively by participants and researchers to enhance credibility and interpretive depth.

Results: Three interrelated themes emerged. The first concerned “Values”, encompassing both personal elements such as faith, hope, and self-respect, and interpersonal elements such as dignity, solidarity, and reciprocity. The second centered on “Actions”, highlighting the role of social support (peers, trusted staff, community groups), self-activation (setting goals, building routines, helping others), and capacities (skills, problem-solving, language learning). The third theme captured “Existential Connections” to nature, spirituality, and memories of home, which provided meaning, continuity, and calm.

Conclusions: Participatory meaning-making enabled participants to articulate the assets and needs that shape their daily mental health, with immediate empowering effects. The study highlights actionable, camp-feasible measures for strengthening resilience: peer-led support, structured activities that build agency and skills, and protected spaces for dignity, faith, and contact with nature. These insights can guide quality improvements in CCAC living conditions and inform policy and programme design for mental health and psychosocial support in similarly constrained humanitarian contexts.

A coherent disability identity is considered a key factor in facilitating psychological adjustment to acquired disability, particularly in the context of social stressors and daily functional demands. The present qualitative study explored experiences of people who use prosthetic devices after low limp amputation. The sample was purposeful and comprised of twelve men who participated in individual interviews, consisting of questions framed in an open way to explore their lived experience. The research data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and produced six group experiential themes (superordinate themes) namely 1) the experience of amputation 2) the experience of prosthetics use 3) supportive factors during rehabilitation 4) barriers during rehabilitation 5) body image and prosthesis 6) self-awareness and identity integration. Participants reported that psychotherapy, physical activity, the arts, and community engagement not only provided significant support during rehabilitation but also served as empowering means for constructing a disabled identity. Prior to amputation, some participants had not been involved in sports or the arts. These domains helped them perceive their disabled bodies as capable and contributed to a positive redefinition of their new identity. Engaging with disability narratives allows rehabilitation psychologists to refine theoretical frameworks and develop empirically grounded approaches to understanding the psychosocial dimensions of identity reconstruction.

Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music to achieve individualized goals. Using music therapy in early childhood addresses social/emotional development, language and literacy, cognition, and perceptual motor and physical development. This study consisted of a series of investigations including clinical music therapy sessions collaborating with early childhood classroom over a period of time. This poster illustrates the process of how music therapy improved externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and adaptive skills. In addition to clinical practices, this poster also represents results from this study which concluded in professional development training courses addressing trauma-informed practices, holistic approaches to development, differentiated instruction, the use of verbal skills in working with early childhood, supporting early childhood with musical elements, and supporting early childhood with musical elements.

In the context of digital sociology (Nassehi, 2024), this paper examines how success of AI in schools depends on structures of expectation, linking this issue to broader debates on sociotechnical imaginaries (Taylor, 2004) understood as “collectively held and performed visions of desirable futures” (Jasanoff, 2015). These insights cannot provide predictions of development, but they do provide a picture of ideas that will be at play when establishing a new way of working in schools primarily through the decisions of the principals. This poster presents findings from the “BrAIn” project – Application of digital technologies based on artificial intelligence in education. Its aim is to examine how principals of public schools in Croatia conceptualize the role of artificial intelligence in transforming education. Drawing on findings from interviews with school principals (N = 22), the poster highlights key expectations, concerns, and opportunities voiced during the 2024/2025 school year in Croatian public primary and secondary schools. Principals mostly agree that artificial intelligence will certainly change education, primarily serving as an assistant, a tool that will enable the automation of administration and facilitate the creation of fully customized and individualized educational experiences through faster processing and availability of information. Nevertheless, AI will not be able to replace teachers, their human presence and emotions. In this regard, they however note that digital technology generally has reduced interpersonal contact in the school community, which needs to be addressed to preserve the key human and social component important especially for their leading of the collective.

The transition between preschool and primary school is often experienced as a complex period (Seabra-Santos et al., 2022), particularly for children with special educational needs (SEN) and their families. Indeed, this transition involves a shift between two environments and a relationship to space and materiality that is experienced differently by children, thereby altering their interactions. While the preschool setting tends to promote a more flexible environment—allowing children to move freely, choose their activities, and use adaptable materials—the entry into school often marks a rupture, where space becomes more structured, oriented toward academic learning, with controlled movements and fixed materials.

However, according to Freire’s (1974) critical pedagogy, the school space is not merely a physical environment but also a political place where different dynamics emerge. From this perspective, professionals (teachers, educators) are actively engaged in constructing the relationships between children, spaces, materials, and so on.

This poster will present a study on the transition experiences of eight four-year-old children with SEN. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, this research employed the mosaic approach to access children’s lived experiences (Clark & Moss, 2011). Eight sessions took place—four in preschool and four in school—following the same structure. During these sessions, the child and the researcher engaged in playful and creative activities (e.g., games, puppet play, microphone discussions/songs, guided environmental tours, photography, drawing, crafts, etc.). Each child created a transition book illustrating their experiences in preschool and school.

The poster will detail the creative and participatory methodology of this research and focus on one specific aspect of the results: children’s relationships with space and materials in preschool and school settings. We will discuss (1) the different relationships to space and materials in preschool and school, and (2) the importance of considering spatial and material dimensions as key components of the transition experience.

While parents’ aspirations and values are central to children’s developmental pathways, little is known about how they are expressed and enacted within contemporary Greek families. Our theoretical background is the narrative approach to therapy, a respectful, non-blaming approach to therapy and community work. A central metaphor of this approach is the distinction between the landscape of identity (what people find important, what they value) and the landscape of action (what they do, as an expression of the landscape of identity). In this study, we adapted these metaphors to parenting: The landscape of identity captures what parents find important for their children’s upbringing, and the landscape of action reflects how these values shape parenting practices. Our aim was to map the interplay of the two landscapes. Twenty Greek mothers of school-aged children participated in semi-structured interviews; their answers were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified several key aspects of the landscape of identity, including well-being, schooling and future occupation, alongside aspects of the landscape of action, such as guiding, structuring opportunities and seeking help. Findings provide a broad view of the ways parents articulate values and enact them in daily parenting, highlighting connections between aspirations and practices.

Background: Facebook groups are everyday spaces of mutual support for people with mental health difficulties, yet the types of support exchanged and the conditions shaping participation are underdescribed.

Purpose: To explore how members of BPD-focused virtual communities interact, what kinds of support they seek, and how platform and group-context factors shape participation.

Methods: Written posts, visual materials, and comment-thread dialogues from two Greek language Facebook peer support groups that differed in structure and operation (one closed, one more open) were analysed using a netnographic approach and reflexive thematic analysis (RTA).

Results: Netnographic observations showed unstable engagement: some members joined, left, and later returned; active participation often declined when individuals reported feeling better. Stigma and privacy concerns—e.g., doubts about protection in “closed” settings and denial of diagnosis—produced many post views but few reactions and even fewer comments. Boundary tensions appeared (disagreements, intense dyadic attachments, exits as “overexposure”), and attempts to move to synchronous contact (e.g., Skype) stalled due to fear of exposure. In the more open group, mental health professionals were largely passive observers, and occasional participation by people with other diagnoses further blurred the group’s focus. RTA identified four main themes capturing the support ecology: (1) emotional and existential support (validation, encouragement, affirmation, meaning-making); (2) psychoeducational and coaching support (lay knowledge and lived experience about therapies, providers, medications, skills such as DBT strategies, grounding, problem-solving); (3) practical and socioeconomic support (signposting to benefits/services, everyday logistics); and (4) community cohesion, rules, and platform support (off-topic bonding, clarifying group rules, and technical/privacy issues).

Conclusions: Facebook peer groups can provide rapid validation, signposting, and skills microinterventions for people with BPD, but low active engagement, stigma-driven caution, and risk management gaps limit impact. Clear rules, graded participation pathways, crisis protocols, and stronger links to services may enhance benefits while mitigating harms.

I am employed as both researcher at the Center for Arts and Mental Health (CKMS), located at a Danish psychiatric facility in Copenhagen. My academic background is in philosophy and economics, and I have previously researched and participated in creative writing groups at the same facility.

I am developing an autoethnographic case study, based on a 15-week creative video art workshop at CKMS in late 2025, involving young adults (aged 25-35) with lived experience as psychiatric patients. My dual role as participating autoethnographic researcher and insider (as former user/patient) provides access to unique insights and shifting perspectives, but also raises ethical and epistemological tensions.

In the video art workshop sessions, I explore how to work creatively and intuitively with my hands and eyes. It feels like “falling into decisions” without calculating consequences, and each session brings a surprising sense of discovery. This uncertainty often leaves me in ethical dilemmas related to my research.

The main question I bring to ECQI is:

How can my experience become valuable and transparent as experiential background knowledge for ethically analyzing the video art workshop’s dynamics?

The poster explores this question through four thematic headlines and corresponding empirical examples:

1.How to keep a focus on group dynamics with the use of autoethnographic methods?

2.How does the reveal of a researcher as a ‘real’ person who shares videos and stories impact the group?

3.What and whose truth am I telling?

4.What ethical concerns arise about publishing from insider-as-researcher perspectives?

Contribution

This poster contributes to ongoing discussions about how insiders-as-researchers can engage ethically in qualitative inquiry. I reflect on concrete examples while exploring the potential of user perspectives to reshape psychiatric research discourses. Ideally, this leads to broader normative questions about integrity, access to knowledge production, and how lived experience can inform practical and political change.

Training in systemic psychotherapy is a dynamic process that influences the professional and personal development of trainees, especially when combined with work in public mental health settings and NGOs. This study explores the challenges, experiences, and perspectives of these professionals through a qualitative content analysis based on a focus group with eight participants (psychologists, psychiatrist resident, child and adolescent psychiatrists residents). Five key thematic areas emerged: the personal journey and the impact of the educational experience, the balance between training and professional identity, the application of systemic thinking in the workplace, the effects of the socio-economic context on Greece’s public mental health system, and the resilience and future prospects of professionals. The first results indicate that, despite institutional difficulties, understaffing, and psychological burden, trainees develop adaptive strategies, strengthening both their professional identity and resilience. While the study highlights the need for greater institutional support and better integration of systemic thinking into professional practice, it also acknowledges the importance of viewing trainees as embedded within systems from a relational perspective on emerging issues.

Self-advocacy refers to speaking up for oneself, expressing one’s needs, and defending one’s interests (Test et al., 2005). It is a core component of the broader concept of self-determination, through which individuals live autonomous lives and make decisions independently (Wehmeyer et al., 2003). In the school context of the Canton of Vaud (Switzerland), students with special educational needs (SEN) are expected to become self-advocates to discuss and ensure the implementation of the support they require. However, these skills develop gradually, beginning in early childhood through everyday experiences. Therefore, family involvement is crucial in supporting their acquisition.Our current research project aims to develop 11 self-advocacy skills for students with SEN. Funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Equality of People with Disabilities and the University of Teacher Education of the Canton of Vaud, this participatory action research involves families in co-creating materials to be used with their children. Two groups of co-researchers participate: four adolescents and three mothers, collaborating with two researchers. The resulting materials will later be shared through an open-access platform for wider use by families. This poster presents how we collaboratively conceptualized and designed agentic materials (Snaza et al., 2016), enabling families to engage in “series of situations” (Dewey, 1998) that, through lived experience, can transform both individuals and their environments. We will describe the iterative work cycles with co-researchers and families that led to the co-construction and adaptation of multimodal learning materials, as well as examples of the resources that emerged from this creative and participatory process.

Snaza, N., Sonu, D., Truman, S. E., & Zaliwska, Z. (2016). [Introduction to] Pedagogical Matters: New Materialisms and Curriculum Studies. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc..

This presentation examines the methodological value of projective storytelling as a qualitative research tool for investigating children’s subjective experiences. Research with children requires approaches that are both ethically sensitive and developmentally attuned. Projective techniques provide children with symbolic and indirect means to articulate subjective experiences and meaning. The presentation will focus on the development and adaptation of the Lissy Storytellling test (LI.ST), a projective story completion test designed for children aged 3–12, within the Greek population. The tool was developed by the Laboratory of Clinical Research: Subjectivity and Social Bond at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is currently being applied in empirical studies investigating children’s experiences of trauma and resilience. Specifically, the LI.ST. Test has been utilized in research with children in flood-affected areas of Thessaly following Storm Daniel and with children diagnosed with neoplastic diseases. In these studies, the LI.ST. Test is employed alongside other qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and children’s drawings, to enhance interpretive depth. Preliminary findings indicate that projective storytelling offers a symbolic and psychologically safe way for children to talk about traumatic experiences. The method’s indirect nature appears to reduce defensiveness and promote narrative elaboration, thereby enhancing both data richness and helping children to process distressing experiences in a mediated, less threatening manner. The presentation will discuss methodological considerations, ethical implications, and future research directions, underscoring the contribution of projective storytelling to qualitative research with children.

In response to pressing global and local crises affecting marginalized Canadian youth, this study engages houseless young people as co-researchers in a two-phase participatory intervention grounded in an Ecological Systems approach. Rooted in collaborative and arts-based qualitative practice, the project centers youth voices and agency through storytelling, multimodal expression, and cross-sector dialogue. In the first phase, homeless youth (N=20) will individually complete a locator form, a demographic questionnaire, and a self-efficacy scale. Next, the same youth will participate in two focus groups composed of 10 youth each group. Youth will be asked about 1) current struggles and needs, 2) resources/services utilized, 3) barriers in accessing resources/services, and 4) possible solutions for improvements in service-delivery system. The focus group interviews will be audio-recorded and themes will be developed based on the grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2008). These collective narratives inform a series of participatory video workshops designed as creative, dialogic spaces. Over six weeks, youth will learn to script, film, and edit short videos highlighting their lived experiences and will be encouraged to view and discuss each other's videos, fostering community, resilience, and awareness of common struggles and resources. In Phase II, the youth-generated content will be woven into a 20-minute composite film which will then be presented to a small group (4–6) of community stakeholders (i.e., policy makers and service providers) in a facilitated focus group designed to explore the video's potential to shift perspectives and practices. This study will present findings from the assessments and focus group interviews conducted with houseless youth in Phase 1. By foregrounding youth creativity, collaboration, and collective meaning-making, this study speaks to broader global conversations around equity, interdependence, and shared vulnerability. This research highlights the transformative power of community-led, arts-based inquiry in navigating complex socio-political landscapes and fostering hope in challenging times.

Introduction: Workplace bullying is defined as a systematic and prolonged mistreatment of one or more employees by supervisors and/or colleagues at the workplace, and where the targets also find it difficult to defend themselves against the harassment (Einarsen, Hoel, et al., 2020).

Workplace bullying has received significant international attention in the literature with a wide range of books and articles in occupational health, medicine, epidemiology, psychology and management, in fact the field of study has exploded exponentially.

While much quantitative studies to date have focused on prevalence, cost, behaviours, effects and consequences, far fewer qualitative studies have sought to explore the subjective/lived experiences of the employees who have been targets of workplace bullying, and even fewer have investigated the experiences of primary school educators from an existential/phenomenological perspective.

Aim of study: This study seeks to address that gap by exploring how primary school teachers experience and make sense of workplace bullying in their professional lives.

Research methodology: A phenomenological research design was employed, specifically interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two primary school teachers, providing rich, first-person accounts. Data were analysed thematically to identify recurring patterns and underlying meanings within participants’ narratives.

Preliminary findings: Preliminary findings highlight three key themes: lack of belonging/feelings of isolation, professional identity being undermined, institutional complicity and silence. These insights reveal the impact of workplace bullying on the sense of self of each participant, and how, as a phenomenon, it can be silenced within the school environment.

Conclusion: The study contributes to a deeper understanding of workplace bullying in primary education and underlines the urgent need for interventions that prioritise teacher wellbeing.