Why focus on the “here and now”?

The here and now is the foundation of Yehia Rakhaw School. It is where emotions emerge, relationships unfold, conflicts surface, creativity appears, and meaning is co-created. It is both a clinical stance and a human position, one that connects inner experience with social and cultural realities.

What do you mean by “legacy”?

Legacy is not something frozen in the past. It is what we carry forward: schools of thought, mentors’ voices, cultural memory, collective trauma, and shared hope. This conference explores how legacies can be honored without becoming rigid, and how they can stay alive through dialogue, creativity, and responsibility.

How does media fit into a conference on mental health, group therapy and group work?

Media shapes how stories are told, silenced, distorted, or amplified.Cinema, storytelling, and digital media influence identity, belonging and collective imagination, and trauma. The conference creates a space to work on the area where media intersects with mental health, group processes, and social responsibility.

Is this a clinical conference, an academic one, or a cultural event?

It is intentionally all three, and also something in between.Alongside theoretical reflections and clinical practice, the conference welcomes experiential learning, artistic expression, and cultural dialogue. Knowledge here is not only presented; it is lived and shared.

The Tale of All Tales: My Life as a “Hero’s Journey” – Group Schema Therapy Meets Expressive Arts Therapy

Country

Switzerland / Egypt

Presenter/Author

Christoph Fuhrhans & Mera Abdelmalek

type

OnSite

Professional Affiliation

Institute for Schema Therapy East Switzerland

Presentation method

Workshop

The Tale of All Tales: My Life as a “Hero’s Journey” – Group Schema Therapy Meets Expressive Arts Therapy

This experiential workshop integrates the archetypal motifs of the Free Child and the Hero’s Journey into a process of self-exploration within a group setting. Combining emotion-activating methods from Group Schema Therapy with Expressive Arts Therapy, participants engage their own life path as a Hero’s Journey.

From Gilgamesh and the Arab epic of Abu Zayd al-Hilali to modern narratives, the hero myth reflects the legacy of human storytelling. It allows us to feel addressed by our own reality—sometimes in joy, in fear, or in awe.

Through guided imagery, movement, and expressive work, participants explore the call, resistance, and threshold crossings of their journey, accessing the Vulnerable Child beneath coping/shadow modes and experiencing the expressive power of the Her/o in the Now.