Going Deeper on Delphi Awakening…with Dr Tina Grigoriou

People often ask me what being a psychologist or therapist really means. It’s something I am still learning about myself (!) but the way I look at it is this: I am a human being available to my clients for them to relate to on a human-to-human level.

This allows for an authentic relationship to flourish, designed to serve my client’s needs, informed by psychological theory. I am particularly interested in the mind and body connection and how this relates to both conscious and unconscious material and processes.

Having trained in various approaches, I've now cultivated a therapeutic style I consider more creative than integrative. Following the philosophy of Donald Winnicott, I believe self-discovery unfolds through creativity. In therapy, we navigate crises alongside the journey of self-discovery, recognising their informative value.

Delphi Awakening’s holistic approach

Mindfulness, Ancient Greek Philosophy, and psychology are so closely interlinked and inform one another. They dance so well together.

Mindfulness is mainly based on Eastern philosophy but in different shapes and forms it also existed in ancient Greece. Ancient Greeks did not do formal practices such as ‘mindfully observing a raisin’ but they had great appreciation for beauty, for music, the theatre, for the emotional experiences created in the moment, the catharsis. They knew how to be purposefully and intentionally connected to the present moment. Alright…maybe they were not practicing non-judgment as such, but something needs to give in order for the philosopher to be born!

I believe that psychology needed the ancient Greek philosophy in order to be born. For example, in psychology we often refer to Aristotle’s happy medium, Plato’s cave, the Platonic love, and we may borrow Socrate’s questioning method depending on the approach we use. If you are Greek, you can’t help it but see the Greek influence.

It is not a coincidence that Freud and Jung were inspired by the ancient Greek myths and tragedies in developing their theories. In my work, I find that I refer to Greek philosophers organically, it just makes sense. For example, when working with patients on their fear of death I find myself quoting Epicure (as long as we exist death is not here and once it does come, we no longer exist) and somehow this gives them a different perspective that helps them not to be overwhelmed by their fears.

“Bringing psychology, mindfulness meditation and philosophy together is part of my own journey in discovering myself. It is a journey that often others see and trust because it has truth and integrity in it.”

The Mind-Body Connection at Delphi

For me the main pillars of Delphi Awakening are centred around connection. It is my connection to my embodied self, to others, to nature, to what existed before me such as the temples, the olive trees, the history and the myths, as well as what will continue to exist after I am gone.

In stillness and in movement we grow. Contemporary scientists such as Van der Kolk, Mate’, Porges and others write extensively about the importance of the mind-body connection in terms of physical and psychological healing. Many of our sessions and practices during the retreat are connected to the body. During the Delphi Awakening Retreat we have an opportunity to really work in vivo with the mind-body connection for the whole duration of the retreat. A full 5-day immersion allows for a deeper and guided experience of a variety of embodied practices such as dance movement sessions, sound baths, mindfulness meditations, breathwork and mindful hiking.

I move and I am being moved (kinoumai kai syginoumai), what a better way to feel alive, especially when we are surrounded by other individuals who are open, present and equally ‘alive’. In synkinoumai there is the prefix syn…mazi. We move together as a group, we connect to one another and we feel our human nature and humanity. At the end of our last retreat, I left feeling immense love. I felt so loving towards others, my heart was open.

Imagine if we could experience this collectively. Our world could be such a peaceful place, buzzing with love and creative energy.

“If I am to put our aims or mission into words concisely, this is to facilitate participants’ awakening to their authentic self and to the magic of life that feels alive.”

As Maya Angelou aptly said, it's not just what we say or do, but how we make others feel. With our support, participants embark on a transformative journey, discovering their values and unlocking their potential for meaningful action.

Dimitri and I together with the members of our team are there to help participants feel, to have a transformative experience that will move them beyond words. Maybe this will allow for an epiphany or for a glimpse towards a direction that will make their own hero’s journey meaningful and worthwhile.

Why Delphi?

The oracle of Delphi is a wonderful symbol for inviting participants to connect to the oracle within, their own Wise Self. Know thyself or self-knowledge helps people make decisions for themselves and accept that there are consequences that stem from our own decisions and choices. This insight can be very empowering for some people. I understand that this is also scary sometimes, that is why many of us may look for external oracles for guidance I believe there is an energy field in Delphi that definitely I am not in a position to explain. I can only comment on the almost unbelievable synchronicities that occur in Delphi.

Although we thought that we chose Delphi as a meaningful place for our retreat, it was actually Delphi that chose us. Delphi and what it represents may be what the humanity needs at times of great uncertainty and, to some extent, madness. What we are witnessing happening in our world sometimes feels like an awful nightmare…

During our last retreat, Dimitri and I would observe how our wonderful collaborators, unbeknown to them, offered images, stories and facts that fully brought our work to life. At times it felt as if we were all part of the same lucid dream and this was not at all a nightmare.

I would like to share a moment that deeply touched me during our guided visit to the Museum of Delphi. Penny Kolovatsou, our tourist guide and museologist asked us if we knew who the God of Empathy was. Maybe we should have known but we didn’t. She said it was God Dionysus because he was the only God that had a mortal mother, Semeli. What a gem, what a gift for psychological reflection. We are humans, we have empathy because we know that those we love will die one day…So many more wonderful insights are generously born and shared in Delphi.

As you walk, hike or meditate in Delphi, you encounter symbols that are manifestations of the archetypes and the collective unconscious. These are gentle reminders of our authentic human nature and the shared history of all mankind. This can only be good news for one’s mental health wellbeing.

In Delphi, one embarks on a journey of self-knowledge by walking on the ancient sacred land of our ancestors and fully connecting to the sensations and vibrations in the present moment. You don’t need to go searching for something because what you need is in front of you and in you. Sometimes you may even be in it, as it happens during our visit to the Corycean cave. When we enter the cave, we step into a vast yet containing space that envelops us, we meet the archetype of the Mother Earth and we might even unconsciously re-experience our first connection to our own mother when we were in her womb. The symbols blend with the place, they evoke archetypal patterns and memories that people do not know they have in them.

We walk through the ancient olive groves, as individuals and as a nomad. This is who we are, even if we don’t always know how to put it into words. We could actually say that hiking in Delphi is definitely nature therapy too! When practicing mindfulness or breathwork in nature, when hiking or listening to the sounds around us, we are philosophers, nomads, shepherds, magicians and artists. You name it, it is in us, either in a state of waiting or in a state of becoming. We wish to help people identify what it is there waiting for them to discover or what needs to be cultivated with love to grow.

“If I were to name just one thing that our retreat might awaken you to…it is to help you find your own Delphi and your own oracle within yourself. Your life is calling you to live intentionally and with awareness.”

Our next retreat is taking place soon, from 4th to 8th June this year. We would love to see you there.