Systems

The first system we become a part of is our FAMILY.

Which sits within a CULTURAL system, a SOCIETAL one, and a GLOBAL one.

All these systems have trauma, norms, usually assigned roles for the individuals within them, as well as implicit and explicit ways of being.

During my first overseas adventure I discovered the parts of me, the characteristics that were very much a part of the Australian culture in which I had grown up. Living in England, I recognised the qualities that had their roots in England. Certainly the drinking habits, which were not so much a part of my Greek roots. Generally in greek traditions, drinking is very much a compliment to FOOD.

The differences between the Greek culture from which I originated and the Australian culture I was raised in, were very much at the forefront through my adolescence, where home was Greek, and school not. Like many in the same boat, I toddled between the two, an added element in the transition of adolescence, which is all about discovering who we are outside the family system.. 

And within that Greek Australian mix, was an entirely different expression of the Greek culture from the country of GREECE. 

We cannot stay the same when we make a new choice, as the conceptual moves into actualisation, the experience transforms whether we want it to or not. some navigating the transition with more ease than others, yet, regardless, it is uncomfortable. When you migrate from a country that doesn't even speak the same language, the most basic things become more effortful. Hence, the very normal creation of cultural enclaves. 

Recently in a conversation with a cousin, we shared our individual awareness, that our parents would have been entirely different people had they stayed in Greece. Noting how her aunts in Greece were outspoken, lively, in their exchanges with their husbands, unlike her mother, who like my mum,  was submissive, and would not challenge her authoritarian husband. The process of migrating to another country, created an entirely different expression of the Greek culture, often more connected to the time of departure, than Greece presently.

These are the intergenerational threads that weave through our lives, influences in ways we don't always see because we are so immersed in it. Ties often being claimed as who we are, as an individual. The system is a powerful vortex, one that you feel more keenly when you choose to step out of its assigned roles. 

Who are you? in this context, becomes a call to truth. 

And fundamentally is the question I believe you get to explore, and find an answer too, through the therapeutic process. It has revealed itself in the stressors of your life, in the overwhelm, in the desire for something different. As you set yourself free, you also release those from the assigned roles you have given them, allowing for new possibilities of being in relationship with & one of the reasons I was inspired to create the CODEPENDENCY Group. It is not always comfortable, because your present comfort, lies in who you have been till now. I am here to support this process of true freedom & discovery.