The free and non-dogmatic use of the theories and practices of Group Analysis and the Therapeutic Community, as well as our non-condescending views regarding common sense, have led to a series of changes, readjustments, innovations, definitions and applications, not only in therapy and education, but also in organizational functioning. Gradually, the acceptance and study of the communal format resulted in the creation and implementation of seven Communities—three therapeutic (the daily, the fortnightly and the summer TC) and four training, which correspond to the four Institutes that operate in close collaboration with the therapeutic work of the OPC (Institute of Group Analysis, Institute of Psychological Assessment, Institute of Psychodrama-Sociotherapy and Institute of Family Therapy).

The Training Community could be defined as the space where trainers and trainees work together and where common activities contribute to both parties benefiting most from their pursuit of learning.

All Institutes belong functionally to the IOAA. They organize and supervise the four postgraduate professional specializations, the Workshops, the Conferences, the Publications, etc. Over the years, clinical as well as theoretical innovations have emerged, based on our needs and concerns.

Distinguishing the Individual from the Person and the Persona. Individual: Concept with descriptive properties, with quantitative characteristics. The approach is made through the experiment. Person: Denotative of roles, representation, symbols. Persona: Idea, being or becoming. It presupposes the presence of other persons, eye contact and experience. As for the most part, reference is made to the Person in contrast to the statistical concept of the Individual in order to emphasize the uniqueness, but also the special characteristics of a personality.

Differentiation of Information from Knowledge. Information is relatively easily acquired by the interested party in various ways (…), but it is short-lived, of limited use, most often lacking personal experience and is usually reserved for the learning of technical skills and applications. Knowledge is more complex, because it also presupposes unlearning to a certain extent. The process of knowledge is, of course, related to the object, but basically concerns the subject who seeks it, and is acquired through experiences, which are significantly influenced by mutual interaction, but also by the arrangement, which must be appropriate to the desired goal.

Role – Interchange of Roles. The need for the trainee to acquire the ability to diagnose the effects of the role, so as to be able to avoid or limit the tyranny of a permanent identification with it, is considered of the utmost importance. An empowering process that the Community provides is the possibility of distinguishing concepts such as Leading and Conducting, as well as between Status (degree or property) and Role, as well as between Authentic and Authoritarian.

Differentiation of the concepts of Power and Strength, as the temptation for narcissistic tendencies for Power is not uncommon among therapists. Power is the feeling that lasts as long as we maintain a strong role, while Strength is the feeling that possesses us when, after losing Power in any way, we do not collapse emotionally.

Distinction between interpretations and explanations: Explanations are usually characterized by an ontology, while interpretation deals with ethics. Thus, we define Psychoanalytic Interpretation as an arbitrary, unsolicited, useless and, not infrequently, incriminating justification.

Instead of the Super-Ego, in which religious overtones are obvious while its usefulness is rather doubtful, we created the Around-Ego. The latter is cultivated and flourishes by strengthening the active participation of all those involved in the psychotherapeutic process, weakening the role of the sole authority, the expert, limiting guilt and reinforcing shame.

A distinction between Shame and Guilt, which is facilitated mainly by including the other, that is, more people in the psychotherapeutic process, in order to reduce the abuse of Guilt.

Group-Analytic or Greek Model of Supervision. A completely new approach to Supervision.

Training in Psychodrama and Sociotherapy. Launch of demanding and reliable training for the staff of the Therapeutic Community.

Furthermore, we launched, already in 2002, the Publishing Series “Contemporary Psychotherapy”.