2-5 July 2009,  Lisbon, Portugal

Happiness has been a concern of theologians, philosophers, economists, psychologists and other specialists. In the last decade there was a surge of publications in the psychological field about happiness. From books addressed to the general public about ways of reaching happiness to the scholarly journal articles that intend to search in a rigorous way the different dimensions of happiness. A journal was created just for the study of the subject. There is no doubt that happiness has become a central concern in our society.

However, happiness as multiple meanings. People in western societies seem to be more influenced by the idea of reaching some form of happiness. Happiness is equated with economic, personal, social, or spiritual well-being. Or just exerting control over life or having enough time to pursue personal objectives. Anyway, independent of the meaning, people seem to have an idea of happiness to fight for. In short, people desire to be happy, and they ask their therapists to help them to be happy.

We need to address this issue from the perspective of psychotherapy. Is there a role for psychotherapy in the individual pursuit of happiness of the patient? If so, what are the implications and limits of this role? What are the views of the different schools of psychotherapy concerning happiness? What should a therapist do when confronted with this issue ? Do the personal beliefs of the therapist concerning the personal attainment of happiness influence the course of psychotherapy ? In what ways? Or should we just drop the issue and leave that for person to solve by him or herself?

These are some of the questions that we would like to discuss in the coming 16th Congress of the European Association for Psychotherapy with the theme “Meanings of Happiness and Psychotherapy” . The Congress will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, from the 2nd to the 5th of July 2009. The Congress will be a joint organization of the Associação Portuguesa de Terapias Comportamental e Cognitiva (APTCC) e da Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicoterapia Centrado no Cliente e Abordagem Centrada na Pessoa (SPPCCACP).

The Congress will have plenary sessions with invited guests, symposia, presentations of papers, poster sessions and training workshops.

To submit your work in any of the different formats please go to our website at www.happinesseapcongress2009.org and follow the steps for submission.

Lisbon will do the honors of the Congress. Lisbon is situated in the centre-south of Portugal, by the river Tagus. It offers an opportunity to contact with the history of Portugal, strongly marked by the period of the Discoveries, as seen in monuments like the Torre de Belém (represented on the right upper side of the poster of the Congress) or the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. The Castle of S. Jorge is a dominant view in Lisbon, that resonates with the history of the formation of Portugal. Near Lisbon the visitor can go to Sintra (visit the Royal Palace and a national park), Évora ( a city that is a World Heritage Site) or Óbidos , a walled settlement with a maze of cobbled streets. As the Congress will be during summertime, the participants can enjoy one of the many beaches near Lisbon, or even stay for a longer period, and visit the Algarve, a province well-known as a place of vacation.

We have arranged with a Travel Agent to have different programs available for the participants of the Congress.

Congress site: www.happinesseapcongress2009.org

More information in: info@happinesseapcongress.org