Community in Dialogue
Festive book presentation 'Lifeblood of trust for real relationship' in Popei, Eindhoven Netherlands
Updated: Nov 14, 2019
Festive book presentation 'Lifeblood of trust for real relationship' in Popei, Eindhoven - Wednesday, November 6, 2019. The biography of Barbara R. Krasner, co-founder of the contextual ideas, has appeared. A unique book with many insights and tools to help stagnate relationships.

Budir a/k/a Barbara R. Krasner
November 5, 2019
It is with joy and tears that I share this moment with you today.
It is with surprise and certainty that this book has come into being through our passion and dedication.
It is with tremendous gratitude that I celebrate the strength and determination of our words and love.
In the midst of trauma and error, we illuminated the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and his struggle to join words and sentences and paragraphs into meaning… We brought to life his work to make it more clearly known and understood.
The other miracle is the unity of sharing our hearts and minds in the midst of differing backgrounds, intentions, and emphases.
Ivan’s genius, along with the genius of Martin Buber and Maurice Friedman, have seeped into our hearts and souls, as I hope they will seep into yours.
I hope you are touched by the flow of our stories and the love that this book contains.
Writing together has been a consecration of our souls.

Presentation: Greet de Bruijn
The American Barbara R. Krasner (1933) saw her parents fight as a child. She wondered how it is possible that people who love each other do not talk to each other. This began a search for answers that came from, among others, professor and psychiatrist Ivan Boszermenyi-Nagy, who then fled from Hungary to the US, founder of the contextual approach. Krasner has further developed the ideas with him. Together they wrote the famous 'Between Give and Take' (1986).
The colorful book follows Barbara's path of life. How she grew up as a daughter of a migrant family, the many walls she ran into, her marriage to three children and two adopted children. And how she came up against US racism; she participated in the famous Selma March with Martin Luther King.
The authors have asked questions about situations in Barbara's life. This has resulted in guidelines that help the reader to look at relationships in a contextual way and to work with them themselves. In addition to a unique personal biography, this book offers many starting points for answers to the big questions. How to be happy with each other and to live, live and work together as well as possible.
Our world is full of stagnant relationships: (v) divorces, problems in compound families, migration conflicts, sometimes profound differences in upbringing and culture. Contextual thinking assumes that a person moves and becomes himself in a relational, intergenerational reality. Which questions and topics are essential for a good relationship? Is there reliable contact, do you and I matter, are we heard, are we connected, is our relationship in balance? If there are no satisfactory answers, loneliness, depression and illness lurk.
Contextual thinking has also been used successfully for many years internationally in family, family and partner therapy. It is also used within companies and institutions. The contextual perspective provides insights and tools for gaining (back) trust, for starting a real dialogue and for restoring relationships. In order to investigate and improve relationships, specific visions have been developed for loyalty between people, injustice, recognition and the importance of resources.
This book is the result of five years of collaboration with Barbara and with 2 other authors over the Atlantic Ocean, Douglas W Schoeninger and Karen Krasner Allen, and with contributors Rachel Joyce, Greta Roberts, Russ Parker, and Scott M Krasner.
Author and therapist Greet de Bruijn will explain the creation of this special book and elaborate on the meaning of the contextual ideas of 2019. Of course with the possibility of buying the book. And yes, there is dancing afterwards!
Program:
7.30 p.m. Reception with a cup of coffee or tea
8:00 pm Opening in Grote Zaal by Don Croonenberg
8.10 pm Musical accompaniment by Harold Schraven and Mike van Os
8.30 pm Introduction by Carianne Burema, Uitgeverij ACCO
8.35 pm Presentation by author Greet de Bruijn
9.10 pm Presentation of the first copy to Mirjam Bakker, founder and director of the Learning about Life-OICS training institute in Amsterdam with training locations in Zwolle and Eindhoven, among others.
9.15 pm Possibility to purchase the book
11.00 pm Then dance for those who want to DJ Frogson!
About the authors:

Barbara R. Krasner
Barbara R. Krasner The Grande Lady of contextual therapy. Co-founder of the Centre for Contextual Therapy & Allied Studies, breathes and embodies the Contextual work. Her life and career as a daughter, girlfriend, wife, mother, grandmother, family therapist, lecturer and author illustrates her dedication and passion to the concepts and applications of Contextual work. She is sorry that she is unable to be present on this special evening.

Greet de Bruijn
After fifteen years of education - teaching practice and management - Greet de Bruijn switched to coaching families and family businesses. She brings child and family, education and preventive care together. Greet, also co-owner of consultancy firm The Bitter End ( www.thebitterend.nl ), works as a relationship therapist in a partnership with a psychologist's practice. She is trained in, among others, existential psychotherapy, EFT relationship therapy, Spiral Dynamics and Contextual theory. In 2014 she brought Barbara R. Krasner to the Netherlands; her lectures and workshops were very busy. A special friendship has emerged. And from this friendship this unique book has emerged.

Douglas W. Schoeninger
Douglas Schoeninger, a clinical psychologist, has been working as a family therapist in America for over 40 years. He has been trained and has collaborated with Ivan-Boszermeny-Nagy and Barbara R. Krasner. Over the years, a deep friendship and collaboration with Barbara Krasner has grown.

Karen K. Allen
Karen K. Allen, is the youngest daughter of Barbara R. Krasner. She studied psychology at The George Washington University (GWU); and earned an MBA in Change Management and Business Planning. At the Center for Contextual Therapy, she worked side by side with Sue MacDonald, Austin Joyce, Douglas Schoeninger and Barbara Krasner, and was steeped in trust-based theory and therapy. Currently she helps people under duress take hold of vital legal, financial, and medical documents and information. and works as a personal assistant to her mother.
Neither Karen and Doug were able to be present at this presentation.