Co-organised by:
Faith and Global Engagement, HKU
Department of Social Work & Social Administration, HKU
Visual Psychophysics and Neuroimaging Laboratory, HKU
Shame and Contemplative Discovery:
A Community Resocialization Process (12:30-2pm)
Set within a fragmented community, The Family: People Helping People project is a group process model that aims to facilitate cultural resocialization through personal transformation. Based on the Contemplative Discovery Pathway Theory (CDPT), the family models a nuclear family, and uses an open discussion approach to address various psychosocial issues within the context of society. In the Bahamas, where the “Family” project was launched, we discovered that as persons share their life stories in a contemplative atmosphere of love, mindfulness, and nonjudgmental listening, a powerful healing bond develops within a group. This healing bond we define as “Family”. Through our qualitative and quantitative research we found that persons attending the Family community groups have experienced decreased anger, violence, revenge, and abusive relationships. This was accompanied by an increase in self-esteem, conflict resolution, benevolence, hopefulness, forgiveness, and gratitude. These findings validated the effect of the Family: People Helping People project in producing character development and resocialization.
Intimacy in a Distant World (4-5:30pm)
Contemplation may be defined as a process which involves the transformation of consciousness, opening us to love and forgiveness. This allows us to release our shame and experience a deeper sense of intimacy within ourselves and toward each other. This counteracts the prevailing sense of loneliness in spite of the burgeoning technology in modern society.
