Paul Stoney, United Kingdom, Chair
Stavros Karelis, Germany/Greece, Vice Chair
Louis Hillebrand, Belgium, Treasurer
Alexandra Tatiana Finkelstein Franyuti, Mexico, Regional Chapters
Nikos Vayiakakos, Greece, Communications
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Paul Stoney
Together with my wife Lynn I have loved the depth and personal relevance of systemic constellations since attending my first workshop in January 2004. Together we went on to train in family constellations at the Hellinger Institute of Britain (now CSC) and attended the Bernried International Intensive for several years. With 4 adult children, 4 children-in-law and 9 grand-children, family constellations have deeply guided the flow of family life. I also trained in advanced organisational constellations at the Dutch Hellinger Instituut just before retiring from my work as an IT analyst in a large well-regarded UK retail Partnership which demonstrated the health of an organisation which follows systemic principles.
Since 2007 I have been co-founder of a team running regular constellation workshops: www.constellationworkshops.co.uk. Participants come from many different nationalities, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. This cultural diversity drew me to the vision of ISCA since attending the Zagreb gathering in 2016. I became vice-chair the following year and helped plan the ISCA Gathering in Lovran in 2018. I was elected Chair of ISCA and have been in that role since 2019.
The task of chair is a great challenge but also feels an immense privilege. There is much work to do and we will need members of the board who are willing to put in time and energy to serve the collective in a spirit of joy and humility. I am confident that those who have nominated themselves have fully appreciated what the work involves and it will be a pleasure for me to work with those elected.
Of course ISCA also needs members who can inspire us and contribute to our vision without necessarily being on the board. We really need you as well!
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Stavros Karelis
Academic profile
My first bachelor’s degree was in the faculty of Business and Economics in Greece with specialization in marketing. At the same time I studied one year in Germany on the same faculty with specialization in European Business Management.
The next step was the fulfilment of my master studies in Politics and Economics, in University of Macedonia in Greece. Additionally, I also finished a second master’s degree study in Germany on Politics in Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg.
Today I’m working on my dissertation as a PhD candidate, to obtain the doctoral degree on Social Sciences.
Professional Profile
Back in the late 90’s, as I was about 30 years old, I managed to create my own franchise chain in Greece with six private schools, teaching the use of computers with students of every possible age-groups. This business has giving me a successful career for 15 years, until the Greek financial recession. During this recession, I founded and ran an advertising company in Thessaloniki, for 5 years until the imposition of rough austerity measures and the capital controls by IMF (i.e. Troika).
Current life experiences
Since 2016 I have lived in Germany, the country where ISCA was first created and still based until today. Since 2017 I had a very difficult experience in my life. To quote a Hellinger’s phrase “it was a matter of life and death”. Dealing with that gave me the opportunity to search for something more than business and academics. I started to contribute to the society as a “thank you for my second opportunity to life” and volunteered to translate for the city of Reutlingen for people with migration background. I translate from German to Greek and English.
In 2019 I also started to study the systemic constellations in Thessaloniki with Nikos Vayiakakos as my instructor, together with Anna Saliverou and Agapi Alexomanolaki. The Covid-19 has paused my studies, but I had the chance to start next year on online study basis for 2 years. In the meantime, I translated two books from their original German language to Greek. The first was the book the title “Gehen mit dem Geist”, written by Gehrmann T., Steinbach U. and the second one was „Lehrbuch der Systemaufstellungen“, written by Hartung S, Spitta W.
In the late 2022, I was contacted from the current board members to fill a vacant seat on the board, namely this of the Vice Chair. Without any (consideration) hesitation I agreed to contribute to our Association as much as I can. And therefore, I’m here and present myself as a candidate for this year’s elections.
What I offer
Managerial skills based upon academic skills and a long business path in the real market of a difficult economy, namely Greece. Knowledge and experience about politics in the sense of living harmoniously in societies, or at least as harmoniously as possible. Knowledge and experience on leadership of human capital and a long path with team working and team spirit experience. Organizational skills to get things done on time, by using the appropriate managerial concepts, ideas, and frameworks.
The board of ISCA needs good managerial skills and experience on the German reality, to support the needed organizational and legal matters concerning our Association and provide us a smooth function.
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Louis Hillebrand
I am Louis Hillebrand, born in the Netherlands in 1956, been married for 15 years, divorced and since 2007 living with Fawzia in Belgium.
Next to my job as a software-developer, Fawzia and I are running monthly constellation workshops for over 12 years. I’m fascinated by the work, try to keep up with all the new developments, loving different styles and facilitators and creating our own style by incorporating the styles that match with our way of living and facilitating. As constellation work is our mutual passion it has become an integral part of our life.
A big part of our learning next to the many trainings and workshops I followed is done by participating in the international intensive in Bernried/Kochel for the last 10 years. Learning from the faculty and the participants and my interest in the wider perspective of the work acknowledged my way of viewing the work as truly universal. My favourite way of working is to look at the greater whole without losing sight of the details.
Within my work as a developer and later as facilitator I’ve always had privacy and confidentiality on top of my list, respecting my sources and origin, and searching for the real need behind a question without judging the questioner. A way of being that became clear after I came in contact with the constellation work in 1999.
I always wanted to find a way to bring the people who do this work together, which is one of the reasons why we also invite experienced guest facilitators to Belgium. I have also been a member of ISCA for over 10 years.
The objective for my contribution to the board is to help us all facilitate ‘what’s emerging’ while keeping the goal of ISCA in mind. I want to make ISCA as interesting as possible for all facilitators worldwide. I believe this can be done without competition.
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Nikos Vayiakakos
I believe that I can contribute decisively in the areas of:
Developing and defining ISCA’s Vision, to design systemically pathways for ongoing support to developing Systemic Constellation communities in countries and regions beyond Europe and the US. Given the intrinsic cultural quality of the SC as a methodology, we may be presented at ISCA with a unique opportunity to enrich and expand our membership in line with the developmental course of these countries, internationally. Thus, through opening new Regional Chapters, ISCA may infuse a fertile ground for SC Work to develop more systematically to those communities, rather than relying on the older/traditional model of a strong local personality “representing” the interests of SC Work and/or the Founder himself.
Marketing and Promotion of the Association, its web presence, listing of practitioners, trainers and training events, etc. My contribution will be the formation of a master-plan for marketing & promotion synergies, where interested ISCA members worldwide could participate and disseminate the Association’s projects. Furthermore, I am willing to work with the Board and set up a specialty team for developing an online tool (I am working since 2019 on it), which will leverage engagement between members of the Association, promote new SC techniques and paradigms, establish a sense of mutuality and responsibility towards Systemic Work and, by all means, support new members to the SC community to learn and exchange knowledge in a bottoms-up way – from the base to the top and not vice versa, from top to bottom, in the authoritative fashion.
• Outreach Committee, the Public Relations aspect of ISCA, to reach out to other professional organizations, conferences, etc. to share SC Work, network, share ideas, etc. My vision is for ISCA to enter into dialogue and ongoing co-operation with chosen Academic & Research Institutions, to participate as a partner to educational & social programs, synergizing with private and public collective professional or academic bodies and, by all means, attracting funds (from EU or otherwise) for these activities. I am a strong believer of ISCA promoting an inter-disciplinary systemic culture amongst members internationally. Saying this, I must emphasize that these values of inter- disciplinarity and inter-professionalism are highly acclaimed in the academic world globally. It seems to me that ISCA may be standing on a “hidden treasure” on that front – this treasure really to be the diverse base of its membership. Unearthing this human dynamic could be a well-intended aim for our Board. Finally, I would like to stress the importance of liaising with an appropriate Research Institution, under whose design and guidance, ISCA members will have the opportunity to conduct phenomenological research on the Systemic Constellation Work and its effects to both clients and practitioners.
Now, with respect to the practical aspects of being a member of the Board, please consider the following points as areas for my involvement:
Website development – being experienced in the WordPress platform, I am able to cooperate with ISCA’s programmers for that matter. I suggest to re-develop the public website of ISCA in order to improve users’ experience, to facilitate navigation and to re-create a richer content.
Members Monthly Meetings and Newsletter – to assist as needed.
ISCA Gathering / Conference – I have experience in organizing symposia and professional conferences and in moderating panels of speakers.
Social Media – to assist building ISCA’s a/c on LinkedIn.
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Alexandra Tatiana Finkelstein Franyuti
“The symphony of life, evolving and sustaining all dimensions of forms in the vast universe of consciousness, invites me to travel along, allowing understanding of what is created in the cosmic field for all.”
ISCA as a window, has opened an opportunity to connect and expand our awareness of the field of Family Constellation Work, holding a space for the movements of the soul through dialog and sharing of personal experience in the field of us all, evolving into the new.
With this, I offer my role as ‘Head of Regional Chapters’, looking forward to be part of the construction and expansion of Constellation work all together as an Association, in all corners of the world, as an active, dynamic, and reflective Association within the constellation community”.
After early life spent in India and France I moved to Mexico, was educated at bilingual schools.
I am mother of an 18 year old daughter.
Career in Business Management and 20 year private practice of Holistic Therapy, 16 years involvement with Systemic Family Constellations with the last 3 years as a Family Constellations Facilitator in my corner of the world.
Relevant further training:
Gestalt (2 years) – Instituto de Psicoterapia Gestalt Querétaro, Qro.
Bioenergetics (Wilhelm Reich) (2 years) – Instituto Wilhelm Reich Queretaro, Qro.