Peter Lourdes, a Salesian priest of the Province of Kolkata, is one of the first priest psychologists in India.

Fr. Lourdes has nearly 50 years’ experience in counselling, spiritual direction, teaching and training, seminars for priests, religious and educators.

He was for several years Programme Director and Head of the Psychology Department at National Vocation Service Centre, Pune. He was the first President of the Salesian Psychological Association. Currently he has a psychotherapy practice in Kolkata.

Fr. Lourdes holds a D. Psych in Clinical Psychology from Salesian University, Rome, Masters in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, and a PhD in Counselling Psychology from Loyola University, Chicago.

He is certified as a Massage therapist from the San Francisco School of Massage therapy.

Fr. Lourdes has been a member of the Visiting Faculty at Sumedha Centre from its very beginnings in 2003 until this year. Each year he has led two or more therapy grous as well as offering other programmes.

Peter made his religious profession on 6^th December 1944 and was ordained a priest on 5^th December 1954. The 6oth anniversary of his ordination and the 70^th anniversary of his religious profession were celebrated on 5^th December 2014 at Nitika Don Bosco, Kolkata where he currently resides and practices as a psychotherapist.

A number of his family members from Australia, Kolkata and Khargpur In Bengal  graced the occasion.

About 15 fellow Salesian priests joined him at the concelebrated Holy Eucharist and the felicitations and dinner that followed.

On the occasion Fr. Lourdes' latest book "Wow Jesus!" was released.

Jose Parappully, Director of Sumedha, represented the Centre at the jubilee celebrations.

SUMEDHA OUTREACH – SOUTH CITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL KOLKATA

The Director of Sumedha Centre, Jose Parappully PhD, was invited to do another workshop for the teachers of the secondary section of South City International School, Kolkata on June 14-15. He had done a workshop there last year.

Last year the theme of the Workshop was “Enhancing Institutional Effectiveness.” This year the Workshop focused on one of the significant dynamics that contribute to  Institutional Effectiveness, namely, Relational (Communication) Networks.

Accordingly, the workshop was labelled “Enhancing Interpersonal Communication.”

Of the 48 participants this year, 15  had joined the school since the last workshop.  Hence, the facilitator briefly referred to the concepts explored last year to acquaint the new teachers with these foundational concepts. He then introduced Howard Gardner’s concept of Personal Intelligences and their role in effective interpersonal relationships and communication.

A major obstacle to effective interpersonal relationships is unaddressed conflicts. Teachers were helped to discern current conflicts between Management and Teachers and conflicts among themselves and introduced to tools that help address and work through conflicts in an effective and helpful manner.

The focus of exploration on the second day of the Workshop was Interpersonal Relationships among the teachers. The role of Assertive Communication was pointed out and teachers were helped to understand and practise it in a series of experiential exercises.

Video clips, songs, introspection and group interaction and processing were some of the tools used, besides insights from organisational psychology presented by the facilitator.

Teachers found the Workshop very useful to enhance their interpersonal and, consequently, work relationships. The Workshop especially provided them, they observed, opportunity to come to understand more deeply one another and the issues that affect them, which in turn has contributed to increased desire to work toward greater cohesion and collaboration.