Every Gear Counts: Co-construction Dialogue in Alexandroupolis, Greece

Article and photos by: Nicolas Kalantzakis

In August of 2026, I ran a four-session empowerment group, the “Dialogue Café on Co-construction”, at the Society of Social Psychiatry P. Sakellaropoulos (SSPPS) in Alexandroupolis. I co-facilitated it with my colleague at SSPPS Korina Gkoutsidou, and my supervisor Valentini Bochtsou supervised it. Eight service users took part and the timing was very fortunate as another peer-support group had been cancelled, which left a gap in the summer activities programme. I was luckily able to fill that gap. Our goal was to create a space where people who use mental health services can practice working together and looking at everyday challenges from different angles and have a say in how things are done collaboratively. This is also the first step towards the participatory anti-stigma research I am carrying out whilst at the same time engaging and building trust with service users at SSPPS.

The whole programme was built around the metaphor of a clockwork. Every person is a gear, and the mechanism only moves when all the gears connect. In the first session each participant made their own paper gear and marked it with a word or symbol for what they bring to the group. Over the following weeks the gears were added, one by one, to a shared clock on the wall.

Before starting, the group agreed on its own short set of rules for working together. An “opt-out” card let anyone step back from an activity without having to explain why. It was used a few times, and each time the person came back on their own terms. A mood check-in using pictures of dogs, and later piglets (“On a scale of dog/pig, how are you feeling today?”), was voted the group’s favourite warm-up activity and became a small ritual.

In the second session, participants worked through two role-play scenarios based on their own daily life. One group simulated saving on air-conditioning usage whilst keeping in mind all the different roles (roommates, contact person, employee at SSPPS finance department, etc.) that may be involved in figuring out a more economical and environmentally friendly usage. The other group planned a field trip to the beach, keeping in mind all the different needs that different attendees might have.

In the third session we ran a simulated focus group around one direct question: What would you change at SSPPS, and why? The proposals were then passed on to the team that runs the shared flats. This session was particularly important to me, as I was able to show service users what my planned focus groups look like whilst at the same time giving them the opportunity to organize themselves for a common cause. What I introduced was the focus group format. Many participants had never taken part in an interview or a focus group before, so getting to know the format first in a familiar setting felt like an essential step.

By the final session I barely had to speak, and my speech ratio thankfully decreased by a lot. The group ran the activities themselves, and several people began talking openly about stigma and what the group had meant to them. The clock was completed, and people who had earlier chosen to sit out took an active part in the discussion on stigma and how they would like to support my research.

This group also helped me consolidate my role at SSPPS from a mere observer to an active member. The Dialogue Café on Co-construction will continue in October and will lead to the focus groups with service users from January onwards. Once I move to Athens for the second half of my fieldwork, I will run this Dialogue Café on the same themes at the SSPPS premises there, with service users from Athens. My focus groups will likewise take place in both Alexandroupolis and Athens so that I can compare experiences in a regional and a metropolitan setting. Until then, I hope our clock continues to tick as smoothly as it has so far.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me along the way. Korina and Valentini in particular, for helping me find my place at SSPPS, and the service users, for being so supportive and making me feel part of their group.