Shervin Shahnavaz, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, and Psychotherapist at the Centre for Psychiatry Research and Centre for Education & Research at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm. Vice-Chairman at Council for environment and Sustainable development, Karolinska Institutet.

Lundstedt/Shahnavaz duo is made up of Elvira Lundstedt and Viggo Shahnavaz, two trained and experienced jazz musicians. In close collaboration, they have created a unique jazz sound, merging Lundstedt’s mind-blowing voice and Shahnavaz´s musing guitar. The duo has toured in different parts of Sweden, now inviting you join them on their explorative musical journey.

"You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the entire ocean in a drop."

For over 800 years, Rumi's thoughts and experiences of inner growth and transformation have crossed cultural and linguistic boundaries, deeply affecting individuals all over the world. He is one of the most widely read poets globally. Thinkers and writers such as Emerson, Goethe, Fromm, and Gandhi have been inspired by him. With the help of poems and metaphors, Rumi creates images, emotions, and experiences that create new perspectives and enable inner growth. He uses music and movement (whirling) to elicit and strengthen these experiences. Compassion, acceptance, and love are at the heart of Rumi's work. Love is both the goal and the means of spiritual maturity, self-knowledge, wisdom, and personal transformation. Several modern psychotherapy schools such as Compassion Focused Therapy and Acceptance Commitment Therapy rest on psychological foundations that in many ways are advocated in Rumi's work. This presentation seeks to add perspectives and enrich the work on IDGs by bringing Rumi to the audience.