Tenia Makri speaks from the heart on her first visit to Australia
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
Tenia Makri, one of the most recognisable voices in Greece in the fields of interpersonal relationships and psychology, is travelling to Australia for the first time to meet the Greek Diaspora in person.
With decades of experience in mental health and counselling, and a multitude of books to her credit, Makri was invited by community organisations—the Hellenic Women’s Network of Victoria, HELIADES, EEAMA, AHEPA Victoria, and the Hellenic Women’s Cultural Association ESTIA—to Melbourne to deliver two lectures on family relationships and its influences. The lectures will take place this Sunday 26 October, and on Sunday 9 November.
A dream come true
“I’ve dreamed of this trip for years,” Tenia Makri told Neos Kosmos enthusiastically. “When it became reality, I just couldn’t believe it…”
Makri is no stranger to Greek communities abroad. She calls America her “second home,” having built enduring connections there since she was 17—friendships that became family, as well as studies and professional trips. She has also come to know the Greek communities of Canada and many countries across Europe.
“Greeks of the Diaspora are remarkably similar, whether in America, Canada, or Europe,” she says. “They share the same longing—one foot in their new homeland, the other still in Greece. They never fully let go. Very few, in my experience, have renounced their Greek roots. Most still dream that one day they will return home.”
Greek identity passed from generation to generation
This love for the homeland appears to be transmitted to younger generations in a moving way.
“You’d think it’s embedded in their DNA,” she says. “Because we fear losing our Greek identity, we instil in our children this idea of a homeland, so that if we ourselves are uprooted, we leave behind another root.”
Makri notes that she has not seen this phenomenon among other nationalities. She believes Orthodoxy and its shared religious experience may play a key role; the triptych of Homeland, Religion, and Family, which shaped Greek identity and we continue to be pass on to our children.
Yet migration has also carried an emotional cost, particularly for the second generation.
“The people who emigrated worked very hard to succeed. To do so, they were often absent from their children, not just physically but emotionally,” she explains.
The result? Children of this generation unconsciously developed a defence mechanism, a kind of denial, “to endure their parents’ emotional absence.”
“This denial,” she adds, “sometimes turned against Greece itself, for forcing their parents to leave.”
However, she adds with a smile, this denial dissipates “when they travel and come to experience the beauty of this land.”
“Today we see the people of that second generation travelling to Greece every year and soaking up this sun, this sea, this carefree spirit that exists here,” she notes. “A sense of freedom and ease that, at least in the U.S. and Canada as I have observed, simply doesn’t exist.”
Family relationships
In her first lecture, Tenia Makri will discuss “how family influences shape us and what kind of relationships mould us while causing the fewest wounds. “For example, what does a happy family look like?”
Her second lecture will explore how personality develops from the womb to adolescence—shaped by genetics, experiences, and the environments that influence a person. She will also examine “for how long parents can influence their children to help form a personality that encourages growth rather than one that blocks it.”
“I’d like these lectures to be a dialogue, not a monologue,” Makri emphasises. “I want to spark curiosity, encourage questions. I want to listen to the audience, feel their pulse, hear their hearts. To let go of the reservations we wear like protective vests. That is my greatest wish.”
Thousands of stories and the two stages of life that move her
After more than 45 years in psychology and counselling, Tenia Makri has heard thousands of stories.
“My soul cries for the children who come to me abused, and it bleeds for the elderly when they are mistreated,” she says.
“These are life’s two edges. The most sensitive, the most vulnerable stages of human existence.”
“When I see children falling apart because of the way they’ve been treated by their parents, school, or friends, I tear up. At this age, neither their intellectual capacity nor their emotional intelligence is fully developed. Children feel the pain as it is. Unfiltered. They cannot process it, logically or emotionally.”
“And with the elderly, there is the looming threat of death,” she continues. “They carry the weight of a lifetime of experiences. They have given so much, sacrificed so much, and often expect gratitude they do not receive from their families. All they want is to be loved for what they have done. These people suffer greatly.”
The crisis of our time and the light that follows
When Tenia Makri speaks about our era, her voice takes on a reflective tone. “We are living through a dark period, not only in Greece but throughout the world,” she says. “Yet darkness is always followed by light.”
For her, COVID-19 was not just a pandemic but a global wake-up call.
“For me, it was what the Holy Scripture describes about Sodom and Gomorrah; an event that occurred to change the world. It rang a very loud alarm bell to urge us all to look within, to make us see that we were sailing off course,” she notes. “And then came the aftermath. Surfacing like cork and debris from the sea were violence, inhumanity, and exploitation.”
Yet even in this dark period, she sees the light.
“The same event also planted the seed for philanthropy, for love of humanity, to counter that hatred we are seeing. We are witnessing the struggle of good against evil. And we are called to choose which of the two we will allow to prevail.”
Makri believes the answer lies within us. “We must remember who we are. We are higher beings, created to bring about change. And the choice is ours.”
“Choose the right change,” she advises. “Connect with your emotions and combine them with your reason as you move forward. Reason without emotion makes you inhuman.”
Speaking of humanity, she concludes: “Each of us is unique in the world. There is no one identical to another—we are all singular. And the strangest thing is that we don’t even realize how unique we are. The only thing we share in common is that we are human beings. Nothing else. If we understand this, we will begin to respect this uniqueness in ourselves and others, and give it the opportunities it deserves.
Admission is free. However, registration is required for catering purposes. For further information visit our Greek Guide events page.
The original article: belongs to NEOS KOSMOS .
