The Association of Analytical Psychology of Moldova is hosting its first ever international conference this June, signifying a landmark moment for Jungian psychology in the region, and a gathering that could hardly be better situated. Moldova, a small country in Southeastern Europe poised between East and West, offers a living metaphor for the conference’s central theme: identity in transition.
Identity at the Crossroads: Peril and Potential takes place in Chișinău from June 19 to 21, 2026, at the Bristol Central Park Hotel, in the heart of the city. The conference invites analysts, psychotherapists, scholars, and all those interested in analytical psychology and symbolic life to explore the personal, cultural, and collective dimensions of identity. From a Jungian perspective, identity is never fixed. It is continuously created and re-created through encounters with cultural complexes, collective shadows, and the dynamic evolution of psychic structures. Moldova’s own history as a crossroads between competing powers and cultures makes it a uniquely resonant location for this inquiry.
The program opens on Friday June 19 with a Social Dreaming Matrix and a pre-conference workshop in Expressive Sandwork led by Eva Pattis Zoja and Mihaela Drăgan. Saturday’s main program opens with a keynote by Ursula Wirtz on the wisdom of becoming followed by Catherine Cox on intergenerational trauma and the transformative power of consciousness. Parallel sessions across the weekend address the language of the soul, symbolic clay, living symbols in the Moldavian-Romanian space, and childhood trauma and identity restoration through sand. Luigi Zoja closes the conference on Sunday with a plenary on paranoia, shadow projection, and war in the individual and collective psyche.
Alongside those already mentioned, the program also features Svitlana Shevchenko, President of the Ukrainian Association for Analytical Psychology; Vlad Kunet, a Moldova-born London-based analyst working with Ukrainian and Moldovan training candidates; Lavinia Tanculescu-Popa, co-editor of Beyond Persona and former President of the Romanian Society of Jungian Analysis.
For those who wish to extend their stay, the conference has arranged a rich program of external activities across June 18 and 19. A guided Chișinău city tour offers an encounter with the city’s layered and complex history, centred on the monument to Stefan cel Mare. Further afield, a visit to the Old Orhei Natural Reserve traces ancient civilisations, medieval fortifications, and monastic life in a landscape of extraordinary beauty. An excursion to Milești Mici Winery, home to the world’s largest underground wine collection spanning over 700 kilometres of limestone tunnels, offers a glimpse into centuries of Moldovan winemaking tradition. And on the evening of June 19, the DacoOperă open-air opera and classical music festival takes place in the breathtaking natural landscape of Old Orhei.
The conference is organised locally by Anna Topai, Natalia Caunova, and Tatiana Uzhakova of the Association of Analytical Psychology of Moldova. For more details and speaker bios click here. You can register here.