My name is Iva Paska. I was always drawn to questions such as
Why are we here? How can we live this life with a purpose? How to be well in today’s world that can be challenging?
This web-page is an attempt to answer this question.
I hold a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. I finished “Logotherapy in Upbringing and Education”, accredited by the Croatian Agency for Upbringing and Education, a DBT Legacy course of the Behavioral Tech Institute and DBT Skills course. I am currently in gestalt psychotherapy training.
I have organized Existential circles that served as places for reflecting on existential givens we usually don’t have time or space to address in everyday life – such as meaning and purpose. I worked for and participated in the work of NGOs in Zagreb and Varaždin dealing with EU projects and contributing to sustainability and democracy. Currently I am working at the University where I also encourage critical thinking among my students, especially regarding the new world we inevitably face due to digital technologies.
I like combining all the things I have learned or experienced within different approaches to provide a meaning-making framework for our experiences. This further serves to expand our places of wellbeing.
On this website I put forward things that I have found insightful on my path, in hope it will be of aid to someone else’s process. Another aim of the page is to create awareness of the mental distress and mental health in meaning-making context.
Hi Iva, I have seen some interactions between yourself and my digital media on Facebook and LinkedIn. I have to admit, I never really looked at your interests until after seeing your article surface on Mad in America. That was when I read your bio. At that moment, I knew we were kindred spirits, at least in the way we understand the world and hope to share it with the world through our writing. After, I looked at your blog and read this page solidifying my beliefs that we are indeed kindred spirits. I am wondering if you have looked into my work, specifically, my book, university on watch: the crisis in the academy. Somehow, I think the interpretive eye the narrator uses passes through this shared love of discovering meaning in life. My blog touches on these areas in a more sarcastic flippant way, as the entries are shorter in length than a full-length work. If this message spoke to you, please email me, and maybe we can work together on a project.
Love your philosophy and writings/offerings! Thank you so much!
Thank you, Phyll! Hearing such a nice feedback makes me inspired to continue with my work!
Yes! I have only just begun to read your website. I started with the “About” page. But I was very inspired by reading your article I found in Mad in America, “Finding Meaning in Suffering…”
I am a 66 year old woman living in California, USA, struggling big time with meaning. This is what really caught me:
“Your circumstances are uniquely your own. Your origin, your story, the things you’ve seem, the experiences lived and felt – nobody has done that or felt that in that particular way and in that particular manner but you…. what is it that you and only you can offer to the world?…”
Of course, the rest of the article was part of it as well. I don’t exactly know why, but that, above, is what I needed to hear. I thank you. Yes, thank you!
I look forward to reading more. I have read some existentialism, but it was challenging. Your “synopsis” (sort of) really got through to me! Thank you again…. Be well.
Thank you for sharing your experience and your kind words, Li Davis. I am glad that you have found the article at the time you needed it.