International Drama Therapy Week

 

As our contribution to the International Drama Therapy Week we would like to introduce some of our projects and activities

Working Group Drama Therapy in Times of Climate Crisis

The Working Group Drama Therapy in Times of Climate Crisis of the German Society for Theatre Therapy is looking at how drama therapy and drama therapy expertise can be used to deal with the climate crisis and become effective for a sustainable future.

The climate crisis has long since arrived and is having a noticeable impact even in our area. There is not much time left to prevent a catastrophic development, yet in our country the reaction seems to be a collective persistence in ‘business as usual’. After all, it is frightening to acknowledge a reality that is changing and fundamentally calls familiar habits into question.

Since July 2022, about once a month a group of German-speaking drama therapists meet for a very animated and encouraging exchange about how core factors of our profession – transformation, liminality, connection, action, presence, ritual, dramatic reality, play, body, group, space, group, chaos and order, aesthetic design – can be effective to face the challenges we are confronted with through the climate crisis. From this exchange concrete drama therapy projects on the topic have already emerged in several German cities.

Annual International Summer Conference Theatre and Therapy

More about the conference

 

Every year, the German Association of Dramatherapy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Theatertherapie – DGfT), together with the Institute for Dramatherapy (Institut für Theatertherapie – ITT) organizes an international symposium on theater and therapy.

This year’s Summer Conference, was dedicated to the body as the central process medium in dramatherapy and explored various aspects of it in a variety workshops

The summer conference 2024 will be dedicated to the topic of drama therapy and trauma and will take place in the Akademie Remscheid from June 26-30 2024.

Conference 2023 Workshops

  • Workshop 1: Body as a System and Part of Systems Moving thought! How bodily processes organize the world(s)! (Trude Cone)
  • Workshop 2: The individual Body Experience subjective physicality and experiential anatomy based on Body-Mind Centering® (Helena Nicolao)
  • Workshop 3: Body and Trauma Trauma and Ressources in Play TRiS (Karl-Klaus Madert & Angelika Schretter)
  • Workshop 4: Body and Theatre Body – Inside – Outside – Form (Klaus Möller)
  • Workshop 5: Body and Voice Embodiment of the voice as a practice of listening (Ralf Peters)
  • Workshop 6: The collective Body Fighting Monkey Practice (Natalia Pieczuro)
  • Workshop 7: Body and Performance Embodied cognition, live action and role playing (Saša Asentić & Alexandre Achour)
  • Workshop 8: Body and identity (Em)bodied Play (Britton Williams)

Johanna Benz – Sounding Board

The entire conference was accompanied and enriched by a nomadic sounding board – Johanna Benz (www.graphicrecording.cool), who visited the workshops and lecture demonstrations with sheets of paper and pen.

 

With her illustrations she resonated to what she perceived there. The steadily growing collection of her drawings in the foyer was like a magnet to which the participants were drawn again and again to recognise their own experiences and to look at them with a new eye, but also to get an insight into experiences of others.

Project Deconstruct/Construct

The project Deconstruct/Construct dealt with the question of how the legacy and memory of the Holocaust is interpreted and adapted among young people. The goal was to cultivate a discursive and active culture of memory.

This project examined the constructed narratives about the Holocaust that young people in Germany from different population groups mostly unconsciously incorporate into their identity formation. It explicitly broadens the perspective to include attitudes towards „others“ in general, especially migrants and refugees. Thus, this project has as an important goal the cultural diversity of Germany.

Workshops and Education Program

The Institut für Theatertherapie (ITT) is the institute for training, professional development and research in dramatherapy of the German Association of Dramatherapy.

Further information on training courses, workshop offers and research by the ITT can be found on their independent website www.theatertherapie.org.

Vocational Training

We offer a 4-year vocational training in drama therapy in cooperation with universities at three locations in Berlin, Ludwigsburg and the Ruhr area. This is completed with a university certificate as “Artistic Therapist”. Prerequisite for the further education is a completed professional training or a university degree in the therapeutic, social or artistic field. You will receive sound practical training in dramatherapeutic methods and learn theoretical approaches to professional therapeutic use of the artistic medium of theater in therapeutic and social fields of application.

Upcoming Courses

Next training course in Ludwigsburg will start in April 2024

Next training course in Cologne will start in September 2025

 

More information on the ITT-Website

Further Education

If you would like to include dramatherapeutic methods in your work to enhance, deepen and complement your skills, you can participate in a variety of courses and workshops at the “Institut für Theatertherapie” (ITT).

The courses focus on the use of dramatherapeutical methods in different contexts and address a wide range of populations. They reflect on the different methods and areas of application and at the same time provide a great source for practical work.

Upcoming Courses

(Self-)research group on trance and transpersonal approaches in (drama-) therapy. November 3 – 5, 2023 Berlin
Link

Developmental Transformations: Advanced Training
December 2 – 3, 2023 Berlin
Link