Saturday, November 14, 2009

Psychodrama Reaches Across Cultures

On Thursday, 22 teachers, therapists and other professionals who work with children gathered at the Hope For Children Youth Center to participate in Catherine’s Psychodrama Workshop. By the end of the morning, all of us had gotten fully in contact with our inner child and accepted Catherine’s challenge to not only learn the technique, but to also experience the impact of the story, “Surviving The Storm” first hand.

Catherine based her training on a book by Kate Cohen-Posey, M.S. who had kindly given her permission to adapt the materials for the Ethiopians.

Because children are better at expressing their feelings through action than through words, psychodrama is the perfect medium for them to learn that the trauma they have gone through can be transformed into a greater connection to the community and a deeper sense of wisdom.

By the end of the morning, we had journeyed together through fear, sadness, anger, hope, connection and joy. Each participant was already thinking of which group of children they could share this story with and when they could meet together as a group to continue learning about working with children.

Dorothy

1 comment:

  1. I am a psychodramatist in NY who specializes in using the method with children's groups and adolescent groups and have been doing so for twnety five years at Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital. I will be presenting a workshop at the national psychodrama conference in Philadelphia in April called Childwork/Childplay: The use of Action Methods in Children's groups. If I can be of any assistance, please let me know. I am most interested in connecting and sharing with others using these methods with children

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