Sunday, April 7, 202 at 12- 7 pm PST
Berkeley, Ca
Cost: $149

Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre is an evolving form of drama therapy approach, which is based on playback theater. Drawing from group analytic principles, group members switch between “playing the other” and “allowing the other to play me”. This provides continuous practice in empathy, strengthens cohesion, and promotes processes of integration and inclusion.

RSVP HERE

After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the core processes in Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre.
2. Knowing and applying processes of structuring and non-structuring in Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre.
3. Knowing and applying stage and playground variations of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre.

OUR PRESENTERS:

Ronen Kowalsky: Supervising clinical psychologist. Co-Founder and Head of the Israeli Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater. A member of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Supervisor & Lecturer at Winnicott Center, and The Academic College of Society and Art. Acted, wrote, and directed in various theaters. Established “The Left Bank Theater Group”, Tel – Aviv and “Third Generation” German-Israeli theater project. Won the European ARENA prize for young theater directors. Co-writer of “An Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater” (Routledge, 2022) and articles in the field.

Shoshi Keisari: Certified drama therapist and a lecturer at the School of Creative Arts Therapies, Haifa University, Israel and at the Israeli Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater. She is also a researcher at the Drama & Health Science Lab and the Emilie Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center at Haifa University. Her research and writing activities are centered on drama therapy, psychotherapeutic playback theatre, clinical gerontology, loss and grief. Co-writer of “An Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater” (Routledge, 2022) and articles in the field.

Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre in which members of the audience share stories from their lives, which are then enacted on stage. In our unique development of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre, drawing from group analytic principles, Playback Theatre techniques are adapted for use as a form of group drama therapy. This workshop will demonstrate a unifying theory and practice of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater initiated from a group analytic point of view. During sessions of psychotherapeutic playback theatre, group members switch between ‘playing the other,’ observing the situation from their own perspective, and ‘allowing the other to play me,’ exploring multiple self-states from the perspective of the other. A language of theatrical images is created through this process. The theatrical enactment will be examined as a creative working through the dynamic matrix using mirroring, resonance, exchange, and condenser phenomena.

Participants will experience a Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre session, which will be analyzed using group analytic concepts. Previous experience in theatre is not required.

RSVP HERE

“The connection between Playback Theatre and psychotherapy has been debated and explored for many decades. This workshop, based on the book co-authored by the facilitators, will make an important contribution to the field of drama therapy by offering concrete tools, based in psychoanalytic theory, for how to use Playback Theatre in therapeutic groups.”

Pella Weisman, Interim Chair, Drama Therapy Program, California Institute of Integral Studies