The 2023 Psychodrama Training Program commences in March.
In Sydney, there will be 5 stand-alone workshops on 4 & 5 March, 6 & 7 May, 1 & 2 July, 9 & 10 September and 4, 5, 6 & 7 November (4 days). See calendar for details and enrolment.
Please ensure you are on the mailing list to get further information about the program as soon as it becomes available.
For enquiries contact Charmaine McVea (0401 375 195)
In Canberra there will be 4 stand-alone 3 day workshops on 17-19 March, 16-18 June, 25-27 August, and 10-12 November.)
Further enquiries to Robert Brodie phone (+61) 0409 097 508
Upcoming Events
Creativity is the most unique aspect of being human, yet few embrace the inherent creative nature of existence. This workshop is designed to assist you to become more familiar with the indwelling creative genius within you and to tap into the wisdom residing there.
In this workshop, we apply role training, a specific form of the psychodrama method, to bring greater spontaneity to conversations that matter.
Spontaneity lies at the heart of the psychodrama method. It emerges in the here and now, as we relate to this moment unencumbered by habitual responses from the past. It is an antidote to anxiety-driven reactivity and isolating tendencies. The spontaneous person can bring a fresh response to old, familiar situations and meet new situations with vitality and immediacy. Role training focuses on identifying critical moments when we lose our spontaneity and developing the freedom to respond in a new way in those moments.
Details to come
The relational self is the foundation of human functioning. How this develops can been by the pattern and quality of relationships that exist for each individual. In psychodrama this is known collectively as a person's social and cultural atom, the unit of society that sustains them. Yet, within that personalised society there are relationships that remain difficult, conflicted or stuck in the past.
Role reversal requires the willingness to consciously choose to empty oneself, making room to genuinely experience the other’s reality, and then to return to the primary self and integrate new insights into the personality. Bold move! Especially when we are resistant to being affected by the other.
Current and Past Events
In this training workshop, the content will be based on participants’ interests, concerns and purposes. The focus will be on experiential sessions applied to daily life including work, play and relationships, with a view to increasing the capacity to rise creatively to life’s challenges. The experiential, systemic, action process known as the psychodrama method is also learnt in the process.
Sociodrama brings life to the questions that a group or community is grappling with. Using action methods, the group investigates the social system to gain a broader and deeper experiential understanding of the dynamics at play. The sociodrama director encourages group members to warm up to the different roles in the system, so that stereotyping is minimised and the essential motivations and concerns of all parties are portrayed. Through the concretisation of the system and the enactment of relevant scenarios, group members experience the system from these different viewpoints and new responses become possible.
Shine Like The Sun:
Recognising Role Conflict, Embracing Role Integration and Valuing Role Development
It requires, for most of us, courage and trust in our spontaneity to lead a group or direct a psychodrama. As Max Clayton (1992:1) notes, in these moments we are negotiating two powerful forces that exist in an uneasy and dynamic relationship:
‘an inner urge to grow, to live fully in the moment, to experience purpose and meaning, to create ideals and live by them, and a contradictory desire for safety, the avoidance of the unknown and of appearing odd or different, the fear of letting go outdated roles and developing progressive roles’.
The aim of this workshop is that you, as trainee directors and group leaders, will increasingly live in the progressive roles that you have developed to date, that you will recognise role conflict, embrace role integration and value role development, that you will, in Pink Floyd’s words, ‘shine like the sun’ (Shine On You Crazy Diamond, 1975).
Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
And you will know that, in psychodrama, as in life, being young is a matter of spontaneity flow...
Jacob Moreno explored the roots of creativity in human evolution, philosophically and above all experientially. These sessions will be applied to daily life including work, play and relationships, with a view to increasing the capacity to rise consciously and creatively to life’s challenges. The experiential, systemic, action process known as the psychodrama method is also learnt in the process.
At the heart of psychodrama is spontaneity, ‘a readiness for a free and vital response to the emerging moment’[1]. Spontaneity is imbued with both the creative (vital, flexible, free-flowing, new) and the relational (responsive, here and now, purposeful). All these qualities are essential to the production of a psychodrama. The more spontaniety we bring as a director producing an enactment, or as an auxiliary producing a relationship, the more we assist the protagonist to bring the enactment to life and for new responses to emerge.
In this workshop we will experiment, using improvisation, imagination and metaphor, to bring spontaneity to enactments. There will be a focus on:
· Playing with improvisation routines that build warm-up to fuller expression,
· Recognising the difference between impulsivity and intuition,
· Translating intuition into action, and
· Producing metaphor to step aside from a problem-solution paradigm.
This training workshop is suitable for people who want to develop their use of psychodramatic action methods in their work as educators, coaches, trainers, therapists and group workers. People with experience in psychodrama and those new to the method, are welcome.
An evening of Psychodrama with Rollo Browne.
The founder of Psychodrama, JL Moreno, famously said that rather than analyse people's dreams, psychodrama enables people to dream again. The best way to understand the power of psychodrama is to experience it and these evenings are designed to give participants an opportunity to experience psychodrama in a safe and gentle environment.
This evening will introduce you to psychodrama – a technique for exploring and resolving dramas in our lives. Bring a friend for an evening of learning and fun.
Canberra - Spontaneity Training 3-day Weekend Workshop 17 - 19 June 2022
This workshop will focus on developing participants’ spontaneity through play.
Life presents each of us with many challenges. The capacity to respond in the moment with a new response to an old situation or an adequate response in a new situation requires spontaneity. There are many forms of spontaneity which group leaders and members of a group require to be effective.
In this workshop we apply role training, a specific form of the psychodrama method, to bring greater spontaneity to challenging interpersonal encounters so that we can enter more fully into the situations that matter to us.
Spontaneity lies at the heart of the psychodrama method. It emerges in the here and now, as we relate to this moment unencumbered by habitual responses from the past. It is an antidote to anxiety-driven reactivity and isolating tendencies. The spontaneous person can bring a fresh response to old, familiar situations and meet new situations with vitality and immediacy. Role training focuses on identifying critical moments when we lose our spontaneity and developing the freedom to respond in a new way in those moments.
Over two days you will develop your ability to apply role training in your work, at the same time as you develop your capacity to stay present in interpersonal situations that challenge you.
An evening of Psychodrama with Rollo Browne.
Moreno described Psychodrama as a Rehearsal for Life. This evening will introduce you to Psychodrama - a technique for exploring and reimagining dramas in our lives and in society. The best way to understand the power of Psychodrama is to experience it and these evenings are designed to give you an opportunity to experience Psychodrama in a welcoming environment.
Bring a friend for an evening of learning and fun. Join in the action or be part of the audience and experience the drama unfold. Experience the power of action methods and gain new perspectives on the way we relate in today’s world. There will be opportunities for questions about the method and its application.
Canberra - Action Techniques for working constructively with intense expression
Psychodrama Training Long Weekend Workshop. 11 - 13 March 2022
In this training workshop, the focus will be on applying action techniques as a leader to intense expression and potentially traumatising situations, by means of experiential sessions applied to daily life including work, play and relationships, with a view to increasing the capacity to rise creatively to life’s challenges. The experiential, systemic, action process known as the psychodrama method is learnt in the process.