International Summer Conference 2024
Theatre & Therapy
Dancing with the wounds, playing with the Shadows
June 26 – 30, 2024
Akademie der Kulturellen Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Remscheid
Every year, the German Society for Theatre Therapy (DGfT) together with the Institute for Theatre Therapy (ITT) organizes an international symposium on theater and therapy
At this year’s summer academy, we are focusing on the topic of ‘trauma’.
In trauma focused therapy work, we encounter people who have been deeply wounded by extremely threatening and frightening experiences. They carry “traces of trauma in brain, mind and body” (Bessel van der Kolk). They often live with a profound shattering of their worldview and their trust in the world. They live with an experience of powerlessness, being at the mercy of others and abandonment that can hardly be shared with others. In this reaction for survival the horror is inscribed in the body and perpetuated in a constant realization of the threat.
If we broaden our focus, we can see the experiences that were/are so (life-)threatening, so profoundly terrible and terrifying that they exceed the human ability to cope in the moment of the event and the contexts in which they occur: wars, terror, violence, displacement and flight, natural disasters, the catastrophic effects of ongoing climate change, experiences of racism, gender-based discrimination, sexualized violence and much more.
The word wound in the title of this year’s Summer Academy is intended to take account of these two sides of trauma: besides paying attention to the wounding that people experience in trauma and the question of how life with this wound can find its way back to vitality and connectedness, it is important to us to draw attention to that which causes the wounds – hurtful, destructive, pathogenic dynamics and structures that in some places may appear to be normal. This leads us to the question of the nature of our involvement in these dynamics and to the desire to explore the special possibilities of drama therapy in dealing with it.
Theater has always been a place where the abysses and extremes of human experience – destruction, violence, cruelty, shame, guilt, betrayal, love, hate – are symbolically transformed, collectively experienced and endured in an aesthetic form. Theater is a communal experience, it always lives in the here and now. Theater is body, action, encounter, movement and play. Drama therapy draws on this wealth of artistic possibilities and creates a space that is safe enough to dance with the wounds and play with the shadows.
During these days, we want to make tangible aspects of the drama-therapy landscape relating to the subject of trauma, give the opportunity to get to know different ways of working in this field and at the same time broaden the view of the background against which this landscape unfolds.
The workshops on Thursday and Friday offer spaces to experience different aspects of trauma – such as transgenerational transmission, collective trauma, spirituality – and different theatrical therapeutic working methods in this field. They provide space to deal more intensively with a chosen aspect, to gain an insight into drama therapy work with traumatized people and/or to gain impulses for one’s own therapeutic approach. We are grateful that we have been able to attract experts on the subject of trauma for the workshops and lectures, who will share their experiences and expertise with us.
Saturday will then be dedicated to coming together with the whole group of participants. Here, the different experiences from the workshops can be shared, put into context and reflected upon.
Furthermore there will be an online seminar, a lecture, a collective intervention with the entire group and a film. In addition a wandering resonance laboratory, will accompany the entire conference program with graphics, text and performance elements, which will further deepen the view on the topic.
Further information:
Conference Address
Akademie der Kulturellen Bildung des Bundes und des Landes NRW e.V.
Küppelstein 34
42857 Remscheid
Organizers
Institut für Theatertherapie (ITT)
www.theatertherapie.org
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Theatertherapie e.V. (DGfT)
www.dgft.de
Overall direction, conception, program
Daniela Debald und Ilil Land-Boss
debald@theatertherapie.org, land-boss@theatertherapie.org
Registration and information
Martina Hoffmann-Seidel
Tel. +49 (0)1523 8501660
hoffmann-seidel@theatertherapie.org
On-site management
Klaus Wührl-Struller
Tel. +49 (0)170 7580780
kws@dr-eulenspiegel.de
Informationenon the venue and how to get there
https://kulturellebildung.de/information/der-tagungsort/
Please note: Registration for the Summer Academy is only possible via the Institute for Theater Therapy and the registration form on our website!