Trainers

Franca Lena Casabonne

Nationally certified actress, non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy, theater therapist DGfT reg., lecturer of the ITT and since 2018 board member of the DGfT.

Since 2019 own practice for systemic and interactive psychotherapy in Kreuzberg, as well as employed as a theater therapist at the Martin-Gropius-Hospital in the child and adolescent psychiatry. 2017 – 2019 employd at the Sana Klinikum Lichtenberg as a theater therapist on the ward for psychosomatics, 2014 as a theater therapist at the child and adolescent psychiatry of the University Hospital Cologne, 2013/14 as a creative therapist in the assisted living “Wege E.V. with anxiety patients, 2013-2015 at special needs schools in Cologne.

Dr. Fabian Chyle-Silvestri

Choreographer/performer, dance facilitator, dance/movement therapist, alternative practitioner for psychotherapy and DanceAbilty® Master Trainer. Fabian Chyle-Silvestri realized transdisciplinary dance and performance projects, multi-year socio-cultural project series and symposia in the intersection of dance, performance, theory and research. 2016 PhD on “Body- and movement-based interventions with male offenders”.

Denise de Jong van Lier

trained in theater education in Berlin, in theater therapy at the Hogeschool Utrecht and in Developmental Transformations at the Institute for Developmental Transformations, New Haven, USA. For many years she has been a trainer and organizer at the Netherlands DvT Institute (www.developmentaltransformations.nl).
Denise works as a drama therapist in a facility for adults with personality disorders and in her own practice. She is also an actress in a playback theater group, has taught for many years as a drama teacher and therapist at a German-speaking university for social pedagogy (Akademie für Mensch und Gesellschaft, Saxion Enschede), and has led various theater groups for youth and adults.

Daniela Debald

M.A. in theater studies, philosophy and education. Drama and theater therapist (DGfT reg.) with clinical and system-oriented specialization.
Since 2010 working as drama/theater therapist in the field of psychiatry as well as clinical psychotherapy and psychosomatics, both in inpatient, partial inpatient and outpatient settings (GFO Kliniken Niederrhein, GFO Kliniken Troisdorf). Since 2014 lecturer in the vocational training courses in drama therapy at the Institute for Drama Therapy. Since 2015, together with Willi Seidel, director of the ITT continuing education courses in southern Germany, in collaboration with the Nürtingen University of Applied Sciences and the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg. Artistic activity as an actress and singer.

Nora Heil

Since 2009 drama therapist (Stenden University Leeuwarden/ DGfT reg). Has been working as a drama therapist with adults in inpatient settings at the Johanniter Specialist Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics in Treuenbrietzen since 2010. In addition, she worked in a crisis counseling center in Berlin. Since 2019 in training as a future vocational education lecturer at the Berlin location.

Jakob Heydemann

Drama therapist (DGfT reg.), non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy, yoga teacher, certified actor, prospective lecturer for drama therapy at ITT. After studying acting, worked in independent productions and at theaters, studied yoga & meditation in India for several years, trained in yoga therapy, somatic body and movement therapy, body psychotherapy and finally in theater therapy at the ITT. Since then working in Berlin as a theater therapist for adults (individual and groups) both in private practice (since 2010) and employed in a day clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy (since 2018).

David Read Johnson

PhD, RDT-BCT is one of the founding members of the North American Drama Therapy Association; former editor of the International Journal of the Arts in Psychotherapy; former chair of the National Coalition of Arts Therapy Associations; director of the Institute for Developmental Transformations; co-director of the Post Traumatic Stress Center, New Haven, CT and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. He has published many articles and books on drama therapy, creative arts therapies, and the treatment of trauma.).

David Read Johnson

David Read Johnson PhD, RDT-BCT is one of the founding members of the North American Drama Therapy Association; former editor of the International Journal of the Arts in Psychotherapy; former chair of the National Coalition of Arts Therapy Associations; director of the Institute for Developmental Transformations; co-director of the Post Traumatic Stress Center, New Haven, CT and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. He has published many articles and books on drama therapy, creative arts therapies, and the treatment of trauma.

Karl Lesehr

Karl Lesehr MA is a family therapist and the head of an outpatient Addiction Help Facility since many years. He has been Addiction and Drug Assistance Association spokesman for 10 years. "From my personal experience, therapeutic qualifications and encounters with diverse traditions (such as Sufism, shamanism, healing singing) have become guidelines for both my advisory work my work for the Association: freedom arises from the playful and unprejudiced perception of my subjective realities in all their conscious and unconscious facets. “The discovery of more than one possible reality for my life creates the choices that allow me to fashion my life responsibly, in action, acceptance and letting go."

Ingrid Lutz

Ingrid Lutz is a systemic-oriented theatre therapist and has a MA in linguistics and communication science and a masters diploma in applied theatre. She is additionally trained in Psychodrama, systemic family therapy, gestalt therapy and body-oriented methods and has many years of training in Grotowski-oriented theatre work.
Since 1982 she worked in various fields including psychiatric hospitals, working with drug addicts, abused women, sexual and homicide offenders. She lectured at universities and congresses in Germany and abroad (Peru, Israel, United States, Canada etc.)

She is head of the dramatherapy trainings in Germany and the director of the ITT (Institute of Theatre Therapy)in Berlin. She has her own private practice for supervision, coaching and theatre therapy in Berlin-Kreuzberg. For many years she conducted several worldwide research projects in rituals and traditional healing methods in other cultures.

Nicole Marschner

Systemic therapist in youth welfare (focus on addiction and trauma); trainer in juvenile detention (individual and group offers on conflicts, anti-violence work and resilience); trainer for power-critical educational work.
Education and training on: Trauma (TRIMB, PITT, Somatic Experiencing), Constellation Work, Nature Therapy, Therapeutic Archery, currently in training for Transpersonal Psychotherapy.

Bettina Merschmeyer

Social worker, lecturer for drama therapy and non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy with qualifications in drama therapy, depth psychological body therapy, systemic coaching and PEP (= process and embodiment-focused psychology according to Dr. Michael Bohne). Accompanies children, adolescents and adults in individual and group therapy in her own practice. Supports parents, foster parents and professionals in residential groups, kindergartens, schools, etc. through consultation and training (play and attachment development / basics of understanding trauma and specifics of trauma-related educational-therapeutic processes).
www.praxis-auf-der-freiheit.ruhr

Dr. Susana Pendzik

Susana Pendzik PhD, RDT is a senior drama-therapist, trained in San Francisco, CA. She is a Registered Drama Therapist at NADTA (North American Drama Therapy Association), a founder and honorary member of the Swiss Dramatherapy Association, and an accredited supervisor by I.C.E.T. (Israeli Association of Creative and Expressive Therapies).

She lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at the Tel-Hai Academic College in Israel, at the Dramatherapy Institute of Switzerland, of which she is also a program consultant and at the Institut für Theatertherapie, Berlin. Argentinian born, Susana has lived in Mexico and the U.S, and conducts workshops worldwide. She is a mother, a poet, a theatre director, and a researcher. She is the author of many articles on drama therapy, a book for using action techniques with abused women (Gruppenarbeit mit mißhandelten Frauen, 1999, AG SPAK Bücher; 2nd edition), and co-editor of the book Assessment in Drama Therapy (2011; Charles C. Thomas).

Nisha Sajnani

has been director of the Dramatherapy Program at New York University since 2017; prior to that, she was a professor at Lesley University and director of Community Health at the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven. She is also a past president of NADTA. Dr. Sajnani earned her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies from Concordia University, Montreal. She has published on culturally sensitive education in the arts therapies, embodied and performance research, trauma-sensitive therapy, and global mental health. She has research partnerships with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and the Foundation for the Arts and Trauma, and is Editor-in-Chief of Drama Therapy Review, an international journal on the relationship between theater improvisation, performance, and health.

Anke Schäfer

M.A. Art and Theater in the Social. Drama and theater therapist (DGfT reg.) specialized in clinical and systemic work. As a drama therapist in the multidisciplinary PASO team of the UPC - University Psychiatric Center of the University Hospital Leuven (UZ Leuven, Belgium) she is involved in an EU pilot project to establish a day clinic for underage adolescents with trauma related disorders caused by recent experiences of escape. Since 2011 own practice as theater therapist, non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy and coach in Cologne and Maastricht. Coach in international development cooperation for the Civil Peace Service and for the GIZ. Numerous projects and theater therapy workshops in Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, among others. Lecturer for Intermedial Therapy at the Alanus University. Cooperation with Armand Volkas in the field of transgenerational heritage, including a workshop in Auschwitz.

From 1995 to 2000 lecturer for video and media art at the Hogeschool Zuyd Maastricht. As video artist and filmmaker between 1990 and 2015, numerous art and film projects, grants, exhibitions and presentations internationally.

Between 2016 and 2021 research assistant in the bachelor program Art Therapy and Social Art at Alanus University. Board member of the WFKT - Wissenschaftliche Fachgesellschaft Künstlerische Therapien and the NVDT - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Drama Therapie. Together with Ingrid Lutz co-founder of the RITT Research Institute of the Institute for Drama Therapy.

Maren Schlüter

Drama therapist, clinical drama therapist in psychosomatic disorders and addiction. Nationally certified actress. Lecturer in improvisation and acting training, since 2018 in training to become a lecturer in vocational training for drama therapists.

Christine Schur

Drama therapist DGfT e.V. reg., coaching/supervision, adult education. Since 2019 theater therapist in psychosomatic clinic in the southern Black Forest, self-employed theater therapist/coach, many years of experience in adult education with a focus on work and health/rehab, various advanced trainings including "Landscapes of the Soul, Nature and Healing" (ITT), Systemic Constellation and Consulting (nature & healing, Switzerland).

Wilhelm Seidel

Wilhelm Seidel is a qualified designer, trained as an artistic therapist in drama / theatre therapy with a focus on system-oriented theatre therapy.

He has been a freelance business consultant since 2000 (Wilhelm Seidel Management Consulting) specialising in; organizational and staff development, recruitment and consulting, outplacement consulting, innovation and strategy consulting and corporate theatre.

He is a lecturer at the HFH in the DGFT/ ITT and Concept AG.
Previously he has worked as a designer, a marketing director as well as working as a senior manager in sales, marketing and human resource development.

Anna Seymour

PhD, Professor of Dramatherapy at the University of Roehampton, London and an international lecturer and speaker for various dramatherapy programs around the world. She researches the relationship between politics, theatrical aesthetics, and the therapeutic process. She has published articles on theater and dramatherapy and is editor of Dramatherapy: relationships, approaches, critical ideas (Routledge).

Bettina Stoltenhoff-Erdmann

Bettina Stoltenhoff-Erdmann works as a drama/theatre therapist in Herdecke Community Hospital in the department of psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine (inpatient and outpatient). She is a psychotherapy practioner and is trained in trauma counselling, DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) and systemic family therapy. For many years she has been a lecturer in drama and theatre therapy at the DGFT. She is co-editor of the two theatre therapy manuals: “Theatre Therapy" and “Learn to Live by Playing".