Healing The Wounds of History

Drama therapy uses acting, improvisation, theatre games and psychodrama as tools for personal growth and change. It is playful yet sparks insight. It promotes spontaneity, creativity and expressiveness. This workshop introduces participants to this powerful means for changing self-defeating patterns and practicing new roles and constructive behaviors. No previous theatre experience is necessary. Shy people are welcome!

Drama and Expressive Arts are often the preferred therapeutic modalities for children and adolescents.  Children naturally communicate their feelings through play, metaphor, and the arts. Engaging in an artistic process fosters self-expression, increases confidence, and builds social skills.  Therapists of Living Arts invite parents and caregivers to an informational presentation on the methods, goals, and treatment approaches to using expressive arts and drama therapy with children and adolescents.

Playback Theatre transforms personal stories into improvised theater pieces using movement, ritual, music and spoken improvisation. It creates community and connection among people by honoring the dignity, drama and universality in their stories. First developed in 1975 by psychodramatist Jonathan Fox, Playback Theatre is now practiced around the world in theatres, schools, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, and the business world.

Playback Theatre offers an opportunity to have your stories fully heard and deeply witnessed.  The healing that flows from this gift of affirmation and validation can be profound.  New insights and self awareness can also arise as we see our stories enacted with fresh perspective.  For Playback actors there are also opportunities for personal growth and self discovery.  By embodying the stories of others we develop receptiveness and empathy.  Playback Theatre also invites healing through the cultivation of spontaneity, expressiveness, creativity, self-confidence, playfulness and cooperation.

Healing the Wounds of History is a process in which psychotherapy, drama and expressive arts therapy techniques are used to work with a group of participants who share a common legacy of historical trauma. The process was developed by Armand Volkas, a psychotherapist and drama therapist from Berkeley, California. Volkas is the son of Auschwitz survivors and resistance fighters from World War II.   He was moved by his personal struggle with this legacy of historical trauma to address the issues that arose from it:  issues around identity, victimization and perpetration, meaning and grief. Healing the Wounds of History helps participants work through the burden of such legacies by transforming their pain into constructive action through acts of creation and acts of service.