INTRODUCTION TO SOCIODRAMA IN HUNGARY
PRESENTERS: JUDITH TESZÁRY – ESZTER PADOS – KATA HORVÁTH
Sociodrama and power
DATE AND TIME: 26th of June, Wednesday 20:00-21:30
CONFERENCE TOPIC: Sociodrama and different social groups – the strenghts of communities
TYPE: Presentation
ROOM:
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:
TAGS: Different Social Groups, June26 Evening
ABSTRACT:
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
GROUP WORK IN THE MAGNETIC FIELDS OF POWER.
FROM NEUTRALITY TO ADVOCACY
PRESENTERS: ÉVA LŐRINCZ – JUDITH TESZÁRY
FROM NEUTRALITY TO ADVOCACY
Sociodrama and power
DATE AND TIME: 27th of June, Thursday 14:00-16:30
CONFERENCE TOPIC: Sociodrama and power – the future of democratic values
TYPE: Workshop
ROOM:
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 50
TAGS: Sociodrama and Power, June27 Afternoon
ABSTRACT:
Whether we live in wealthy societies or countries suffering from poverty or inhabit modern democracies or 21st-century populist oligarchies, our work with groups always occurs within the magnetic fields of power. Power systems, including governance, politics, policies, institutions, cultural norms, and practices, pervade our groups and permeate our inner reality as group facilitators. We operate within these magnetic fields of power, which generate voltage and charge the group and ourselves.
In this workshop, we will employ sociodrama as a tool for exploring suitable roles in facilitating group work when confronted with various manifestations of power, such as war, climate catastrophes, global exploitation, social injustices, flawed policies, oppressive organisational procedures, autocratic regimes, populism, discrimination, segregation, and more.
How can we evolve beyond the traditional, neutral, all-knowing narrator role and align our group facilitator role with responsible, participative citizens committed to values and actions? How can we foster an open space for diverse viewpoints without losing our consistency yet still be able to form or change our beliefs when adequate in the group process?
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Eva Lőrincz has been working with psychodrama for almost twenty years now, and during a short break in her group work, she participated in the first Hungarian sociodrama training group and became an Assistant Sociodrama Group Leader. She has been using dramatic methods in many different areas of society: at NGOs, in the field of politics, in vulnerable communities, among environmental activists, etc.
Judith Teszáry is a psychologist, psychodrama and sociodrama trainer supervisor, and international lecturer. She has been trained by Zerka Moreno at the Moreno Institute, Beacon, New York. She is a founding member of FEPTO (Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organisations) and was president for six years (2002-2008). She received a life achievement award. She is a member of the Task Force for Peace and Conflict Transformation group using the method of Sociodrama in conflict areas, helping the helpers to elaborate traumatic experiences, for example, after the Maidan revolution in Kyiv. Running two Ukrainian support/therapy groups. She has worked with psychosomatic patients, using psychosociodrama in a research and treatment project at the Karolinska Institute, Stress Research Department in Stockholm. She worked as a psychologist in foster care at Stockholm City Social Department. She trained social workers using sociodramatic methods. She is the chair of the Swedish Association of Psychodramatists.
She is involved in a project as a socio-psychodrama director concerning Romani women’s experiences in Hungarian health care. She has used sociodrama to train Union leaders in the Swedish Industry Union and healthcare personnel in conflict management courses for ten years. She has been the professional supervisor and international coordinator of P.E.R.F.O.R.M.E.R.S, an Erasmus + project in Sociodrama. She had been a trainer and supervisor in the first sociodrama pilot training in Hungary within the Hungarian Psychodrama Association (MPE)
She led the first sociodrama pilot training in Kairo, Egypt. She started a complete training program in Sociodrama in September 2023 at the Rakhawy Institute for Training and Research in Kairo.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WITH SOCIODRAMA IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN BUDAPEST
Workshop of Sárrét Community Place
PRESENTERS: EDIT BALLA – JUDITH TESZÁRY
Sociodrama and power
DATE AND TIME: 28th of June, Friday 9:00-12:00
CONFERENCE TOPIC: Local Community Program
TYPE: Workshop
LOCATION: 1142 Budapest, Sárrét park 2.
MAPS: link
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 13
TAGS: June28 Morning
ABSTRACT:
In one of the housing estates in the suburbs of Budapest, a serious community conflict arose due to the cohabitation of people from diverse social classes and socio-cultural backgrounds, residing in various types of housing arrangements, alongside both Roma and non-Roma individuals, within a small, confined area.
We started to address the community conflict a year ago with community development based on the method of sociodrama, by working with a representative group of residents to discover their common values and shared resources.
At the beginning of the group process, two sociodrama assistants in training (Edit Balla and Beáta Bartos) led the sessions together with a sociodrama facilitator (Eszter Pados). By the second half of the year they become qualified sociodrama assistants.
During the work, the group expressed a desire for a place where they could be together and do things collectively. A large event was organised for the broader community to design this community space collectively. In February this year, with funding from a grant, we managed to renovate and open a settlement-type community space, and since then, we have been working on involving the broader community in a similarly representative manner. The residents also designed the layout of the space and assembled the furniture themselves.
True participation serves as the basis of everything we do. Alongside representatives of local organizations, the residents not only compiled the program offerings, community services, clubs, children’s and adult groups, and individual counseling sessions, but also created the principles of operation for the community space. We consider it important for residents not only to express their opinions when asked, but also to take part in the decision-making mechanisms that affect the operation of the community space. To this end, regular monthly meetings are held.
At this workshop, we invite you to work together with local residents in this community space to determine what could be their next joint cause to inspire the local community and build a social base. Is it institutionalization? Becoming a formal organization? Clarification of civil control and relationship with local authorities? The question of ownership of the space? Volunteerism? Or is it still about public littering, norm-breaking behavior, and low subjective sense of security?
All this is important because we believe that this type of democratic operation, exercising model behavior, can be exemplary for communities and local organizations that also think locally, who believe that increasing local active, participatory involvement can lead to a well-functioning society.
Ideally, the program is able to accomodate 10, a maximum of 13 conference participants, with the participation of 5-6 local group members.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Edit Balla: Community developer and social worker, as well as sociodrama and psychodrama assistant.
She earned her degrees in Sociology and Ethnography from the University of Pécs. During her many years of work in homeless services and transitional housing for families, she placed particular emphasis on developing services that promote the social inclusion of those living on the fringes of society. Her area of interest is supporting the coexistence and self-organization of social groups with different sociocultural backgrounds. In 2023, she graduated from the Master’s program in Community and Civil Studies at ELTE TÁTK and discovered the method of sociodrama within the framework of the Hungarian Psychodrama Association, which she applies in her community development work. In 2023, she was awarded the ‘For Zugló Commemorative Medal’ for her community development and social work.
Judith Teszáry is a psychologist, psychodrama and sociodrama trainer supervisor, and international lecturer. She has been trained by Zerka Moreno at the Moreno Institute, Beacon, New York. She is a founding member of FEPTO (Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organisations) and was president for six years (2002-2008). She received a life achievement award. She is a member of the Task Force for Peace and Conflict Transformation group using the method of Sociodrama in conflict areas, helping the helpers to elaborate traumatic experiences, for example, after the Maidan revolution in Kyiv. Running two Ukrainian support/therapy groups. She has worked with psychosomatic patients, using psychosociodrama in a research and treatment project at the Karolinska Institute, Stress Research Department in Stockholm. She worked as a psychologist in foster care at Stockholm City Social Department. She trained social workers using sociodramatic methods. She is the chair of the Swedish Association of Psychodramatists.
USING THE SALUTOGENIC PERSPECTIVE
IN HELPING THE HELPERS IN WAR SITUATION
PRESENTER: JUDITH TESZÁRY
IN HELPING THE HELPERS IN WAR SITUATION
Sociodrama and power
DATE AND TIME: 29th of June, Saturday 10:00-12:30
CONFERENCE TOPIC: Sociodrama and social healing – recovery from collective crises and collective trauma
TYPE: Workshop
ROOM:
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 30
TAGS: Social Healing, June29 Morning
ABSTRACT:
Salutogenesis – means the origin of health, and pathogenesis is the origin of disease.
How can we help the helpers living under the same circumstances as their clients?
How can they keep their strength and confidence in the role of a therapist during the war, when bombing and missiles are falling around their homes or when they are overwhelmed and stressed by not feeling able to help their clients?
How can the professional helpers care for themselves and not get secondary traumatisation through being too empathetic with their client’s traumatic experiences? What kind of survival strategies do they use? How did the ancestors survive the war they have been through?
How can we come out of the state of hypo and hyper arousal? When the nervous system is overloaded and cannot tolerate the pressure anymore, the system shuts down, and we get paralysed, helpless and numbed. These reactions are the body’s defence mechanisms and are life-saving for the moment, but in the long run, if we stay in these states, these can endanger our lives.
This workshop is a psycho-sociodramatic exploration of how to regain balance, integrate rational and emotional functioning, and tolerate stressful situations (broaden the window of tolerance) by focusing on the resources, thus developing resilience.
Bring your cases or yourself as a case of traumatisation, and let’s learn from each other.
Learning objectives:
- Learn to identify how the body reacts to hypo and hyperarousal
- Learn what the window of tolerance is
- Learn the importance of a support system
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Judith Teszáry is a psychologist, psychodrama and sociodrama trainer supervisor, and international lecturer. She has been trained by Zerka Moreno at the Moreno Institute, Beacon, New York. She is a founding member of FEPTO (Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organisations) and was president for six years (2002-2008). She received a life achievement award. She is a member of the Task Force for Peace and Conflict Transformation group using the method of Sociodrama in conflict areas, helping the helpers to elaborate traumatic experiences, for example, after the Maidan revolution in Kyiv. Running two Ukrainian support/therapy groups. She has worked with psychosomatic patients, using psychosociodrama in a research and treatment project at the Karolinska Institute, Stress Research Department in Stockholm. She worked as a psychologist in foster care at Stockholm City Social Department. She trained social workers using sociodramatic methods. She is the chair of the Swedish Association of Psychodramatists.
She is involved in a project as a socio-psychodrama director concerning Romani women’s experiences in Hungarian health care. She has used sociodrama to train Union leaders in the Swedish Industry Union and healthcare personnel in conflict management courses for ten years. She has been the professional supervisor and international coordinator of P.E.R.F.O.R.M.E.R.S, an Erasmus + project in Sociodrama. She had been a trainer and supervisor in the first sociodrama pilot training in Hungary within the Hungarian Psychodrama Association (MPE)
She led the first sociodrama pilot training in Kairo, Egypt. She started a complete training program in Sociodrama in September 2023 at the Rakhawy Institute for Training and Research in Kairo.
