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.
