First level of training on psychodrama – for the professional capacity of Psychodrama assistant
Admission requirements
Education/profession: the candidate must have a professional qualification in the field of helping professions, education or theater, or to be in the process of being trained for such, it is also advisable to work in this field.
Personal experience with psychodrama: minimum of 200 hours personal experience in a psychodrama self-experience group. The group should provide an opportunity for better self-awareness, personal development and getting experience in working in a group. It should make possible for the candidate to get acquainted with the psychodrama method through personal experience. The candidate for a psychodrama training group should have at least two personal protagonist centered psychodramas within this group.
Participation in self-experience groups conducted outside the Institute, which is attested with a relevant document, is recognized. The Institute has the right to contact the leader of the group if necessary.
Age: at least 21 years old
Personal prerequisites:
The candidate should be physically, emotionally and intellectually able to answer the requirements for training and practice:
- motivation to work for his own personal development
- communication skills
- joy of play
- emotional responsiveness
- ability to reflect on his experience
- personal stability
- sensitivity and empathy
- ability to express oneself (verbally and non-verbally)
- ability to understand complex circumstances/situations
Individual initial interview (50 minutes):
Before the interview the candidate has an opportunity to get acquainted with the Training Program and the Training Contract with the institute. In the interview, the candidate presents his CV and self-reflection for his participation in a group for personal development.
During the interview the leading team or the leader gets acquainted with the candidate and his/her motivation for training, gets impressions in relation to the personal qualities of the applicant and the degree to which they satisfy the requirements for admission in a training group. The candidate and the team discuss and define themes/problems for personal work in the training group. At the end of the interview the candidate and the team make a decision about participation in the group. If there is a need, a second interview can be negotiated.
Contract. If a decision for participation in the training group is reached by the candidate and the leading team during the interview, the candidate signs a contract with the institute.
Orientation of training: work in the field of psychotherapy, social field, education, organizational psychology, theatre
Form and duration
The First Level Psychodrama Training is conducted within minimum of 600 hours of 45 minutes, divided in working weekends of 20 hours or 5 day training bloks of 50 hours for about 2-2,5 years. The training is conducted in a constant group of 8 to 15 participants and cross-seminars with guest trainers (max. 15% of the total I-st level training = 90 hours)
The training group is a learning community in which takes place the process of individual self-experience as well as theoretical and practical learning of main principles of psychodramatic action.
Content:
The First Level of Psychodrama Training consists of training through personal experience in protagonist-centered psychodrama, sociodrama, group dynamics and sociometry; theory and supervised practice.
After graduating the first level the student should know and understand the five basic elements of psychodrama: protagonist, auxiliary ego, audience, stage, director, as well as the three phases of the psychodramatic session – warm up, action and sharing.
The trainees get acquainted with psychodrama and its basic techniques through personal experience in the group and in this way they acquire theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding of the method. They are supplemented by studying literature and teaching of theory.
The first level training consists of three elements:
► self-experience
► theory
► practicing leading in the training group under direct supervision
Self-experience:
Students are expected to work with their own experiences.
Self-experience work aims at:
- increasing self-awareness and self-understanding
- developing awareness and exploration of inner conflicts and repressed wishes and fantasies
- increasing spontaneity and role flexibility
- developing empathy and realistic perception of other people
- developing understanding of the interdependence of individual and group
- developing ability to confront problems, people, oneself
- improving communication skills
- developing ability to identify and understand group processes
Special thematic (cross) seminars are on a particular topic.
They could be lead by an external (guest) director with a different style of leading, or in enlarged group. Cross-seminars provide opportunities for participants to gain experience in working:
- in a different sociometric constellation
- with a different director
- оn a particular topic
Psychodrama theory is studied through:
- Studying Literature
- Lectures in the thematic seminars
- Theoretical presentations by students
- Theoretical discussions on the topics, presented by the students with the group and the leading team
- Process-analysis
Theoretical themes, learned by the students in the first level
- Historic and philosophical foundations of psychodrama.
- Tele, transference, empathy. Encounter.
- Spontaneity and creativity – norm and psychopathology
- Mental development of personality – stages according to Moreno in the light of the main psychodrama techniques. Matrix of Identity
- Role theory. Role development. Role repertoire. Role conflicts. Role play. Role training
- The five elements of Psychodrama:
- Psychodrama Director (Leader). Roles of the psychodrama director. Working in a team
- Protagonist – selection, interview, contract
- Auxiliary Ego
- Group / Audience
- Stage, Setting the stage, Surplus-reality.
- The three phases of psychodrama session
- Warm up
- Action
- Sharing
- The 3 basic Psychodrama techniques:
- Role-reversal
- Double
- Mirror
- Other psychodrama techniques
- Sociometry. Social atom. Social networks
- Sociodrama
- Group Dynamic
- Therapeutic factors, therapeutic process, therapeutic change in psychodrama
- Process-analysis. Protocols
- Different forms of psychodrama
- Research in Psychodrama
Students are expected to actively participate in learning theory. The Institute has a library with literature (mainly in English). Every student prepares and presents in front of the group one of the suggested themes. Students are expected to translate one or two articles/materials on a theme agreed with the group-leader/s and in exchange can have access to all other materials, translated in Bulgarian at the Institute.
Practical skills, developed by the students in the first level of training
- Setting the stage
- Taking roles, Auxiliary Ego, Role plasticity
- Directing an interview with the protagonist in his or her own role and in roles of antagonist and other roles
- Еlecting a protagonist, interviewing, contracting, building a hypothesis and choosing a type of personal work
- Adequate use of psychodrama techniques
- Managing the roles of the director.
- Working with Auxiliary Ego and audience
- Teamwork
- Directing a warming-up and group play
- Directing a vignette and protagonist-centered work
- Leading a sharing
- Leading process analysis and writing protocol for session
- Giving and receiving feedback – positive and negative
- Knowledge of professional expression and adequate use of terminology
- Leading and participation in a play-back theatre
In practicing skills for directing/leading students get into director-protagonist relations among themselves. The trainee-director works with the support and under the supervision of the leading team.
The experiences of the students as leaders/directors, as well as protagonists and auxiliaries are discussed in the process-analysis. In the process-analysis students share their difficulties give each other feedback, discuss alternatives, and receive feedback from the leading team. Theoretical aspects, related with the particular work are discussed.
In the process of training, the three elements – personal experience, theory and practice under supervision are closely intertwined and difficult to distinguish one from another. In the case of mutual directing the protagonist has his / her own experience, the trainee is practicing under the supervision of the trainer, and the auxiliary Egos practice roles and at the same time pass through intensive personal experience. The process analysis is in the same time the supervision, reflection and application of the theoretical knowledge to understand and improve practice. Splitting them as number of hours is quite artificial, but it could be assumed to be in proportion: 100 hours of personal experience: 200 hours of theory: 300 hours of practice in the training group under supervision
Evaluation
What is evaluated:
- Motivation for Personal work and development (readiness for it and self-reflectivness, not the content of personal work)
- Role flexibility
- Practical psychodrama skills
- Theoretical knowledge
- Student’s participation as a group member
Who evaluates:
- The Participant
- The Group
- The Leading team
How:
Evaluation is done through self-reflection of the participant and feedback from group members (in process analysis, through group-games, sociometry).
The leading team monitors and evaluates the work of the student on the basis of observations on:
► his or her personal work (readiness and ability for working on inner conflicts and processes)
► participation as a group member (for example readiness and ability to work on his or her personal difficulties or conflicts in the group, etc.)
►practical skills as auxiliary ego and leader/director
► ability to reflect on and analyze practice (own and other people’s) and psychodrama skills, shown in process-analyses and protocols
► theoretical knowledge (presentation of theme/s, participation in discussions, connecting theoretical concepts with practice)
After 2/3 of the first level of training (about 400 hours) each student has one (and, if necessary, more) an individual session (50 minutes) with the two leaders, in which they evaluate together the progress of the student and give recommendations on the direction of the trainee’s efforts during the last third of the training. The define the theme of developing a written theses of the student.
In the end of the first level training, students have an exam in which they demonstrate their skills in directing warming-up, vignette and sharing, as well as their theoretical knowledge, they defend their written theses.
The exam is conducted by an examination board, including a representative of the BSPGT, who, with his signature on the student’s diploma, certifies that the diploma is recognized by the BSPGT.
Goals of the first /eve/ of psychodrama training are achieved when the student/trainee shows, that he or she:
- Is able to give differentiated and relevant feedback
- Is able to use psychodrama feedback techniques (sharing, role feedback)
- Is able to be appropriately involved in group life.
- Is able to take different roles as an antagonist and to present them in a convincing way
- Is skilled in doubling, mirroring and role-reversal as basic psychodrama techniques
- Is able to take part and work actively on his own difficulties and conflicts within the group.
- Is acquainted with the basic psychodrama theoretical concepts, and is able to use them actively to understand and explain individual or group events.
- Has realistic perception of self and others
- Is able to identify and name his/her own personal strengths and weaknesses
- Is able to recognize and name group-processes
- Is able to use the self-experience knowledge from the group in his life outside the group.
Certification
Requirements
- 600 teaching hours in a constant training group and in cross-seminars with guest-trainers (max. 15% of the first level training). A maximum of 30 hours (5%) of absences is permitted. Additional personal-experience work or practice under supervision could be be recommended to the student by the leading team if necessary.
- Presentation to the group and examining board of a thesis on a theoretical psychodrama related subject.
- Minimum of 3 personal protagonist-centered plays and submitted protocols on them.
- Minimum of 5 times of participation as a director (of warming-up, vignette, sharing, group-game, etc.) and submitted protocols for them. The protocols are written in accordance with a form developed by the institute.
- Written self-reflection for the personal and professional development during the training.
- Developed skills and acquired basic theoretical knowledge, defined as goals of the first level of psychodrama training.
- Passed practical and theoretical exam and defended written theses
Procedure
After completion of the First Level of Psychodrama Training, the leading team of the constant training group conducts an individual session with the trainee for provision of feedback and recommendations.
Students are certified as psychodrama-assistants after evaluation of their whole participation in the training and fulfilling the requirements of the Institute for certifying.
Psychodrama-assistant has the right to use psychodrama method in his or her own field of professional competence under the direction of certified psychodrama-director.
It may be necessary to adjust some requirements in accordance with changes adopted by the professional organizations (in Bulgaria and abroad) in these spheres and changes in the legal basis.
Last update of the program – 09.02.19.
Dr. Galabina Tarashoeva
Director of Psychodrama Center Orpheus