► Introduction

“A child is very serious when playing.”

– J. Rousseau 

The psychodramatic therapy of children differs profoundly from treating adults with this  method and demands a lot from the psychodrama therapist. Children communicate differently from grown-ups. Playing is their instrument of expressing their inner world and they use symbols to do so. One can say:

Playing is their „royal way“ to express the unconscious. They search for their possibilities by „Doing and Acting“. They test their inner images by acting it out and bringing it onto the appropriate stage.

Children play, choose subjects, places and roles. That is the way they express themselves, develop and have fun. Presumably this is the origin of the psychodramatic therapy. Jacob L. Moreno based his psychodramatic work on this kind of play and

included the basic steps and elements of the human development.

Children are characterized by an outstanding creativity. They can change sorrowful situations into   a game with symbols and find solutions for their own conflicts. Constitutive psychodramatic fundamental techniques are adopted by the vivid, childish play.

Child psychodrama supports the self-development and the advancement of children in a special way.

► Concept

The course teaches the main principles of this sym- bolic play with children in theory and practice, corre- sponding psychodramatic techniques for action and the appropriate use of psychodramatic options for intervention in both group and individual therapy. The accompanying work with parents or with the parents and the child is also part of the training.

The participants will learn to recognize the inner dyna- mics in groups of children and deal with them actively through play. They do so by experiencing themselves in analogous play situations, in exercises and reflection and guided methodological and theoretical evaluations. By actually participating in group or individual sessi- ons in the roles of children, they gain an awareness of themselves, gain access to themselves as children, and thereby ‘playfully’ reinforce their personal skills.

► Target Group

Professionals who work with children educationally and / or therapeutically such as child and adolescent psychotherapists, physicians, psychologists, mental health and social workers, teachers, and educators.

► Group leaders