Theater Therapy Seminar:

 

For the fifth time euro-TC organized an International Theater Therapy Seminar. Euro-TC member facility Knappenhof is located. This beautiful ambience, surrounded by mountains and nature provided the perfect background to an intense and successful Therapy Seminar.

Groups from 5 Euro-TC members from 4 different countries took part: 

Tannenhof Berlin Brandenburg e.V. – Germany, CEIS Mestre – Italy, Villa Renata – Italy, Leo Amici – Hungary and Knappenhof – Austria

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After a first get-together on the evening after everyone had safely arrived the trainers were introduced to the groups.

Early the next morning, the groups were formed and the work was started right away. Given the umbrella term of “shadow work” as a guideline, all trainers developed their own little pieces in which the shadows played a more or less leading role. Shadows should be viewed in regard to the famous swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, who circumscribed shadows as follows:

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"Beneath the social mask we wear every day, we have a hidden shadow side: an impulsive, wounded, sad, or isolated part that we generally try to ignore. The Shadow can be a source of emotional richness and vitality, and acknowledging it can be a pathway to healing and an authentic life. We meet our dark side, accept it for what it is, and we learn to use its powerful energies in productive ways. The Shadow knows why good people sometimes do "bad" things. Romancing the Shadow and learning to read the messages it encodes in daily life can deepen your consciousness, imagination, and soul." Each of the trainers had a different approach of implementing the shadows in the short pieces of drama. At the end of the second workshop day all groups took part in the final performance at Schloß Wartholz, which was open to the public. Famous Austrian Kammerschauspielerin Maresa Hörbiger hosted the introduction and welcome by presenting several short written pieces on the relation of theater and therapy. Some of the treatment facilities work with theater on a regular basis with their patients, and thus had already prepared pieces of drama with them. At the final show altogether 7 pieces were presented:

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Tannenhof Berlin Brandenburg e.V.
Workshop group of Timea Kiss, Workshop Group of Giuliano Morasco, Workshop Group of Maria Wechselberger, Ragnatella by Villa Renata, Victory by Leo Amici, Workshop Group of Oliver Pernhaupt

 

The whole event was a real success, patients were surprised about newly discovered abilities and proud of themselves. The audience was highly entertained and touched by the amazing skills of the amateur actors.