Fairytales and Psychodrama during Christmas- December 2021
It’s never too early to get into the Christmas spirit! Christmas isn’t just a season, it’s a feeling. With Christmas on cards and with joy in our hearts, let’s celebrate as we reflect on our lives.
Here is an opportunity to uncover parts of “You” through Storytelling and Psychodrama.
Storytelling is a narrative approach through which we can explore human lives and thoughts. Fairytales are stories that have been popular for generations, but they are more than just entertainment. Fairytales take place in a magical realm in which all matter can be transformed instantly. In fairytales, just wishing can make it so (sometimes). This realm is the opposite of the laborious, mechanical, scientific realm. One can use fairytales as a therapeutic tool by learning about the lives of fairytale characters, and reflecting upon this material in relation to one’s own life. Fairytales contain many symbols for aspects of personalities. This reflection process can enable one to re-frame and re-imagine the stories of one’s life.
Psychodrama is a scientific exploration of truth through dramatic method. This is a spontaneous and creative method which when used by well-trained and certified psychodramatists can facilitate exploration of real-life situations, past incidents, inner mental-processes, and other occurrences — by acting them out in the present moment. Through Psychodrama we would seek to enact and experience the issues, conflicts, and choices of the characters of the stories, and we would seek to discover related elements in our own lives. In the process we might come to understand various perspectives and as a result might gain more empathy and compassion towards ourselves and those around us.
Find yourself in the story, and find the story in you! Below are the stories that we would be working on in during the sessions.
The 3 fairytales — and 1 ghost story —
we would be working with are,
1) Sat 11th Dec —
“Brother and Sister”, a fairytale (Germany),
https://storytellinginstitute.org/331.pdf
2) Sun 12th Dec —
“The Goose-girl at the Pond”, a fairytale (Germany),
https://storytellinginstitute.org/334b.pdf .
3) Sat 18th Dec —
“The Twelve Windows”, a fairytale (Germany).
https://storytellinginstitute.org/332.pdf
4) Sun 19th Dec —
“A Christmas Carol: The Story of Scrooge” —
a ghost story (England), by Charles Dickens, 1843,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
Dates: 11th, 12th, 18th and 19th December 2021 (Saturdays & Sundays)
Time: 6:00 pm- 9:00 pm IST , 7:30 am- 10:30 am EST
Fee: Rs. 6000/ 200 USD
Platform: Zoom (online)
Facilitators: Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam and Dr. Eric Miller.
Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam (based in Chennai) is a longtime therapist, Expressive Arts therapist, psychodramatist, psychodrama trainer and is the Founder-Director of the Indian Institute of Psychodrama (IIP). She is a pioneer in bringing Psychodrama, and Psychodrama training, to India (including in partnership with Indian universities).
TED TALK on Psychodrama: https://youtu.be/CfDUUugbTeY
Dr Eric Miller (born and raised in New York City, and settled in Chennai) is the Director of the World Storytelling Institute, and the Chennai Storytelling Festival. He was trained in Folklore in Philadelphia (PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania). And he was trained in Psychology in Chennai (MSc in Psychology from the University of Madras; and one-year course in Psychological Counselling from the Chennai Counsellors Foundation).
For queries and clarification, please contact us. 9884700104/ 106/ 135
Email: info@indianinstituteofpsychodrama.org