workshops

 

 

 

Workshop 4: 24. – 27.08.2023 with Susanna Stich-Bender and Birgit Fritz in SCHLOSS GOLDEGG

 

Healing spaces inside and out – what works, what heals?

 

In this module we explore healing spaces within ourselves and in nature and combine the fruitful methods of drama therapy with spiritual and eco-therapeutic approaches.

Robert Greenaway, one of the pioneers of eco-psychology, described eco-therapy as "the process of healing the human-nature relationship through connection and reconnection with natural processes."

The perception of a larger network of life helps us to create and co-shape living connections and to find a language for this interaction. Using different methods and working with rituals, we create transitions between inner experience and external action and thus create the possibility of transformation and healing. The ritual acts like a vessel that provides support when exploring new spaces and experiences. It conveys the familiar and facilitates the confrontation with the new and uncertain. Evermore valid models of becoming and passing, such as the Xiré of the Orixás, support us in this.

 

Susanna Stich-Bender is a theatre therapist, theatre pedagogue, eco-therapist, psychotherapist (HPG), actress and coach. She is involved in her theatre and project work at various clinics and institutions in Bavaria and works in her specialist area with health authorities and therapeutic networks (Therapy Network Eating Disorder in Munich/Ingolstadt) for addiction prevention and aftercare. At the Danuviusklinik Pfaffenhofen/ Ingolstadt she has been leading theatre therapy groups since 2005 and also works in an individual setting. In addition, she is on the road with eco-therapeutic projects in the landscapes and mountains of Germany and Austria in cooperation with Danu e.V. She gives further training on theatre/eco-therapy and is a specialist in the field of eating disorders for the training Drama Therapy Switzerland.

www.literatouring.com

 

Dr. Birgit Fritz is a theatre therapist and pedagogue, Feldenkrais teacher. The roots of her theatre work and the themes of her research work lie in the emancipatory folk theatre of Latin America. She is a lecturer for transformative theatre work at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg (social work), leads autopietic theatre year groups, seminars and workshops on diverse topics at home and abroad. From 2018-2021, she led the open drama therapy group of Group 94, a center for cancer sufferers and their relatives in Vienna. She now lives in Feistritz im Rosental, Carinthia.

Publications: "The Courage to Become", "InExActArt – a handbook on autopoietic theatre work according to Augusto Boal", "Forum Theatre and Democracy in India", "Hamlet and the Baker’s Son" – the Autobiography of Augusto Boal" and the translation "Orixás on the Divan. On the Importance of the Spiritual Forces of Nature in Psychotherapy and Art Therapy" by Tina de Souza.   www.birgitfritz.at