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Psychosocial intervention through puppetry

Training on Psychosocial Intervention through Puppetry

A training on Psychosocial Intervention through Puppetry was conducted in Masyaf on May 1, 2019 and attended by 25 trainees, working mostly with children and adolescents.


The training aimed at introducing various types of drama games and Applied Drama and Theatre (ADT) models and methodologies. More specifically, games and methods were chosen so as to help adolescents restructure their memories and past experiences and seize opportunities to explore and find possible solutions for current problems.
The trainees were given the chance to apply in a safe space the drama exercises and games they had learnt.

This practical aspect of the training will certainly enable them to understand the course that an adolescent could possibly take during actual intervention. Additionally, the training also focused on the theoretical basis of those exercises—namely, the five-phase model of drama therapy sessions, the complex circle model and the growth and developmental EPR model (Embodiment-Projection-Role).

 

Psychosocial Intervention Through Puppetry

Since time immemorial, manipulating puppets has been associated with ritualistic activities. It has also been associated with children’s play, specifically animistic playful practices.

 

On the psychological level, manipulating a puppet produces inside the manipulator two contradictory actions: fusion and fission. The body of the manipulator merges into their puppet’s, turning both into one single organic whole, while their person is divided into two parts: the first part is embodied in their organism and the other extends to their hand, which is thus transformed into a second body. The puppet is part of the manipulator and, at the same time, a miniature version of them. As part of them, it reproduces and rearranges their hidden memories in any way they wish. And since it is separate from them, he/she disowns the responsibility for its actions, even if these take a perverse character.

 

Manipulating the puppet unleashes the manipulator’s imagination and emotional memory. The character that the puppet plays has, so to speak, a “magic power” that makes it triumph over all the other characters that represent oppression, hunger, death, injustice, etc. This victory is embodied in a simple and naive manner at the level of theatrical acting. This simplicity is at the heart of puppetry’s technique of expression.

 

SSSD gives great importance to this type of intervention, as it contributes to creating a safe space that many people need in order to understand and express their feelings and fears. Ultimately, this process greatly contributes to moving the beneficiary from the victim’s position to a more effective and productive role in community.

 

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