63rd Annual Conference

8:45 A.M.-12:00 noon

Workshop 78

Healing the Wounds of History: Theatre and Ritual in Intercultural Conflict Resolution and Cultural Trauma

Chair:         

Armand Volkas, MFA, M.A., MFT, RDT/BCT, Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology Program, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California; Clinical Director, The Living Arts Counseling Center, Oakland, California

Interweaving performance, audience interaction and creative ritual elements, members of cultures in conflict share personal stories that are publicly witnessed and transformed into theatre.  Legacies of historical trauma and the issues that arise from it: identity, victimization and perpetration, meaning and personal and collective grief, are explored.

Sharing of work experiences-didactic-experiential-demonstration

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Define phases involved in working through historical trauma.

2. Utilize drama therapy and creative ritual techniques as therapeutic inteventions in working with legacies of historical trauma.

3. Distinguish between collective historical and personal experience.

4. Detect how cultural and national identity and self-esteem are affected by historical trauma.

Course References:

1. Frankl, V. (1992). Man's Search for Meaning: An introduction to Logotherapy (4th ed.) Boston: Beacon Press.

2. David, L. (2002). I Thought We'd Never Speak Again. New York: Harper Collins.

3. Danieli, Y. (Ed.) (1998). Intergenerational Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma. New York: Plenum Press.