3rd DRAMA & PLAY THERAPY CONFERENCE OF P.P.A.D.P.
The body is our first locus of experience. It is the canvas on which early experiences are depicted, the stage on which irreducible conflicts are played out, and the vehicle of desire, memory, trauma and healing.
From infancy to old age, the body ‘speaks’, even when the verbal expression fails. It acts out what cannot be said – and this is precisely where the body’s deep affinity with Dramatherapy and Play Therapy lies.
The themes of this conference approach the body as a multidimensional vector of psychic processes: the body that grows, that hurts, that feeds, that seeks spirituality, that bends. In each session, the body is revealed not only as a biological object, but above all as a psychic, symbolic and social subject, bearing identity, relationships and memories.
In Dramatherapy and Play Therapy, the body takes a central position. It embodies roles, activates action, becomes a medium for play and creative imagination. Where before the body was recorded as a barren and uninhabited place of pain or confusion, it can now be transformed into a field of re-inscription and re-creation. Intense or destructive behaviours, bodily expressions of anxiety and trauma – what we call acting out – take on symbolic form through play and action. They are transmuted, signified, returned to the self as experiences that are fertile, inhabitable: acting in.
The transition from acting out to acting in is a process of embodied consciousness. It means that the human being is not merely a ‘field of action’ of his inner conflicts, but acquires a relationship with them. Through role-play, movement and metaphor, the individual can safely re – experience, process, feel, rewrite their narrative. This is where the transformation begins.
This conference is an invitation to therapists, artists, scientists, students and researchers to delve into the possibilities offered by the embodied therapeutic context. To see the body not only as a witness to suffering but also as a vector of life, pleasure, creation and transformation. To reflect on the multiple identities of the body and the dynamics it activates when given voice – not just through words, but through role, symbol and play.
1. Embodied Development: Body and Psyche
● Psychosomatic development and embodiment of the psyche in childhood
Focus on embodied expressions of early psychic processes, the role of bodily experience in the organization of the self and the regulation of emotion.
● Neurodiversity and embodied expressions of difference
Autistic spectrum, ADHD, learning difficulties and the body as a site of expression of anxiety, dysregulation or the need to connect/disconnect.
● The primary bond and bodily memory
The role of developing senses and physical proximity in forming secure attachment, the place of the body in other types of attachment.
● Play as a developmental and therapeutic tool
Categories of play (symbolic, kinesthetic, social) and their contribution to trauma integration, empowerment and self-awareness.
● Embodied Therapy : Playtherapeutic – Dramatherapeutic techniques
Applications of experiential methods focusing on physical expression, role play and sensory experience as a means of processing.
● Childhood anxiety and developmental trauma
Body as an expression of non-verbal traumatic experiences. Detecting implicit psychological wounds through bodily presence or absence.
● Adolescence: Bodily Transformation and the Psychic Imprint
Sexuality, body image, gender identity, and the social mirror of adolescence. The body as a field of conflict and self-definition.
● Primary relationships and family dynamics
The family as a mirror and reinforcer of the embodied experience of the child. Cultural and intergenerational influences.
● Art and healing process
Creative expression as a means of imaginative reconstruction of the body, attachment and identity.
2. The body in pain: The body as vector and witness of pain
● Acute and chronic pain
Exploring pain beyond the physical: pain as experience, language and narrative.
● Physical abuse and traumatic imprint
The body as a field of violation and possible restoration through creative expression.
● Chronic diseases and psychosomatic symptoms
The diseased body as a communication channel of the soul. Illness and identity.
● Pleasure and pain: the dipole experience of the body
Exploring the individual’s contradictory relationship to pleasure and pain – sadomasochistic dynamics, religious or cultural perceptions.
● Self-harm and compulsions
The body as a site of control, protest, relief or punishment. Therapeutic approach to adolescents and adults.
● Tattooing, piercing and the body as a canvas
Body modification as ritual, as reclaiming control and as an embodied narrative of identity choice.
● The body’ s Language of Violence: Aggression, Expression
The body as a vector of aggression, the bodily language of violence and the therapeutic dimensions of bodily expression.
● Addictions and embodied disconnection
The dysregulated body of addiction, the loss of boundary and the need to reconnect through experiential therapy.
● Representations of Pain in Art
The aching body in visual art, theatre, literature. Art as a mirror and interpreter of embodied suffering
3. The body we feed: Image, needs and fantasies
● Controlling the body : Eating disorders and the body as a field of control
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia, hyperphagia. The performativity of the body and the imposition of the ‘ideal’.
● Eating Challenges and Feeding difficulties in childhood
The act of eating as a relationship. Eating as a symptom and language of communication, connection or rejection.
● Feeding habits and cultural construction of food
Traditional and contemporary conceptions. Food as ritual, identity and means of socialization or exclusion.
● The ideal body: Body models and diet culture
The socially constructed ideal, media roles, and psychosocial pressure to conform.
● Body image: From distortion to acceptance
Psychoanalytic, developmental, and sociological approaches to internal body representation.
● Eros, sexuality and embodied desire
The body as erotic subject and object. Fantasies, guilt, pleasure, and the therapeutic implications.
● Gender, identity and embodied expression
Gender identity, non-binary identities, queer considerations. The body as a site of negotiation and visibility.
● Dance and bodily movement as means of embodiment
The body in motion as a creative and therapeutic tool and sensory awakening.
● Food in Art and Culture
Performances of celebration, loss, desire and mourning through food in visual and performing arts.
4. The body and the spirit: Holistic, Quest and Transcendence
● The Body in Search of Spirituality
The bodily experience of the sacred, empathy, ecstasy and unity.
● Rituals and Embodiment: Religious rituals and spiritual practices across cultures
● Body-soul dualism: philosophical and cultural considerations
From Plato and Cartesian to modern embodied theories of consciousness.
● Body and mind in the technological age
Body-machine, biotechnology, cyborg identities. New opportunities and challenges in the digital age.
● Art as a spiritual path
Creation as transition, connection with the Other, healing and inner awakening.
5. The body that bends: Aging, transformation and wisdom
● Aging as a psychosomatic and existential transition
The body that changes, decays and matures at the same time. Rethinking identity in the west of life.
● Degenerative diseases and loss of function
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor syndromes. The body as alien or as an embodied memory.
● Physical and Mental wellbeing in the later life:
Interventions for prevention, creative expression and acceptance of old age.
● Pleasure and eroticism in mature bodies
Re-evaluating pleasure, touch and sexuality after the reproductive phase.
● Stereotypes, ageism and cultural narratives
The “invisible” older person, removal from the limelight and the need for voice and corporeality.
● Art as a narrative of ageing
Examples of artists and works that express the body in decay, wisdom and acceptance.
VENUE
University of West Attica
Egaleo, Athens
UNDER THE AUSPICES AND THE SUPPORT
PPADP
ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ: Αριστέα Κοντραφούρη, Κοινωνική Θεολόγος – Ηθοποιός, Δραματοθεραπεύτρια – Παιγνιοθεραπεύτρια
ΑΝΤΙΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ: Ελπίδα Μαρίνου, Δραματοθεραπεύτρια
ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΕΑΣ: Παναγιώτα Καπράλου, Δραματοθεραπεύτρια
ΤΑΜΙΑΣ: Ζωή Μαργέλη, Παιγνιοθεραπεύτρια
ΜΕΛΟΣ: Ελευθερία Τσαμπαρλή, Δραματοθεραπεύτρια
