I had the privilege of facilitating an intensive Drama Therapy course in Beirut, Lebanon from 26th May to 1st June 2014. It was implemented by Catharsis - Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy, founded and led by Zeina Daccache, the only qualified Drama Therapist in Lebanon.
The training sessions were held at Haigazian University in Beirut. There were 37 participants. Most of them Lebanese, two from Kuwait and a two from Jordon. Many of them had been in the previous Drama Therapy training which Catharsis has been offering as part of the alternative training route, approved by the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA).
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed conducting the training! The participants were enthusiastic, very creative and very participative and were eager to learn. We even had a participant who is a nun, who was quite participative and got us all laughing in appreciation of her performance on the last day!
We covered quite a lot of ground in terms of techniques and the relevant theoretical explanations.
I also had the opportunity of working at the Baabda women's prison. They have been having Drama Therapy sessions with the staff of Catharsis and I was asked to conduct a 3 hour workshop for two days. On the first day we were delayed due to a massive traffic jam on the highway as it was the Election Day for Syria. There are over a million Syrian refugees who were on their way to vote at their embassy. Ironically, I witnessed a Ferrari which broke down right in the middle of the highway, in the midst of the traffic jam, and people who parked their cars on the sides of the highway and started to walk! By the way, if I owned a Ferrari, I will never ever expect it to break down! So I could empathize with the owner when I saw the expression on his face!
The women at the prison were delightful to work with. They were very creative. The first day we danced and the second day they came up with their own scripts and performed. A few of them were inspired and said that they want to perform more. I was also very touched that they had made a couple of gifts for me as tokens of appreciation. I had intended to watch a belly dance performance while I was in Lebanon…My wish came through when on the second day of working with the women in the prison, I had the honour of watching a belly dance performance by the women to end the workshop. They are amazing dancers!
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I would like to thank Zeina Daccache and her team, at Catharsis – the Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy for the opportunity and for such great organization in implementing the training sessions and the workshop. I felt very well taken care of while I was there. I am very impressed by the work they do and by the passion and dedication in which they demonstrate in their work.I would also like to thank Catharsis for sharing the photos taken during the training.
