Summer Practicum Clinical Seminars Options

Playback Theatre with Adults with Autism

This clinical seminar will take place in a hostel that provides residence and care for adults with Autism in Rosh Haain (about 30 min. outside of Tel Aviv). The group members are regular participants in an ongoing drama therapy group, and work in the community.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is considered a developmental disorder characterized by challenges of communication, behavior, and social skills. Drama therapy processes allow people with ASD to have a chance to organize their experiences and rehearse desired behaviors and actions, as they step into the role of another person and have opportunities to see the world from different perspectives.

The group will use Therapeutic Playback Theater as its main drama therapy tool, in order to enable participants to process their past experiences in a creative and safe environment, while providing an ongoing training in empathy and understanding of the other.

Shoshi Keisari is a Drama Therapist in both public and private frameworks. Lecturer and supervisor at the University of Haifa and Tel-Hai College, her Ph.D. research at Haifa University’s Gerontology Department, focuses on the integration of psychotherapeutic playback theatre with narrative therapy in old age. She has published articles and is a co-author of the book "Hall of mirrors on stage: Psychotherapeutic playback theatre", published by Emili Sagol, Creative Arts Therapies Center, Haifa University.

Earth Games & Toys approach

This clinical seminar will take place in an elementary school in Hazor Haglilit, Upper Galilee. We will be working with a group of children aged 11-12 who have difficulties with sensory and emotional regulation, affecting their behavior and social relationships. The kids are in transition between elementary school and junior high and are at risk of vagrancy during the summer.

The group will focus on the Earth Game and Toys approach – a method that is based on the idea of the earth as a safe space, and as a material resource for creating images and games. We will work indoors and outdoors, learning and applying the method. Using earth and mud allows people to revisit the developmental progress, from sensory-motor movement play, through the creation of images, projective or/and role-playing games. Connected with Sue Jennings’ EPR Paradigm, this continuum enables a renewed connection to the body, nature, reality and imagination, contributing to emotional regulation, self-expression and improving social skills.

Eitan Shaked,  MA.,  is a drama therapist, educator, and developer of the Earth Games Method. He Works at Mashabim, The Community Stress Prevention Center in Kiryat Shmona (Upper Galilee), as well as in special education kindergartens in Safed through the Ministry of Education. He is the author of the book Earth toys & games (2017, forthcoming in English), teaching the method to educators and  therapists. The Earth Toys Method is an educational and therapeutic approach applied with children facing all kinds of challenges: emotional difficulties, developmental disabilities, children from backgrounds of neglect and abuse, and adults suffering from post-trauma. The method was also implemented for community resilience in wartime as well as with refugee children.

Drama Therapy with migrant and refugee children and their parents

This clinical seminar will take place in UNITAF, an after-school program unit in Tel-Aviv that provides education and care to children from the migrant and refugee community. Mostly from Africa, this population lacks civil rights, and the adults work long hours.

The group will work with children age 4-6 as well as create a joint group with children and their parents. Using the EPR paradigm as a framework we will apply both individual and dyadic interventions within the group setting, in an attempt to strengthen the emotional development of children, and enhance the children-parents’ ability to play together, promoting healthy attachment and bonding.

Pazit Ilan Bercovich, M.A., Drama therapist, family and couple psychotherapist and supervisor, teaches at Tel Hai’s Drama Therapy Graduate Program, the Israeli Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater, and supervises clinical seminars at the Winnicott Center (Israel). She is the founder of “Marot” – a professional Playback Theatre group that performs since 2002 and is among the founders of the Israeli Playback Theatre Association. She has imparted Drama Therapy and Playback Theatre workshops in many professional conferences, is a member of ICET (the Israeli Association of Creative and Expressive Therapies), in which co-heads the Drama Therapy Chapter. She works with children adolescents, adults, couples and families in private practice.

* Field Practicums are subject to changes and dependent on minimum registration of participants