"The sociodrama retreat conducted by Edward Schreiber, a close student of Zerka Moreno, and with the assistance of Keller Allen was full of indescribable magic.
The 45 participants in this gathering from north to south of Portugal were, for the largest part, not acquainted with Psychodrama or Sociodrama.
The retreat begun with a slide show about the cosmic dimension of the human being and all of the Moreno’s philosophy and the parallels with other disciplines and perspectives. From the first questions asked for the group about the future of humanity belief, this axiogram showed a multiplicity of replies, although it was clear that the response to that question derived itself of a conscious choice that this retreat reinforced. The next two days were intensives, with several group dynamics, from dance therapy to sociometric, sociodramatic and psychodramatic exercises. Ed modelled a real XXI century leadership style, where the leader is indeed a facilitator which serve the group, conducting it to a true empowerment and letting emerge new leaders in the process.
The music was always very present like in the warming up phase - mostly with dancing and movement – where the group was all involved, or the more informal chanting nights with the Portuguese fado.
What more impressed me was the degree of consciousness between the words and the action, the Love environment and the co-responsibility which emerged in the group and the profound and clarifying initiation to fundamental concepts of Moreno’s theory such as spontaneity, cultural conserve and creativity, the first and the second universe, the autonomous healing center, tele, co-unconsciousness and sociatry.
This was an unequivocal contribution for the humanity’s future and for Sociodrama and psychodrama. The next retreat will be in….of 2011 in Lisbon."
Manuela Maciel
(Vice President of Portuguese Psychodrama Association and the retreat’s co-organizer)
"It happened in the days 20, 21 and 22 of November of 2009, the intensive course in Sociatry, Sociodrama and Psychodrama, directed by Edward Schreiber and Keller Allen, the 1stSociodrama International Retreat. The initial proposal was to get in touch with Psychodrama of Transformation. It was made an approach to some ideas of JL Moreno, like the idea of the First and the Second Universe, spontaneity and creativity, among others.
Body and Movement were constantly used as communication vehicles, using music as an additional support. The awakening of our creative vitality was awakened in the process, preparing us for the encounter with our autonomous healing centre, considered an expansion of our being, the goal to reach as when the caterpillar is transformed in a butterfly.
It was used the three chair technique, occupied by the protagonist in the following way: the protagonist, the problem/difficulty, the autonomous healing centre (that can be the seat of the protagonist or any being recognized as having the capacity for helping). The great richness of this retreat was its experiential structure, that ran with an exceptional fluidity."
Nuno Pires
