In this Highly Interactive Four-Part Workshop, Participants Will Learn How to Create and Facilitate a Bibliodrama and How to Use Bibliodrama as a Warm Up to Psychodrama.

Bibliodrama is a kind of participatory storytelling informed by psychodrama. As a group process, Bibliodrama offers participants the opportunity to co-create a surplus reality populated by Biblical archetypes, and to do so in a way that mirrors one’s own internal processes. This surplus reality is a reification of the white fire of Midrash. The master metaphor of this form of participatory storytelling begins with the group leader or leaders as the story facilitators.

What happens within the Bibliodrama framework is the telling of a story together as a group. The group begins their storytelling within a framework, which is the ancient scriptural text that has been handed down. Because there is also a tremendous amount that has not been made explicit in these stories, the group will use the text only as a starting point and the facilitators will invite the group members to begin to think about and then to explore what’s between the lines of the text. This “between space” is the white fire, and the exploration of this white fire is the essence of the process of co-creation, which in turn is the essence of this work.

Each three-hour workshop in the series will focus on different aspects of creating and facilitating a Bibliodrama. As participants complete each in the series they will move from learning about the basic foundation and building blocks of Bibliodrama and continue through to increasingly complex character interactions, scene and role development. In the final segment, students will learn how to focus on the "mirror" aspect of Bibiliodrama, and use the group process as a warm up to a group member's personal work in Psychodrama.

Please Note: What follows is a very ambitious course syllabus. However, we will progress at the group’s pace, and it is possible that not all subjects will be covered. Our schedule/itinerary is tentative and will be modified as we continue to refine the curriculum while following the group through the learning process.

Part One: September 20, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST

In the first installment of our three-hour workshop, participants will learn how to read “Bibliodramatically.” Additionally, students will learn how to select a text and a “role moment” from that text, and how to introduce the role moment through contextually relevant storytelling. Students will then be given the opportunity to facilitate the role moment selected with other students and have this work supervised and processed by the facilitators and the other participants.

The workshop will include didactic learning from various resources, and this will include a discussion about the roots of Bibliodrama and how it has been and is used around the world.

Workshop part one has two objectives; (1) participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of the theory and ethical practice of Bibliodrama, and; (2) participants will also leave the workshop with the ability to prepare and facilitate a Bibliodrama experience for others using storytelling and a single role moment.

Part Two: October 11, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST

We intend for this second installment of our three-hour workshop to build on the first. Accordingly, the group will expand demonstrated skill and proficiency at reading scripture “Bibliodramatically.” Using a single role Bibliodrama as part of “pastoral counseling” will be explored, including the associated skills of Bibliodramatic interviewing and journaling. Student participants will also learn how to move from a one role moment Bibliodrama to a second role moment in a multi-role Bibliodrama. Students will learn to incorporate the associated skills of echoing. Students will be given the opportunity to facilitate a role moment with other students, to practice echoing with that student, and to have this processed by the facilitator and the other participants. The “mirror” and the “window” will be explored further.

Workshop part two has two objectives; (1) participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to thematically string role-moments together into a cohesive whole, and; (2) participants will also leave the workshop with the ability to deepen the Bibliodrama experience through interviewing and journaling.

Part Three: November 15, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

In this third installment of our three-hour workshop, we intend for students to learn how to create and facilitate a Bibliodrama of increasing length and complexity, including for example, by adding an encounter and/or a sculpture to the full Bibliodrama experience. Echoing will also be demonstrated and explored. Students will be given the opportunity to facilitate an encounter and/or sculpture with other students and to have this processed by the facilitator and the other participants.

Workshop part three has two objectives; (1) participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to create and facilitate an encounter and/or a sculpture, and; (2) participants will also leave the workshop with an understanding of how to use echoing as a way to deepen the Bibliodrama experience.

Part Four: December 6, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

In the final installment of our three-hour workshop participants may learn how to use Bibliodrama as a warm-up to psychodrama, and when doing so would be unethical or otherwise contra-indicated. The “mirror” and the “window” of Bibliodrama will be introduced, along with how to incorporate safeguards to ethically conduct and facilitate a Bibliodrama in a non-therapeutic setting. The method will be demonstrated for participants who will join in the co-creation, based on the scripture being explored. The work will be processed and sharing, and closing demonstrated.

Workshop part three has two objectives; (1) participants will learn how to select an appropriate scripture, work with it Bibliodramatically as a warm up, and to transition into and facilitate psychodrama, and; (2) participants will also leave the workshop with an understanding of how and when to not transition into psychodrama because doing same would be unethical or otherwise contraindicated.

All four workshops in this series will be presented live, on Zoom. Because of the nature of work together and the fact that each workshop builds on the last, participants must register and attend the entire series. Tuition for the series will not be refunded for non-appearance/participation except in cases of demonstrable hardship, which would be discussed with the facilitators.

Registrants will receive a link shortly before the workshop begins allowing them entry into the workshop. If you have never joined an online psychodrama, Bibliodrama or sociodrama workshop in the past, this will be your chance to see how effective and impactful these online workshops can be. Zoom online workshops are a great option in this age of social distancing while offering an excellent opportunity to meaningfully connect with others.

Some portions of our work may be recorded for training purposes, with group consent, which will be discussed ahead of time.

12 training hours can be credited toward certification by the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy.