Poland: Polish Psychodrama Institute

 

www.psychodrama.pl

What is Polish Psychodrama Institute?

Polish Psychodrama Institute, located in Cracow, is the biggest psychodrama Institute in Poland. The association consists of over 100 active members mostly highly educated clinicians, certified psychotherapy supervisors and psychotherapists who apply psychodrama in their everyday work.

So far we have educated 30 psychodrama trainers, over 55 psychodrama therapists or leaders and three independent full psychodrama supervisors: Anna Bielańska, Wiesława Piątek-Janicka and Jarosław Gliszczyński.

Current Board of PPI

Ariadna Romejko-Borowiec – President, Anna Bielańska & Jarosław Gliszczyński – Vice President, Michał Faron – Secretary, Igor Hanuszkiewicz – Treasurer, Jacek Syguda & Krzysztof Ciepliński – Members

Short History of PPI

Polish Psychodrama Institute was founded in 1999 in Cracow, but the first groups were led much earlier by Sonia Beloch from Germany and Eva Roine from Norway. In these groups there were Agnieszka Bartkowska-Kurek, Anna Bielańska, Jarosław Gliszczyński Wiesława Piątek-Janicka, Jacek Syguda and others, who later formed the base for the Institute. The first Polish second-level group was directed by Berndt Fichtenhofer.

Since then we have had several trainers from Europe. For the past years we have had the pleasure to experience and learn from Hilde Gött (Germany), Bernd Fichtenhofer (Germany), Eduardo Verdu (Norway), Eva Schjetne (Norway), Inara Erdmanis (Latvia), Leandra Perolta and Maurizio Gasseou (Italy) who have been giving us workshops and supervisions. Moreover, many foreign trainers are regularly invited every year to lead the seminars for our trainees on a variety of topics. Among them: Jaacov Naor (Israel), Christoph Hutter (Germany), Ludmila Litvinienko (Ukraine), Judith Teszary (Sweden), Judith Maschke (Germany) and others. Our trainers work abroad mainly in the Eastern part of Europe, in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, where they lead seminars and groups. In 2004 Psychodrama by Moreno was acknowledged by Polish Psychiatry Association and recommended as one of the selfexperience trainings for future psychotherapists.

PPI activities

Training in Psychodrama according to Moreno

The PPI organizes full stage three psychodrama trainings, seminars and supervisions according to the rules of Psychodrama Association for Europe e.V. The trainings take place in different cities all over the country: Cracow, Silesia, Warsaw, Lublin, Białystok, Poznań and Wrocław. Since 2004 we have organised and finished over 30 first-level groups and 8 second-level groups. So far already about 500 people have completed the first-level group training. At this very moment there are 12 first-level groups working and 1 of the second-level.

In order to develop of our skills and make a space for creative and spontaneous encounters, one time a year special supervision workshops are organized for exclusively for trainers.

Psychodrama specialized psychotherapy trainings

We promote psychodrama as a psychotherapeutic method in Poland, which has led to the organisation of two independent full psychodrama-oriented psychotherapy postgraduate trainings that have been taking place for the past 15 years now in 5 different locations.

Moreover under the PPI auspices there are psychodrama therapeutic and self-experience groups arranged and directed by psychodrama-oriented psychotherapists.

Psychodrama Festival

In order to integrate the Polish psychodramatists and open up the possibility for mutual cooperation, learning and other creative initiatives, every second year we organise a conference – Polish Psychodrama Festival that gathers approximately 160 psychodramatists.

Playback Theatres

It was actually in 2016 during one of our Festivals when the first Polish playback theatre was established.

Now there are two active ones: Hejnał in Cracow and Self 3.0 in Warsaw playing for refugees, patients and children.

Cooperation with international psychodrama organisations

From the very beginning we have been developing well thanks to constant support received from Psychodrama Institute (now Association) for Europe e.V. and we have become one of the largest psychodrama organisations in Europe.

In 2010 PPI became the official member of the Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organizations (FEPTO). PPI members are also involved in both scientific and theoretical studies on psychodrama application.

Ariadna Romejko-Borowiec
President
March 2021