Our association, Societatea de Psihodramă “JL Moreno” (SPJLM), a member of PAfE e. V., is one of the two psychodrama associations in Romania.
SPJLM, with headquarters in Cluj, Transylvania, is a non-profit training institute and an association of those who practice psychodrama as practitioners, therapists or psychodrama directors.
We have 26 years of existence and most of our history is closely linked with PIfE and recently PAfE e.V.
1.Training Groups
Since the beginning, around 500 psychodramatists have been trained by our institute.
Completed groups (status: 2020):
Basic level: 50 groups
Advanced level: 15 groups
At the latest final exam (Colloquium) in November 2018, 8 students successfully completed the training.
1.2. Trainers and Supervisors
20 basic level trainers
9 advanced level trainers
3 full supervisors.
In Romania psychodrama is recognized as a psychotherapy method and over 300 psychodrama psychotherapists trained by the two psychodrama institutes in Romania (SPJLM and ARPsiC) are certified for psychotherapy private practice by the national umbrella organization, the Romanian Psychologists College.
2. Members and Management
SPJLM has an office rented in the center of Cluj. The office work (files, certificates, etc.) is mostly managed by a secretary with part-time job (10 hours a week). The 60 members meet yearly in the General Assembly for strategic decisions. The board (Council) has 4 members who meet monthly for operational decisions.
The Professional Committee is particularly active in leading and monitoring the good practices of the training and practice in our organizations.
3. Links with Europe
Our organization is consistently present in PAfE e.V. meetings, board, committees, conference.
We are also present in FEPTO (Federation of European Psychodrama Training Organizations) Annual Meetings, conferences and committees.
4. National Conferences
Together with the other psychodrama association, we take turns in organizing the national psychodrama conference every year.
In 2018 we organized the 11th National Psychodrama Conference: „Applications in Therapy and Organizations” (19-21 Oct 2018)
- 17 workshops, 4 presentations, 1 poster
- Keynote speaker: Jacomien Ilbrink (The Netherlands)
- Special guests: Monica Westberg (Sweden), Johannes Krall (Austria), Annick Milet (Swiss), Hilde Gött (Germany), Marco Greco (Italy)
- 140 participants from 8 countries.
5. Group Dynamics
We are convinced of the importance of organizing high quality group dynamics seminars for our students during the basic level training. For that, we invited 4 trainers from “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gruppendynamik und Organisationsdynamik“ (DGGO)
The latest seminar was in January 2019, with the participation of 42 trainees and 8 SPJLM trainers.
The intense experiential learning process is valued by all the participants.
6. Psychodrama Open Day
To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we organized a series of events, some of them dedicated to our members, others to the outside world.
On April 6, 2019, we had a Psychodrama Open Day:
- 9 workshops open to the large public, with 120 participants
- 100 participants to the public presentation of our special guest, a popular author who heavily promotes psychodrama in her writings.
The event was generally considered as a success, as people of various professions (teachers, doctors, lawyers, programmers, etc.) came from far cities to participate, and announced their interest in psychodrama groups and even training.
7. Online Psychodrama Club
During the quarantine period of 2020, an initiative group of 12 practitioners started to meet weekly and exercise ways to adapt the psychodramatic work to the online environment. The pilot program was considered valuable by all the participants. The participants take turns in leading the sessions and the experience in this safe, limited group, inspired confidence in most participants to resume the self-awareness group meetings, in an online format.
8. Psychodrama Online AmphiTheater
Encouraged by the online experience earned by the trainers in leading training groups online, and by the Club members, we organized an online psychodrama conference. 16 workshops, 75 participants, in 3 parallel Zoom accounts. The feedback reported high satisfaction from the participants.
9. Future priorities
- Maintain the national professional recognition of the psychodrama method;
- Strengthen the psychodrama community in Romania;
- Constantly review the training requirements to be in line with the European standards;
- Research and implement methods to accommodate the online environment;
- Continue the exchange of experience and best practices with colleagues from other European countries.
SPJLM President
Simona Vlad
in: December 2020
