Community interventions

Community interventions since 2004

In November 2014 Sofia Symeonidou participated as a coordinator to the 1^st IAGP International Congress on Research and Group Psychotherapy and Processes on Chronic Stress. The Congress was organised by the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Process-IAGP and it was held in Athens.

In October 2014 Sofia Symeonidou coordinated the Workshop “Collective Trauma: Dealing with it and learning to be without it in the group embrace” at the Open Seminar “Trauma and Conflict Transformation” that was organised in Istanbul by FEPTO Task Force for Peace Building and Conflict Transformation.

In June 2013, the Hellenic Sociological Association – Western Macedonia Branch, ARSIS NGO Kozani Branch, and the Social Solidarity Clinic of Kozani organized an experiential psychodrama seminar on“Experiencing the stigma in times of crisis – Health in times of crisis”, with the support of the Centre for the Study and Application of Psychodrama – Sofia Symeonidou, under the 3rd“Festival Against Racism and Social Exclusion”.

In April 2013, at the 8^th FEPTO Conference (Federation of Psychodrama TrainingOrganizations) on “Crises and Change Processes”, held at Santander, Spain, Sophia Simeonidou ran a workshop on “Surplus reality: the way for human rights in crisis”.

In April 2013, the Centre for the Study and Application of Psychodrama presented psychodrama and its techniques in an event for the students of the Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, on “The Arts in Psychotherapy”, organised by Professor Dr. F. Kargopoulos.

In March 2013, in collaboration with ARSIS, Sofia Symeonidou coordinated a three-day experiential seminar based on the psychodramatic process on “Prevention of youth violence” in the context of the European project “CΥou! Communities preventing Youth Violence”. The workshop was addressed to teachers, psychologists, social scientists and youth educators.

In February 2013, the Centre implemented a number of interventions for students, parents and teachers of the 45th Primary School of Thessaloniki on “Violence in the school and the family”, in cooperation with ARSIS.

In April 2010, Sofia Symeonidou and trainee psychodramatists of the Centre, psychologists Fotini Papacharalambous and Vasiliki Papadopoulou, coordinated at Olympion movie theatre the “Experiential workshops for primary school students on preventing and combating children’s corporal punishment”, held in the framework of the two-day conference “It’s in your hands”. The event was organized by the Centre for Inclusion Policy of the Faculty of Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Children’s Ombudsman, and the Network for the prevention and combating of children’s corporal punishment.

A seminar was held on November 13-14, 2005 on “The concept of motivation in theeducational process”. The seminar was organised by the artistic-educational workshop “Raft in the City”. The aim of the seminar was to help participating teachers realise the importance of motivation in the educational process. The examples of activities processed functioned as a source of inspiration for teachers for similar applications in their own classrooms. The seminar was experiential and used psychodrama techniques and action methods. Its duration was 10 hours and the number of participants 20.

Training intervention on “Causes of juvenile delinquency and NGO practices in relation to juvenile delinquency”. The intervention took place on December 2, 2005 in a training seminar organized by the General Police Directorate of Thessaloniki. The aim of the seminar was to provide information to and raise the awareness among police staff of matters involving minors (victims and perpetrators), causes and ways of dealing with delinquent behaviour, and prevention. The first part of the intervention was experiential, using psychodrama techniques, followed by a presentation on the causes of juvenile delinquency, its prevention and responses. The intervention lasted three hours and involved 200 participants.

A personal development experiential workshop on “Play in the life of an adult” was organized by the Centre for the Study and Application of Psychodrama, addressed to ARSIS volunteers, in order to empower them to support young children at risk of social exclusion. The two-day workshop was held in March 2006. The workshop was a highly cathartic and creative experience for the participating volunteers, through their contact with their personal experiences from play and its importance. The method of coordination of the workshop was based on the techniques of psychodrama. The duration of the workshop was 10 hours.

As an associate of the Maternity Counselling Centre «Mother’s Haven» led by midwife Maria Nani, Sofia Symeonidou has systematically applied the techniques of psychodrama since February 2006, in the context of the Centre’s services. One of the key services of the Centre is to prepare couples for the moment of delivery and infant care. A two-hour weekly session with couples-prospective parents was introduced in order to empower and support them in their new role. Through the use of basic psychodrama techniques, the sessions revolved around the couple’s expectations from their new role as parents, their psycho-emotional empowerment, the relationship between the partners, and their expectations from their unborn baby.

As the Head of the Volunteer Department for ARSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth for several years, Sofia Symeonidou undertook the training of volunteers through psychodrama from 1998 to 2002. Her fairly long experience in working with volunteers gave rise to the opportunity for introducing, implementing and monitoring various methodologies to support and motivate the NGO’s volunteers. One of the basic training tools used with the volunteers and developed as a method was a training course based on psychodrama and its techniques. Before 1998, there were also volunteer training and volunteer supervisor training groups, with a strong focus on psychodrama in terms of implementation and monitoring.

Presentation at the 26th International Congress of Applied Psychology entitled “The Classical Psychodrama and its Clinical Applications in Greece by Members of the Greek Psychodrama Union”, 20/7/2006, Athens. Presentation of various community applications of psychodrama by herself and psychodramatist colleagues.

Presentation at the 1st International Conference of the Psychological Society of Northern Greece on “Quality of Life and Psychology”, Thessaloniki, 2005. Title of the presentation: “Street art: a methodology to support and empower young offenders”. Presentation of the methodology developed by Sofia Symeonidou under a General Secretariat for Youth project, tapping into the application of key principles and techniques of psychodrama and sociodrama to empower and support young people with delinquent behaviour. The group make-up had a strong element of multiculturalism and youth were aged between 14 and 22 years.

Human Rights Training for trainers and teachers. Use of key principles and techniques of the methodology of psychodrama and sociodrama in teacher education in the open community. Human rights training has been and still is a great challenge, at a time when the rights of many social groups are trampled upon and flagrantly violated on a daily basis. The philosophy and practice of both psychodrama and sociodrama are tools for intervention and processing on an individual and collective level of Human Rights advocacy and assertion. Since 2007, Sofia Symeonidou has been the main trainer in training seminars run by ARSIS and has used these methodologies as the main tools of her training interventions.