Introduction to the Concept of Drama Therapy
Zoukak undertakes drama therapy workshops and trainings in a special approach developed and experimented with since the year 2000. This approach borrows several techniques of experimental theatre and re-works them in a frame issued from clinical psychology.
The drama therapy workshops are built around three dynamic factors: time, space and sensory perception. The time frame of the workshop is presented as personal body/mind experimentation, where each participant can immerse in his/her own psychosomatic emotive universe, amplifying perception of the self, and developing the socio-emotional competences, observing his/her past and re-appropriating the responsibility of his/her own future.
The objective of these workshops aims towards leading the participant, through theatrical exercises, to become aware of his/her corporeal self defense mechanisms, and to discover that individuals are an ensemble of terms, intentions, volitions, and that they can and should coexist with the irrational and instinctive drive without creating conflict.
This methodology works on the body image and the relation to the self and the body, reinforcing self-esteem and confidence, in a group dynamic context that fosters empathy. Participating in the same theatrical experience/ event provides a sense of belonging to a cohesive group, sharing similar body/mind explorations, revealing intimate vulnerabilities and discovering new unexplored possibilities of strength.

Drama therapy specific workshops
Several tools of drama therapy are applied in independent workshops that preserve the same therapeutic context of drama therapy, and the same experimental methodology of work, but which focus on specific artistic tools:
- Experimental theatre techniques
- The creation and use of puppet technique.
- The group creative writing technique.
- The group story building technique.

Training on “drama therapy mediation techniques”
The objective of the trainings on “drama therapy mediation techniques” is built around three parallel directive lines that lead to one activity: the practical artistic creation.
1- Personal experimentation of the creative process through the practical work, proposed in a drama therapy context: leading each participant to experiment the inner mechanism of creation discovering all the personal levels that are implicated in such a work.
2- Acquisition of the mediation technique proposed, in a drama therapy context: focusing on the different psychological / pedagogical / expressive levels it involves.
3- Adaptation of the use of this technique with the particular addressed population at two levels: the artistic technical tools, and the use of this technique in a drama therapy context.

Training of trainers (TOT) on “drama therapy” mediation techniques
The TOT is the third sequence of a series of trainings on “drama therapy” mediation techniques. The objective of the TOT is to reinforce the acquisition of the technical tools proposed along the previous workshops, the use of these tools in a therapeutic context and to present the methodology of Training of trainers.

Interventions: The “One day event”
This is a long day of group activities lead by 10 facilitators. The school can propose a theme, which could be an educational theme related to the class curriculum, or to an topic the school wishes to focus on at that moment in time. Beside the work on the theme presented, the activities proposed touch upon group dynamics, self-expression and the positioning of each participant inside the group.