Open Call for Training Course through Gestalt Theatre “Positive Conflicts”

Erasmus+ Training Course
July 21th – 29th 2021 I Cortemilia, Italy

A short description of the Training Course

Looking at conflict is particularly important when it comes to European youth projects, where ideological and cultural differences be they political, religious, cultural and language can be ideal breeding ground for the emergence of interpersonal conflicts. This diverse context can become a growth opportunity and a framework for learning, where conflict becomes the key to personal and professional growth and development. This methodology is a development from ‘Theatre of the Living Experience’ which originally comes from the US. With adaptations to an educational environment we have incorporated elements that make it a very attractive and powerful tool for youth workers who work in European projects. The Theater Experience seeks to create spaces of trust where participants can play different roles they acquire and build characters from improvisation. Part of the methodology is recreating daily conflicts with the objective of stimulating the emotional memory of the participant, to help them reconnect with real life situations where conflict management is still blocked and thus to become aware of where the problem is and of course how to fix it and what tools are needed for that. Experience Theater helps participants to analyse their own strategies (conscious and unconscious) to address conflict situations, how to extract lessons from them and how to help others to experience the same learning process.

What will participants learn?

• To allow them to better understand themselves in order to better understand the other (through facing their own inner conflicts, they will be better able to understand others’ conflicts);
• To allow them to be able to tackle deep rooted conflicts by understanding the dynamics of conflicts;
• To permit them to reach out to young people who are marginalized by society, to help them in their critical thinking skills, learn the language of emotional intelligence & self-expression;
• To gain confidence in dealing with conflicts, educating on peaceful methods, self-awareness and dialogue on differences, living together;
• To develop their skills in the area of prevention, resolution and conflict transformation;
• To be able to take distance towards conflicts through theater;
• To enhance intercultural and language skills;
• To open their mind on other countries’ way of doing, living and dealing with difficult situations in professional situations.

Objectives for this Training Course:

1) To explore the potential of Theater Experience as a tool for self-discovery and development of creativity.
2) To give the youth workers the skills and competences to tackle deep rooted conflictual issues
3) To give the tools to European youth workers and European trainers that will enable them to reach out to young people who are marginalised by society, to help them in their critical thinking skills learn the language of emotional intelligence & self expression
4) To promote diversity, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue promoting common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights.
5) To support participants in the process of understanding the dynamics of the conflict in the scope of European Projects.
6) Facilitating the exchange of experiences among participants regarding how they work on the conflicts from their respective organizations .

Participant Profile

We are looking for 24 participants of 18+ years old from Italy, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, Serbia, Greece, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, France who are willing to:
1) Better understand the dynamics of conflict in the field of European projects
2) Develop social competence and especially their ability to solve interpersonal problems (and intrapersonal) and learn to do the same process with young marginalized people they work with.
3) To explore the potential of Theater Experience as a tool for self-discovery and development of creativity that will help them personally and professionally.
4) Have an exchange of experiences during the course with their teammates to get a better view of how conflicts are experienced from their respective organizations.
5) Develop their emotional competence and assertiveness in conflict situations.
Additionally, we require:
– A proper level of English proficiency in order to participants actively
– Seriousness of profession and willingness to learn with and from other participants
– There is no age limit and priority will be given to the participants that are related to the partner organization.

Participation fee is 150 EUR per person.

About the trainers

Diego Marin is a Gestalt therapist and is specialized in experiential learning and non formal education since 1997. For more than 15 years working with groups of various kinds, youth and social workers, teachers, health workers, trainers, public staff, groups of adolescents, prisoners, etc. Member of the trainers of the Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe, Spanish National Agency for Youth and the SALTO trainers Pool. Formed in social theatre in Spain, with the help of Yoshi Oida (actor and companion of Peter Brook (“The essence of the actor”), David Martinez (Theatre of the Oppressed), Anton Valen (The Way of the Clown) and Allan Owens (Pretext Drama).

Suzana Krstić is an experienced manager and working in international youth field for more than a decade. She has coordinated within projects funded by European Youth Foundation and was a support person in more than 30 international projects. She has Masters in psychology and considerable training in conflict resolution education. She is also a highly qualified facilitator, trainer and in last 15 years she was trainer in additional 20 international training courses/Seminars and more than 150 local training courses. She is an author of a training course that Icelandic NA presented as a best Youth in action project/training course in 2011 in Iceland.