VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF PSYCHODRAMA.

messages from worldwide psychodramatists

Inara Erdmanis

Dear fellow psychodramatists,

I am a clinical psychologist, trained in psychodrama mainly by Zerka Moreno
(CP 1982). The subject of my thesis was: "How to Develop and Run an
Introductory Professional Auxiliaty-Ego Training Program." I got my TEP by
the Noardic Board (1995). I also have been a boardmember for the Swedish
Moreno Institute for almost 20 years, but have now co-founded a new
institute called "The Stockholm Institute for Psychodrama, Sociometry and
Group therapy" together with four collegues.

Except for working in Sweden, I have been giving seminars in Scandinavia,
Europe and especially in the Baltic countries, where I founded the Latvian
Moreno Institute.

I have a special interest in Body Psychotherapy and using psychodrama with
addicts and I have written books and papers on these subjects. One book
deals with the special difficulties of ex-addict women who return to
society without drugs and the use of group psychotherapy to facilitate that
process. I have also written and taught courses on incest, burn-out,
crisis-intervention, HIV & Aids, etc.
Having been involved with Body Psychotherapy for over 20 years, I try to
make people more aware of their bodies and the wealth of information we can
receive from it, if we only learn how to understand its language.

I left my country of birth - Latvia - 55 years ago. Now I am returning
regulary to teach Psychodrama. Since 1989 I have been going to Latvia
(Riga) 10 times a year with funding from the Swedish Goverment. We have
already completed two basic courses for the assistant level in Psychodrama
(500 hours each) and this year we have started a leader-education (700
hours). In this way, some twenty professionals from Latvia get their
training in their own languge except for twice a year when foreign trainers
come and teach in English. This year, Eva Roine from Norway gave a seminar
on monodrama, and Peter Felix Kellermann on the therapeutic aspects of
psychodrama.
The students in Latvia have lately founded a local Psychodrama Association and
they have a tremendous interest in learning. It was interesting to hear
that some of those who studied in Moskow during the occuption of Latvia,
were familiar with Moreno's sociometry, which was regularly taught in
communist countries.

Psychodrama is also developing nicely in the other two Baltic states. In
Lithuania,
I gave an introductory seminar about five years ago. Since several years,
they now get formal psychodrama training from Germany in the town Vilnius.
In Estonia, there are two training programs: one in Tartu led by the
Swedish Moreno Institute and one in Tallin led by Sirkku Aitolehti (a TEP
from Helsinki, Finland, who has moved to Estonia). They have a yearly
psychodrama meeting for everybody in a nice castle.

My vision is that psychodrama will continue to develop in the Baltic
countries!
I hope that there will soon be a Baltic Board of Psychodramatists with the
same standards as in other parts of the world. I also hope that we will be
able to organize "Moreno"-days in the Balticum, perhaps every second year.

Hope to meet old and new friends in Jerusalem next august!

Inara Erdmanis
erdmanis.bergvall@swipnet.se