In this practical presentation, I intend to use art therapy and sociopsychodrama tools and methods to explore with the participants their individual notions of safe spaces and places and how these can be created for themselves and others. Together we'll delve into how we can make a safe zone, room for open conversation and free exchange, for recuperation and rest - something much needed today. This will not be a lecture that you will leave with a template and list of rules. The takeaway should rather be, I hope, a new way of looking at the 'same old,' the 'unchangeable,' the 'that's just the way things are.' Sociopsychodrama is a group action method used in psychotherapy. It allows you to get into someone else’s shoes, to understand them, feel for them, changing yourself along the way. All of this is accomplished by a few simple techniques: role-reversal, mirroring, and doubling, which are preceded by a warm-up and followed by a closing called sharing (which is not the same as feedback!).

Another gift of sociopsychodrama is the room it gives you for trying out new, and examine your old roles, consequently, very probably, turning you from a “role taker” – a passive recipient of the proverbial lemons – to a “role maker” – someone who does something with the very citruses life has dealt them. Note: all the participants should be aware that they are expected to participate in the workshop, and to have their cameras, microphones and headphones working and ready, and to ensure they are in a quiet and comfortable place for the duration of the workshop.

Malena Selic is a 33-year-old artist, project manager, sociopsychodrama counselor in training (hoping to be finally done with her schooling by the end of this summer), translator, yoga instructor, world traveler, and proud University of Rochester alumni who wonders just how many more roles she can assume in her lifetime. She lives in Belgrade, Serbia, where she reads a lot, works a bit, and quite often, ponders the mysteries of life.