neuro-dramatic-play
THERAPEUTIC play & DRAMA
Including application with ‘looked after children” and adults in institutional care.
Following two years of successful courses these are the last two opportunities to work with Dr Sue Jennings in person on Naxos.
Sun 18th - Saturday 24th May 2025 - Crete/Naxos Adventure: Click here
26th May - 31st May - Naxos
Course Fee: £400.00 (€470.00) (Naxos) tuition only
Diploma/ Advanced Diploma /Certificate/ Trainers Course (depending on experience and qualifications)
A Journey of Discovery
NDP is for anyone interested in the development of children - parent, grand-parent, therapist, social worker, teacher and theatre artist - the list is endless.
Studying NDP on Naxos is a unique experience! To be able to learn attachment-based play in a playful environment satisfies our basic needs! It provides a break from our usual routines, together with learning something new!
NDP is something new! It enables us to rediscover the roots of play in our early attachment experience and realise the creative development that will emerge. This culminates in our need to perform and demonstrate mastery of our creative process.
Attachment and play need to go together, each feeding the other from strengthening the body to brain growth. Bodies need to inform brains for the integrated development of our emotional intelligence alongside other growing areas.
This is a retreat that enables you to develop practical skills and apply them in education and therapy. You will acquire 'hands on’ creative techniques and consider their practical application. Neuro-Dramatic-Play encompasses therapeutic play and drama, and addresses creative needs throughout the life cycle. We shall explore the basis of play and its importance as a foundation for child development, and how it grows into dramatic interaction. This process is essential for developing confidence and self esteem. We will apply this process in application with ‘looked after children’ as well as teenagers and adults in institutional care. Participants are encouraged to bring examples from their own work setting, whether with individuals or groups. You will find an immediate relevance in relation to the people for whom you are teacher, carer or therapist.
It includes developmental play, messy and rhythmic play, sand play (on the beach) and stories, in an idyllic setting close to sand and sea. We shall explore therapeutic stories together and see how they can be embodied, painted and enacted, thus extending our creative skills beyond their limits. Participants will have completed enough creative skills to achieve a diploma, advanced diploma or trainers certificate in NDP.
Above all, you will have fun - playing together on a journey of discovery.
Draft Itinerary
Day 1:
Beach walk/swim
Course Introduction, NDP principles, Greek myths
NDP Theory, Voice, Movement
Day 2:
Yoga
Practical Drama, Greek myths development, Freeze frames, Poem writing
Mapping
Tutorials
Poetry/Greek myths, Case examples
Day 3:
Walk/swim
Homework feedback/supervision
Working on beach (sand as theatre)
Physicalising Greek myths
Day 4:
Yoga
Trainer presentations
EPR, sand/water exercises
Masks/stage fighting
Day 5:
Walk/swim
Puppets making/naming
Rehearsal for final exploration
Day 6:
Walk/swim
Tutorials, Course theory
Rehearsal for final exploaration
Sharing
Course supper
You will take part in two, three-hour sessions per day led by skilled practitioners. Sue Jennings will lead the majority of the sessions and be around during all sessions as well as available for private tutorials. Other sessions will be led by performance experts Ros and Neil Johnson. *Some sessions may be run by NDP advanced practitioners under the supervision of Dr Sue.
There will be time during a long lunch break to sit by the beach, have a swim or a siesta and reflect, to write your process diary or journal as the sun sets before or after dinner in one of our recommended tavernas or restaurants.
Note: This course is a training course and should not be used as personal therapy.