Conferences & capacity building projects
This page provides images and descriptions of selected training workshops that I and other Positum MGS colleagues have been facilitating during the recent months and years, although my expertise dates back to 2012 in my capacities as a psycho-social/MGS expert, trainer and coach, as well as psychotherapist since 2013, combining both PPT and MGS into Positum MGS. A typical training schedule for a group of 12-20 mental health, psycho-social and pedagogic specialists planning to work with groups on trauma recovery and psychological resilience can be downloaded in PDF format.
21-23 April 2023, Wrocław, Poland
In co-operation with Fundacja Prodeste, which focuses on providing therapeutic, psycho-social and educational services for children and families affected by Autism Spectrum and other neurodivergent conditions, a first part of the training as facilitators in Positum MGS brought together some 16 specialists of this foundation, to learn about the approach for group counselling and therapy. This first part of the core training as facilitators was an opportunity to learn together with the team of the foundation on how to use the methodology for supporting groups of neurodivergent children, adolescents, adults and their families, in order to overcome traumas and grow in resilience while embracing their neurodiversity and further enhancing their capacities, abilities, skills and talents as "gems of inestimable value." Through interaction and group reflections, the sessions covered topics related to features, principles, objectives of psycho-social game sessions, including practical demonstrations of transforming Polish traditional games into Positum ones, while adapting some features in order to enhance inclusion, participation and co-operation. The training was the launch of the "Move hearts, hands and minds for people in the spectrum in Poland through Positum MGS" Project, supported by the Fundacja Prodeste in Poland.
2-5 March 2023, Ankara, Türkiye
The Project "Move hearts, hands, and minds for Türkiye" has just started. Some 20 Turkish psycho-social and educational professionals who care for the children and people they work with in this difficult time for the country, joined the first historic training in Positum MGS in Türkiye. Co-facilitating with the Positum MGS trainer Olena Savchuk, those four days of the training were filled with joy, laughter, fantasy, movement, transforming the traditional games into more effective ones, learning new psycho-social games that touch on the reality of the earthquake, as well as tears about the loss and grief it brings, and tears of joy from the awareness about the resources in the same time, while sharing of difficult emotions and feelings in these trying days for the Türkish people. The group learned through practice how to use the technique of psychosocial transcultural games and group reflection through a Positum MGS approach as a method to heal the emotional wounds of children, adolescents and adults. Learning about the holistic effectiveness of the MGS Methodology on which the Positum MGS is based as an approach for group support and therapy in times of crisis and trauma resulting from natural disasters was a main goal.
Poznan, Poland, 22-25 September 2022
Colleagues Alicja Bogaczyk, Olena Savchuk & Magdalena Migda served as trainers of the Positum MGS approach for a group of 12 Ukrainian and Polish mental health specialists. They delivered a core training on "Psycho-social and transcultural games as tools in group therapy for children and adults affected by war trauma", in the framework of the project "Hearts, minds and hands for Ukraine", supported by the WAPP Support Project Association and with the kind donor support of the Polish-American Solidarity Foundation and the Education for Democracy Foundation. I am honoured to serve in the next 8-9 months as technical supervisor on the methodology. next to these colleagues were were trained as facilitators and trainers in the Positum MGS during March-May 2022 in Poland. The trained group will be applying the learning with groups of children and adults in need of psychological support, residing in Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere, under technical coaching and supervision.
Leszno, Poland, 21-26 August 2022
During 21-26 August 2022, I participated in the International Scientific and Training Conference 'In search of truth and of humanity in the age of war', in Leszno, Poland, where I had the honor to serve as one of the guest trainers and workshop facilitators. I facilitated four 4-hour interactive workshops during four different days for a total of 80 mental health and psycho-social specialists using the Positum MGS method. The topic was: "Psycho-social Transcultural Games as a Technique in Group Counselling and Therapy for Building Resilience in the face of War, Armed Conflict and Forced Displacement". The participants, after proactively participating in the interactive games, were able to reflect and discover on the connections between the game and life, and come to important conclusions on future actions. Many of them, residing and working in Ukraine and neighbouring countries affected by war and forced displacement of Ukrainian people, expressed the desire to deepen their knowledge and build skills on the method.
Budapest, Hungary, 20-24 June 2022
As I was engaged as a co-facilitator for a training of 3-days for a team of psycho-social staff of the Terre des hommes Regional Office in Hungary, the MGS Methodology tools were engaged to help the team build the required psycho-social, technical and methodological skills required to hold psycho-social sessions with Ukrainian children and their families who had fled the war and found shelter in Hungary. The training was followed by coaching for the training participants, who implemented their learning immediately with groups of children in educational and social settings. It was remarkable to hear the reflections of the children after a psycho-social game,a s they connected the game with the reality of migration and integration needs. As a trainer and coach, my task was to observe the activity conducted by the trained colleagues, and to exchange on feelings and different helpful actions during future sessions with children
Tirana, Albania, 13-17 June 2022
I facilitated an interactive training based on the MGS Methodology for some 20 psycho-social staff of the Terre des hommes Albania, who are working with youth and families affected by religious extremism and who have returned from armed conflict areas in Iraq and Syria. Using the tools of the MGS Methodology, the participants learned how to use this method in working with groups and to help build resilience in the face of extremism. Demonstrating as teams of future facilitators and receiving feedback from the trainer and peers is always an important aspect of the capacity-building process.
Leszno & Zaborowice, Poland, 23 March - 3 May 2022
In the framework of the Project "Move hearts, minds and hands for Ukrainian people in Poland", with the support of the WAPP Support Project Association and other local partners, as well as of the World Association for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy, a team of 16 Ukrainian and Polish mental health professionals were trained in the Positum MGS approach. First as faciliators and at a later date as trainers, the participants reflected on their own resilince and built additional capacities to use the method with groups of children, teens and aduls, serving also as a first cadre of Positum MGS professionals to provide training for other colleagues in Poland.
Tirana, Albania, 10-14 July 2019
A training for trainers applying the MGS Methodology was held for a team of psycho-social staff working for Terre des hommes Albania. The participants learned experientially how to become trainers of the Methodology, by getting involved in interactive sessions that used movement, games, sports and creative art through a psycho-social approach. The participants in the training were later engaged as trainers for some 120 facilitators working with children, youth and families affected by irregular migration.
