NEW ENGLISH VERSION 2025

Sponsored: UNIMA Education, Development and Therapy Commission

Commission Éducation, Développement et Thérapie

Training professionals and technicians, committed to the possibilities of human and social transformation and reparation, in the theoretical and practical foundations of contemporary work with puppets in its expressive and therapeutic dimension as creative therapy.

To implement techniques and methodological innovation to create complementary intervention programs from the plastic and theatrical elements of the puppets to be applied in spaces that compromise the work, both individual and group, of health, education, therapy, integration, socio-community work, psychosocial and artistic projects with restorative / transformative purposes.

Understand the benefits and power of puppets as mediators of change and transformation in contexts of high psychosocial vulnerability, health emergencies and social conflicts.

10 classes online via Zoom.

– Memory-trauma-reparatory actions and Human Rights.

– Intellectual diversity and creation.

Thursday 

17.00 to 21.00 hrs. Hour Madrid, Spain.

JANUARY 23rd, 30th

FEBRUARY 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th

MARCH 6th, 13th and 20th

APRIL 3^rd

Schedule: Thursday from 17.00 to 21.00 hrs. Hour Madrid, SPAIN.

Contact hours via Zoom: 40 hrs.

Working hours:  40 hrs. Of readings, tutorials, creative explorations, reports and research.

Total: 80 hours.

The Online Course program is developed through modules that integrate a theoretical-practical methodology with lectures, alternated with exercises and exploratory dynamics with materials, objects and puppets based on the experience and creation methodology of the Puppets In Transit Company, the Puppet Therapy team. Group discussion and reflection, analysis and revision of contemporary audiovisual and theoretical material are developed.

• Research paper: 40%
  A project of methodological design of intervention with puppets in therapeutic, health or community contexts, which includes:
  a) Written report 30%
  b) Class presentation of the project 10%

• Creative exploration: 30%

1. Fabric I
2. Fabric II
3. Object family and animation
4. Pandemic puppet
5. (Dis) ability puppet
6. Teddy bear animation
7. Exploration with giant paper
8. Self-portrait puppet

• Creation of an individual performance with puppets and objects: 30%

Education, development, complementary therapies, integration, community work, health, special education, childhood, school integration, prisons, homes for minors, centers for the elderly, culturals centers, human rights and others.

– The presentation of all the work requested by the teachers on the established dates.

– Have all fees canceled.

*The three previous points are basic requirements to obtain the course and certificate of grades (sent via email). Exceptional cases of absence due to illness and / or others will be studied, prior notice to the coordination of the Program. For any extension of work or personal difficulty of the student, you must send a letter explaining the reason or the situation and attach, if the case requires it, a document that justifies the extension. Everything must be sent via email.

ANDREA MARKOVITS (Spain) PhD student at the University of Barcelona (UB), focusing on the application of art for psychosocial improvement and therapeutic contexts. Founder and director since 2017 of the International Puppet Therapy program, now known as Puppet Therapy BCN. She holds a Master’s degree in Arts in Health and Art Therapy from Finis Terrae University, and has studied puppet and object theatre at the School of Puppetry and Drama in Tel Aviv. Additionally, she holds a Postgraduate degree in Dramatherapy from the University of Chile and is a special education teacher with theatre studies. In 2024, she has been invited to provide Puppet Therapy and Trauma Training at the School of Therapeutic Figures in Olten, Switzerland. In 2023, she participated in the “Objects Speak of War” course, organized by Unima Ukraine for puppeteers in Kyiv. In 2022, she was invited to create the Puppet Therapy Academy at the Chuncheon Puppet Festival in South Korea. Since 2023, she has been leading various international bilingual trainings on Therapeutic Animated Forms in Barcelona. She has worked as a puppet and drama therapist at the Reuven Feuerstein Centre in Jerusalem (ICELP) and has volunteered as a puppeteer with children affected by the Syrian Civil War. Additionally, she has performed puppet shows for the National Association for the Habilitation of Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities program. Her research on memory with puppets has focused on the relatives of the disappeared and victims of political violence in Chile, a project sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the Arts of Chile and the PRAIS Program. She has been invited to present at various international puppetry and therapy conferences, as well as in postgraduate programs at universities.

POLO FERNÁNDEZ (Spain) graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Spanish Language from Universidad de La Serena, Chile and also studied Puppetry at the School of Puppetry and Drama in Israel. Andrea is the academic director of the Diploma in Puppet Therapy, Chile, and both Andrea and Polo teach in the program. Together, they founded the Puppets in Transit Company in 2010. Much of their work is focussed around how puppets can be used to heal individual and collective trauma and memories. Plastic artist, Puppeteer trained at the School of Puppetry and Drama in Tel Aviv and Bachelor of Philosophy and Spanish (Universidad de La Serena). He co-founder of the Puppets In Transit Group where he is a puppeteer and creator of the puppets. Co-founder of Puppet Therapy CHILE where he is in charge of the puppet building school. He has worked as a set designer and illuminator, creating and participating in various projects such as the theatrical company Laboratorio de Sueños, La Ironía theatrical and Sudamerikan Art in Israel. He studied Puppets at the School of Puppetry and Drama in Tel Aviv. He worked on Jack-Robinson and Alef-Alef designing and creating sets for theater and television and giant puppets for carnivals. He participated alongside Puppets In Transit, as a volunteer puppeteer with child victims of the Syrian civil war. He is selected along with other immigrant artists in Israel for a group show where he exhibits Pre-Columbians in the Middle East (2012). Co-creator and facilitator of the first Virtual Integrated Laboratory of Puppets and Objects for Diversity, sponsored by the Cultural Center of Spain (2020). He has developed Doll and Memory Workshops in Villa Grimaldi and Museum of Memory (FONDART 2015), Concepción and Lota (FONDART 2017), children and young people with Down syndrome (FONDART 2018), in the Project “Mothers Puppeteers of La Legua”, from the Ministry of Social Development (2015). He is dedicated to research in Puppet, Memory and Repair and in the design and creation of montages for children with themes of Tolerance and Human Rights. He co-directed the Puppet and Repair Workshop by the PRAIS team of the North Metropolitan Health Service (2015) and in PRAIS Concepción (2016), in addition to training in Doll and Therapy with officials and professionals of the mental health team of the Roberto del Niños Hospital. Rio (2016 and 2017). He is currently a teacher and part of the design team of the First Diploma Puppet Therapy Chile. He co-founder of the Independent Theater & Diversity Project (2004-2010) within which his theatrical company Laboratorio de Sueños was framed, made up of a cast of young actors and actresses with Down syndrome. Training with the English puppeteer Stephen Mottram, course The Logic of Movement (2018).

PAMELA AEDO (Chile) Physician – Surgeon U. De Chile and specialist Child – Youth Psychiatrist U. De Chile. Organization of Reflection Workshops for the prevention and reporting of sexual crimes. Diploma in Human Rights and Public Policies in Forensic Practice, Fundación Dunant América Latina. Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology 3rd version, U. De Chile. Puppet and Therapy Diploma 1st version 2017. 1996 to date child-adolescent psychiatry clinic, Hospital practice. Between 2004-2017 he worked as a forensic expert in the Legal Medical Service. Book Violators of Adolescent Law, 2009. Teaching Undergraduate Mental Health and Psychiatry to V year students of Medicine U. Chile, Faculty of Medicine SSMS. Teaching and Monitor of Medicine Interns, Albert Einstein University College of Medicine of USA, Galvarino Hospital, IX Araucanía Region. 1994 to 1998 Children’s Clinic Seminar “Listening to children”, at Hospital Ezequiel González Cortes, SSMS. Postgraduate teaching and training of specialists in Child Psychiatry at the University of Santiago. Research Papers presented in Congress 2009: Profile of pre-school victims of sexual abuse 2004 to 2006. President of the XXX Congress of Childhood and Adolescence Psychiatry and Neurology, 2012. Coordinator of Seminars on “Child Protection, Complaint Protocol of Sexual Abuse at the school level “, April 2011 (Aysén Region), April 2012 (Chiloé Province), April-2013 (Palena, Osorno and Llanquihue Provinces). Child and youth sexual abuse, basic concepts, valorization of testimony, credibility, techniques and typologies, Josep Ramón Juárez (Spain), Castro.

MATTHEW BERNIER (United States).  MCAT, ATR-BC is a registered and board certified art therapist, artist, puppeteer, and Associate Professor in the Art Therapy and Counseling Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School, where he has taught since 1990. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in theatre arts and a master’s degree in creative arts in therapy. He has completed PhD coursework in expressive arts therapy and social change at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He has taught art therapy, The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), and therapeutic puppetry internationally. He is the 2009 recipient of the Puppeteers of America McPharlin Award for Excellence in Puppetry in Education and Therapy. He co-edited (2005) Puppetry in Education and Therapy: Unlocking Doors to the Mind and Heart. He held leadership positions on the boards of Puppeteers of America, Southeastern Virginia Puppetry Guild, and American Art Therapy Association and is a corresponding member of the international UNIMA commission on puppetry in Education, Development, and Therapy. His interests include therapeutic puppetry, neuroaesthetics, the ETC, creativity, symbolism, expressive arts for social change, and the use of community arts with marginalized groups including ex-incarcerated offenders in their process of desistance and people who have experienced homelessness.

CARIAD ASTLES (United Kingdom) is a puppeteer, puppetry trainer, director and researcher. She is Puppetry Tutor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is also Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter, UK. She is President of the Research Commission for the international puppetry association, the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. She is also a core collaborator with the Catalan group Irènia Jocs de Pau, which runs projects in different art forms towards a culture of peace and intercultural identity. Cariad specialises in training, researching, performing and directing for puppet theatre; in objects and puppets within healthcare and applied settings and in the puppet as marker of political and cultural identity. She has recently directed for Med Theatre and the Northcott Theatre and is currently working on a project about puppetry, poetry, loss and memory. She frequently runs training workshops in the UK and overseas, most recently in China, Chile, Australia, Germany, France and Spain.

RAVEN KALIANA (United Kingdom) Directs Puppet (R)Evolution Theatre Company, producing plays and films on social issues. She’s presented Hooray for Hollywood, her award-winning puppet-based autobiographical film on surviving human trafficking, at UN Geneva, NY Commission on the Status of Women, London City Hall, and Oxford University. Love vs Trauma, her puppet play on resilience, toured to China, Puerto Rico, Greece; as well as London, Birmingham, and Brighton, UK. She has also developed a series of workshops on the use of puppets in trauma recovery, and has presented her films to MA Play Therapy students at Roehampton, MA and BA Social Work students at Kingston, Applied Theatre students at Central School of Speech & Drama. Her work has been chronicled by BBC News, Changemakers Magazine, New York Times, The Guardian, Puppetry International, The Puppetry Journal, Eyestorm TV, Medium, Bringing Design Closer. Documentary interviews include No Strings Attached and Stories of Healing. Artist residencies were awarded by Puppet Centre Trust, Artists Access to Art Colleges, and Little Angel Theatre. Raven Kaliana was born in America but has lived in England for the past 14 years. She worked for 10 years at Folkmanis Puppets in California, then earned an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice with a specialisation in Puppetry from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London in 2008 before founding Puppet (R)Evolution. https://ravenkaliana.com

Coordinator: Polo Fernández

For more information about prices, discounts and payment methods: puppettherapybcn@gmail.com