Update from Korea
Jihye Choi, MD
Jihye Choi is a trainee of TEP Heayon Won in Korea. She has a private clinic and lives with her special cat. She likes a challenge and to learn new things. She's hooked on yoga these days.
Photo of Heaveon Won TEP’s online ongoing training group during sharing phase of psychodrama. Author, Jihye Choi, is on top row, 2nd from left in white hoodie.
Last year was tough for everyone, and it’s still ongoing. But we’re not losing hope.
People who love psychodrama in Korea tried to find ways to deal with this period of crisis together.
First of all, most offline education has been turned into online education. Heayeon Won, TEP, led the psychodrama training group and directed online psychodrama & sociodrama
groups dealing with social issues related to COVID-19. Because the method changed, more people could easily join the psychodrama field. Even though the online meeting has its limitation, it connected and comforted people in the middle of a crisis. We have been studying weekly with passion for psychodrama
despite COVID-19 and experience the warmth of psychodrama delivered to others. I think it is small but big influence.
Academic conferences of psychodrama communities were held online. The online sociodrama was held in the regular conference of the Korean psychiatric association to manage the COVID-19 related situations. The online sociodrama for the university students addressed and shared conflict related
to COVID-19.
Various psychodramatists tried to do their best to help people who suffer from the crisis through this online approach. In Korea, national programs are designed for the patients who recover from the COVID-19 and mental health professionals with burnout. These programs include psychodrama and sociodrama.
This will provide help for people in need.
"We have been studying weekly with passion for psychodrama despite COVID-19 and we've been experiencing that the warmth of psychodrama has been delivered to someone else in the field of the participants. I think it is small but big influence." Jihye Choi
