• Ben Rivers, guest teacher Centre International Roy Hart
  • Improvisation
  • Movement
  • Personal story
  • Ensemble work

Benjamin Rivers

Psychotherapist, Drama Therapist, Applied Theatre Practitioner
Living in Egypt, Australia and France

I invite people to investigate the full range of their vocal possibilities, welcoming and embracing the multitude of sounds their voices are capable of producing. I believe that through singing and vocal exploration, we can delve into realms of the individual and collective psyche that are normally hidden. Through the production of sound that spans many octaves, textures and tone colours, we find music that is original and surprising. In this way, voice work invites a journey that allows us to access, explore and integrate diverse and sometimes contradictory aspects of our human nature.

Benjamin Rivers is a psychotherapist, drama therapist and theatre practitioner with over 20 years of combined experience in the fields of community arts and mental health. He has taught and practised in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, working extensively with communities impacted by political violence and collective trauma.

Ben is the Founder of Dawar Arts and Dawar Kitchen (Cairo, Egypt) and Co-Director of the Arab School of Playback Theatre (Adonis, Lebanon). He holds a Masters in Counselling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies, USA; and a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of New England, Australia.

Ben is a Registered Drama Therapist (RDT) and Board Certified Trainer (BCT) with the North American Drama Therapy Association. He is also an Accredited Playback Theatre Trainer through the Centre for Playback Theatre, New York.

Ben lives, works and travels between continents, offering psychotherapy, supervision and mentorship, both online and in-person. He also leads workshops, training programs and retreats at various locations around the world.

Ben first experienced the Roy Hart voice work in 1994. The approach has now become an integral part of his life and practice. He is a member of the Advanced Pedagogic Group at Malerargues.

He teaches in English.

Contact

E-mail: benjrivers@gmail.com
Website: www.benjaminrivers.org

Publications:

  • Rivers, B. (2010). Sociodrama for conflict transformation. The British Journal of Psychodrama and Sociodrama, 25: 1, pp. 54-76.
  • Rivers, B. (2013). Playback Theatre as a response to the impact of political violence in occupied Palestine. Applied Theatre Research, 1. 2, pp. 157-176.
  • Rivers, B. (2014). Playback Theatre, cultural resistance and the limits of trauma Discourse. Interplay. 18: 2, pp.15-18.
  • Rivers, B. (2015). Narrative Power: Playback Theatre as cultural resistance in Occupied Palestine. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 20: 2, pp.155-172.
  • Rivers, B. (2015). Cherry theft under apartheid: Playback Theatre in the
  • South Hebron Hills of occupied Palestine. TDR: The Drama Review 59: 3 (T227): 77-90.
  • Rivers, B. (2015). Educate, agitate and organize! Playback Theatre and its role in social movements. International Playback Theatre Journal, 1: 1, pp. 19-37.
  • Rivers, B. (2015). Mobilizing aesthetics in psychodramatic group work. Drama Therapy Review, 1: 2, pp. 161–171
  • Rivers, B. (2015). The Freedom Bus and Playback Theatre: Beyond neo-colonial approaches to trauma response in occupied Palestine. In Playback Theatre
  • Practice: Selected Articles. Zagryazhskaya, E. and Zagryazhskaya, Z. (Eds). Moscow: Vash Poligraphicheskiy Partner Publishing House.