At the Campfire of Friendship: Tele’Drama Model for Children’s Belonging and Inclusion
Daniela Tahirova, MEd, MPsy, CTT (Bulgaria) 


 Description:
This 2-hour hybrid workshop presents The Campfire of Friendship, a Tele’Drama model designed to support belonging and inclusion for children with differences. Through sociometry, guided role-taking and training, spontaneous interaction among participants, and a structured scenario originally developed for a live session with 6-year-old children, university students, and international therapists, we will explore how Tele’Drama can be applied to real-world settings.Participants will enter roles, interact through these roles, and experiment freely within a protected and supportive environment. By experiencing symbolic positions—rejecting voices, supporting roles, and ideal roles—they will observe how a group can move from exclusion toward connection.The workshop demonstrates how a carefully crafted scenario, combined with Moreno’s role theory and Tele’Drama’s hybrid methodology, can help integrate children with diverse needs into a shared group experience.This model can be adapted for various environments, including school classrooms, community groups, kindergarten or early childhood settings, child and family therapy groups, and other helping-professional contexts.Join us around the “campfire” to experience a practical and creative approach to fostering belonging, emotional safety, and social connection for children who struggle to join or be accepted within groups.
 
Learning Objectives
By the end of this 2-hour workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the Campfire of Friendship model and its purpose in supporting belonging and inclusion for children with differences.
2. Apply sociometric and role-based techniques to explore group dynamics, inclusion, exclusion, and pathways toward connection in hybrid or online settings.
3. Use guided role-taking, role-training, and symbolic positioning to help children express emotions, explore perspectives, and experience supportive group roles.
4. Facilitate movement from exclusion to connection by identifying rejecting voices, supportive roles, and ideal roles within a structured Tele’Drama scenario.
5. Adapt the Campfire of Friendship scenario for use in schools, community groups, early childhood settings, and therapeutic environments.
6. Integrate Moreno’s role theory with Tele’Drama hybrid methodology to create emotionally safe, developmentally appropriate group experiences for children.
7. Demonstrate skills in directing interactive, playful, and protective group processes that encourage belonging, empathy, and social inclusion for young participants.