Medico international schweiz has been supporting psychodrama training within the women’s organization Las Mélidas in El Salvador for the past 25 years. Las Mélidas paid tribute to the dedication of psychodrama director, Dr. Ursula Hauser, to this training work by throwing a big celebration, and emphasized the importance of this therapy method in the current political context.

“We are afraid,” said the director of the women’s organization Las Mélidas at a meeting with psychodramatist Ursula Hauser in early December. “Four days ago, our office was searched by state security, the civil police and the public prosecutor’s office. This awakened memories of the period of armed conflict when people were tortured and killed by paramilitary groups. The images of that time came flooding back. We needed support.” (La Prensa Gráfica, November 22, 2021) Ursula Hauser offered a psychodrama session the very next day for the women who had been affected. In the protected and safe setting of the therapy session, they were able to talk about their traumatic memories, express their feelings, the fear, the anger, the sadness, the helplessness. “We felt relieved and empowered,” said the head of the Las Mélidas psychodrama project following the therapeutic intervention.

“We know that we have to be careful.” Since President Nayib Bukele came to power and began implementing his government’s strategy using authoritarian methods, social organizations and women’s organizations in particular have come under a great deal of pressure. Their work is severely hampered or even prevented entirely as the result of legal action and threats. Resisting this threat requires awareness, resilience and solidarity. For 25 years now, Ursula Hauser has been providing the women of Las Mélidas with training in psychodrama with a focus on political and social reality. All Las Mélidas members have gone through their own therapeutic process and understand just how helpful psychodrama can be in emergency situations. The trained psychodramatists now lead their own groups, especially with women in rural communities. Many of these women felt noticed and taken seriously for the first time in their lives during the group sessions. Many said “We’ve learned to use our voices.” Those who are familiar with the learned silence, the shame and shyness of rural women will understand the explosive power of this utterance.

Women from various groups took part in the celebration of “25 years of psychodrama”. In her speech, Ursula Hauser emphasized the importance, especially in the current political climate, of strengthening people’s identity and resilience: “It is essential that we understand our own and our shared history. This helps us to understand the present and to cement social and political resistance. For women’s and feminist organizations, solidarity is now crucial.”