Shirley Legum

Shirley Legum, is a classically trained actress and dancer and a certified group therapist. For the last ten years, she has been a member of Play-Life (Aviva Apple’s company) in Tel Aviv, Israel, averaging two hundred performances per year. She is a Playback Theatre teacher, acting coach and leader, belonging to the Playback Theatre Israeli Association and its Leadership Forum. During 2013, she founded Chapter B Playback Theatre based in Tel-Aviv. She has degrees in Dramatic Arts from the University of California, Berkeley; Dance Therapy from the University of Haifa and Group Therapy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has conducted PT trainings internationally in several places throughout Russia, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine and Serbia on themes such as PT and Trauma, Acting in PT and issues of identity and belonging. Currently, she continues her education studying Psychotherapy at the Alfred Adler Institute, Israel.

My interest in the performing arts as therapeutic tools was born out of my experience during high-school years, while participating in German-Israeli dialogues on the Holocoust. I have experience in using Playback Theatre and Group Therapy with bereaved families from war, illness and other trauma situations; underprivileged as well as adopting families; children and youth at risk; staff from different organizations such as social agencies, hospitals and religious communities; law enforcement and military personal.