Myth, Shadow, and Self: Exploring the Hero and Heroine Within is an Erasmus+ Training Course designed for youth workers, educators, trainers, artists, and community leaders who wish to deepen their personal practice while expanding their professional toolkit. Inspired by Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and Jungian psychology, the project combines theatre, storytelling, movement, visual arts, mindfulness, psychodrama, and embodied learning to explore how myth can become a practical resource for youth work.
What Is It About?
Today's young people are growing up in a world marked by uncertainty, social fragmentation, mental health challenges, and constant change. Youth workers play a crucial role in supporting them, yet they often lack opportunities to invest in their own learning, creativity and well-being. Myth, Shadow, and Self offers an opportunity to pause, reflect and reconnect with the deeper dimensions of youth work. Using the Hero's Journey as the central learning framework, participants will explore universal themes such as identity, fear, transformation, community, creativity and purpose. Rather than studying these concepts theoretically, they will experience them through artistic and embodied practices. The programme combines non-formal education with theatre, movement, storytelling, visual arts, mindfulness, group reflection and psychodrama, creating a dynamic learning environment where participants learn by doing.
Through the Training, Participants Will
🎨 Discover creative tools for working with young people
🧭 Go through a process of self-discovery through practical, healing and contemplative arts
💪 Strengthen their resilience and emotional awareness
🤲 Develop embodied facilitation skills
🌍 Exchange practices with colleagues from across Europe
The project offers a safe, creative and intercultural environment where learning happens through experience, dialogue and collective creation.
🎨 Also open now: ESC Volunteering in 🇪🇸 Spain 🎨 Socio Educational Work with Children and Young People → https://youthworkshub.org/21120
Schedule
🛬 Day 1: Arrivals and getting to know each other
🤝 Day 2: The call to adventure, team building and creative collaboration
🚪 Day 3: The journey begins, leaving the realm of the known
🔮 Day 4: At the threshold, spells, crossroads and tricksters
🌑 Day 5: The Underworld, meeting the Shadow
🪞 Day 6: Voyage back, reflection and evaluation
🛫 Day 7: Departures
Eligible Countries
This training course is open to participants from:
🇭🇷 Croatia
🇨🇿 Czechia
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇫🇮 Finland
🇭🇺 Hungary
🇮🇹 Italy
🇱🇻 Latvia
🇵🇱 Poland
🇷🇴 Romania
🇪🇸 Spain
Participant Profile
We are looking for youth workers, educators, trainers, artists, facilitators, and community leaders interested in creativity, storytelling, embodied learning, and personal development as tools for youth work. Whether you are experienced or just starting out, this training offers new perspectives, practical methods, and valuable international exchange. We value curiosity, openness, and a willingness to engage actively throughout the programme, collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, and contribute to a supportive learning community. The project is open to participants aged 18 and over, regardless of their background or level of experience. What matters most is your motivation to learn, grow, and bring new ideas back to your community.
This project is for you if you enjoy learning through embodied experience, are interested in creativity, theatre, storytelling, movement or artistic expression, would like to explore new methods for supporting young people, are open to personal reflection and group learning, are willing to actively participate throughout the entire programme, enjoy working collaboratively with people from different cultures, and are curious about myth, symbolism and the Hero's Journey as tools for personal and professional development.
Requirements for Participation
🤝 Participants with special needs and fewer opportunities are welcomed
🎓 You do not have to be a student
🛡️ You must have some kind of insurance for the days you spend in Spain (either the European Health Insurance Card or any other travel insurance)
Responsibilities include actively participating in all sessions and activities, sharing your experiences, insights and creative ideas, taking part in dissemination activities, saving and sending all your travel documents, and filling out an online questionnaire about the training. When these conditions are fulfilled, you become eligible to receive your travel reimbursement.
🌉 You might also like: Erasmus+ Training Course in 🇸🇮 Slovenia 🌉 Somatics, Ecopsychology and the Art of Building Bridges in Youth Work → https://youthworkshub.org/21650
Dates, Venue and Practicalities
📅 Dates: 19 to 25 October 2026 (travel days included; arrival and start day 19 October, departure day 25 October)
📍 Location: Los Nietos (Cartagena), Spain, a village located between the Mediterranean Sea, the Mar Menor and the protected landscapes of Calblanque Natural Park
🍽️ Food: three meals will be provided free of cost to all participants, cooked warm daily by the team, taking dietary needs into account. The village of Los Nietos has shops where participants can buy additional snacks at their own expense.
🛏️ Accommodation: participants will stay in three separate houses in the village, with a mixture of individual, double and triple rooms.
🎭 Activity spaces: indoor activities in La Cuadra, a movement studio for theatre and movement workshops, combined with outdoor activities on the beach and in nature.
Daily schedule: breakfast between 8:30 and 9:30, activities from 10:00 until 19:00 with a lunch break and breaks between sessions, and dinner between 19:30 and 20:30, with occasional activities after dinner.
What Is Covered
Three meals are provided free of cost, and travel costs are reimbursed up to the maximum amount for each country. Green travel means avoiding plane travel, which unlocks the increased amount. The travel budgets are:
✈️ Finland: 580 EUR
✈️ Estonia: 580 EUR
✈️ Latvia: 395 EUR
✈️ Romania: 395 EUR
✈️ Poland: 395 EUR
✈️ Hungary: 395 EUR
✈️ Italy: 309 EUR
✈️ Czechia: 309 EUR
✈️ Croatia: 309 EUR
✈️ Spain: 56 EUR (or 74 EUR green travel)
About the Host
Enkidu Teatro is an independent theatre company and non-formal education organisation based in Cartagena, Spain. Since 2013, they have been creating artistic experiences that bring together theatre, movement, storytelling, mythology, and community engagement. Their work explores the transformative potential of the arts as a tool for personal growth, intercultural dialogue, and social connection, with many activities taking place at La Cuadra, their rural creative space near the Mar Menor. The co-lead trainers are Gergely Zsóri, with over 14 years of experience in Erasmus+ and a certified complex art therapist, and Carlos Cegarra, theatre director, performer, educator and founder of Enkidu Teatro, trained at the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) and specialised in Performance and Healing Arts at the Thomas Prattki Center in Berlin.
How to Apply
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. Before applying, read the infopack thoroughly. By filling in the application form, you commit yourself to the whole project: participation, dissemination and follow-up activities in your home country. Applications fully generated by AI will be automatically rejected. For any questions, contact heroineswithin@gmail.com.
📝 Application form: https://forms.gle/PhZ8sHtW7Z1BFK969
ℹ️ Infopack: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WqI0bh-C8BMDwNrKAYdkJ3YOEbGEJ7eN
