Lewis Yablonsky, sociology professor & psychodramatist, dies

Lewis Yablonsky, one of the first generation of pioneering psychodramatists, has died at the age of 89. He was was an authority on youth gangs, hippies and drug addicts whose rough-and-tumble early years gave him insights others lacked.

He specialized in sociology and surely his psychodrama mixed well with that field; he  wrote quite a bit about gangs and criminology. His 1992 book Psychodrama: Resolving Emotional Problems Through Role-Playing was translated into German, Italian and Spanish.

See his amazing resume here.

Read his obituary here.

Psychodrama techniques with new names

 

Mecca Burns has just come out with a new three-minute video illustrating techniques that psychodramatists will find very familiar.

Role reversal is "Switching Roles."
Doubling is "Thought Bubble."
Mirroring is "Screen Image."
Surplus reality is "Three Wishes."

The video, titled Presence,  is elegantly done and the new names, admittedly, bring a freshness to these techniques originated by Dr. J.L. Moreno, the developer of psychodrama, and Augusto Boal, the developer of Theatre of the Oppressed.

Mecca is a drama therapist and co-founder of Presence Center for Applied Theatre Arts which utilizes Theatre of the Oppressed, drama therapy and Playback Theatre to address matters of race, gender, culture and ability.

She is based in Charlottesville, Va., and trains drama therapists and organizes participatory theater in Uganda, Kenya and Spain as well as the United States. For many years she worked as a drama therapist with youth and adults in residential settings. For the past 10 years, she has specialized in working with children with special needs and communities with social justice issues.

Psychodrama mixes well with systemic constellation work, and this new book shows how

Systemic Constellation Work is a rapidly growing experiential healing process that is being embraced by a variety of helping professionals, both traditional and alternative, worldwide. I'm pleased to present the near-debut of our new book Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-body Therapies and Energy Healing.

This book, by myself and Ron Anderson, explores the history, principles and methodology of this approach, and offers a detailed comparison with psychodrama -- the original mind-body therapy -- explaining how each method can enhance the other. Constellation work is based on the notion that people are connected by unseen energetic forces and suggests that the psychological, traumatic and survival experiences of our ancestors are genetically passed forward to the next generation and may live within us.

Using insightful case studies from a variety of client groups, this book shows how Systemic Constellation Work can expand the possibilities of psychodrama techniques, and can be successfully integrated with psychodramatic enactment, guided imagery, ritual, concretization and other methods of healing and personal growth. This book will be essential reading for students and practitioners of psychodrama and constellation work, as well as counselors, mental health professionals, experiential therapists, creative and expressive arts therapists and alternative practitioners looking to widen their knowledge of mind-body therapies.

The book is scheduled for publication in Ncvember 2011; add your name to preorder the book here.

Join, keep updated and comment on the book's Facebook fan page.