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.

New "home birth dads" calendar shows the value of role reversal

We're always looking for good examples of the psychodramatic tool of role reversal and how it creates more empathy in our world.

Here's one -- in the form of the new "home birth" dads calendar coming up for 2014, just delivered by Kimberly McGuinness-Rook, a midwife in Racine, Wis., who happens to be a colleague and professional neighbor.

In this fun calendar, the husbands and partners of women who gave birth at home don skimpy sarongs and cooling head cloths  as they play act what it's like to be fully pregnant and ready to give birth. The men volunteered to take part in a photo project that recreated some of the experiences of their partners' most memorable pregnancy and birth moments -- holding a bulging belly, stepping into a warm-water birth tub, gritting teeth after a particularly strong contraction ...

Kim of InnerBirth Midwifery collaborated with professional photographer Katie Hall to create the calendar. She also created the fake "baby bumps" -- using a stretchy maternity support band stuffed  with soft sweaters and scarves for a mold-able shape.

The calendar, meant to be comical,  stirred strong emotions in several of the men. For sure, it was a consciousness-raising experience to find out what pregnancy and delivery "might" be like -- and at least one man started weeping when he was presented with his real-life baby during the photo shoot. That's the idea of role reversal -- to step into the place of the "other" and get a sense of the other's experience.

Oh, yes -- news of this calendar has gone viral! It's been picked up by NBC's Today Show and The Huffington Post, and news has landed in England, London and Vietnam along with a few mommy blogs like this one.

Ten percent of profits will benefit the Greater Racine Collaborative for Healthy Birth Outcomes since this community has one of the highest African American infant mortality rates in the United States, affecting nearly 20 per 1,000 babies born.

Order the calendar here.

Midwife Kimberly McGuinness-Rook, left, and a birthing couple reverse roles. Check the differences!

Zerka Moreno demonstrates the power of role reversal

Zerka Moreno masterfully conducts an actual psychodrama session with a group of experienced psychodrama practitioners. The protagonist "Frank" has been having great difficulty completing his doctoral thesis on psychodrama. Zerka directs him in several powerful scenes, including role reversals with his unfinished thesis as well as with his grandfather.

Frank’s head is full of what he knows – but “being” the other allows for powerful shifts within the person that is not possible just by thinking about it and talking about it.

Zerka collaborated in the development of psychodrama with her late husband, Dr. J.L. Moreno. I had the great privilege to study with her at Boughton Place in Highland, N.Y., and it was she who encouraged me to become a board-certified trainer. Now in her 90s, Zerka still conducts sessions in the living room of her home in Charlottesville, Va. Listen to what she has to say about creativity: