Dr Wiener shows how action therapy saves marriages

 

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As we know, sometimes talk therapy isn't enough.

My friend and colleague Daniel Wiener demonstrates how to energize and enhance your couples work by incorporating specialized drama therapy and psychodramatic techniques that he has devised called Rehearsals for Growth™.

During the course of three sessions based on an actual case with a married couple, Dan demonstrates a series of safe, original and effective exercises which are interspersed with observations of the couple’s dynamics and rationale for his therapeutic choices. 

This video offered by Psychotherapy.net is a rare opportunity to be a “fly on the wall” during multiple sessions with the same couple, enabling you to see how, over time, these potent improvisational techniques can help people move through significant conflicts into a renewed loving and playful connection.


Dan is a popular presenter at the annual psychodrama conference sponsored by the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. His informative video gives great ideas to shift  shift clients out of their stuck places and  facilitate new possibilities for relating. 

Finding humor in psychotherapy with Jude Treder-Wolff

Real-life psychotherapist and expressive arts therapist Jude Treder-Wolff, finds humor in her helping jobs and regularly shows it off as a stand-up comedienne and singer. Jude, a  native of Wisconsin who now lives in Long Island, New York, also has a one-woman show, "Crazytown."

Enjoy this clip:

The world of psychodrama, according to Marcia Karp

Brilliant commentary from Marcia Karp, a leading international trainer of psychodrama, talking about the effectivness of psychorama and how it works as a "psychotherapy of relationships." She talks about role reversal, doubling, mirroring, trauma treatment and the value of group.

I studied with her years ago at the Holwell Centre for Psychodrama and Sociometry, Devon, England, and treasure those learnings and experiences to this day. She is a rock star in the world of psychodrama, bringing enormous creativity, sensitivity and depth to her sessions. She is  originally from Stevens Point, Wis., and studied directly with Dr. J.L. Moreno before moving to England and bringing psychodrama there.

Clever video explains function of doubling for personal and social change

Here's another great video.

Edmund Chow, of Applied Theatre in Singapore, created this fun video to explain a role play technique from psychodrama, called "doubling." Doubling is a tool to help clients articulate unexpressed feelings and thoughts. When the client hears it, he or she can change it accordingly - whether he or she agrees or not.

By expressing these unsaid thoughts and feelings, the client may receive clarity on his or her feelings, thoughts or behaviors. As a result, the community serves as a therapeutic witness also develops empathy for the protagonist.

Keep updated on expressive arts therapies with this newsletter

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, the London-based publishing house that is a major proponent of creative therapies, has a new and exciting e-mail newsletter that will keep you updated on its most current offerings.

Here's the first issue of this Arts Therapies Newsletter which is a quarterly round-up of the publisher's new and forthcoming titles, upcoming events and illuminating contributions from JKP authors. This issue focuses on titles about poetry therapy, art therapy, music therapy, journaling and drama therapy. There's also a list of upcoming conferences and their links.

You can subscribe here. As a Jessica Kingsley Publishers author myself, I'm pleased to be associated with this organization.

Dr. Marlo explains the value of psychodrama

Psychologist Marlo Archer explains the value of psychodrama in this YouTube Video:

Marlo now practices in Tempe, Ariz., but hails from the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wis. She attended parochial schools in the area  where she says, "I began my psychology career in first grade . My first 'client' remains my dear friend to this day. In around the fifth grade, I found out that people got PAID to do what I was already doing and from that moment on, I knew I would be a psychologist. It was not, however, until the seventh grade, that I learned how to spell 'psychologist.'” Full bio, web site and services here.

Cleveland Psychodrama Institute has a web site now



Connie Lawrence James



Thanks to the wonders of the wide world web, it's getting easier for all of us to share news and information about psychodrama.

One of the brand-newest web sites include the Cleveland Psychodrama Institute, which calls itself a center for learning and practicing the art of psychodrama and sociometry for counseling, groups, trial lawyering, teaching, coaching and self-discovery.

Founded in 2010, the Cleveland Psychodrama Institute is bringing networking and training in this leading-edge and effective method to northeastern Ohio, available to professionals who aspire to employ psychodrama, as well as people who long for deep and satisfying personal transformation. There are many useful links, including this link for attorneys who want to use psychodrama in trial setttings; see Dana Cole's article on Psychodrama and the Training of Trial Lawyers: Finding the Story.

The institute and its site are being organized by Connie Lawrence James, a licensed clinical social worker, certified experiential therapist and psychodrama trainee.

There's a positive link with psychodrama and addiction treatment



Early psychodrama stage in hospital in
 St. Louis, Mo.



Every so often, people want to know about the link between psychodrama and addiction treatment. Truth be told, addiction treatment centers have been pioneering the resurgence of psychodrama in the past 20 years and there is a growing body of material showing its effectiveness. 

Check with Tian Dayton who has books on trauma and addiction, Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain Through Emotional Literacy, and has worked as a consultant for Caron Treatment Centers in Wernersville, Pa.

Mimi Cox, a clinical social worker and TEP in Richmond, Va., works with addiction and has adapted the Therapeutic Spiral Model for addiction & recovery issues. Find information on The Therapeutic Spiral Model here.

Robert Fuhlrodt's book, Psychodrama: Its Application to ACOA and Substance Abuse Treatment, is a classic. He now specializes in sex addiction and may have more current resources & info, for you.

Arlene Story is the main psychodramatist at The Refuge, a treatment center in Florida, and has lots of experience in addiction and psychodrama. We hosted her for a special traininng workshop for the Midwest Training Series here at Lake House Health & Learning Center a few years ago; training programs on addiction are always well attended.

I've been running an alcohol-and-other-drugs group in the local women's shelter for the past three years -- a program that just ended due to loss of funding. I'm in the process of writing an e-book on what I learned and what I did specifically for the domestic violence population for others  to adapt and use. Stay tuned!

Discovering a David Kipper interview about psychodrama

David Kipper and workshop participants
  in Turkey.

David Kipper played many roles in his life -- as psychodramatist, scholar, author, workshop trainer and professor -- plus husband, father and community leader in his adopted hometown of Chicago.

By profession, David A. Kipper was a clinical psychologist who, since 1995, held the position of research professor of psychology at Roosevelt University’s School of Psychology in Chicago. His interests involved role playing, psychodrama, small groups, experimental therapy, psychological trauma and the relation between emotional arousal and action.

Recently, while doing online research, I discovered a warm and interesting interview with David from Aug. 26, 2003 , as he talked about his experiences and thoughts with psychodrama. This interview took place at the Lutfi Kirdar Congress Centre in Istanbul, Turkey. 

The interviewers sat with David after he presented his workshop “Psychodrama of Positive Experiences: An Experiential Reintegration Approach” earlier that day. David died in December 2010 at the age of 71 so this interview offers a bit of laughter and a rare window into his thoughts about psychodrama and memories of Dr. J.L. Moreno.

Find full interview here.

For eulogies and other information about David, see this web site.

Right brain, left brain? Adam Blatner weighs in

Guest post from Adam Blatner, a psychiatrist and well beloved for many of his books explaning and interpreting J.L.  Moreno's philosopy and the author of Foundations of Psychodrama: History, Theory, and Practice, Fourth Edition,  Acting-In: Practical Applications of Psychodramatic Methods, Third Edition and The Art of Play: Helping Adults Reclaim Imagination and Spontaneity.

Left brain, right brain, yang and yin.

Now here's my plan: Let's develop the left brain so that it can more appropriately SERVE rather than dominate the right brain. Let's not assume either is more important: Heart and lungs. The term "syzygy" refers to two aspects that can only be understood relative each to its opposite: up and down, dark and light, front and back, here and there, male and female, abstract and concrete, etc. In that sense, the two parts of the mind are not exactly but almost a syzygy in terms of their optimal function:  

The left brain builds a more enduring map, schema, frame of reference; it offers a grid within which the transience of experience may be grounded. The right brain offers much of the "juice," the heart, imagery, feeling, body awareness, etc. But the right brain alone cannot succeed in anchoring or truly integrating the experience.

Sometimes an experience, however intense, needs some talking, some finding of words, some ways of being integrated with several levels of more subtle catharsis:

Did what happen really happen?

Were those feelings? what were they?

Was that my story or was I just picking up feelings from others? (This is the problem in projective identification.)

How does it relate to my past, and how does it and my past relate to my present and anticipated or hoped-for-future?

Is this totally alien to others, or can I still feel a part of the group now that I've admitted these thoughts or feelings?

Does this fit into a wider scheme of my spiritual, religious, existential beliefs about what life is about?

All these questions involve anywhere from a slight to a good deal of "left-brain" re-hashing, talking with others about.

So I wanted to make a case for the right use of left brain.

Admittedly, in the 20th century, for most people, the left brain was over-used, or at least over-valued: If phenomena (often mediated or experienced by the right brain) couldn't be neatly defined it tended to be ignored, "marginalized."

Ironically, though the left brain was valued, as was information, knowing things, diplomas, etc., few people actually thought critically. What litte people did think, they tended to feel they were "really" thinking---and, compared to what they intuitively sensed as being thinking-less, they were. But as compared with those who think much more, the thinking (left brain) done by most foks is feeble, laced with illusions, not tightly coordinated. It's better-than-before-ness makes people think that they're thinking a lot.

While there are sub-cultures in which more right-brain functioning is discounted, there are other sub-cultures (such as in the creative arts therapies communities) where it is over-valued, and left brained thinking tends to be discounted. I think both types can be developed much more and also balanced.

7 fabulous tips for successful conference workshops from ASGPP

The American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama has just put out its call for presentations for the 70th Annual Conference, scheduled April 19-23 in Jersey City, N.J. As you consider and write your proposals, here is a synthesis of comments from workshop evaluations for the 2010 conference, gathered by Cathy Nugent, chairperson of the ASGPP evaluations committee.

Without a doubt, these suggestions are valuable for any presentation, local, regional, national or international. Take note:

Elements correlated with high ratings across all workshops included the following:

Personal characteristics of the workshop leaders. Respondents valued warmth, ability to be present with the group, creativity, use of humor and expert knowledge of content as positive qualities of workshop leaders. When co-leaders were present, participants rated working “well together” as a positive attribute among co-leaders. Respondents also appreciated presenter attentiveness to rate of speech and appropriate speaking volume.

Balance of didactic material and experiential learning in the workshop. Participants had a favorable response to workshop leaders who focused both on presenting key teaching points and putting core ideas into action through demonstration.

Organization, focus and clarity. Respondents appreciate workshop leaders who were organized, had clear goals and objectives, and communicated major points with clarity.

Material's portability to one’s “back home” setting. Participants value workshops that provided material that was transferable to their own work settings. Respondents specifically noted an affinity for specific ideas and concrete skills, such as warm-ups or other action structures, that could be applied at home.

Handouts and reference materials. Participants comment favorably on the use of handouts. Respondents appreciated receiving reference material to enhance and expedite the didactic portion of the session, to reinforce learning. and to help with at-home application.

Attention to appropriate boundaries and containment for a conference presentation or workshop. Some respondents found some  sessions “triggering” and felt unresolved at the workshop's conclusion. Participants indicated that care should be given to delinate boundaries and containment for a conference presentation or workshop versus those in a personal growth setting.

 

Clearly identify the deadline for prospoals and other requirements. Many a great proposal has been tossed due to lateness or incompleteness. Proposals for ASGPP must be received by July 15, 2011 to be considered. You will be notified regarding the disposition of your proposal in September 2011.

A tribute to Ron Anderson, psychodramatist of Wisconsin

Ronald Anderson, the counselor who introduced hundreds, maybe thousands, of Midwesterners to psychodrama, died on Saturday, May 14, in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Actually, he introduced many good things to many people, including me. Ron was so kind and welcoming when I moved to Wisconsin 10 years ago, making it a point to help me meet  many of his colleagues and the community of psychodramatists, creative arts therapists and others he thought I should know, then joined me to start a psychodrama and experiential therapy training group in Racine. Later, he introduced me to systemic constellation work, for which I am profoundly grateful, as it has enriched my professional practice and enlivened and deepened my personal life.

Ron started out as a child actor and became an ordained minister in the United Methodist denomination, then worked variously a street minister, church pastor, mental health administrator and substance abuse counselor. He found psychodrama, which combined his interests in theatre, psychology and spirituality, and studied with  Dr. J.L. Moreno at Beacon, N.Y., and at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and became a nationally certified trainer in psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy in 2000. Most recently he saw clients at New Prospects Counseling Services, Milwaukee.

He and his wife Adelia started the successful Midwest Conference on the Expressive Arts Therapies in Lake Geneva, introducing Midwesterners to psychodrama and the alternative and creative arts therapies for several years. For his 70th birthday celebration two years ago, he arranged a party where we dramatized special memories: his long-standing friendship with a boyhood pal;  his "church ladies" in Wisconsin becoming mesmerized by young playboy Hugh Hefner who attended his church's dinners, meeting his future wife Adelia when she arrived for psychodrama training and later marrying her during an delightful outdoor ceremony, and others.

Ron won the Innovators Award in 2010 from American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama for his pioneering work in combining psychodrama and systemic constellation work and identified himself as the first person in the United States to be trained by both J.L. Moreno, the developer of psychodrama, and Bert Hellinger, the developer of Systemic Constellation Work. Among his other accomplishments he counted serving as president of Midwest Chapter of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama from 1998-2002; hiking the Milford Track during four days over the Southern Alps of New Zealand in 1996 and winning the Ralph Nader Award in 1987.

Together we are the co-authors of Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-body Therapies and Energy Healing.
For those who knew Ron, an online guest book is available to sign here.

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.

Happy 90th birthday, psychodrama!

In the annals of psychodrama history, Dr. J.L. Moreno considered his first "formal" psychodrama session on April 1, 1921 at Das Stegreifheater (The Theatre of Spontaneity) in Vienna. Yes, April Fool's Day,  when he dressed as a jester and challenged his audience to take an empty "throne" to play the leader of the community.

If you saw Dateline on Sunday, you saw the report about the program known as Breakthough at Caron, where adults survivors of childhood abuse worked through their issues with what the reporter called ‘"therapy on steroids." Steve Kopp, my psychodrama colleague from Maryland and president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, says, "For those of us who know, it was some basic work in family sculpting, working with social atoms and concretizing. And I thought, this stuff has been around 90 years -- long before we had steroids…"

Steve is celebrating Moreno's birthday today with a birthday cake in his office and a number of psychodrama quotes on his office door – a way to educate others about Moreno and psychodrama, some playful, some thoughtful. Several of them are from Moreno’s Prelude to My Autobiography.

Here's one:

More important than science is its result

One answer provokes a hundred questions.

More important than poetry is its result,
One poem invokes a hundred heroic acts.

More important than recognition is its result,
The result is pain and guilt

More important than procreation is the child,
More important than evolution of creation is the
evolution of the creator.

Dateline NBC spotlights experiential therapy at Pa. treatment center

calls it "group therapy on steroids." Online, NBC broadcaster Keith Morrnison calls it "unorthodox group therapy." It's experiential therapy at  an intensive residential program known as Breakthrough at the Caron Treatment Centers in Wernersville, Pa., for adults from alcoholic and chaotic homes. It's where I first discovered the power of experiential therapy back in 1985 in a program that was founded by visionary Ann Smith, the author of Grandchildren of Alcoholics: Another Generation of Co-Dependency, just a year earlier. Keith Morrison interviewed Ann and spent a week at the treatment center to  film the group therapy for tonight's segment "Back From Nowhere."

Becoming acquainted with experiential therapy led me to become trained in psychodrama and to work as a group therapist at Caron from 1989 to 1992, later returning as a consulting therapist. The Dateline program aired tonight with my friends and colleagues Marilyn Hawn and Randy Gaul.

Here's Keith Mitchell's story focusing on John, one of the participants in the treatment program:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You can see additonal scenes here.


Here's a mini-look at one clip with therapist Randy:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Moreno stage and Boughton Place seeking donations

Do you remember the first time you stood on the legendary Moreno Stage?

Maybe you were at Beacon Hospital when J.L. Moreno and Zerka Moreno taught psychodrama to students flocking  from throughout the United States and around the world to the small town of Beacon, N.Y. Maybe you first stepped on the stage after it was dismantled and reconstructed at Boughton Place, a retreat center in Highland, N.Y., where Zerka Moreno continued to teach until the  late 1990s. Or maybe you've taken part as an actor with Playback Theatre or...

Boughton Place preserves and maintains the original psychodrama stage built by J.L. Moreno in 1936, minus the first tier that was too wide to fit into the space. The stage is recognized as a vital symbol of the world wide psychodrama community, and thousands of psychodrama participants -- including me -- have attended events there since 1986.

Boughton Place houses Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute run by nationally known psychodramatists Rebecca Walters and Judy Swallow and has been used as a residential training center by Zerka Moreno, Jonathan Fox, Ann Hale, Dorothy and Mort Satten, Donna Little, Natalie Winters, Louise Lipman, Nan Nally-Seif, Connie Miller, Kate Hudgins and Susan Aaron. A non-profit organization, it has become an international training center for psychodramatists from around the world.

The board is now seeking financial donations to help with upkeep, repair, renovation and landscaping of the three-acre center. For more information about Boughton Place and how to make a donation, see this link.

A rare look at the first psychodramatic family

"The First Psychodramatic Family," which has been long out of print, is now available courtesy of the North-West Psychodrama Association  which has been bringing out the new J.L. Moreno series. This is a new edition of the book, originally co-written in 1964 by J.L. and Zerka Moreno and their son Jonathan. The book details charming stories of Moreno's birth and background for child-size ears and eyes, and Zerka tells how she used the role play techniques of doubling and role reversal to acquaint their young son with roles of parents and children and empathy. There are also many psychodramatic tales, including encounter with Freud, how President Franklin Roosevelt discovered sociometry and early demonstrations in psychodrama.

For details on this book and some excerpts, click here. Also available in this series are J.L. Moreno – The Theatre of Spontaneity and Impromptu edited by J.L.Moreno. All books are available in print and by download format

Three more classic Moreno titles will also soon be available on the same web site (http://www.lulu.com/) which are: "The Words of the Father," "Psychodrama Volume 2" and "Psychodrama Volume 3." Zoli Figusch  is series editor.

Attorneys who like psychodrama have new book to enjoy

Attorneys understand that a trial is as much an art form as it is a test of facts. Psychodrama can help you better understand your clients, their backgrounds, and what shaped them before they came to you. This is the message of "Trial In Action: The Persuasive Power of Psychodrama," a new book by Joane Garcia-Colson, Fredilyn Sison and Mary Peckham. 

The action method of psychodrama helps attorneys to present the compelling story of the case through a better understanding of the parties, experts, and witnesses’ motivations. It will also help attorneys prepare cases and direct them from intake to trial.

This book is a step-by-step manual that will help lawyers who are new to psychodrama learn the basic techniques, and will help more seasoned lawyers perfect their skills. The book begins with the history of psychodrama in law, then moves on to describe the specific tools and techniques that trial lawyers use. Each instructional chapter gives a "how to," followed by an example, and finishes with an exercise you can try at home. Finally, the book gives concrete examples of how you can use your newly found psychodrama tools and skills in all parts of a trial, from voir dire to closing.

Listen here for interview with Radio Interview about this book. For more, see book's web site.

Virginia Satir and the psychodrama link

Virginia Satir, who is considered one of the most influential and innovative of family therapists, has a psychodrama link. And a Wisconsin link.

Psychology students still read her most well-known books Conjoint Family Therapy as well as Peoplemaking and The New Peoplemaking, the last published in 1988.

Virginia Satir was born  in Neillsville, Wis., in 1916, the eldest of five children, and later moved to Milwaukee. At the age of five, Satir decided that she would grow up to be "a children's detective on parents." She later explained that "I didn't quite know what I would look for, but I realized a lot went on in families that didn't meet the eye."

Now to the link with psychodrama.

Psychodramatist Barbara Seabourne developed what she called "action sociometry" in the early 1960s, giving life to people's most important relationships by having them take postures to show their connections with each  other -- or the lack of same. Satir used similar ideas as she developed family sculpting, helping families to experierence their relationships with each other, not just talk about them.

 Zerka Moreno, the widow and collaborator of Dr. J.L. Moreno, the physician who developed psychodrama, adds that, in addition,  remembers flying to Milan, Italy, in 1963 to a conference of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy.

She writes:

"Dr. Moreno had secured seats on the plane for all those going to the conference. Virginia Satir sat across the aisle from us and attended the Moreno Academy one-day session before the conference in which I worked with a married couple. As far as I am aware, she attended all other sessions, including Moreno's presentation, at the conference, in which I presented "Sociogenesis of Individuals and Groups." She did not engage with us, nor seemed to do so much with anyone else on the plane; she was rather shy and quiet.

"We published a book containing all the presentations, called "The International Handbook of Group Psychotherapy." brought out by The Philosophical Library in New York, 1966. I was assistant editor.

"Virginia Satir's presentation is entitled: "Family Therapy: An Approach to the Treatment of Mental and Emotional Disorders." p. 441-445. She speaks, among others, of family conjoint therapy. She was, I believe, just beginning, but she was good at what she was doing.

"Virginia and I met again in 1985, in Phoenix, at the first Milton Erickson Foundation on Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference."

Satir died of pancreatic cancer soon after that meeting.

Kate Hudgins speaks on innovative psychodrama and her trauma model

Kate Hudgins, the U.S. psychodramatist and psychologist who has developed an innovative model for treatment of trauma with psychodrama speaks about her most recent work at the international psychodrama conference in Portugal in October 2010, when she was keynote speaker.

Kate, who lived and worked in Wisconsin for several years, has demonstrated and taught her model in the United States and internationally, visiting some 30 countries through the years. For the past 10 years, she’s been teaching her action-oriented Therapeutic Spiral Model in universities in China. She is now back in her hometown of Charlottesville, Va., preparing for the upcoming publication of her fourth book, “Therapeutic Spiral Model on the Frontlines,” for which I’ve written a chapter with Kevin Fullin, M.D., on using the model with survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence. Her previous book, which I recommend to my trainees, is Experiential Treatment for PTSD: The Therapeutic Spiral Model.

Here’s the link to the first video, also shown below, when she talks about her model, how it can be adapted for children and moving moments with her work in China. The interview continues on this second link where she talks about hate, violence and compassion and her work with people who suffered in both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland and with torture survivors from Bosnia.

Laughter is healing too

I have a silly part inside of me -- and I enjoy being silly when I am leading a group. I like being able to let other people know that silliness is OK -- even healthy! I make sure that people know that laughter is permitted. It is a great and tender release, just as much as crying.

A couple years ago I presented an all-day session on laughter and fun for my trainees entitled, "Are We Having Fun Yet?" When trainees arrived, I was already wearing a silly hat. (After all, wasn't it J.L. Moreno who conducted his first public psychodrama in 1921 wearing a jester's cap?)

No outline is close at hand, but our day included:

I used a box of funny hats with people taking the hats and taking the role suggested by the hats and mixing and mingling.

A basket of colorful scarves and clothes were available for dress up.

Later, we integated these actions as part of our group:

Using nonsense languages to talk between each other about a topic.

Talking in a high voice or a low voice.

Making funny faces.

Shaking the body

Playing non-competitive games like Rain. If you haven't seen Rain or ar enot familiar with this fun non-competitive game, see:

Singing silly songs including children's songs like "Old MacDonald Had A Farm."

Playing When The  Great Wind Blows. There are many variations. Here's one: have a circle of chairs, with one less chair than the number of people. One person stands in the center of the circle and says, "The wind blows on people wearing plaid shirts." Then everyone wearing plaid shirts must get up and scurry to another chair. The last person standing says, "The wind blows on people with blue eyes." And the people with blue eyes scurry...

When I trained with Zerka Moreno, we used vignettes on "A Moment of Joy" which were acted as a monodrama or autodrama or a more traditional vignette. These were always fun to do and fun to watch. Sometimes they were humorous too -- I've changed the title sometimes to "A moment of laughter."

Just recently I've been introduced to InterPlay, a model of using play, the body, movement and silliness in a group format.

For myself, I have found that I, as a presenter and trainer, really need to be warmed up to humor. Good warm-ups need to be constructed that open the way to humor and fun for the group.

And Adam Blatner's book with Allee Blatner "The Art of Play" is inspirational and idea-full.

Creativity article in Newsweek has big link to psychodrama (without saying so)

Did you see the article about creativity in the July 19 edition of Newsweek?

It laments the state of creativity in American schools but also gives suggestions about  how to fix the creativity crisis and upgrade that creativity to a new level for the 21st century.

The late E. Paul Torrance – the innovative professor who is mentioned prominently in the article – had met and had been influenced by psychodrama’s developer J.L. Moreno. Torrance wrote about sociodrama and its techniques and was a recognized pioneer in the field of creativity studies.

Later in the article in Newsweek, the author reports that studies show that role playing promotes creativity with children.

Adam Blatner, one of the foremost writers about psychodrama, points out that the “this frontier of our work, cultivating spontaneity and imaginativeness, continues to accrue more of a scientific foundation."

Read the full Newsweek article here, plus take an online creativity test.

Eating, sleeping, sneezing -- and other roles we play

The minute that we are born, we immediately take a number of roles, including eater, sleeper and sneezer.

As we grow older, we are called to play and practice many more personal and social roles, which is how we develop, grow and mature.

Here's a little "Box O' Roles" that explains psychodramatic role theory in a fun and graphic way, courtesy of my psychodramatist colleagues Nina Garcia and Dale Richard Buchanan.

Theatre for healing, as a basis for a reality show? I say yes!

Drama therapy and psychodrama are kind of "cousins" in the world of creative arts therapies.

I like this video from Blair Glaser, MA, LCAT, RDT, a healing teacher and drama therapist in New York, as she pitches her idea for a fun-filled  reality show in which she uses drama therapy with individuals, couples, companies, and with groups in need such as inner city kids and Iraq veterans.

Blair wants to show that using theater for healing can help participants feel "dramatically different" about themselves and their lives after the sessions.  In "her" show, wiewers will learn the value of play, of listening to the various voices we carry inside, of face-to-face contact in a hyper-techno world, and the importance of engaging the body in healing the mind and heart.

I voted for Blair while making a statement that she also include mention of psychodrama in her work. Vote for her too right here.

In the meanwhile, here's footage of a real drama therapy session, including sculpting and body movement, in this video:

Worth listening: online interviews about psychodrama

Investigative reporter Jon Rappoport recently has given some very good air time to the gifts and advantages of psychodrama on his online radio show on the Progressive Radio Network.

His show with Zerka Moreno, the "mother" of psychodrama, is here. It is a rare interview with Zerka T. Moreno, who at 93 years old, is still conducting groups in the living room of her home in a retirement village in Charlottesville, Va. She tells stories about the early years of psychodrama with her late husband, Dr. J.L. Morneo, some of which I've not heard before.

Rappoport's interview with Ed Schrieber, a psychodramatist in Massachusetts and the editor of Zerka's memoirs, is here.

Playback Theatre improvises stories of our lives

Playback Theatre is a wonderful derivative of psychodrama that has now made its own fame and boasts its own method. There are groups across the United States and around the world.

The Washington Post just featured a group in Silver Spring, Md., which is active with monthly gatherings of 70 people, some of whom volunteer to tell a personal story while a group of actors improvise their story and play it back while everyone watches. Part community building and part entertainment, these presentations may be poignant or humorous, but they are always deeply human.  In February, the topic was "Variations on a Dream" in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.; later in honor of Valentine's Day, the topic was "When We Are Granted Our Heart's Desires." For more on Playback and its trainings, click here.

New book combines psychodrama and the body

As the newest research in neuroscience reframes how and why experiential psychotherapies bring significant healing to the brain and body, a new book, "The Body Alchemy of Psychodrama" by Rebecca Ridge, arrives to show how one practitoner puts these theories into practice.

As a psychologist, psychodramatist and bodyworker, Rebecca combines her knowledge and skills to show how the action method of psychodrama blends very well with the subtle hands-on practices of craniosacral therapy, positional release, reflexology and shiatsu.

Rebecca says:

"Alchemy is a wonderfully expressive term to describe the philosophical, psychological and biological processes that illuminate and transform the body mind in each of us. The body is still and may remain forever to some degree a mysterious universe, no matter how much we might be able to explain the complexities of our body and brain’s physiological intricacies. Thus Body Alchemy involves the mystery and the potential to keep evolving one’s relationship to our body mind."

Rebecca is a Midwest trainer, educator and practitioner who divides her time between Anoka, Minn., and Australia. She explains psychodrama as an embodied form of psychotherapy and includes a historical background of  somatic psychology theories. 

As more pracititoners incorporate some kind of touch in their work, she offers a valuable chapter on the ethics of touch for the group therapist, psychodramatist and psychotherapist so that they may safely apply practices of touch in therapy. Her ideas are now incorporated in my annual experientially based ethics training, "Ethics In Action."

See Rebecca's site, which includes articles and a link to order her book here.

Moreno's psychodrama and Twelve Steps have much in common

There are several remarkable parallels between the philosophies of J.L. Moreno, the physician who developed psychodrama, and the Twelve-Step self-help movement started by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob.

There is the importance of group.

Moreno identified people as the "healing agents" of each other, as early as 1912 when he initiated groups for red-light district prostitutes in Vienna. (We might theorize that many of these women might have had addiction prolbems and possibly were survivors of sexual abuse). He later coined the phrase "group psychotherapy" during a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

Bill and Dr. Bob discovered the route to sobriety in the 1930s when they came together, simply to talk about their experiences while drinking and their efforts to stay sober. The two men had no therapeutic experience -- they were simply desperate alcoholics with the desperate desire to end the drinking that was destroying their lives. The program emerged from folk wisdom that they gathered as they sat and talked in their living rooms in Akron, Ohio, and learned how to stay sober.

There is the importance of spirituality  -- confirming the idea that healing is not a matter of "fixing" what is broken but embarking on a journey of personal growth and change.

Moreno considered "the godhead" an important part of his method  and often spoke of the cosmos. The balcony on the stage that he designed -- see photo -- was often used to talk to God, angels and other spiritual beings in the protagonist's life. In one of his works, he role reversed with God, creating that intimate relationship with an otherworldly entity.

Bill W. received the now-famous letter from Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychoanalyst, in which he remarked that a "spiritual" experience was a central component to recovery and sobriety.

There is relating from direct personal experience, rather than theory.

In psychodrama, Moreno instituted the "sharing" segment after every dramatic encounter, at which time group members were discouraged from analyzing or critiquing -- but rather recommended to relate their personal experiences to others and the protagonist.

Twelve-Step groups involve participants telling personal stories of experience, strength and hope. People use first names only to keep the tradition of anonymity, and there are no "experts" and no "patients," just people following a structure of growth and change as they take inventory their lives.

Someone "directs" the path but all are able to contribute.

In psychodrama, the director facilitates the action, employing auxiliaries to play roles for the protagonist to create a fullness of experience during an enactment. Everyone co-creates the experience for each other.

In Twelve-Step groups, the leaders are ordinary group members who volunteer to lead a particular meeting as service to their group and the organization. The group co-creates the experience; the steps and the traditions provide the real ongoing leadership.

Relationships teach, inform and connect

Moreno's system of sociometry measured the relationships within any given group. He developed several role play techniques including that of doubling -- having another person speak as a person's inner voice -- to expand awareness of relationship with self during a vignette.

Twelve-Step groups recommend a sponsor, one who is more advanced in the recovery process, to mentor a newcomer to the group and guide the newcomer through the 12 steps.