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.