Show and Tell Psychodrama is now here!

It's here!

My newest book Show and Tell Psychodrama: Skills for Therapists, Coaches, Teachers, Leaders, is now officially available for purchase, reviews and recommendations. It's available in paperback and Kindle versions.

Find synopsis and bio here.
Look inside to find preview here.
Join book's Facebook page and keep updated on news and other useful links.
Enjoy video here.

Whether you are a curious professional seeking new skills or a student just beginning to fall in love with this amazing method, these 60 bite-size articles give you an easy introduction to fresh ways to support healing, learning and change.

Show and Tell Psychodrama will help you learn how to:

- Spark creativity and spontaneity within you and the people you work with
- Lead safe and effective role plays - from classroom to corporation
- Create authentic relationships in groups in every setting
- Take your role as a leader and understand and manage the roles that others play.

Just a few of the specific topics are:

- Magic Shop
- Canon of Creativity
- Diamond of Opposites
- The empty chair and other useful props
- History of psychodrama
- Rules for role play
- Group guidelines
- Thoughts on ethics
- Sociometry options
- Ideas for addictions counselors
- Anger and experiential work
- Neurobiology of experiential work
- Psychodrama and Jung
- How to find a trainer

Extra bonus: Special section for the psychodrama certification candidate to navigate studying for the national exam with the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy.

John Nolte has a new book coming in June

Another new book for your library: John Nolte's The Philosophy, Theory and Methods of J. L. Moreno: The Man Who Tried to Become God. 

This book outlines Moreno’s early years (his religious phase), the philosophy on which the foundation of his methods are based, and descriptions of the three major methods that Moreno originated: psychodrama, sociometry, and group psychotherapy. It provides a more systematic presentation of Moreno’s work and presents his philosophy and theory clearer, more understandable manner. 

John Nolte has a doctorate in clinical psychology from Washington University and was trained in psychodrama by J.L. and Zerka Moreno. He served as director of training for the Moreno Institute after Moreno's death. He is currently working as a training consultant and staff member of Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming.

It's scheduled for publication June 2014.

Expecting the arrival of Show & Tell Psychodrama soon!

About to be birthed -- my new book Show and Tell Psychodrama: Skills for Therapists, Coaches, Teachers, Leaders. We're in the final process of book preparation, with publication scheduled for May 2014. Order here. 

Take a peek. Here's the front cover:

And the back cover:

Scenes from the 2014 psychodrama conference

Scenes from the 2014 annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama in Oakland, Calif. Watch for more blog postings about the conference in the next several days.

Psychodrama, 93 years young today!

Happy birthday, psychodrama! Today, April 1, is the birthday of this wondrous action method developed by Dr. J.L. Moreno and his wife Zerka Moreno. Dr. Moreno presented his first non-scripted drama 93 years ago at a theater in Vienna, Austria. The method continues to grow and expand throughout the United States and the world with today's psychodramatists continuing to innovate and create.

Here's a recent video interview with Valerie Simon, a psychodramatist in New York City who works with issues of trauma and addiction as well as performers who want to expand their creativity and spontaniety.

Enjoy!

What's in your warm up (basket)?

I'm having fun putting together my donations for the silent auction fundraiser, which is a special feature of the annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, coming up next month April 3-7 in Oakland, Calif.

All baskets have themes -- and this one is "Eye on Images For Warm Ups," with a focus on using cards and other images for warm up activities.  I love using commercial card decks for to begin groups and individual sessions as they are evocative ways to stirring stories, feelings, memories and ideas. At the beginning of a session, they can be placed on the floor, right side up, for people to look at and select, or in a basket in a part of the room or passed by hand from one group member to another.

In this basket, I've included Loving Our Earth cards, Disney princess cards, animal magnets, framed and matted animal prints, vintage post cards, animal notepads and animal book marks, greeting cards and a set of "cards" that I made from CD envelopes and pictures cut from magazines and other places.

Here's how I made my picture envelopes (see photo, with sample at left) and how you can make them:

• CD envelopes with cellophane window
• Magazines, greeting cards, brochures, photos and other items with interesting pictures
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil

Then:

• Make template with card stock, cutting your card stock 1/8 inch less on each side.
• Place template over most interesting graphic part of picture from magazines, cards, brochures or whatever else you have collected.
• Use pencil to mark lines lightly on picture.
• Insert picture into envelope.
• Close envelope by folding flap inside or tape.

There's still time to come to the conference. Details here.

"Impromptu Man," Jonathan Moreno's words of the father

Dr. J.L. Moreno, who fathered psychodrama, is the subject of an upcoming book by his son, Jonathan D. Moreno.

The book is Impromptu Man: J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network, scheduled for publication in Fall 2014. It's called the "untold story of the creative genius behind major 20th-century movements in therapy and theater and his lasting influence."

Here's the pre-blurb for the book:

"A mystic, theater impresario, and inventor in his youth, Moreno immigrated to America in 1926, where he trained famous actors, introduced group therapy, and was a forerunner of humanistic psychology. As a social reformer he reorganized schools, prisons, and refugee camps. Moreno's methods have been adopted by improvisational theater, military organizations, educators, business leaders, and trial lawyers. His social graphics laid the groundwork for social media like Twitter and Facebook."

The younger Moreno, whose mother is Moreno's third wife Zerka T. Moreno, is an acclaimed bioethicist, and the author of several books about science and philosophy.

Read more about the book here.

Find Jonathan's web site here.

Psychodrama, all over Facebook

Psychodrama is about groups and social networks, and you can find psychodrama on Facebook. Just for fun, I took a quick tour around Facebook to find out where psychodrama has landed. Here's what I found:

American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama is the U.S. membership organization, and this is its official Facebook page. You'll find news from ASGPP, with special emphasis on its annual conference. Link here.

Midwest Psychodrama especially welcomes members from the Midwest states, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,  Minnesota, Wisconsin and nearby. Link here.

The British Psychodrama Association  is the accrediting body for psychodrama psychotherapy and sociodrama in Britain. Link here.

The International Psychodrama Group has one of  the larger memberships on Facebook, at 1,072 members. Link here.

U.S. Psychodrama & Sociometry Journal focuses on research with about psychodrama, sociometry and related topics and encourages interest in and writing for the Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy, published by the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. Link here.

Open Psychodrama Study Group by Students, for Students and Practitioners is one of the newer Facebook groups, started by Adam Barcroft and focuses on studying for the U.S. certification exam. Link here.

Toronto Center of Psychodrama and Sociometry is related to the center in Toronto which has provided quality training in psychodrama, not only for residents of southern Ontario, but also for an international community of students. Link here.

Oxford School of Psychodrama and Integrative Psychotherapy is a psychotherapy training organization, originally called Oxford Psychodrama Group, and offers psychodrama workshops in Oxford and an online book shop. Link here.

Young Friends of Psychodrama focuses on younger people interested in psychodrama, but the truth is -- anyone can join! Link here.

Moreno Psychodrama Society comes from the "down under" country of Australia and is moderated by psychodramatist Sue Daniel. Link here.

Psychodrama Morocco, for anyone interested in what's happening in the psychodrama scene in Morocco. Link here.

Oh, yes, there's even more groups -- in Egypt, Russia and other places with alphabets and language that I can't read. Have fun touring and spreading  the word about psychodrama!

Creative arts empower adults with developmental disabilities

 

Here's something new:

Stephen Snow helps practitioners gain new tools for helping adults with developmental disabilities using creative arts therapies within his unique ethnodramatherapy model. It's new video offered by Psychotherapy.net, titled Empowering Adults with Developmental Disabilities: A Creative Arts Therapies Approach.

The video has gotten rave reviews from a variety of professionals, including theater professionals, drama therapists and psychodramatists, including psychodramatist and author Adam Blatner. He says:

"The expressive arts therapies can be of enormous benefit to people with developmental disabilities. In this excellent video, therapists build on group members’ strengths to put on a show, feel accepted, experience teamwork, and participate in the wider realms of poetry, music, dance-movement, and drama. Dr. Snow’s program at Concordia University is an incredible source of ideas and inspiration!"

A pizza radio psychodrama when we talk about eating disorders

I had the great opportunity to visit with Ted Ehlen of WRJN  in Racine, Wis., to talk about my new book (with co-author Linda Ciotola) Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury. Listen how we create a mini-drama during the radio interview with the characters of Ted, Pizza and Health. We could have added Scale if we had a little more time.

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.

Doubling ... at the museum!

Here is a beautiful and spontaneous example of the psychodramatic technique of doubling, which I picked from the Facebook page of Maria Montessori. I love this child's spontaneity!

Meet you in Oakland, Calif., for our psychodrama conference

This year we'll have people who love psychodrama to gather, learn, play, talk, share -- and psychodramatize!

It's the annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. The dates are April 3-7 in Oakland, Calif. Today, Feb. 7, is the last day to get the discount for conference attendance.

Catalog of workshops and registration details here.

I've been invited to present, and my workshop  Eating Disorders and the Ancestors Connection on Saturday, April 5. Psychotherapy for eating disorders traditionally looks at the immediate life of the person seeking help. As we widen our perspective – that many of our problems may have roots in intergenerational family trauma - the integration of psychodrama and constellation work offers new tools to understand and heal. In this workshop, we identify hidden intergenerational issues relating to eating disorders and how to select interventions that honor suffering, promote strength and allow love to flow.

If you're going, watch for our book signing evening and look for me and my coauthor Linda Ciotola signing our book, Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury. I also hope to have my newest book, Modern Psychodrama, available, which is in press right now.

 How about you? Will I see you there?

Knowledge or experience? Love this!

Love today's post from George Takei's Facebook page. It's so psychodramatic, so sociometric! We see that knowledge separates us, and sharing experience connects us. It reminds me about the value of sharing at the end of a psychodramatic session. What about you?

"Little Me" is mandala for healing trauma

Little Me - Circles of Grace by Bill Coleman, TEP, is a little blue book and a manual for creating a mandala to heal trauma. 

Bill, a psychodramatist who practices in Tucson, Ariz., says that the concept is quite simple although the execution can be very cathartic for the client. 

A reviewer describes the book as "a must-have book for any counselor or therapist -- not to mention anyone in recovery -- to help identify the character defenses that are still getting in the way of having a good life, as well as a great opportunity to build self-compassion when exploring the origins of those defenses." Cost is under $20. Find the book 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.

How Rudolph became a sociometric star

Rudolph, the reindeer with the red nose, is the classic character of Christmas lore. You know, the lonely reindeer bullied by other reindeer because of his unusual difference.

Rory Remer, a TEP and professor of educational, school and counseling psychologist the University of Kentucky, reminds us that this story is a lesson in the effect of changing the sociometric criterion of choice and the impact of aristotele.

Sociometry is the science of surveying preferences in relationships in groups of people -- or reindeer! -- and  aristotele is [x]. The reindeer bullied poor Rudolph until he was selected by highly respected Santa for his special talent -- which had been seen as a defect. Yet Rudolph was the perfect choice to guide the sleigh on a Foggy Christmas night because he fit the role that was needed.

Truly, Rudolph has guided our values in cartoon and song. since the 1940s and beyond. Originally created as an advertising gimmick to lure customers to the Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago, he has become the protagonist in a charming often-told story.  

For more on Rudolph lore and legend, see Snopes.

As Ronald Lankford noted in his cultural history of American Christmas songs, Rudolph's story was a classic reflection of American values during the 1940s and beyond:

Much like the modern Santa Claus song, Rudolph's story is for children; more specifically, it is a children's story about overcoming adversity and earning, by personal effort, respect in the adult world. As a young deer (child) with a handicap that turns out to be an unrecognized asset, Rudolph comes to the rescue of an adult (Santa) at the last minute (on Christmas Eve). When Rudolph saves the day, he gains respect from both his peers (the reindeer who refused to include him in games) and the adult world. The story of Rudolph, then, is the fantasy story made to order for American children: each child has the need to express and receive approval for his or her individuality and/or special qualities. Rudolph's story embodies the American Dream for the child, written large because of the cultural significance of Christmas.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/rudolph.asp#gQhjgBp3bDRsaj1J.99

Adam Blatner talks about "Beyond Psychodrama"

Adam Blatner, M.D., TEP,  is one of the biggest voices to assert that psychodrama is more than therapy -- and of the great need to contribute this method to education, law, personal growth, theater improvisation and coaching and the like.

In this video, he discusses "Beyond Psychodrama: The Global Reach of Moreno's Ideas and How They Merge with  Other Trends" as the opening plenary session of the 71st annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama in April 2013.

Life, art, play looks like psychodrama

Don't know if the playwright and actors of this new play "Psychodrama! A Tender Love Story in Five Sessions" in Cedar Falls, Iowa, actually know the meaning of psychodrama or not.

But they do appear to understand its therapeutic possibilities.

Grant Tracey, one of the playwright-actors, says the focus of the play is "the interface between life and art and how art can create transformations in identity." Here's the description: "A therapist tries to get a young married couple to open up about the dissonance they are experiencing.  In the course of their first session together he has them do a number of exercises that are more akin to theater than to therapy."

The writers developed the text through improvisational methods, crafting three-dimensional, quirky characters and exaggerated situations the audience will recognize. Read full story here.

Sociodrama conference in Italy looks at all the problems in the world

Just recently we shared details about Rosalie Minkin's new book about sociodrama, a kind of cousin to psychodrama.

But we forgot to tell you about the Fourth International Sociodrama Conference in Iseo, Italy, in September 2013. Psychodrama and sociodrama -- while always not well known in the United States -- are popular and growing in Europe, South America and elsewhere. Topics included political activism, creating groups and community, multiculturalism, diversity and working in organizations.  We can see the main part of the gathering took place in a basketball court, making the event highly accessible, and was offered in both English and Italian.

Watch a sociodrama gathering in action below and another day here. See sidebar for additional videos.