Psychodrama is a method of working in group therapy that gets you up out of your seat and into action. I employ it as a tool in on-going weekly therapy groups and in weekend psychodrama retreats. Psychodrama has a long history and was developed as a clinical therapeutic method by J.L. Moreno, M.D. in the 1930s.
In psychodrama, if you\'re the one working you\'re called the protagonist. It’s the protagonist\'s story that is being explored through dramatization. Other group members play supporting (or auxiliary) roles in aid of the protagonist\'s drama. One of the key techniques of psychodrama is \"role reversal.\" For example, if you are standing up to do a psychodrama you might recall a painful dynamic with your mother. In this case, you would be asked to pick someone from the group to play your mother. Once mom is on stage, the director (me or my co-therapist) would probably ask you to \"reverse roles\" with your mother. You would then be in the role of your own mother, and as mom, you would show your group-mate (now in your role) how to play the role of mom. Other roles might be needed. A drama usually involves several role reversals, back and forth. Eventually, your drama would likely take on a life of its own, becoming spontaneous and moving into deeper expressions of feeling between you and your mother (really the mom that lives inside of you). You might even have a catharsis of feeling and achieve a new understanding of yourself that, in time, could change your relationships with your actual mother and others.
Psychodrama is a powerful way of discovering and re-experiencing the emotional source of repeating life problems, and for changing them on the emotional level. Scenes (real or imagined) from any time period in life can be replayed numerous ways. For example, you can do or say what you always wished you\'d done, or say what you are afraid to say; you can get help from other group members on ways to experiment with completely new behavior, etc.
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