PD in College classes

Fri Nov 23 10:25:43 CST 2007

Dear Anath, I see several different ideas that have been stimulated by this discussion:
     1. If we view psychotherapy as mainly relationship---as I do---and development of therapist as more like development of the overall expertise of a professional, then method becomes secondary---a specialty, perhaps, or maybe not even that. Surgeons will generally identify themselves as first, a physician: There is no obligation to cut. Often, the recommendation is against any invasive procedures. In the same sense, I think there should not be psychodramatists, but rather psychotherapists who may---or may not---use action methods in any given session. 
         So your point (and Rebecca's) about challenging therapists-in-training to think they can learn psychodrama via demonstration is well-taken.

     2. Nevetheless, when asked to do so, I do so, with the disclaimer that I am not demonstrating psychodrama per se---just as I wouldn't demonstrate brain surgery to a medical school class. Rather, I will demonstrate a basic method, a component---i.e., the knack of role taking in the service of empathy. I teach a series of exercises as I talk about on my webpage on "Imaginative Enactment," using the "Talk Show Host Game." The challenge is to shift from thinking like a book-learning student to thinking more like an actor, taking some risks in warming-up the imagination and intuition to play a role from the "inside," to imagine what it's like to be... 
     I find this skill to be the basic one---analogous to swimming teachers teaching little kids first to to float and dog paddle.
 That can be remarkably powerful in a classroom, because many students in professional schools have never experienced another person really empathizing with them!  Nor have they learned how to do so with others (using aspects of doubling and role reversal).

       Then I give a rap about the other Morenean principles and how they complement the practice of therapy. I note that psychodrama is sort of an elaborate orchestration of these principles along with others, such as those of group therapy and ordinary psychotherapy. As such, it is not easily appreciated as a single method. 

Anath, I appreciate your final anecdote, that the method can become corrupted by amateur use and partial understanding. Indeed, all methods can, and this is why I consider professionalism to require a mixture of continuing education in the field along with continuing work on oneself, taking stock and evaluating especially arenas of weakness. 
      Indeed, I daresay that this process never ends. There's no up to grow, there's no perfect endpoint when an individual achieves wholeness, integration, etc. I hold with Jung in thinking that the soul circumambulates the self---and vice versa---that there are parts of us that are always walking around the garden of our sub-conscious finding little complexes to cultivate or prune, weed or replant... 

But to re-state: This disucssion has reminded me of a terrible tendency in the fields of psychotherapy, the tendency to think that a perfect method can be learned, devised, and managed. I think the nature of therapy is primarily the development of relationship, within which many different methods may be applied as needed, often in succession or sometimes jointly. (I'm big for wondering when significant others may be included in a session, for example, either as two people or three or more.) Certainly, this is also a critique of the whole Evidence-Based-Treatment trend! (But I won't get into a rant about that.)

      Thanks for stimulating my thinking. Warmly, Adam
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: thana ag 
  To: Adam Blatner ; list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 10:23 PM
  Subject: RE: PD in College classes

  Dear Adam,
  Well put,if we decide redefine  ourselves as Moreneans, something some of us have been doing already,without noticing.  . But until then,if  I understand Rebecca's response,  and  I am in total agreement with her, no one who is not properly  trained as a psychodramatist be allowed  or encouraged to do a demonstration of psychodrama. Too many people were hurt and turned off. To  present a particular technique:  empty chair,Role reversal,will not do much harm. But a whole psychodrama  ?! 
  When Moreno Institute in NYC had open sessions,I remember quite a few times  audience  members  wanting pointers from me as to how to  present PD  in their  classroom. Could they? Like Rebbecca,  I discouraged them actively.  Of course some of them went ahead and did it. On occasion they would come back wandering why it did not work. Like watching  a surgeon perform an operation,and embarking on doing the procedure without a training ....and wondering why the patient is bleeding ...
  Few year ago I was invited to a psychodrama group reconstituted from members of a psychodrama group I was running for 16 years. I was appalled by what passed as psychodrama. It is exactly the subtleties that make this method  an art. Otherwise it is the relationship that is the most healing aspect of any encounter ,as was the case of that group.
  Happy Thanksgiving to all.
  anath garber

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: adam at blatner.com
    To: list at grouptalkweb.org
    Subject: PD in College classes
    Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:29:04 -0600

    I agree with Rebecca in so many ways!
        Another colleague who taught "psychodrama" had that class bounced in favor of evidence-based (Cognitive-Behavior-Therapy) approaches.
         I'm thinking that the focus on the method is misleading. Relationship is more central, and good psychodramatists often use non-action methods.

        What if we thought of ourselves as Moreneans---in the context of trans-therapy applications---and, in the domain of therapy, as multi-dimensional psychotherapists? It's not a method, it's an intelligent capacity to include all relevant approaches as seems appropriate to the moment (and responding appropriately to the moment is the essence of spontaneity). 
         Some of the dimensions I refer to include
      -- encouraging creativity and making the client's creativity a goal that engages and strengthens the treatment alliance
      -- re-framing resolution not as knowing or finding "right answers" but rather learning the art of improvisation, actively seeking and utilizing feedback, re-adjusting response, improvising again... a dynamic process
      -- using role concept as the basis for a more inter-disciplinary, user-friendly language for psychology
      -- attending to relationship dynamics, social network dynamics, cultural influences (using sociodrama to bring out collective or role-based attitudes), etc.
       -- taking into consideration the power and prevalence of interpersonal preference, rapport (what is addressed by sociometry)
        -- addressing the wider society as a place for social action, community effort, rather than just seeking personal adjustment in an often pathogenic environment
       -- appreciating the need for and utilizing experiential forms of learning, action insight, act hunger, feeling the body in action, direct encounter rather than talking "about," 
       -- noticing and raising awareness of the impact of nonverbal communications, one's own body language
       -- recognizing and utilizing the power of warming-up, the need for it, the need for gradual warming-down, too..
       -- integrating other dimensions of group dynamics and using the other advantages of groups
       -- re-evaluating and using other time-dimensions, from brief interventions to more time-extended sessions; not locked mindlessly into the convenient-for-the-therapist or economically-reimbursable "hour." 
       -- making use of the client's imagery, power of imagination
       -- when appropriate, asking clients to develop and exercise the skill of empathy towards others in their social network,
       -- addressing spiritual issues and integrating the idea that there is a creative process in integrating individualized concerns with larger belief systems
        -- appreciating the power of self-expression, being seen, witnessed, feeling heard, understood (the audience function)
       ... and others. The point is that many of these dimensions are insufficiently (or hardly, if at all) included in many if not most ordinary psychotherapeutic approaches---especially those tied to a "method."

            What Rebecca suggests, as I interpret it---or perhaps this is my own bias---is that relationship is the primary element and methods are then utilized as adjuncts. 

                   Warmly, Adam
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: HV Psychodrama 
      To: dkarner ; list at grouptalkweb.org 
      Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 6:36 AM
      Subject: Re: PD in College classes

      Dear Deborah,
      Thanks for helping get the word out that psychodrama is not just a group of action techniques but part of a larger system including a  philosophy. It is so frustrating that people still are being 'taught' psychodrama as either a bunch of techniques or as a re enactment without warm-up, safety and containment. It gives what we do a very bad name.

      The other thing I have encountered a lot are college students being asked to present psychodrama in their classes. "Everyone had to pick a topic and I picked psychodrama and now I want to do one in my class to show them...what would you suggest I do?" Often they will then attend an open session and then want to go into their classroom to demonstrate.

      Recently I have been refusing to give them exercises to do in the class, saying talk about it, don't do it if you have no training. I have been encouraging them to have their profs contact me and I would be glad to send a trained person in to 'do it."

      It is like someone reading about a medical procedure, possibly observing it once, and then saying, Oh I can do that procedure, without practice, without supervision cause I saw it done.

      So thank you again. And depending on where you live, there might be a skilled psychodramatist quite willing to present to your social work class.

      Rebecca Walters 

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