PD in College classes

Sat Nov 24 19:44:21 CST 2007

Dear Adam,
"Nevertheless,when asked to do so..."
Exactly,when YOU are asked to,you tune into the situation,and deliver accordingly. Then you are  a"morenoean" .
You act as a psychodramatist would: responding adequately to thiws new situation.
It is exactly why  a  therapist unless trained in psychodrama,should not demonstrate a PD ,but could demonstrate a specific technique. No need for spontaneity,attunement with audience,warm up of the group,the protagonist ,the director.
 It reminds me of  a PD group  I was running years ago with Dr F, a well known  psychiatrist. I was freshly  minted. from Beacon.   Every now and then  he'd  take over and insist that a patient enact something: confront a mother,father etc. The idea would be great ,except the pt won't budge. To rescue the situation I would   double for the pt, or improvise something  to warm him up into action,and usually would not ask the pt  to encounter the parent, but move through several scenes that  eventually may  end up  "magically" in a scene with a parent.(or not!)
Dr. F could not see the subtlety of the warm up for an action to take place :He was right to insist that the pt encounter his parent,so why won't he?!
Imagine,that this group member is  somehow made to confront the parent, and is told it was Psychodrama : can you imagine him craving more?.
 Adam,thanking me for stimulating your thinking? !
Do you ever stop?!
warmly,
anath

From: adam at blatner.com
To: anathga at hotmail.com
CC: list at grouptalkweb.org
Subject: PD in College classes
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:25:43 -0600

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. Nevertheless, 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 

  Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. Connect now! 

  No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free 
  Edition. 
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.3/1144 - Release Date: 
  11/21/2007 4:28 PM

_________________________________________________________________
Your smile counts. The more smiles you share, the more we donate.  Join in.
www.windowslive.com/smile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_oprsmilewlhmtagline
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://grouptalkweb.org/pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20071125/33f7c500/attachment.html 