<html><DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Sorry for the spelling but i have been travelling for 44 hours</FONT></DIV>Connie Miller TEP, LPC. NCC <BR>http://www.souldrama.com/ <BR>The International Institute of Souldrama <BR>620 Shore Rd <BR>Spring Lake Heights <BR>NJ 07762 USA <BR><BR>1-800-821-9919 <BR>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Connie Miller [mailto:connie@souldrama.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, November 23, 2009 02:01 PM<BR><B>To:</B> 'Adam Blatner', 'William H. Wysong', list@grouptalkweb.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: Dangers of "Therapy"<BR><BR></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>On my way home from Indonesia----I read this and Bill I agree. With any therapy it is the therapist that has to be healthy for they will be the ones misusing the therapy. if any therapist has not done their own work and theray can be dangerous. We heal because of who we are and not what we do! Blessings Connie</FONT></DIV>Connie Miller TEP, LPC. NCC <BR>http://www.souldrama.com/ <BR>The International Institute of Souldrama <BR>620 Shore Rd <BR>Spring Lake Heights <BR>NJ 07762 USA <BR><BR>1-800-821-9919 <BR>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Adam Blatner [mailto:ablatner@verizon.net]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, November 23, 2009 01:43 PM<BR><B>To:</B> 'William H. Wysong', list@grouptalkweb.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Dangers of "Therapy"<BR><BR></FONT>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>well said. I'll think more on this. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Preliminary thoughts. I sometimes think of psychodrama as sort of like brain surgery. Complex of many techniques, for which the pre-care and after-care may be as important as the surgery itself. Many other components: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> anesthesia, neuro-anatomy, the nature of the problem (some are far simpler than others even in brain surgery!), keeping the field sterile and free from infection, developing the right kinds of instruments (sometimes microsurgical), etc.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I think for many people who are relatively healthy, many procedures are less dangerous because the protagonist has many more components for resilience, including a healthy set of achievements, a modest burden of guilts and shames, a social network, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> For some people who are more fragile, some of these elements are reversed. There may be a distinct lack of positive achievements, a heavy almost overwhelming burden of guilt and shame (often fairly justified, such as a history of addiction, petty or major crime, disrupted relationships and betrayals of others, etc.), a pathogenic (enabling) or missing social network, etc. All these factors need to be taken into consideration... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> So a psychodrama for relatively healthy people may go well, but one person in the group is far more fragile and the same procedures precipitate relapse into depression, addiction, panic, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Then there are group junkies, chronic hysterical personality disorders, chronic emotion-heightening victims, folks who play the "look what you made me do" game, hypomanic or subtly psychotic people who seem okay at first, and others who show up--- I figure one every few groups or workshops that are open to non-selected populations, including at our conferences... </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> None of which contradict your points, Bill, just builds on them. But the question of what makes a procedure dangerous or relatively safe is important! Warmly, Adam</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=iqwysong@gmail.com href="mailto:iqwysong@gmail.com" target=_blank mce_href="mailto:iqwysong@gmail.com">William H. Wysong</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=list@grouptalkweb.org href="mailto:list@grouptalkweb.org" target=_blank mce_href="mailto:list@grouptalkweb.org">list@grouptalkweb.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, November 23, 2009 11:29 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Danger and Robocounseling</DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Hi Regina and Grouptalk:</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Regina you wrote, "I am worried that it [psychodrama] is dangerous." I believe any modality is dangerous when the therapist is unskilled, uncaring, discounting, or inattentive. I have experienced dangerous situations in Freudian psychotherapy, </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">person centered therapy</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">, behavior therapy, Play Therapy, Gestalt, TA, NLP, EMDR, and other modalities.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Psychodrama especially gets bad press because some onlookers think that they can do psychodrama in their practice with no training; try it out on a client; the client gets into deep feelings; and the therapists don't know how to handle it. (They weren't taught that in college.) Then they tell others how bad psychodrama is for clients.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Also many therapists believe they are put together well but have not worked on their issues, no matter whether they have an undergraduate, graduate, doctorate, or some other professional degree. When seeing a psychodrama they tap into those unresolved emotions that should have been resolved in college; they too speak ill of psychodrama. In most college programs there is no mechanism for students to work on their issues. Our deep, meaningful work did not happened in college but in our personal psychodramas. </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Of course we have to fight against people’s fear of just the name and the image it conjures. Some people say psychodrama is dangerous and have never seen one or, if they have seen a psychodrama, don’t really know the protagonist’s experience and resulting life outcome.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Psychodrama is the most powerful therapy I've ever known. It can be stunning or terrifying for an observer who has unresolved issues. Perhaps you, like me, experienced that. While watching my first psychodrama, the universality factor allowed me to experience my own emotions. And that was followed by the wonder of sharing when we, the group members, told how we identified with the psychodrama and discovered we were not alone.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">What might have looked dangerous in the psychodrama wasn't and the protagonist purged a lot of debilitating emotions and beliefs. I was invested in the group and the protagonist because of a good warm-up, inclusive sociometry, a good director, meaningful action, and the completeness of sharing. (We've heard all of that many times.) </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Sharing can alleviate stunning or terrifying or any other emotional aspects of a psychodrama. Unfortunately, many don’t share because they don’t understand the purpose and importance of sharing, how to do it, and/or are not given permission or the time to share. As a director I try to give complete information and encourage people to share anything they experienced, even if it seems to have no relationship to the psychodrama.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">To spread the word, teach others, and alleviate fear about psychodrama, contact growth-oriented collectives and the professors at local colleges with counseling, psychology, and social work classes and volunteer to do an action demonstration in the classroom (or meeting). Psychodrama fits exceptionally well with group counseling classes. If you are interested in how I handle this, please send me a note at <A href="mailto:iqwysong@gmail.com" target=_blank mce_href="mailto:iqwysong@gmail.com">iqwysong@gmail.com</A>.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">Onward…..Bill Wysong</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: ArialMT">P. S. About Robocounseling—It’s just another thing that hurts psychodrama. </SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></html>