<div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">Hi Regina and Grouptalk:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">, behavior
therapy, Play Therapy, Gestalt, TA, NLP, EMDR, and other modalities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">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">iqwysong@gmail.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">Onward…..Bill Wysong</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: windowtext; ">P. S. About
Robocounseling—It’s just another thing that hurts psychodrama. </span></p>
</div></div>