4 Benefits of Role-Play in Therapy

Role-play, a staple in drama therapy, involves clients acting out roles or scenarios to explore behaviors and emotions in a safe and controlled environment. Clients can benefit in many ways when participating in role-play within a group therapy setting. In this article, I will focus on what I believe are the four most beneficial components of role-play.

Before I get to why you, as a therapist, would benefit from incorporating role-play into your groups, I want to address a reality: role-playing can be met with resistance in the context of group therapy. It can be overwhelming, intimidating, and awkward to take on a role and engage in role-play in front of a group of people, not only for the client but also for the therapist!

The solution? To incorporate role-play “drama therapy” style, which means that the clients take on roles within the context of a performance that the therapist directs. In other words, it is the therapist’s role to “set the stage” for the role-play. When we use these creative arts therapy tools, the role-play experience is less “awkward” and more "fun."

Benefit 1: Safety

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Through role-play, therapists can create a safe and supportive environment in which clients can express emotions, confront fears, and rehearse new behaviors. The use of a "role" offers a secure container that allows clients to playfully explore, make corrections, and modify behaviors (Butler, 2012). A mistake made or a flaw revealed while in role can be attributed to the character, not the actor. As a result, the client feels safe to practice, which is critical to the learning process.

This safety net is crucial for clients who may be hesitant to try new behaviors in real-life situations. By practicing in a contained setting, clients can build confidence and refine their skills before applying them outside of therapy.

Benefit 2: Practice Therapy Skills

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Numerous therapeutic modalities encourage role-playing interventions because this strategy can help clients internalize skills by giving them an opportunity to practice and refine the desired behaviors. In other words, embodying roles and concepts can help clients learn.

Practicing skills through role-play can significantly enhance skill acquisition. Role-play offers a hands-on approach to learning, allowing clients to actively engage with the material. For example, a client learning the interpersonal effectiveness skill of DEAR MAN can role-play a conversation with a friend or family member. This active engagement helps reinforce the skill, which increases the likelihood that the client will use that skill outside of the therapy space.

Additionally, clients often gain more access to their emotions when they take on roles. This emotional expression engages both cerebral hemispheres, helping the client retain and store the information in their memory (Klotter, 2015). Because this information is more likely to be remembered, it is more likely to influence and change behavior.

Benefit 3: Emotion Regulation

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When engaging in role-play, clients can practice emotion regulation. When a client takes on a role, they step into the character's emotional state, which requires them to explore the inner world of that role. Emotional life is key to role exploration. In my experience providing drama therapy with clients, I have witnessed how experiencing emotions in the imaginative realm has a direct impact on real-world functioning because the client practices emotion regulation within the context of the role.

Emotion regulation is also facilitated within the context of role-play because taking on a role requires integration of numerous cognitive and affective processes. For example, when a client takes on a role, both hemispheres of the brain are active when an individual takes on the emotional state and thinking processes of that role, and steps out of the "character." Dan Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author, has demonstrated that bilateral integration, or the ability to coordinate the left and right sides of the brain in a controlled and organized manner, supports emotion regulation. When clients engage in role-play, they are practicing tempering or enhancing emotional states, further developing their emotion regulation skills.

Drama therapists and scholars Jason Frydman and Laura McLellan have provided further evidence to support Siegel's theory of bilateral integration in their research on drama therapy and executive functioning. These researchers found that role-play can support self-regulation because an individual's executive functioning is impacted as they play out various roles. More specifically, Frydman and McLellan (2014) reported that numerous components of executive functioning are involved in role-play: “the deployment of attention to remain in collaboration with scene partners, working memory to regulate and respond fluidly to incoming information, inhibition to block out impulses that deviate from the agreed upon dramatic trajectory, and [theory of mind] to comprehend multiple perspectives" (p. 162). When a client is attempting to regulate their emotions, they benefit greatly from possessing the ability to redirect attention, inhibit impulses, and mentalize themselves and others. Role-playing creates a safer space to practice these skills.

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Benefit 4: Fun

Drama therapists frequently discuss how role-playing in a performance can elicit positive emotions and instill hope for everyone involved. First and foremost, role-playing can be fun! When the therapist is able to create a “performance” out of the role-play, with both “actors” and “audience members,” the entire group participates in an engaging, oftentimes humorous, experience. Additionally, drama therapists believe “live, embodied enactment of new stories and new roles can promote hope and change” (Emunah & Johnson, 2009, p. 26). Role-playing can facilitate the belief that behaviors can be changed and can provide clients with the opportunity to practice living out that change within the context of a supportive atmosphere.

Role-Playing Is An Amazing Therapeutic Tool

I have a challenge for you: in one of your therapy sessions this week, try and facilitate a role-play. If you can push past the "awkward" feeling, you may find that role-playing is one of the most powerful—and, dare I say, enjoyable—interventions you have in your therapy tool kit.

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