Think about this. Your marriage is in trouble. You find a counselor who thinks your marital problems are so bad that you have to use a technique called "psychodrama" to fix it.
I think it's time to call the divorce attorney.
Dreams have been described as dress rehearsals for real life, opportunities to gratify wishes, and a form of nocturnal therapy. A new theory aims to make sense of it all.
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This guest post is written by Valerie Simon, LCSW, PAT. She is an experienced practitioner of Psychodrama, a creative and, in many respects, visionary technique for conducting individual, group and couples therapy. She writes:
Psychodrama is a therapeutic method created almost 100 years ago by an innovative Eastern European psychiatrist named Jacob Moreno. This experiential treatment, often used in group settings, creates breakthroughs for couples as well.
As Moreno was developing psychodrama, he wrote a poem called Invitation to An Encounter. In it, he described “a meeting of two” where each person reverses perspective with his/her partner to gain empathy. He wrote, “Then I will look at you with your eyes/and you will look at me with mine.”
One of the biggest challenges that couples have in therapy is breaking out of dysfunctional patterns. Our brains are wired in ways that resist change. There is evidence that experiential therapies—such as psychodrama—create new neural pathways, the cornerstone of changed behavior. Here are a few psychodrama techniques that can facilitate change in couples work:
Role Reversal — this is the most vital technique in psychodrama. In order to “look at you with your eyes,” partners will be directed to switch seats in a couples session and play the role of the other. This is done to help partners gain understanding of each other and increase empathy. It is particularly useful when a couple is stuck in a negative pattern. For example, if one person is in the role of the pursuer while the other often is the rejector, switching roles helps each understand how his/her behavior negatively affects the other. Reversing roles shifts perspective and helps free us from entrenched patterns.
The Double — the double is a technique that helps people connect more deeply with their emotions. When used in couples therapy, the therapist (also known as the director) stands behind one partner and in the first person, says what s/he suspects the inner feelings of that partner are. For example, in a session a wife may complain about her husband’s long work day. The therapist might double for her and say, “I’m angry that you have the freedom to escape to work while I sometimes feel trapped at home with our kids.” The wife then would have the opportunity to repeat the statement to her partner, if it resonates with her, or correct it if it felt inaccurate. An advanced form of doubling is when one partner doubles for the other, helping to identify the other’s emotions. The receiving partner gains the experience of being understood and feeling heard.
The Encounter — the couple sits facing one another and talks through a conflict. The therapist/director utilizes the doubling technique equally with each of the participants. Role reversal is also employed. As a result of this experience, both partners feel understood and gain realization that most conflicts are not black and white. The technique is a trust builder; it reduces the belief, if it exists, that one’s partner is an adversary.
The Empty Chair — an empty chair is placed in between the couple. This chair represents anyone else who may be unconsciously present in the couples’ relationship. In intimate relationships, we often react to each other based on our historical relationships. For example, if the therapist intuits that a husband is reacting to his wife with intense anger that is displaced from his relationship with his mother, the therapist may ask him to pretend his mother is sitting in the empty chair. The husband then would have an opportunity to say whatever he could not have said to his mother as a child. The ‘empty chair’ technique helps partners gain awareness of how unresolved emotions from another relationship negatively affect their current romantic relationship. Directing repressed emotions to the appropriate historical relationship eases the burden in the current romantic relationship. Witnessing this exercise also helps the wife gain empathy for her husband’s relational challenges.
In the end, we are all looking to be heard and understood and do the same for our partners. These psychodrama techniques all help partners achieve goals of increased empathy, better communication, and shifting of negative patterns.
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Valerie Simon, LCSW, PAT (www.valeriesimon.net) is a psychotherapist and certified practitioner and trainer of psychodrama. In her private practice in Manhattan, called The Inner Stage, she sees individuals, couples, and families. She also runs experiential intensives, therapy groups, workshops, and training groups. She leads an annual four-day psychodrama retreat in Tuscany, Italy. This year’s retreat, entitled Actualizing the Authentic Self, is scheduled for October 5-8, 2017 (www.restart-retreats.com). On November 2, 2017, Valerie will be guest presenter at FACTS, on Psychodrama and Couples Work
©2017 Valerie Simon, LCSW, PAT
Think about this. Your marriage is in trouble. You find a counselor who thinks your marital problems are so bad that you have to use a technique called "psychodrama" to fix it.
I think it's time to call the divorce attorney.
Hi Anonymous, the word psychodrama can stir up emotions in the context of how we use it colloquially today. But when the method was created in the 1920's, psycho-analysis was the only game in town. The creator, Jacob Moreno, wanted more than analysis by a doctor; he wanted "all of mankind" to use role playing in this innovative way to heal trauma and resolve conflict. Hope this helps clarify things about the method for you!
Dear Anonymous,
First of all,I appreciate your comment I think you should know, however, that the technique of psychodrama, provided by a skilled couples therapist offers tremendous opportunities to not simply talk about the issues at hand but to bring them to life, dramatize them in a meaningful and controlled manner, and reconsider your perspective in relation to the problems you are facing. It sounds like the name of the approach itself was troubling to you. If so, I would urge you to look beyond the cover at the content within. But, aside from the name, it seems to me that you might be saying, "If the relationship requires work, then call the divorce attorney." If that is your attitude, I'd say you will have great difficulties working through real problems as they arise, and they inevitably do in long term relationships.
Best,
Marty
After reading about the therapy I can see where it could be used in some cases to improve relationships.
The name of the therapy though, does have a somewhat negative feel. At least that is how it resonated with me before I read about it.
Anonymous wrote:After reading about the therapy I can see where it could be used in some cases to improve relationships.
The name of the therapy though, does have a somewhat negative feel. At least that is how it resonated with me before I read about it.
Why negative? Psycho from the ancient greek Psyché (ψυχή) = Soul, breath and Drama (Δράμα) that means "action" ^_^
Dear Annalisa,
Thank you for your astute and erudite comment!
The prefix, psycho, gets a bad rap because of the likes of Alfred Hitchcock's award-winning film of the same name and the ways in which it is bandied about as a put-down. But as you point out, it derives from the Greek and connotes the soul, the mind or even the spirit.
With gratitude for your wisdom,
Marty
I'm an Italian Psychodramatist, if I didn't know the meaning of the name... shame on me!! :-D
Anyway, also in Italy word "Psychodrama" is par excellence the symbol of a very boring and sad and full of tears conversation! That's why everytime I have to promote my job, I ask to myself: "I use the word psychodrama or the word "active methods"... or "expressive process"?". I decided to use as often as I can "psychodrama" to accustom people to the right meaning :-)
Annalissa, how nice to hear that you are an Italian psychodramatist! I'd love to meet you when I am running our retreat in Tuscany in October! Our retreat website is restart-retreatsdotcom. Perhaps you or others you work with would like to come! Please email me at valerieatvaleriesimondotnet as I'd love to hear more about your work in Italy!!
Annalissa,thank you for translating the name psychodrama into "the soul in action!" It's one of the things I love about the method!
Empty Chair and role reversal are actually the Gestalt Therapy skill, not the Psychodrma therapy.
Encounter is the Person-Center skill, not Psychodrama.
I agreed that these techniques are very useful to help highly conflicted couples to see each other's perspectives but it really bothers me when the author didn't get the theory accurately. Even though these skills are used in the psychodrama therapy but they are not developed by Moreno. I think it is important not to mislead the readers.
Hi Grace,
Actually, Fritz Perls studied with Jacob Moreno, the creator of psychodrama, and appropriated the techniques of the empty chair and role reversal for Gestalt. Moreno also created the encounter. I am certified in psychodrama and would be happy to point you to some of Moreno's literature so you can learn more about his contributions.
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