Types of applications of psychodrama
Psychodrama as a Therapy - NHS:
Psychodrama is used as a form of therapy in some NHS Trusts often with specialist interests such as, mental health clients, eating disorders to substance misuse. The ´action´ part of the techniques, can be used as a way to help clients ´work through´ their problems. It is very complimentary to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is one of the popular forms of therapy in the NHS. Therapists help clients to explore their Thoughts/Feelings/ Behaviour. The philosophy being that if we can change our Thoughts then we can change our behaviour. Psychodrama is useful in helping clients to ´concetrize´ these thoughts,´bring them to life´ so the therapist can help the client work through these issues.
Psychodrama as a Therapy - Private Practice:
Therapists working in private practice can use psychodrama techniques with individual clients or group work. A common example of this would be the ´empty chair´ technique where the client speaks to the ´empty chair´ imagining it represents a significant other.
Group Therapy uses Psychodrama to get clients to ´act out´ their stories, and to look at their inner worlds. Again techniques such as Role Reversal and Doubling are very powerful in these situations.
Psychodynamic Therapy:
Some therapists take a client back to childhood and explore how the messages they learnt as a child stay with them in adulthood. Psychodrama is very powerful exploring the ´locus´ scene, which is where the client learns the behaviour in childhood.
There are many uses of psychodrama in different therapies and it may be useful to look for further information about these on the UKCP website.www.ukcp.co.uk
Psychodrama in Organisations:
- Senior Management Emotional Intelligence Training
- Diversity Issues
- Sexual Harrassment
- Team Building
- Market Research
- Consumer Advice
- Customer Care
- Effective Management
Different Training Events that have incorporated psychodrama.
Client: The Body Shop: Emotional Intelligence Training with Senior Management
We explored the feelings around for management when taking part in Appraisals with staff. How do their feelings affect their performance? We ´concretised´ these feelings and the participants worked in trying to organize the helpful feelings and the unhelpful ones when trying to stay goal focused.
Sue Belgrave: former The Body Shop Senior Manager says of Maxine's work:
"Maxine works with compassion and intelligence and demonstrates real mastery in her inventions. She is resourceful and inspires confidence in others to explore difficult territory. I have worked with her over a period of 10 years and every time have experienced her as a source of wisdom and deep insights."
The Hackney Learning Trust: London
An Away Day using psychodrama and role-play techniques to help the delegates explore issues in their department to help them identify future departmental goals.
Psychodrama techniques were fundamental in helping a team of educationalists in Hackney explore their inter- departmental difficulties and focus on their targets for the future. The Learning Trust is going to be taking big leaps into the future with the Olympics round the corner and it is essential the teams can work together in order to achieve gaining the contracts for The Learning Trust.
Trish Smith, Head of Adult & Community Learning says of the training:
"The training was a great success, the teams loved working in such an
interactive style and tackled difficult issues, in a safe and fun way."
