Psychodrama - Psychotherapy for everyone - site for smart people (site of psychotherapist Alexander Prokazov)

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which people experience their pain through theatrical play. This technique helps to work through traumas, resolve conflicts, and improve relationships in the family, team, or other group. In addition, psychodrama helps to put an end to relationships with that person who has died or with whom it is impossible to contact.

The technique is suitable for working through past traumas, solving psychopathological problems in the present and visualizing a happy future. Let's take a closer look at what psychodrama is in psychology and consider its basic concepts.

Definition of the concept of method

The author of the psychodrama method is American psychiatrist and social psychologist Ya.L. Moreno. The psychodrama method was founded in the 20s of the 20th century. If we talk about the opening briefly, Moreno was inspired by the role-playing games of children, the sincerity and openness of the participants. The name of the technique is derived from two Greek words: psyche, which translates as “soul”, and drama, which means “action”.

Psychodrama is a method of group psychological therapy based on plot-role play. One person is the main character. All other participants are performers who help the main character solve the problem. The roles are strictly assigned by the presenter (psychologist). The main character plays himself, the rest of the people copy the verbal and non-verbal characteristics of the characters they got.

In psychology there is still no single definition of the concept of “psychodrama”. However, all psychologists agree that this technique allows a person to reveal his creative potential, become better acquainted with his inner world, develop and improve skills in interacting with society, and change his beliefs, attitudes and attitude towards current events. This is the goal of psychodrama. Psychodramatic, emotional feeling is what underlies healing through psychodrama.

The founder of psychodrama, Ya.L. Moreno called this technique art. The psychologist gave the following definition to this method: “Psychodrama is a method in which the truth of the soul is learned in action.” The main thing in this technique is play, improvisation, action. To fully understand your problem, you need to fully feel it and live it. Playing back allows you to look at the problem from different angles, remember and see something important that was missed until that moment. Psychodrama helps a person look into himself and change his thinking and behavior.

Psychodrama involves 5 main elements:

1. Protagonist. This is the main participant of the session. He tries to understand himself, the other participants help him in this. He plays himself. The goal is the maximum disclosure of the true Self. It is extremely important that a person throws away all prohibitions and masks and becomes who he is. That is, it turns out that, on the contrary, he needs to stop playing, relax and give free rein to his feelings, thoughts, and emotions. During psychodrama you can do whatever you want.
2. Director (psychologist, presenter, therapist). He helps to recreate the situation and distribute roles, guides, supports, controls. He does not indicate what to do and to whom, the protagonist is in charge of everything, but the psychologist helps to interpret everything that happens. In addition, the psychologist monitors the safety and health of all participants in the process, maintaining communicative and emotional interaction.
3. Other Selves Follow the instructions of the presenter and protagonist, help the main character lose the problem. Others depict significant characters from the protagonist's life.
4. Spectators. Active observers, listeners. They express their attitude to what is happening, support or criticize. At this time, the audience themselves are charged with emotions, and the protagonist reveals himself more actively. At any moment, one of the spectators can become a participant in the unfolding drama.
5. Scene. The room itself, the platform where the action takes place. Moreno had a special, complex, multi-level design. Nowadays they don't pay much attention to this.

Psychodrama treatment is appropriate for psychological trauma. But besides this, psychodrama is suitable for working with dreams, fantasies and for preparing for upcoming stressful events. For example, you can play up an upcoming presentation with a report at work, reproduce the successful development and completion of the situation. This will help relieve stress before the upcoming real performance.

Interesting! Psychodrama is a method of group and individual psychotherapy. In the latter case, other people can be replaced with any objects.

Directions and types

Directions

Psychodrama in modern psychotherapy is represented in several directions:

• hypnodrama - putting patients into a hypnotic trance during psychodrama, used most often in psychotherapy;
• biodrama - participants try on the roles of animals;
• sociodrama - playing out a conflict situation within a stable group (in a class, in a work team, in a family) to solve social problems of an individual or an entire community;
• puppet drama - a dramatic situation is played out with the help of dolls (a direction that is useful for children and is actively used in kindergartens);
• improvisation - the absence of a clearly thought-out script.

Kinds

Within psychodrama itself, the following types are distinguished:

• protagonist-centered: the main task is to help the main character resolve the conflict (all other participants perform auxiliary functions);
• centered on the topic: the main task is to demonstrate to all participants several options for resolving a conflict situation that is the same for everyone;
• group-centered: the main task is to help participants interact within the team, improve social adaptation, and acquire successful communication skills;
• aimed at the group: connects the last two types - at the same time resolving the conflict and improving relations between participants.

Groups can also be different:

• small (less than 6 people), optimal (6-9 participants), large (more than 9 people);
• heterogeneous (women and men) and homogeneous (either only women or only men);
• closed (married couple, class, work team) and open (formed spontaneously by a drama psychotherapist).

Sessions can be short (20 minutes) or long (up to 4 hours). The average and most optimal duration is 50 minutes.

All directions are subject to the same principles. Regardless of the type of situation being played out and the number of participants, the action always goes through the same stages. The main types and phases of psychodrama form its basis.

Basic principles

Spontaneity and creativity are the main principles of psychodrama as a method of psychotherapy. Only under such conditions can a person fully open up and heal. And the main components of psychodrama according to Moreno are the theory of roles, the theory of spontaneity and sociometry.

Spontaneity theory

This means a flight of creative energy. It is either suppressed by a person, or finds expression in rapid adaptation to new conditions and new reactions in response to old stimuli. Creativity is the search and creation of something new, self-expression. In a broad sense, our whole life is a creative process.

Sociometry

A special technique that allows you to identify likes and dislikes in a group, the nature of the relationship between all participants, microgroups within the group, obvious and hidden leaders, outcasts, stars and neutrals. The result of sociometry is a detailed psychological portrait of the group (sociogram). Sociometry is needed in psychodrama so that the presenter correctly distributes people into groups.

Role theory

In psychodrama, the role is the participant’s habitual patterns of behavior. These are his verbal and non-verbal reactions in real life, his experience, beliefs, worldview. We constantly change roles depending on the situations and conditions in which we find ourselves.

Types of roles:

• bodily (somatic), for example, the role of the eater;
• mental, for example, the role of a jealous person, or a merry fellow;
• social, for example, the role of daughter, mother, wife;
• integrative (non-material), for example, the role of a believer or a person in love.

Roles are mastered in parallel with human development and precisely in the order in which we described them. Individual roles are repeated so often that they become the framework of the personality.

Pavel Kornienko, psychologist

Psychodrama is a method of group psychotherapy. It is based on acting out a variety of scenes and situations. Psychodrama has two uses - it can be a way to solve difficulties, or it can be a means for self-knowledge and self-development. And these two applications often accompany and complement each other. Modern psychodrama is a very flexible and multifaceted method; in skillful hands, it becomes almost universal. Psychodrama combines opportunities for both deep psychotherapy and social skills training. Depending on the needs of the client, this method can be used both to experience strong feelings and to understand the origins of problems and find ways to solve them. Psychodrama is used both as a subtle tool of psychotherapy and as an effective method of professional training and personal development.

In addition to group psychotherapy, psychodrama is widely used in individual work with people. Both in psychotherapy and outside of it, for example in coaching. This article is devoted to group psychodramatic therapy and the specifics of the psychodramatic approach in general.

How do psychodrama groups work?

Psychodrama groups usually consist of 8 to 16 people and a psychodrama leader. Groups can be either long - for several months, or short - for several hours or 1-2 days. Long-term groups are usually closed, i.e. It is no longer possible to join him in the process of work - only from the very beginning, during the first meetings.

Group work often begins with simple exercises or games that facilitate communication between participants and promote trust and cohesion. Then, usually, the presenter asks: who would like to work on their problem in a psychodramatic action? And from those who showed a desire, one or two people are selected. All other group members take part in this choice, choosing the topic that is closest to them personally at that moment. In a long-term group, the leader and the group itself organize the process in such a way that everyone who wants to work on their problem can do this (possibly several times) during the group’s work.

A participant who works in a group on his personal topic is called a protagonist for the duration of this work. The protagonist can choose group members to play roles in playing out his situation. In order to play these roles, no acting ability is required; on the contrary, acting ability often gets in the way. The rest of the group members are spectators.

The psychodramatic action usually lasts from half an hour to an hour and a half and is an individual psychotherapeutic work for the protagonist, which allows him to move towards resolving his own difficulties. And for the audience and participants playing the roles, psychodramatic action often gives the opportunity to understand and experience something important for themselves. Part of the therapeutic effect of psychodrama lies in living and empathy. The protagonist lives through his own experience the problem and its solution. And group members can empathize with what is happening, immersing themselves in the action like in a movie or book and walking with the protagonist through problems to solutions. And in this sense, it is especially important that the group takes part in the selection of protagonists whose themes are important to it.

In psychodrama, the work of the protagonists is not evaluated or interpreted, and advice is not given - psychodramatic group work is based on respect for each group member, his feelings and his inner world.

How does a psychodramatic action take place?

“Every person has an inner world in which some imaginary events constantly occur. We remember the past and imagine the future, we conduct mental dialogues (with people significant to us and with ourselves). Sometimes we even conflict with ourselves. In other words, there is an internal drama going on within us. If you take this drama out into the open and play the roles with a group of people, then you get psychodrama.”

Pavel Gornostay

The topic for work can be any problem the protagonist has, any question that worries him and to which it is important for him to find an answer. This could be almost anything: choosing a job or choosing a spouse, improving the quality of life or problems in relationships with people, gaining inner freedom or finding the meaning of life.

When a group member becomes a protagonist, the leader of the psychodrama delves into the problem and situation of the protagonist and offers him one or more options for how to start playing out this problem. This could be a meeting with a person important to the protagonist, an unpleasant situation at work, a scene of internal conflict, or something else.

The psychodramatic action is created by the protagonist and presenter together. The role of the presenter in this process can vary from simple observation to active directorial work - depending on the needs of the protagonist. Psychodramatic action is a creative process of finding a constructive solution to a problem. It does not always lead to a solution, but it often allows the client to make significant progress towards it.

Often in psychodrama, scenes from the past are played in which something significant for the protagonist happened (if the protagonist remembers the past). It happens that the protagonist has some unpleasant episode in the past that once caused a lot of negative or confused feelings and the echoes of these feelings remain with him, disturbing him in the present. In psychodrama, you can go back in time and understand what exactly happened inside the protagonist. And find a way to let go of this situation. Sometimes a significant therapeutic effect comes from living your past in a new, good scenario.

In some situations, psychodramatic action may not be real, but symbolic. This allows you to work with past events if they are too difficult to return to. Symbolic action may also be appropriate in situations where the protagonist does not have specific memories of the past or when the protagonist does not want to talk to the group about something specific from his past.

In a psychodramatic action, you can project and play out the desired future of the protagonist in order to see it and feel whether it is really so desirable? Or maybe we can understand why it doesn’t happen? Or some other way. The real future always turns out different from the one played out in psychodrama, but the experience of the acted out future often turns out to be important for life in the present.

A psychodramatic action can be the acting out of the protagonist’s internal conflict. For example, you can play out a situation where the protagonist’s inner voices stand around him and tell him what he needs to do. Such enactment often leads to an awareness of the structure and causes of this conflict. And after that, for example, you can, in interaction with your inner voices, try different ways to overcome this conflict and find the appropriate one.

How and why does psychodrama work?

“In psychoanalysis, a person talks about his problem, and in psychodrama, a person resolves this problem in action, in interaction with other people. In relationships with other people, a problem once arose, now in interaction with others, a person solves this problem. In psychodrama, a person not only understands what is happening to him, but he clearly knows what to do now and how. Understands, knows and changes.”

Victor Semenov

Psychodrama is aimed at living a new and important experience for a person, directly in a psychodrama group. This may be a new experience of interacting with other people, or it may be a new experience of organizing one’s inner world, i.e. interactions with yourself. The realism of psychodrama lies in the following. When a person plays out a situation in his life or his inner world in psychodrama, he is immersed in the real feelings characteristic of this situation. And when in psychodrama he resolves this situation, this resolution becomes his new experience of acting in such a situation.

“When a person works [in psychodrama] with some of his problems, questions, needs, he does it through action. And it is action that allows him to quickly move beyond what he already knows about himself. Action is, in a sense, “truer” than words. We can express the problem beautifully or uglyly in words, but when we begin to act, then some surprises happen. Everything turns out to be a little wrong.”

Ekaterina Mikhailova

All the richness of a person’s inner world, his desires, dreams, problems and ideas about the world influence how a person acts towards himself and others. Psychodrama works with the inner world so that a person’s actions change. In a psychodramatic game, you can try, try on, experiment, search and find new ways to act in any real situations. And if you go this way, then in psychodrama you can first spontaneously find a solution to the problem, and then understand what happened.

“And from any trifle [in psychodrama], some kind of infinite space suddenly opens up, in which a person discovers a lot of things about himself that never even occurred to him. A person’s whole life, his memory, his feelings, his relationships begin to form into some kind of pattern, and this pattern becomes understandable, as if tangible. And then, when the pattern is clear, it becomes clear what to do next. For me, the most precious thing in psychodrama is precisely the moment when an ordinary person suddenly becomes an artist, writer, creator of his own life. I think that the main effect of psychodrama is precisely this - a person becomes interested in himself, he learns a lot about himself, begins to change something, try something, experiment.”

Ekaterina Mikhailova

Psychodrama reveals to a person his own inner world and allows him to see and feel it entirely. And it provides ample opportunities to change this world in accordance with a person’s own desires. The psychodramatic group from beginning to end is a holistic psychotherapeutic process. Participating in group work allows you to learn how to interact better with others. When a person is a protagonist, he learns to see his inner world from the outside and change it, i.e. he learns to be his own therapist. When a person plays a role and is a spectator, he can, through empathy, gain new experiences together with the protagonist. Psychodrama allows all participants to learn to see from the outside the causes of problems and the possibility of solving them, and this skill, in the long term, makes it possible to independently find solutions to their problems.

Pavel Kornienko / What is psychodrama? /v0-810

Directions of psychodrama

Modern directions of psychodrama:

1. Hypnodrama. The game is combined with immersing participants in a hypnotic trance. Under such conditions, the subconscious is included in the work as much as possible, the participants relax and recover, rest mentally and somatically.
2. Biodrama. People portray animals that they resemble. This technique is more often used when working with children, since it is easier for them to talk about themselves through other characters, for example, through animals.
3. Sociodrama. Within a stable group, a person acts out the conflict in which he became a participant in another group.
4. Puppet drama. Dolls are used instead of people. This direction is often used when working with children.
5. Improvisation. There is no script, all participants act freely.

Interesting! Moreno did not leave direct instructions and theoretical foundations of psychodrama. Psychologists had to recreate the theory bit by bit using the materials that had survived. Therefore, there are many varieties of this technique, but the principles and structure are preserved.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy and psychological counseling created by Jacob Moreno. Classical psychodrama is a therapeutic group process that uses the tool of dramatic improvisation to explore a person's inner world. This is done to develop a person’s creative potential and expand the possibilities of adequate behavior and interaction with people. Modern psychodrama is not only a method of group psychotherapy. Psychodrama is used in individual work with people (monodrama), and elements of psychodrama are widespread in many areas of individual and group work with people. The author of the method, Jacob Levy Moreno, is the founder of not only psychodrama, but also group psychotherapy in general. Initially, “Theater of Spontaneity,” as Moreno’s first project was called, was conceived as a new entertainment of a rather serious nature - the main goal of this project was “to realize the creative “I” on the stage of the theater of life.” However, noting as a side effect personal changes in the harmonization of mental development in those who participated in his project, Moreno began to purposefully work on the development of psychodrama as a therapeutic method. The psychotherapist in psychodrama is a director, and his patients are a theater troupe, while the actual theatrical abilities of the patients do not matter. The action itself occurs completely spontaneously: a “protagonist” is selected from the group, i.e. the main character who gets the opportunity to represent the events of his life in roles. The roles of the auxiliary selves, i.e. people who had a special place in the life of the protagonist are performed by other members of the group, or by specially trained facilitators. The rest of the group members are spectators. The point of all this action is to, by recreating the current mental reality, achieve insight, and as a result, improve the ability of the psychodrama participants to function in real life. The therapist's task is to interpret and comment on the behavior of each group member during the performance, as well as highlight and discuss the general reaction of the participants to individual episodes. Using psychodrama in practice As a therapeutic method, psychodrama can develop in a variety of ways; the areas of its application are equally diverse. This may include behavioral or family therapy; it may address social and medical aspects; its application is possible in any situation where there is an external conflict, as well as to find a path of internal development leading to a person finding his own “I”. Psychodrama is where there is intrigue, clash of forces, conflict. And there is intrigue everywhere. Therefore, psychodrama is also present everywhere, but only in a hidden, unmanifested form. All that remains is to carry it out. The characters can be anything: living and inanimate objects, thoughts and feelings; from individuals to entire groups and even states. Psychodrama - isn't it learning the skill of being moved from chair to chair, isn't it learning the skill of analyzing your emotions? Then what is it? Educational training or psychotherapy? If psychodrama is carried out with people who are in the position of the author and are guided not by emotions, not by helplessness, but by a rational head, this is educational, pedagogical and developmental work. If a person needs to be taken out of his experiences and he is drawn into a new state, but he himself cannot do such things, because... he has no strength, he feels like a victim of difficult circumstances, psychodrama is a typical psychotherapy. The methods and techniques are the same, but depending on the client’s position and the nature of the work—whether we teach the client or treat—sometimes it is psychotherapy, and sometimes it is psychological training. What's the point?

Psychodrama is aimed at living a new and important experience for a person directly in a psychodrama group.
This may be a new experience of interacting with other people, or it may be a new experience of organizing one’s inner world, i.e. interactions with yourself. The realism of psychodrama lies in the following. When a person plays out a situation in his life or his inner world in psychodrama, he is immersed in the real feelings characteristic of this situation. And when he resolves this situation in psychodrama, this resolution becomes his new experience of acting in such a situation. Psychodrama can be used when working with:

• for children (children's groups) - children's psychodrama;
• parents and children together (mixed groups);
• entire individual families (father, mother, child, grandmother, grandfather, etc.);
• married couples.

Kinds

Moreno identified the following types of psychodrama (forms of psychodrama):

1. A psychodrama led by a protagonist. The pain of one of the participants is played out.
2. Psychodrama that focuses on the group. A problem involving a group of people is being sorted out.
3. Psychodrama focused on the theme. A problem that is relevant to everyone present is discussed. We can talk about both internal conflicts and events in the outside world, including global news.

As for the areas of application, this method is universal. There are no special names or classifications for this. Psychodrama is suitable for working with children, adults, parents, couples, teams, companies, states, countries, etc. Psychodrama is suitable for counseling and treatment in all categories of problems.

How it works

Each of us has our own set of complexes, stereotypes and cognitive dissonances

.
There are “stoppers” in life that prevent you from living peacefully or achieving what you would like. And sometimes there is a feeling that something is stopping you from doing what you need to do. The guy is afraid to be the first to talk to the girl; the young leader cannot put his subordinates in their place; a woman is afraid to speak in public, etc. We all have situations in which it is difficult to overcome something inside. How to deal with this? Psychoanalysts will tell you about fixation on a certain period in development.
Cognitive behavioral therapists will look for the situation that caused the paradox. Humanists will focus on searching for traumatic experiences... And therapists working in psychodrama will simply take you to the center of the group, give you a role, select “actors” from among the participants, and the “miracle” will begin. The stutterer suddenly begins to speak without hesitation, the timid boy easily gives orders, and the shy girl turns into a “femme fatale.” By the way, about femme fatales. An example from the author’s life – under the spoiler

“In those distant times, when I was studying at the Faculty of Psychology and was just learning the basics of the profession, I accidentally came across a theatrical performance. My classmate, an ordinary “gray mouse,” invited me there. She was not noticeable in class, she dressed modestly, in a sort of stretched sweater and jeans, behind which it was almost impossible to discern a girl in her. She was not ugly, but it was impossible to say anything definite about her appearance. But she invited me, and my friends and I, overcoming the laziness of Sunday morning, went to the performance. It turned out that this was her original production, in which she played the main role. A girl appeared on the stage... no, a WOMAN, a woman in red. Flowing hair, a gentle velvety voice and an intriguingly tight red dress. With a provocative neckline. She said something, the scenery and characters changed on stage... But all this paled in comparison with HER, our “gray mouse”. Needless to say, we were in love.”

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As a rule, a “protagonist” is selected from the group - a person around whom the action begins to unfold. Each participant fits into his story and tries to play the role given to him. However, it is important to understand that no matter what position you are in, you will decide your situation

. As in life, sometimes we perform our own performance, and sometimes we play in someone else’s production, but everything that happens happens only for us.

When the curtain is down, it’s time for “reflection” - understanding everything that’s happening with the help of an experienced facilitator

.
It is at this moment that we come to unexpected discoveries, a new understanding of our lives
, and most importantly,
we outline the path to change
.

Types of relationships

Moreno identified three types of relationships between people from the perspective of psychodrama (three types of connection):

1. Transfer. One person attributes to another such negative qualities and actions that he actually does not have. Usually this happens for a reason, but based on trauma. For example, a person transfers his mother’s cruelty to all women who look somewhat similar to her.
2. Feeling (in the author's terminology). A person perceives another as a separate and unique person, tries to understand him, look at the situation through his eyes, feel what that person feels.
3. Tele. By this Moreno meant mutual understanding between people or mutual alienation.

The last two types are related to adequate perception and self-perception. The ability to empathize with another person and understand his attitude towards his opponent is a sign of mental health.

Stages of psychodrama practice

There are three phases of psychodrama:

1. Warming up At this stage, the facilitator offers the participants several exercises for unity, getting to know each other, and recreating a trusting atmosphere. This is important so that participants can be open and talk about personal things. At this stage, topics for discussion are identified.
2. Action. Direct dramatization of the selected problem. The presenter appoints the protagonist and helps him assign other roles.
3. Schering. Analysis of the situation, active discussion of the completed game. The protagonist talks about what conclusions he made. The facilitator helps interpret what the person is feeling.

Participants choose one of the psychodrama techniques: duplication, mirror or role exchange.

In the first case, the other person becomes a reflection of the main character's subconscious. The understudy speaks out, portrays what is suppressed in the main person. If the understudy is right, then the hero agrees and repeats it.

When using the “Mirror” psychodrama technique, another person portrays the main character, and he looks at him as his reflection. Both help the protagonist understand himself, understand himself better, and look at himself from the outside.

Swapping roles makes it possible to look at a situation through the eyes of another person. At any moment, the main character changes roles with one of the participants and continues the game in his role. This helps you understand the other person better.

Exercises

Let us briefly consider several popular exercises using psychodrama.

Shop

Participants are divided into sellers and buyers. Subsequently, dividing into pairs or subgroups, the participants reproduce conflicts and find a way out of them. Different themes are used, and participants often change roles. This exercise helps develop social and communication skills. Each participant learns to defend their position and overcome conflicts with dignity and seek compromises.

Bus

All participants are divided into “hares” (free riders) and controllers. The first sit in the inner circle, the second in the outer. Free riders make excuses, and controllers try to shame them, but at the same time put themselves in their position. At the end of the action, the participants discuss each other's game. During interaction, internal blocks, complexes and problems of people are identified, those features that prevent them from interacting with society. Each participant learns to defend their opinion, refuse, resist, and maintain composure in uncomfortable situations.

Family

The protagonist distributes roles in the game, also assigns his role to someone and describes what situation from his family the participants should reproduce. This exercise allows the main character to look at himself from the outside and look at other family members differently. After reproducing the situation, a discussion is held.