Role-play and psychodrama

Role-playing: to take on the role of someone else or something else, or to exaggerate/amplify one particular aspect of yourself. Sometimes in therapeutic role-play situations, a person can direct others in order to recreate a scene or a situation from their own life, or create a fantasy.

In the 1920s, Jacob Moreno developed a therapy known as psychodrama. In terms of wellness, this is an opportunity for a person (or persons) to heal the parts of them that are causing them distress by playing out aspects of their life in a theatrical capacity. They’ll need the following: a stage, a setting, a director, a protagonist, other players acting on behalf of other people, an audience.

Some of the ways that psychodrama can be played out are (i) re-enacting episodes from their past or enacting what could be in the future (ii) a platform to express a person’s responses to certain situations (iii) using space and movement, rather than words, to express dynamics within a family or a grouping (iv) playing the part of someone else and having another player depict you as a role, so that you can interact with each other in order to get a different perspective. (v) Have someone else play you so you can watch yourself from a distance.

When it comes to choosing a therapy that might be right for you, so much is available beyond just the usual talky-talky approach.