Pssychodrama A Group Therapy Approach

Psychodrama: A Group Therapy Approach
Generally speaking, group therapy is a process by which therapists treat an assembly of participants concurrently. The clients interact with other group members using problem solving techniques, feedback, and role play in an attempt to learn more about themselves as well as to learn how to interact properly with others. The group process itself is the tool or intervention that the therapist employs to examine interpersonal relationships. The utilities of group psychotherapy are seemingly endless, as the group structure can be applied to support groups, skills training, and expressive therapy, among others. The focus of this paper will be to define psychodrama, one approach for group therapy. Within this

This existential, experimental method uses action techniques to examine the root of the problem at hand to help participants search for meaning in life events (Moreno & Moreno, 1969). The goals of psychodrama are to instill hope, enrich problem-solving, develop insight, and encourage personal growth of not only one individual but of a group (Avrahami, 2003).
Components of the method include modeling, rehearsal, differentiation, and actualization. More specifically, the psychodrama process consists of a warm-up, enactment preparation, enactment, group sharing, a debriefing with each protagonist, and individual processing (Konopik & Cheung, 2013, p.12). The “enactment” portion of the process can consist of role playing, doubling, role reversal, or the combination of multiple techniques (Kipper & Ritchie, 2003). The role reversal technique has been found to change attitudes, and the doubling technique has been associated with the creation of empathy (Kipper & Ritchie, 2003). Regardless of whether the whole psychodrama process is being conducted or if only one or two action techniques are being employed, there are three constant characteristics of the session: the basis of the techniques used are role-playing enactment, the scene is focused on one protagonist, and the session has a structure predetermined by the therapist (Kipper & Hundal,