Imagi-nations

Drama Therapy 411

2010-01-25T15:57:00.003-08:00

Drama Therapy types & key concepts:
- compiled as a resource list for a drama therapy presentation for students of Columbia College's dance/movement therapy program (January 2010)
[Text reference: Interactive & Improvisational Drama, with on-line supplement]

> Drama Therapy, based on Moreno

Psychodrama (American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP))
Sociodrama (see Armand Volkas' "Acts of Reconciliation/Healing the Wounds of History")

> Renee Emunah's Five Phase Method (see her book: Acting for Real)
1. Dramatic Play, 2. Scenework, 3. Role Play, 4. Culminating Enactment, 5. Dramatic Ritual

- Self-Revelatory Theater (see: "Life Stories" workshops by Sheila Rubin, MFT, RDT/BCT)

> Playback Theatre

Roles include: Conductor, Teller, Company (performer-improvisors); Process includes audience or group members telling stories from their lives which are enacted on the spot
Performed by regional companies, such as the Chicago Playback Theatre led by Liz Muckley (as seen in class), or, on the West Coast: The Center for the Living Arts Playback Ensemble (Oakland, CA), and at colleges/universities
Founded by Jonathan Fox
For more info on training and resources: The Playback Centre
The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN)

> Developmental Transformations (trainings available in NYC, SF)

An Embodied Encounter in the Playspace
Levels of play: surface play, role/persona play, intimate play, deep play
Discrepancy
Flow & Impass
Faithful Rendering
Being the play object
Leakage

> Theatre of the Oppressed

> Clowning & Humor

> See also: Action Theater, Bibliodrama, Cinema therapy, Puppetry Therapy

Drama Therapy has relatives in...
> Sandtray or Sandplay therapy (Jungian, see the Sandplay Therapist of America)
> Psychosynthesis & Subpersonalities (see the work of Roberto Assagioli, interesting article here)
> Expressive Art Therapy & Creative Arts Therapy

Training Programs:

California Institute for Integral Studies - San Francisco, CA
NYU
The Lakehouse House & Learning Center - Racine, WI (Psychodrama & other modalities)

Professional Organizations:

Credentials:

Registered Drama Therapist (RDT)
Registered Drama Therapist-Board Certified Trainer (RDT-BCT)

...and finally, "We don't do therapy"
- There are a wide variety of professional theatre arts programs that provide outreach, advocacy, and/or training related to specific populations, such as:

Staged readings of Sophocles plays used to assist US veterans resolve PTSD (from NPR)
The Vet Arts Project > Free Workshop, Chicago Cultural Center, 2/17/10, 6:30 pm
Special Gifts Theatre, Chicago-area musical theater program for children w/ DD
The Miracle Project, theatre & film arts program (as seen in 'Autism-the Musical' on HBO)
Use of trained actors to portray people with mental or other illness to educate doctors and cops

Here are some additional resources you might be interested in:

The Improv' Encyclopedia - treasure chest of games
ICDL website - A play-based approach to working with kids w/ Autism & DD

Expressive Therapy 411

2010-01-25T15:57:00.001-08:00

Key concepts:

Imaginal Reality - material that emerges from dreams, imagination, fantasy or works of art; as distinct from literal (or "consensual") reality and "effective reality," the interaction between external and internal experience
The imaginal realm itself does not discriminate between the modes of artistic practice (music, dance, art, drama, poetry) and is therefore "multimodal"
Contents of the imagination are more expansive in meaning when transformed into artistic creations than when assigned literal interpretations
We learn how to use techniques from various artistic practices to externalize the contents of our imagination
Expressive Art Therapy strives to let the image speak for itself for the benefit of personal or social development
The field is inclusive of a wide range of creative arts therapy approaches
Multimodal processes offer hands-on experience in more than one therapeutic art form in the same session
While the thrust of the work is individual or collective expression, attention is also given to the consumption of media and received images (as in receptive music therapy)

Professional Organizations & Training:
International Expressive Art Therapy Association (IEATA)

"Useful Links" has a comprehensive list of training programs around the world

Credentials:
Registered Expressive Art Therapist (REAT)

More iPod Touch Artwork

2009-10-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Stage 1&2 of new iPod Touch sketches
using Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile Express,
which is an incredible drawing app with lots of tools.

Happy Halloween!

Great Class, Everyone!

2009-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

To those of you who were part of the SAIC class last night:

THANK YOU!

You were wild, spontaneous, and curious -- Fantastic Play-ers.
- Best of luck with the remainder of the semester.

Feel free to email questions or comments:
philweglarz@gmail.com

Here are some additional resources you might be interested in:

The Improv' Encyclopedia - treasure chest of games, like those we played last night
Expressive Arts training sites (link to IEATA resources page)
ICDL website - A play-based approach to working with kids w/ Autism & DD
Little City Foundation's Arts Programs - Phil's current job, with job/volunteer opp's

Chao!
Phil

New media, old technique

2009-09-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

Views from a recent sketch session using the "Whiteboard" App on iPod Touch:
Beginning...
then...
and then...
finally.

2"x3" Compositions in light colors/b&w, captured by screen shots.
I enjoy layering up the screen; like fingerpainting with really tiny fingers.

Re-imagining the Invisible World

2009-04-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, 4/17, I attended the Art Therapy Symposium at Mt. Mary College in Milwaukee for the second time. Quite inspiring and a good chance to re-engage the local community, including faculty from the Art Institute and those I know working in Chicago. The discussions that day helped me connect my life-long fascination with "the invisible world" and the process of creative arts therapy.

There is a pebble in my shoe, and it's invisible
I continue to struggle with the meaning of creative art therapy, especially in a social environment of concrete, complex, and damaging situations, which are either brought into the studio in clients' minds and bodies and/or into which therapists venture for the sake of social change. Art-making or therapeutic play can seem trivial or immature when compared to the traumas they are intended to repair. Yet, it is this very act that I feel called to perform, and in some ways creative play may be the gift I was meant to share with this world. A world in which I have always been somewhat uncomfortable for I have always believed there is more to it than what is revealed by the physical senses. Let's call this extra-physical reality "the invisible world."

I keep trying to 'see' the invisible
As a child, I was easily convinced of existence of mythological creatures, supernatural beings, and magic. In college, a cross-cultural study of religion and ritual revealed to me a wide range of practices which sought to bridge the visible and invisible worlds, often in the service of individual and community health. Today, immersed in counseling psychology, I imagine moods, emotions, thoughts and even relationships as "invisible" aspects of our lives. Afterall, our physical senses are not what convince us of their existence. Therefore, the I re-introduce myself to the invisible through my current work. Sometimes, it is the past experience of a child which exists as a repressed memory or partial story. Other times, what is invisible are significant people in the family's life, absent or deceased. Perhaps some of the anxiety I feel in the role of therapist is the invisibilty or lack of clear vision of my relationship with the child, children or adults I am with.

Revealing the invisible through creative play
Today, I have the honor in my profession to concentrate on the revelation of invisible things. My childish curiosity drives this process, reinforced and guided by the field of psychotherapy. Based as much in my own experience as in formal training in the arts or creative arts therapy, play seems to be the best method of inviting the invisible to become visible, especially to more than one person at a time (e.g., client and therapist, parent and child). Each experince with a client is an experiment in the use of physical play, voice or speech, music, or visual imagery to make visible what is normally invisible in order to eleviate current discomfort and address more lasting dis-ease.

What Alzheimer's has taught me about Love

2009-04-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

[This post is a copy of a statement posted to the Speaking of Faith's "Acts of Remembering" interactive map of stories about experience with Alzheimer's disease]

I spent three years using drama and other expressive arts therapies with people with moderate to advanced Alzheimer's and their families in a hospital and nursing home in San Francisco. I was deeply affected by the relationships and in-the-moment experiences, ranging from celebrations, reflections, affections, fears, anger, and grief.

These relationships have increased my overall capacity for Love. I recall a moment ballroom dancing with one participant who looked tenderly in my eyes and said, "I love you." It's true that she may have mistook me for a past romantic partner or chose to flirt with me, but the affection, trust and desire for connection were nonetheless real and the inhibition of the disease allowed her to reveal it. She and I were indeed enjoying each others' company, carefully attending to the gentle sway of each step together, and obviously caring about each other. I had to ask myself, "If this isn't Love, than what is?" What kept me from expressing Love so plainly? Clinical ethical boundaries? It was more likely my own fear of being emotionally connected to those who were suffering, at the end of their life, and mysteriously disappearing with time. Ultimately, I risked loving other families' grandparents, parents, husbands and wives, and shared in my own way the losses when they came. I learned that loving can be strengthened by memory but it is also a flower that can bloom (or wither) in a moment.

Gradually, I came to see my role as one who tends to the various feelings throughout groups or family visits, giving special encouragement to Love. There were often moments like this after more directed activities when a small group would find ourselves silent yet attentive towards each other and smiling. Not a cure, of course, but something beautiful in an otherwise tragic situation.

My colleagues and I based our interactions on a form of drama therapy called "Developmental Transformations (DvT)," which allowed us to use the dynamic flow of attention and memory to engage individuals and relate group members. DvT was created by David Read Johnson whose book "Waiting at the Gate - Creativity and Hope in the Nursing Home" (Haworth Press, 1987) describes his and other creative arts therapists' work.

Expressive Art Therapy

2009-01-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

Key concepts:

Imaginal Reality - material that emerges from dreams, imagination, fantasy or works of art; as distinct from literal (or "consensual") reality and "effective reality," the interaction between external and internal experience
The imaginal realm itself does not discriminate between the modes of artistic practice (music, dance, art, drama, poetry) and is therefore "multimodal"
Contents of the imagination are more expansive in meaning when transformed into artistic creations than when assigned literal interpretations
We learn how to use techniques from various artistic practices to externalize the contents of our imagination
Expressive Art Therapy strives to let the image speak for itself for the benefit of personal or social development
The field is inclusive of a wide range of creative arts therapy approaches
Multimodal processes offer hands-on experience in more than one therapeutic art form in the same session
While the thrust of the work is individual or collective expression, attention is also given to the consumption of media and received images (as in receptive music therapy)

Professional Organizations & Training:
International Expressive Art Therapy Association (IEATA)

"Useful Links" has a comprehensive list of training programs around the world
International Conference will take place Aug. 12 - 15, 2009 (details)

Credentials:
Registered Expressive Art Therapist (REAT)

Drama Therapy

2008-12-22T18:21:00.000-08:00

Drama Therapy types & key concepts:
- compiled as a resource list for a drama therapy presentation for students of Columbia College's dance/movement therapy program (January '09)

> Based on Moreno

Psychodrama (American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP), Midwest Chapter)
Sociodrama (see Armand Volkas' "Acts of Reconciliation/Healing the Wounds of History")

> Renee Emunah's Five Phase Method
1. Dramatic Play, 2. Scenework, 3. Role Play, 4. Culminating Enactment, 5. Dramatic Ritual

- Self-Revelatory Theater (see: "Life Stories" workshops by Sheila Rubin, MFT, RDT/BCT)

> Playback Theater

Roles include: Director, Narrator (client), Company (performer-improvisors)
Performed by regional companies, such as: The Center for the Living Arts Playback Ensemble (Oakland, CA)

> Developmental Transformations

Levels of play: surface play, role/persona play, intimate play, deep play
Discrepancy
Flow & Impass
Faithful Rendering
Being the play object
Leakage

> Theater of the Oppressed

> Clowning & Humor

> See also: Action Theater, Bibliodrama, Cinema therapy, Puppetry Therapy, Theatre of the Oppressed

Drama Therapy has relatives in...
> Theater programs in social & public services
> Drama-based Corporate Consulting ($)
> Sandtray or Sandplay therapy (Jungian, see the Sandplay Therapist of America)
> Psychosynthesis & Subpersonalities (see the work of Roberto Assagioli, interesting article here)
> Expressive Arts Therapy & Creative Arts Therapy

Training Programs:

California Institute for Integral Studies - San Francisco, CA
NYU
The Institute for Developmental Transformations - NYC & SF, CA
The Lakehouse House & Learning Center - Racine, WI (Psychodrama & other modalities)

Professional Organizations:

Credentials:

Registered Drama Therapist (RDT)
Registered Drama Therapist-Board Certified Trainer (RDT-BCT)

Bits & Bobs:

Staged readings of Sophocles plays used to assist US veterans resolve PTSD (from NPR)
Special Gifts Theatre, Chicago-area musical theater program for children w/ DD
Use of trained actors to portray people with mental or other illness to educate doctors and doctors, cops
Corporate consulting

The World is Made of Stories, not Facts

2008-11-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm collecting reflections on how subjective realities, not objective reality, are what we use to make meaning of living.

Recently, I've begun listing to Krista Tippett's podcast "Speaking of Faith." She's captured some gems that support my thinking about the imagination.

Listen to Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen speak about her grandfather's story about the world and how "the world is made of stories, not facts." She says the only way we make sense out of life and especially its tragedies are through the stories, not the mere facts of the events.

When I was first training to include the arts, storytelling and drama with adults in a medical hospital, I was often distracted by the immediate, tangible needs of the patients I visited, from the high-tech treatments to little things like ice water or straws. As a psychotherapist, I felt ill-equiped to join in meeting patients' needs. Craig Garfinkel, my supervisor, helped me see that the relationship I was offering could be as nurturing as food and water, as effective in relieving someone's suffering, at least in the moment, as pain medication. My interactions were not meant to cure anyone's illness or heal wounds, but I came to believe the benefits of medical psychotherapy were on the meaning of this episode in the patient and their family's life.

Listen to Dr. Temple Grandin, who speaks eloquently about living in the world with Autism, as she describes "thinking in pictures" (excerpted here from NPR's "Of This I Believe"). More at Dr. Grandin's own website.

I do not have autism, but I understand exactly what Dr. Grandin's describing. My immersion into the visual arts, especially from a young age, have given me ample opportunities to explore my own mental web of images, thoughts and feelings.

What do you think of when you hear the word "Imagination?"

2008-11-29T11:32:00.001-08:00

Imagination does not need to be relegated to childhood, dreaming or the margins of daily life.

For me, the Imagination includes all the fun, made-up stuff of our individual fantasy lives, AND the all basic mental images we borrow from the world around us to organize thoughts, feelings, and sense experience. Mental "images" can be words, sights, sounds, smells, physical sensations, which everyone seems to develop varying abilities to control.

As an expressive art therapist, I've spent time with people in various states of stress and enjoyment. This position (and the training that preceded it) affords me the opportunity to notice how wedded to imagery we truly are. This imaginal landscape we carry around, our personal 'nations of images,' is the naturalized culture from which we interpret and respond to the actual world around us.

The question is, do you agree?
Please comment on your option of the territory of the Imagination.
What are its boundaries?

Inaugeration

2008-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

This blog offers me a 'place' to create, keep & share thoughts, feelings and, most importantly, images related to my exploration of the life of the imagination.