Psychodrama was developed by Jacob Moreno, MD, a peer of Freud’s, who was known to say that Freud analyzed his client’s dreams while Moreno helped his clients to live theirs. Through body movement and social connection, years of trauma that are implicitly stored in the brain are allowed to tell a story that can't be done with words.
Roles in psychodrama:
Director: This is the therapist. It is the director’s role to ground the drama, they do not participate in the drama. They are always present with the protagonist and keeping them safe.
Protagonist: The protagonist is the one whose drama is being reenacted. They identify the roles for the auxiliaries.
Auxiliary: The supporting players who are chosen by the protagonist who may depict a person, an idea, an emotion, or anything else represented in the drama.
Audience: The witnesses to the drama who provide safe containment for the protagonist. It is from the audience that the protagonist chooses auxiliaries.
Psychodrama is a three part system:
1) Psychodrama (the therapeutic enactment of part of a client’s life or emotional experience), 2) sociometry (the exploration of the social connections within a group setting), and 3) group psychotherapy (interweaving and harvesting intra and interpersonal relationships to accelerate shared healing).
Stages of psychodrama:
Warm up: participants are up and moving as a way to get connected to themselves and to each other and to begin to light up the downstairs brain.
Action: this is where the drama is enacted.
Cool down: this time allows the protagonist and auxiliary to connect back to their heads. This is not an analytical process, it is a quick 30 second emotional check in.
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