Journal articles

Authored by McVea, Charmaine

Author Title Issue Keywords Abstract Sequence
McVea, Charmaine How using psychodramatic production in supervision strengthens the emerging professional identity (PDF, 63.6 KB) Journal 32 December 2023 concretisation, insight, professional identity, Psychodrama, role reversal, supervisee, supervision In my experience of supervising new practitioners, I have noticed that simple psychodramatic interventions often have a profound impact on their spontaneity and confidence. One area of impact that I want to consider more fully, is how producing the supervisee’s presenting issue can bring into awareness some things that they already know and assist them to articulate their understanding and principles of practice. This has the effect of further integrating what they have learnt into their practice and strengthens their emerging professional identity. 9 2023-12
McVea, Charmaine Spontaneity or Emotion as the Catalyst for Change - Corrective experiences in psychodrama (PDF, 320.2 KB) Journal 28 December 2019 action insight, corrective experience, emotion, emotion-focused therapy (EFT), Greenberg, J L Moreno, Moreno, Psychodrama, psychotherapy integration, research, social atom repair, spontaneity, transformation Corrective experiences are a common factor in effective therapies, often having profound transformative effects. While Greenberg proposes that the activation and processing of emotions produces corrective experiences, Moreno emphasises spontaneity as the therapeutic agent or catalyst of change. Drawing on research, Charmaine McVea argues for the greater efficacy of spontaneity. She proposes that spontaneity not only constitutes an outcome of corrective experiences but also contributes to the emergence of those experiences, specifically through the development of action insight and corrective interpersonal experience during psychodrama enactments. 2 2019-12
Hirschfeld, Brigid; McVea, Charmaine "A Cast of Thousands": Working with the Five Instruments of Psychodrama in the Therapeutic Relationship (PDF, 503.4 KB) Journal 7 December 1998 The paper examines the application of Jacob Moreno's five instruments of psychodrama in the one-to-one therapeutic setting. It asserts that the approach facilitates the development of spontaneity in the client. It describes the role of each of Moreno's five instruments, namely, the stage, the subject or actor (protagonist), the director, the staff of therapeutic aides or auxiliary egos, and the audience. It is suggested that therapy is both gratifying and challenging when it uses the multiple roles offered by a "cast of thousands". 9 1998-12
McVea, Charmaine It's Not Enough Just To Say It Works. Research into Psychodrama and Experiential Therapies (PDF, 55.6 KB) Journal 13 December 2004 The article discusses the research being done in the field of psychodrama and how it is a useful therapeutic tool. The possibilities for psychodrama research appear to be quite optimistic and suggest a need for further research into the subject. 7 2004-12
McVea, Charmaine A Discussion on Science and Research in Psychodrama (PDF, 302.7 KB) Journal 23 December 2014 Psychodrama, research My motivation for writing the article was to demonstrate that research can be done with integrity and can produce encouraging results that illuminate our practice and give us a vehicle to communicate the benefits of our method to others. By integrity, I mean that we can investigate psychodrama without compromising its form or philosophy. Elliott's approach is practice-based and, I believe, a good fit with psychodrama. I have a vision of creating a series of efficacy studies based on the work of AANZPA practitioners, which would combine to form a substantial research project. From my experience to date, I am confident that this research would demonstrate that psychodrama interventions can have positive therapeutic impacts that are maintained over time. Hopefully, it would also lead us into new discoveries about the therapeutically helpful aspects of psychodrama. 7 2014-12
McVea, Charmaine Measuring the Efficacy of a Single Psychodrama Session (PDF, 73.1 KB) Journal 16 December 2007 Current developments in psychotherapy research methodology are opening possibilities for psychodramatists to investigate the types of questions that are of interest to us as practitioners, and to communicate our findings to the wider community. The dynamic nature of the psychodrama method has made it difficult to apply traditional outcome research approaches without compromising the integrity of the method in the research design. A move towards practice-based research that answers questions about when and how interventions work best in relation to particular clients and their concerns (Greenberg, 1999), may be a better fit. A central principle of practice-based research is that it investigates therapy in its natural context rather than under imposed research conditions, and can therefore be applied to methods such as psychodrama, where the process unfolds in response to the emerging moment. a client who has had no previous psychodrama experience, and identifies specific links between events within the session and post-session changes. 4 2007-12