| Callanan, Jennifer |
Taking Leadership of the Soul: Julie takes charge (PDF, 109.7 KB) |
Journal 32 December 2023 |
concretisation, creativity, cultural conserve, enactment, God, J L Moreno, leadership, Moreno, role reversal, soul, surplus reality, systems theory, transformation |
This article, using extracts from Jennifer Callanan’s Psychodrama Thesis, shares a glimpse into the complete work, “Taking Leadership of the Soul. Revitalising leadership development through psychodrama’s experiential learning approach,” completed in June 2023. |
5 |
2023-12 |
| Synnot, Elizabeth |
Praxis: Using psychodrama methodology to respond to the existential threat of climate change (PDF, 109.5 KB) |
Journal 32 December 2023 |
climate change, creativity, environment, modelling, Moreno, Psychodrama, research, sociodrama, systems theory |
What follows is the backdrop of climate change that affects all life on planet Earth. As a sociodramatist, at times, I work directly with this existential threat. I have found that research is needed to be able to direct a sociodrama on a general topic of ‘What matters today?’ or more directly on ‘Responding to climate change with hope and agency’. The content presented here is correct in 2023. As you’d expect the science refines each year. |
2 |
2023-12 |
| Brown, Hamish |
Collaborative Decision Making in Facilitated Groups and Other Organisations (PDF, 230.1 KB) |
Journal 31 December 2022 |
collaboration, decision making, dependency, development, facilitation, leadership, Moreno, organisation, relationship, role, role theory, social system, sociometry, subgroups |
Developing collaborative approaches in organisational settings is very challenging. If collaboration were simple most organisations would adopt such practices with ease. However, this is rarely the case. I have spent nearly three decades working to find effective ways to bring about collaboration in organisational settings. This paper presents the approach that I and my colleagues from Phoenix Facilitation developed to make collaborative decision making in groups and complex organisational settings possible. It is based primarily on the Psychodramatic theories of sociometry and role theory. In this paper I will introduce you to three dimensions of organisational life that are central to organisational functioning and discuss how these dimensions relate to one another. I will present a diagnostic and descriptive model that arises from this approach, which assists in seeing and understanding the relational dynamics people in the organisation are experiencing. This model also directly assists in planning organisational change. |
2 |
2022-12 |
| Simmons, Neil |
Moreno (Back) in the Doctors’ Surgery (PDF, 123.4 KB) |
Journal 31 December 2022 |
concretisation, creativity, health, mirroring, Moreno, patient, psychodramatic methods, relationship, role, social system, spontaneity, tele, warm up |
I am a creative being. As a child I was artistic. I was always making things; baskets, weaving, jewellery, drawings, paintings and furniture. Since deciding not to be a professional artist and to continue being a doctor, I have been on a quest to bring creative life to my medical work. In more recent years, psychodrama has been a companion in this quest. |
5 |
2022-12 |
| Rock, Cissy |
Embodying a Creative Revolution: A Sociodramatist at Work (PDF, 96.9 KB) |
Journal 31 December 2022 |
as if, community development, creativity, encounter, God, health, mirroring, Moreno, playback theatre, relationship, role, sociodrama, sociometry, spontaneity, systems theory, warm up |
This article explores Moreno’s notion of sociatry and the required creative revolution that involves everyone in the healing of society (Moreno, 1947). It will appeal to anyone wanting to work sociodramatically or wanting to get to know about Moreno’s concepts of sociatry and creative revolution. It is also relevant for anyone working with principles of social justice, equity, dignity, diversity and inclusion. |
7 |
2022-12 |
| Whisker, Craig |
Tauhara Encounter: Reflections on a Residential Psychodrama Group Session (PDF, 129.8 KB) |
Journal 31 December 2022 |
audience, auxiliary, auxiliary ego, creativity, director, doubling, encounter, mirroring, Moreno, production, protagonist, Psychodrama, psychotherapy, reflections, relationship, role, role reversal, sharing, spontaneity, tele, warm up |
Since 2013 I have co-led with either Marian Hammond or Selina Reid, and have twice led by myself, an annual winter residential psychodrama retreat at the Tauhara Retreat Centre located above Acacia Bay on Taupō-nui-a-Tia, Lake Taupō near the centre of Te Ika-o-Māui, the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. On each occasion I write copious notes describing workshop sessions and my initial analyses and reflections on them and I jot down insights from between-session or end-of-day discussions with my co-leader. The process of writing while memories and impressions are still fresh captures what in days, even hours, may be unrecoverable. When I warm up to re-entering the stream of consciousness I had during the session I often perceive more than I did when in the group. These are unpolished perceptions. They include wonderings or conflicts that I form into questions or pose as contrasting points of view and they sometimes cause fragments of associative thought to surface from deep within my psyche, or a new perspective to suddenly appear like the bright green tip of a spring bud. |
8 |
2022-12 |
| Knottenbelt, Hilde |
A Place to Meet: Reflections on Group Improvisational Processes on Zoom (PDF, 882.1 KB) |
Journal 29 December 2020 |
creativity, director, German, J L Moreno, Moreno, poetry, protagonist, Psychodrama, spontaneity, warm-up |
Introduction It’s been a month since I worked face-to-face. The studio is looking decidedly casual. It’s become a place to hang out rather than a place to work. In the first weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, as I considered what my working life might look like in the next while, the word ersatz came to me. It’s a term borrowed from the German language meaning replacement, substitute, imitation, fake. In WW1 and WW2 ersatzbrot (substitute bread) was made with potato starch and sawdust and fed to prisoners who starved of malnourishment. I don’t want to create ersatz anything. |
3 |
2020-12 |
| Tapley, Kate |
The Horse as an Auxiliary for Life - Natural horsemanship, psychodrama and leadership development (PDF, 178.2 KB) |
Journal 28 December 2019 |
auxiliary, healing, horse, human development, J L Moreno, leadership, Moreno, natural horsemanship, Psychodrama |
Natural horsewoman and psychodrama trainee Kate Tapley draws our attention to the horse as an auxiliary for life. Through her work training riders in natural horsemanship from a psychodramatic perspective, she has noticed that horses, unerring sentients that they are, act as auxiliaries for human beings, mirroring their inner often unconscious experience with immediacy and authenticity, and following only those riders who prove themselves willing to enter their here and now world of being-ness and presence, as ‘true leaders’. This article presents the application of this approach during a natural horsemanship workshop and the positive outcomes in terms of leadership development, healing and wholeness. |
7 |
2019-12 |
| O'Rourke, Patricia |
The Thinking Heart, The Loving Mind - The application of psychodrama in therapeutic reunification work with maltreated and neglected infants and their parents (PDF, 181.0 KB) |
Journal 28 December 2019 |
babies, child protection, infant, J L Moreno, Moreno, parents, Psychodrama, therapeutic reunification |
In this article, Patricia O’Rourke describes the way in which she applies psychodrama in her therapeutic reunification work with parents and babies in the child protection system in Australia. The paper was developed from a keynote address delivered to the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Psychodrama Association (AANZPA) Conference in Brisbane in January 2019. |
6 |
2019-12 |
| Clark, Cushla |
Staging the Therapeutic Experience - Using Moreno’s psychodrama stage in parenting groups for women (PDF, 259.9 KB) |
Journal 28 December 2019 |
action space, audience, balcony, enactment, J L Moreno, levels, Moreno, Psychodrama, psychodrama stage, spontaneity, warm up, warm up step |
Moreno proposed the psychodrama stage as the first instrument of psychodrama. He designed it with four levels, the audience, the warm up step, the action space and the balcony, which mirror the stages of a protagonist’s warming up process. Providing illustrations focused on the use of the warm up level or step and the balcony in parenting groups for women, Cushla Clark proposes that a psychodramatist who maintains consciousness of the structure of the Morenian stage, including improvising the different levels when physical constraints are present, is able to enhance a protagonist’s warm up to spontaneity and produce a full and satisfying dramatic enactment. This article is drawn from Cushla’s AANZPA thesis, Liberation via The Stage. |
5 |
2019-12 |
| Logeman, Walter |
Encounter - The heart of psychodramatic couple therapy (PDF, 183.1 KB) |
Journal 28 December 2019 |
begegnung, couple therapy, doubling, encounter, J L Moreno, love, mirroring, Moreno, natural groups, Psychodrama, relationship, role reversal, spontaneity, synthetic groups, tele |
This article is concerned with the application of psychodrama principles and practices to couple therapy. In particular, it explores Moreno’s philosophy of encounter, that meeting of two, ‘face to face and eye to eye’, which lies at the heart of psychodramatic couple therapy. Drawing on illustrative material, the author shows the way in which the psychodrama structure of warm up, action and sharing apply in a couple therapy session, with the encounter presenting as the action phase. He also describes the psychodramatic techniques of doubling, mirroring and role reversal as they are used to facilitate the encounter. |
3 |
2019-12 |
| 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 |
| Logeman, Walter |
Moreno's Scientific Methodology: By, Of and For the People (PDF, 324.3 KB) |
Journal 24 December 2015 |
experimental design, Moreno, principles of sociometry, Psychodrama, scientific methodology, social science, spontaneity |
This paper is an exposition of the scientific methodology developed by Jacob Levy Moreno. It is based on an extensive reading of his writing and the discovery that the heart of his philosophy includes a research paradigm that incorporates human spontaneity and unpredictability. Six principles have been identified and formed into a working description so that research may be by the people, of the people, and for the people. The paper invites a greater consciousness of this research methodology. The author hopes that practitioners of psychodramatic methods will be encouraged to apply it in their work. |
12 |
2015-12 |
| Jones, Diana |
The Way We Do Things Around Here: The Role of Leadership Teams in Shaping Progressive Organisational Cultures (PDF, 478.4 KB) |
Journal 21 December 2012 |
behaviour, leadership teams, Moreno, organisational culture, relationships, social and cultural atom |
The links between organisational culture, leadership and success continue to capture the attention of organisational leaders. Providing illustrations from her work as an organisational leadership coach and drawing on J.L. Moreno's concept of social and cultural atom, Diana Jones proposes that leaders can shape positive change in their organisation's culture by enacting and modeling progressive functioning in their relationships with one another and their staff. |
12 |
2012-12 |
| Abbott, Margie |
J.L. Moreno and Meister Eckhart: A Not So Unlikely Couple (PDF, 55.1 KB) |
Journal 15 December 2006 |
Meister Eckhart, Moreno |
Presents two people, Jacob Levy Moreno (1889-1974) and the Dominican priest-mystic, Meister Eckhart (c.1260-c.1329), who lived centuries apart and led different lives and vocations. Yet they shared a similar belief that all humans are co-creators with the divine. Moreno believed in the importance of spontaneity and its relationship to creation. Both Moreno and Eckhart believed in co-creation and the potential for healing in every human being. Understanding Moreno's spiritual world can assist us as producers and directors to think of ourselves as co-creators when working with groups. Moreno's writing can be somewhat cryptic and confusing and may be illuminated by an understanding of Eckhart. |
7 |
2006-12 |
| Mapel, Tim |
Through a Glass Darkly: Coming Face to Face With Mirroring in Psychodrama (PDF, 122.0 KB) |
Journal 21 December 2012 |
Max Clayton, stages of human development, mirror technique, mirroring, Moreno, Psychodrama, Zerka Moreno |
Mirroring is a central element in psychodrama but the term is used in variable ways in different contexts. In this article, Tim Mapel investigates these various meanings. He focuses first on the historical development of the mirror concept in the writings of J.L. and Zerka Moreno, both as a therapeutic technique and as a stage of human development. Later writings, particularly contributions by Dr. Max Clayton, are then considered followed by a discussion of the contemporary uses of mirroring in psychodramatic production. What emerges is greater clarity regarding the concept and technique of mirroring. |
12 |
2012-12 |
| Howard, Katherine |
The Dance of Relationship: Using Moreno in Workplace Injury Rehabilitation (PDF, 90.2 KB) |
Journal 20 December 2011 |
coaching, creativity, cultural conserve, doubling, injury, mirroring, modelling, Moreno, Psychodrama, rehabilitation, role, role relationship, role reversal, role training, spontaneity, warm up, workplace |
Katherine Howard explores the use of Moreno's methods in what has become, in Morenian terms, a robotic workplace injury rehabilitation system. Presenting two case studies as illustration, she employs the metaphor of the dance of relationship to capture the way in which psychodramatic techniques transform difference and conflict into mutuality and cooperation, habitual coping roles into fluid and progressive functioning. This article is adapted from the author's 2010 Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association (ANZPA) accreditation thesis, Spontaneity and Creativity at Work: The Application of Morenian Methods in Workplace Injury Management. |
11 |
2011-12 |
| Seligman, Katerina |
Responses to the Threat of Climate Change: A Sociodramatic Exploration (PDF, 82.8 KB) |
Journal 20 December 2011 |
climate change, environment, global warming, Moreno, Psychodrama, role reversal, sociodrama, subgroups |
Katerina Seligman describes a sociodrama undertaken during a residential psycho- drama workshop, whereby sociodramatic questions regarding the global threat of climate change were posed, and a range of subgroup responses were explored. She begins with her personal story of exploration regarding climate change to warm the reader up to the sociodramatic enactment that follows. The author describes the way in which the enactment facilitated role reversal and a deepening of the understanding of conflicting values in relation to climate change. |
11 |
2011-12 |
| Marks, Liz |
A Traveller's Guide to Supervision Principles and Practice (PDF, 124.4 KB) |
Journal 21 December 2012 |
development, learning culture, learning style, Moreno, relationship, supervisee, supervision, supervisor, systems, warm up |
In this article, Liz Marks reflects on over twenty years of experience as a supervisor of counsellors. Providing illustrations, she draws out some of the principles and practices that have guided her on this journey. Of particular note are the development of adequacy in warm up, relationship and learning culture, taking a systems approach, relating to the developmental stage of the supervisee and viewing the supervision process as an ongoing, unique and highly valued enterprise for both supervisor and supervisee. |
12 |
2012-12 |
| McIntosh, Wendy |
Walking with Moreno Take Two: Integrating Theory with Practice (PDF, 100.7 KB) |
Journal 20 December 2011 |
Moreno, nurse, nursing, patient, professional boundaries, professional identity, Psychodrama, role reversal, role training, supervision, systems theory |
In an article published in the 2010 ANZPA Journal, Wendy McIntosh explored the significant impact of Moreno's work on the nursing profession. In this follow up paper she presents her utilisation of role theory in work with one nursing client who has transgressed professional boundaries. Mindful of Moreno's dictum for nurses to establish and maintain a reciprocal relationship, she demonstrates the client's progress as he develops insights and roles that will assist him to maintain adequate professional boundaries in the future. |
11 |
2011-12 |
| Fisher, Annette |
Book Review: Impromptu (PDF, 183.2 KB) |
Journal 21 December 2012 |
book review, Moreno |
In 1973 I 'became' a psychodrama trainee and ever since I have studied, practised and taught the psychodramatic method in my professional and personal life. I have a particular interest in its origins and history because the early seeds, the experiments and research conducted by Dr J.L. Moreno, constitute the foundational elements for those of us who practise psychodrama. As a caretaker of the psychodramatic method, I find Impromptu an enlightening archive of his original ideas.The numinous quality that the method offers, its capacity for transformation and Moreno's seminal concepts are found here, as in others of his original texts. These concepts include spontaneity, creativity and the creative genius, human qualities that he first captured in the notion of the 'impromptu state'. |
11 |
2012-12 |
| Reekie, Don |
Heart of Humanity: Thinking it Through with Moreno Again and Again (PDF, 106.2 KB) |
Journal 22 December 2013 |
canon of creativity, health, humanity, Moreno, Psychodrama |
Don argues each concept in Moreno's vision for humanity is appreciated best when viewed in the light of all the others. He suggests that taking them one by one often leads to misinterpretation. Worse, the psychodrama community may become distanced from Moreno's core philosophies. Embracing Moreno's thinking as a whole enhances and refines the comprehension and application of his work. The central thrust of Moreno's thinking attends to a range of factors that together powerfully assist us to work effectively with the heart of humanity. Within this article, Don asks you to think of social systems, individual systems, each individual person, personality and relationships, as well as their physical and mental well-being and family health. |
13 |
2013-12 |
