2008 – 2009 Certificate Program
Rehearsals! for Growth™ (RfG) is a novel method of psychotherapy and education which uses techniques from theater improvisation to achieve individual and interpersonal growth. RfG, a distinctive Drama Therapy of relationships, facilitates change by playfully exploring alternative roles through dramatic enactment. RfG provides vivid, immediate experiences and reaches all populations, including those who do not respond well to talk-only methods.
REHEARSALS FOR GROWTH, LLC
81 Long Plain Rd.
Leverett, MA 01054
Tels: (860) 490-3337
(413) 687-9416
e-mail: Dan@rehearsalsforgrowth.com
website: www.rehearsalsforgrowth.com
RfG teaches you to:
- Create that "feel safe" environment necessary for your clients to take risks for growth
- Access spontaneity through improvisation
- Promote attentiveness, flexibility, and validation both of self and others
- Apply assessment skills using non-verbal cues
- Increase your own vitality, passion, and creativity!
RfG Certification
Over the past 24 years, more than 2200 clinicians have attended RfG workshops and training seminars; many have expressed interest in receiving further training in these methods. The Rehearsals for Growth Certificate Program (RfG-CP) offers hands-on instruction in RfG methods at intensive training workshops, live or video supervision of the trainee’s work, and co-training with Dr. Wiener. The RfG-CP is designed primarily for mental health professionals wishing to offer this work.
The RfG-CP certifies therapists to apply RfG in the following areas:
- Psychotherapy — using play and enactment to effect clinical change
- Relationship Skills Training — offering playshops to non-client groups of individuals and couples
- Education — accelerating group learning while improving student morale
RfG-CP training workshops offer instruction in principles, concepts, techniques and applications of the following topics:
- social risk-taking
- expanding emotional range
- experiential learning
- physical enactment
- encouraging adult play
- exploring other characters
- therapeutic narrative enactment
- status work.
Certification represents Rehearsals! for Growth's™ endorsement of a trainee's familiarity with, and competence in utilizing RfG techniques in the areas listed above. Certification follows the satisfactory completion of sixty hours of direct training plus demonstrated skill in application and teaching.
The RfG-CP provides Drama Therapy students pursuing Registry through Alternative Track training with 4 credits when combined with the satisfactory completion of written assignments.
Continuing Education credits for Licensed Mental Health professionals can be applied for at the time of the student’s registration.
The RfG-CP is not offered for academic credit. RfG-Certified Therapists may display the RfG logo with their name, degrees and licenses and use the title “Rehearsals for Growth Certified Therapist” when offering playshops, therapy groups, or educational workshops.
Curriculum
In 2008-09, The 60-hour RfG-CP is offered as a sequence of three intensive weekend workshops. Trainees participate in workshops at three levels: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced, after which they demonstrate their skill in RfG application. In addition to workshop attendance, a moderate quantity of reading is assigned.
BEGINNING LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): Improv Enactment Training designed primarily to convey the experience of being a participant in RfG exercises. Prior recent RfG experience in graduate courses and conference workshops may be applied to satisfy up to 4 hours of this work.
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): Training in offering RfG techniques to:
- assess client readiness to participate.
- examine ethical and safety considerations in applying these methods.
- make clinical inferences from client performances.
- use therapists' own emotional reactions to identify treatment issues crucial to the success of these methods.
ADVANCED LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): Training and personalized practice in:
- integrating RfG with other therapeutic modalities.
- using repetitions and sequences of RfG exercises.
- dealing with unexpected events arising in the use of enactments.
At the Advanced level trainees are encouraged to present live or videotaped cases for consultation and to practice leading and/or directing RfG activities within the training group.
Note — Following intermediate and advanced RfG-CP training workshops, trainees are encouraged to meet with peers to review, process, and practice RfG techniques.
APPLICATIONS: Trainees, after completing at least 40 hours of instruction, demonstrate their use of RfG, typically in one of the following two ways:
- Co-leading one RfG playshop, workshop, and/or psychosocial group session with an RfG instructor;
- Presenting for supervision videotapes of two psychotherapy sessions featuring RfG techniques.
Following each demonstration, the trainee presents a critique of his or her own work during an individual supervision session with the RfG instructor. The trainee may invite other trainees to observe these supervision sessions. The RfG instructor will later provide an evaluation of the trainee’s demonstrated skill.
A Letter of Completion will be given to each trainee upon satisfactory completion of all workshop levels.
A Certificate of Graduation will be awarded to each trainee upon satisfactory completion of all requirements.
Admission
Requirements: Candidates must have an undergraduate degree and either:
- a graduate degree from a recognized program in psychiatry, psychology, social work, psychiatric nursing, pastoral counseling, occupational therapy, expressive arts therapy or marriage and family therapy; or
- be within one academic year of completing such a graduate degree. Ordinarily, candidates will have had professional work experience in a clinical capacity.
Candidates lacking the above mentioned academic training but who present
extensive or unusual related training and/or work experience in the mental
health field will be considered.
Fees
Tuition for the 2008-09 RfG-CP is $1450.00. Space is limited to 12 students in the Intermediate and Advanced levels. A $250 deposit reserves your space. The balance is due either as a one-time, discounted payment of $1100 by October 1, 2008 or by two payments of $600 each, due October 31st, 2008 and January 3rd, 2009.
Tuition covers all scheduled workshops, a copy of Rehearsals for Growth: Collected papers, 1991-2004, and DVDs of all taped segments of the Training. If space is available, persons who have previously completed the RfG-CP may enroll for current training workshops at a discount of 30%; qualified professionals not enrolled in the RfG-CP may attend at a cost of $30 per contact hour, space permitting.
Process: Candidates complete the admission form below and return it with a $250 check, which is non-refundable upon acceptance to the program. The deposit is returned if the candidate is not accepted.
Post-Program Supervision: During 2008-09, individual RfG supervision is available from Dr. Wiener at $120 per hour. On-site co-training events may be contracted between Rehearsals for Growth, LLC and the trainee, who provides the participants and the setting for each co-training event.
Faculty
DIRECTOR: Daniel J. Wiener, Ph.D., RDT/BCT, Professor at Central Connecticut State University in the Graduate Marriage and Family Therapy Program. Licensed both as a Psychologist and a Marriage and Family Therapist, he is an APA Diplomate in Marital and Family Psychology, an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, a Certified Group Psychotherapist, and a Registered Drama Therapist/ Board Certified Trainer.
Dr. Wiener has 40 years of experience in academic teaching, psychotherapy practice, postgraduate clinical training, and organizational consulting. Since founding RfG in 1985, he has offered RfG training to clinicians, educators and lay-people and has presented this work both nationally and internationally at over 185 professional conferences and trainings. In addition to numerous book chapters and journal articles, Dr. Wiener has written or edited four books, including the RfG-CP text, Rehearsals for Growth: Theater Improvisation for Psychotherapists (Norton, 1994).
In 2008-09, RfG-CP training sessions will be co-taught by Dr. Wiener and the following RfG-Certified Trainers:
Charlotte Ramseur, LMFT, Rehearsals for Growth Certified Therapist,
Adjunct Professor at Central Connecticut State University in the Counseling and Family Therapy Department.
John Phelps, LMFT, Primary Therapist, Rehearsals for Growth Certified Therapist, Natchaug Hospital, Mansfield Center, CT.
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RfG trainers also travel to train groups of professionals
in other geographical locations, contingent upon sufficient interest.
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2008-09 Training Schedule
All trainings will be held in Leverett, MA.
BEGINNING LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): conveys the experience of being a participant in RfG exercises through intensive participation in numerous exercises.
Section A:
Friday, October 24th, 2008, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Saturday, October 25th, 2008, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Sunday October 26st, 2008, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Section B:
Friday, December 12th, 2008, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Saturday, December 13th, 2008, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Sunday, December 14th, 2008, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): trains participants to direct RfG interventions and to view clinical issues as opportunities for RfG interventions.
Friday, February 27th, 2009, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Saturday, February 28th, 2009, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Sunday, March 1st, 2009, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
ADVANCED LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs): proves supervised practice in applying RfG.
Friday, April 24th, 2009, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Saturday, April 25th, 2009, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Sunday, April 26th, 2009, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Application
Rehearsals for Growth
Certificate Program, 2008-09
If you would like to print this out and mail it in, click here.
Please send your payment of $250.00 to the address below after clicking Submit. This is your tuition, and will be refunded if you are not accepted into the program.
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Checks made payable to: "Rehearsals for Growth" should be sent to:
Rehearsals for Growth, LLC
81 Long Plain Rd.
Leverett, MA 01054
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