for Mental Health Professionals

2011–2012 Certificate Program

Summary

• Intro
• RfG Certification
• Curriculum
• Admission
• Fees
• Faculty
• Applications
• 2011-12 Training Schedule
• Application

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.

RfG teaches you to:

• Create that "feel safe" environment necessary for your clients to take risks for growth
• Access spontaneity through improvisation
• Promote attentiveness 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 2000 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 through 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 areas of:

• 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; 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 roles
• Therapeutic narrative enactment
• Status work.

Certification represents endorsement by Rehearsals! for Growth™ 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. Ordinarily, CEUs will be applied for when four or more trainees desire them from the same licensing profession.

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 2011-12, The 60-hour RfG-CP is offered either as a sequence of three intensive weekends or a series of seven one-day 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):

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TRAINING (20 hrs):

• 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):

• Integrating RfG with other therapeutic modalities.
• Using repetitions and sequences for 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.

Admission

Requirements: Candidates must have an undergraduate degree and either:

1. 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
   
   
2. 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 abovementioned 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 2011-12 RfG-CP is $1450*.  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 $1150 by October 1, 2011 or by two payments of $600 each, due October 14, 2011 and February 10, 2012.

*$1265 total when attending the RfG Conference (November 11-13, 2011) in place of Beginning Level Training.

NOTE: A limited number of partial scholarships are available for this training program. Please contact Dr. Wiener at Rehearsals for Growth for details.

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 2011-12, individual RfG supervision is available from Dr. Wiener at $130 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

Daniel J. Wiener, Ph.D., RDT/BCT (Director):

Professor at Central Connecticut State University in the Graduate Marriage and Family Therapy Program. Licensed both as a Psychologist in CT and MA, and as a Marriage and Family Therapist in CT, he is an APA Diplomate (Board Certified) 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 five books, including the RfG-CP text, Rehearsals for Growth: Theater Improvisation for Psychotherapists (Norton, 1994).

In 2011-12, RfG-CP training sessions will be co-taught by Dr. Wiener and the following RfG-Certified Trainers:

Charlotte Ramseur, LMFT, Adjunct Professor, Department of Counseling and Family Therapy, CCSU; private practice, New Britain, CT:
"When people don't respond to talk therapy, action methods such as RfG give them an experience that they can change for the better. RfG taps into other dimensions of experiencing growth; like riding a bike successfully for the first time, people get a joyful uplift from breaking through. Sometimes, understanding has nothing to do with change. I use all kinds of experiential methods in my therapeutic work, including "Plant Therapy" (I love gardening!) and have had great success with RfG both in teaching Group Dynamics and conducting organizational training."

Grace Talaga

Debra Dean-Ciriani

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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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Applications

Trainees, after completing at least 40 hours of instruction, demonstrate their use of RfG, typically in one of the following three ways:

1. Co-leading one RfG playshop, workshop, and/or psychosocial group session with an RfG instructor;
   
2. Co-leading one RfG playshop, workshop, and/or psychosocial group session with one or two other trainees (one hr. of instruction/leadership per trainee, minimum).
3. 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 a supervision session with the RfG instructor. Trainees may invite other trainees to observe these supervision sessions. In the case of (2) above, the instructor will ordinarily meet with the co-leading trainees of that session.

The RfG instructor will later provide an evaluation of each 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.

2011-12 Training Schedule

This year's 60-hr. RfG Certificate training will be offered in two tracks: Three Intensive Weekends and Seven all-Friday Workshops. All trainings will be held in Leverett, MA.

  I. Three Intensive Weekends

BEGINNING LEVEL TRAINING*: conveys the experience of RfG through intensive participation in numerous exercises.

          Friday, December 2, 2011, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
          Saturday, December 3, 2011, 9am to 5:30pm
          Sunday, December 4, 2011, 9:30am to 5pm

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TRAINING: trains participants to direct RfG interventions and to view clinical issues as opportunities for RfG interventions.

          Friday, March 2, 2012, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
          Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9am to 5:30pm
          Sunday, March 4, 2012, 9:30am to 5pm

ADVANCED LEVEL TRAINING: proves supervised practice in applying RfG.

          Friday, May 4, 2012, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
          Saturday, May 5, 2012, 9am to 5:30pm
          Sunday, May 6, 2012, 9:30am to 5pm

*Full attendance at the RfG Conference (November 11-13, 2011) meets Beginning Level Training requirements.

  II. Seven One-Day Workshops

BEGINNING LEVEL TRAINING*: conveys the experience of RfG through intensive participation in numerous exercises.

          Friday, October 14, 2011, 9am to 5:45pm
          Friday, November 18, 2011, 9am to 5:45pm
          Friday, December 9, 2011, 9am to 5:45pm

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TRAINING: trains participants to direct RfG interventions and to view clinical issues as opportunities for RfG interventions.

          Friday, February 10, 2012, 9am to 5:45pm
          Friday, March 9, 2012, 9am to 5:45pm

ADVANCED LEVEL TRAINING: provides supervised practice in applying RfG.

          Friday, April 13, 2012, 9am to 5:45pm
          Friday, May 11, 2012, 9am to 5:45pm

MAKE-UP DATE

          Friday, June 8, 2012, 9am to 5:45pm

*Full attendance at the RfG Conference (November 11-13, 2011) meets Beginning Level Training requirements.

Application

Rehearsals for Growth Certificate Program, 2011-12

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