Rehearsals for Growth:
“Clinical Applications for Relationship Therapy”
March 2 & 3, 2013 – Greater Hartford Area, CT
Summary
Intro
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 facilitates change by playfully exploring alternative roles.
RfG training helps therapists 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 their vitality, passion, and creativity
This conference focuses on improving the effectiveness of clinicians working with relationships by providing hands-on, supervised practice both in assessment and the selecting, directing, and processing of RfG techniques in conjoint (couple, family and group) therapy.
CEUs
This Conference is intended both for therapists and graduate students at all levels of prior experience with RfG. Up to 14 hours of Continued Education Credit for LMFTs in Connecticut and for Drama Therapists may be earned through participation.
Faculty
Daniel J. Wiener, Ph.D., RDT/BCT, LMFT
Founder, Rehearsals for growth; Professor, Central CT State U; Licensed Psychologist, Licensed MFT; private practice
Charlotte Ramseur, MS, MSMFT, LMFT
Adjunct Professor, Central CT State U; Licensed MFT; private practice; Rehearsals for Growth Certified Practitioner
Maureen Sand
Klingberg Family Center, New Britain
Commentary
Reflections on attending the recent RfG Weekend Workshop
by David Miller, Architect and current CCSU MFT student
People have often said to me, “Lighten up!” By participating in the RfG weekend workshop I saw how this was like saying, “You’re acting too much like an adult!” What does this imply about me? A simple, but powerful, distinction became clear during the workshop. “Adult” implies “survival mind,” focused on outcome, and “Child” then suggests “adventure mind,” a mind openly curious about the journey itself. And how do children do this? They play! And what was I hooked on typically? Acting like an adult. But wait a minute! If I’m the actor, I can act like a child as easily as I can act like an adult. Suddenly I’m at choice. As an adult I’m free to engage my imagination in play!
For me being at choice is what the RfG workshop is all about. We get into ruts, doing what we imagine is necessary for our survival, but are we really using our imaginations? RfG suggests that within our imaginations there are unacknowledged treasure chests full of alternative possibilities. Yet how do we open those treasure chests? RfG offers us a multitude of safe and fun ways to tap into our dramatic imaginations, engaging body and mind through playful, and sometimes surprisingly revealing, interactions with each other. These often hilarious interactions become a way to explore an ever-expanding awareness of who we are and who we can be. And I discovered that the surprises are endless, for we aren’t looking for any “outcome,” even though surprisingly enough one might show up. The many creative avenues explored during the RfG workshop playfully generate new insights about ourselves, about others and how we are all connected.
As therapists, how can we pass onto our clients the value of what we’ve learned through this “hands on” RfG workshop experience? For we need to learn to creatively determine how particular clients “stuckness” might be released by enacting a particular RfG scenario. Our workshop experience, of course, helps begin our own list of possible options. Yet we also have to learn how to direct our clients in the scenario we’ve chosen to enact. So we then practice being the “director/therapist.” A really helpful workshop exercise tying all of this together was our “staging a play” of an actual therapeutic consultation. The actual therapist of the chosen consultation first selects RfG group members to represent the roles of the client family members and then instructs them on how to play their roles. Dr. Wiener then guides the therapist through both the choice and the enactment of one or more “playful” dramatic scenarios that seemed to offer the most therapeutic potential. I put “playful” in quotes, since these enactments can become very serious indeed. Yet it all remains play! That is the beauty of the workshop.