Who started improv, drama therapy and play therapies?
Looking back in history, we have a few counselors, play theorists and drama theorists who have paved the way for us today. Neva Boyd offered recreational therapies, Jane Addams focused on social work, Viola Spolin focused on improvisation in therapy. Jane Addams also was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize too. Daniel Wiener has founded Rehearsals For Growth, which is a playful interaction based and experiential improv style of counseling. From Rehearsals For Growth, you can learn to step into you “adventure mind” rather than feeling anxiety living in “survival mind.” Dr. Stuart Brown studied murderers and analyzed their child psychology behind their development and decline. From his research, he learned that play is integral to childhood development. All murderers he studied had no childhood play whatsoever. Wisdom Within Counseling offers drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut.
In the 1970’s, Dr. Stuart Brown became a big founder in the component of play therapy.
Dr. Stuart Brown believes firmly that play, recreation, and physical activity are essential throughout life. Especially in childhood, play, being imaginative, and having creative outlets help children. Through play therapies, children can talk about how they are feeling and develop resilience. As well, in adult years, play declines, and so does mental health. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we believe that play therapies are a foundation for expressing emotions. Play, drama, art, and yoga therapies provide a healthy life balance and greatly enrich people of all ages and abilities.
What makes many people want to get into drama therapy rather than traditional therapy?
You had a bad past experience in therapy. To add, you didn’t really click with your last counselor either. You have tried traditional talk therapy and know you want something unique. As well, you may know you loved drama club in middle school. You enjoyed singing and dancing in the school musicals in high school. Maybe, you also identify as an expressive person, or more artsy. Furthermore, sitting and talking in counseling does not work for everyone. Especially, people who are more emotionally expressive, want a nurturing approach, and positive coping tools, deeply enjoy drama and expressive therapies. Sitting and talking is always available, but drama helps you gain life purpose. At Wisdom Within Counseling near Colchester, Connecticut, you can go for a walk and talk therapy session, use drama therapy and improv, and art to express yourself.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for confidence and clarity through play therapy, acting, drama therapy, and improv near Colchester, Connecticut.
What games can help people with Parkinson’s disease in therapy?
Improv and drama therapy helps provide stimulation for children, teens, couples, and older adults. From using improv and drama in therapy sessions, families can feel closer even when a loved one has Parkinson’s disease. Play therapies can help with playfulness in session. Caregivers can play drama therapy and improvisation games at home with their loved ones. These play therapies help with social connection at home when you have a loved one who may be mentally declining. Games help sustain mental health.
What is improv and drama therapy near Colchester, Connecticut?
Well, it means using your imagination. Furthermore, drama therapy uses theatrical interventions as therapy, which include, but are not limited to role-play, theatre games, mirroring, group-dynamic games, mime, puppetry, and other improvisational techniques. For instance, puppets in drama therapy promote a language for both children and adults. As well, the language of puppetry is rich in visual symbols, that a trained therapist can help uncover. Puppets also provide a safe place for verbal metaphors. Using a puppet can help a person feel comfortable talking about what happened to them. Speaking puppetry in a therapy session helps a person to develop tools for understanding others socially. Drama therapy supports signs, metaphor, and symbols from the puppet and supports the puppet telling the story.
Benefits of drama therapy within family counseling
So, play in therapy helps to improve communication between young and older family members. Sometimes, gender roles cause family members to feel defensive. As well, gender stereotypes, gender biases, fears of failure, power differentials, and sexism in families can be helped in drama therapies in Southeastern Connecticut. Family members can use drama therapy and improv to act out, talk about, and remove power dynamics and fear. With these triggering topics, family members can use drama therapy to remove anger and failure, improving lifelong coping tools of playfulness. Drama therapy and creative arts can address power, blame, anger, and gender stereotypes in family counseling. Play provides a language beyond words in a therapeutic play space. Participating in play therapies, drama therapies, skit, games, jokes, and improv can help family members in counseling feel closer, that they can connect, and rely on one another.
Plus, improvisation supports brain creativity for those with Parkinson’s disease through improvisation and games.
Maybe, you know an older adult who is sedentary. Furthermore, music and improv games improve body awareness and movement for those with anxiety and depression. Also, for older, mature adults, improv and drama therapy helps increases movement of the body. Drama therapy can be a more active, creative, expressive style of therapy that improves positive movement. Lastly, at Wisdom Within Counseling, you can learn to overcome anxiety and fear, and build self-acceptance by incorporating play, recreation, and physical activity.
What are spiritual aspects to improv and theater?
For many, improvisation and theater games in therapy help promote spiritual connection. There is a supportive feel, a community, and safe place for connection. As well, there are physical, emotional, and mental benefits as well as spiritual. You can learn to take turns, if two people start talking at the same time. As well, there is an ability to manipulate your voice through singing games and musical improv. For a lot of people, it is scary and provokes anxiety to think about acting. So, improv in therapy helps with building confidence and helping you remember there are no mess ups. There is literally no way to mess up or make a mistake in drama therapy and improv games. You can sing together in individual therapy or in group therapy to build playfulness and connection.
Zip, Zap, Zop Improv Game Example – Get to Know You Game, Beginnger Level
Say, “Zip, and someone’s name.” “Zap, name.” Zop, name.” This game provides a fun and playfulness to both in person a virtual groups. Furthermore, games like, “Zip, Zap, Zop,” provide social skills and social interactions. Once group can work on this game, groups can move on to other games like sounds. At Wisdom Within Counseling, the team of therapists offer creative, expressive arts. So, if you like doing acting, drama and improv, you can do drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut. You can have a playful, alternative therapy experience verses just sitting and talking. We offer you video and in person sessions to build self-esteem and confidence through drama therapy and improv.
How can improv help with chronic illnesses and mental health?
Well, someone has chronic pain and chronic illness may feel helpless, inferior to others, and hopeless. There may be self-judgement as well or even loss. Therefore, improv and drama therapy promotes acceptance and self-care for those with chronic pain. As well, chronic pain and chronic illness causes someone to rely on others more. So, improv and drama therapy supports independence and autonomy.
We know that music and art release and provide healing for choice illness and chronic pain.
Therapy doesn’t just have to be sitting and talking. In holistic, expressive arts counseling, you can step into playfulness using music therapies, art therapies, and drama therapies. Lastly, at Wisdom Within Counseling, you can learn to overcome worries, build mental strength, and learn self-love skills through play therapy. You can express feelings around your new disease like Parkinson’s by incorporating play, art, recreational therapy, and physical activity in counseling.
What are the self-acceptance benefits of drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut?
On this note, acceptance is a benefit of drama therapy and improv. Furthermore, drama therapy and expressive arts in counseling helps when working with children who don’t talk or don’t speak. Drama therapy and holistic therapies provide an outlet for creativity. Playfulness promotes laughter and that helps children with selective mutism learn to feel safe talking and speaking again. As well, for adults with dementia or Parkinson’s disease, drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut can support self-acceptance and self-love.
How can drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut improve laughter?
Laughter can decrease anxiety and laughing in counseling boosts your immune system. As well, laughter is the best medicine. With laughter, you get an increase in natural killer cell activity. Laughter increases dopamine activity, but we sometimes forget how to laugh after stress, loss, and trauma. So, with laughter in holistic therapy, you can instantly increase endorphins and serotonin. As well, laughter relives physical tension in muscles and joints. It is very challenging to just talk about depression.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for confidence and clarity through play therapy, acting, drama therapy, and improv near Colchester, Connecticut.
What is different about drama, improv, and creative therapy verses traditional talk only therapy?
Often, a talk therapist will tell someone to talk it out. But, a drama therapist will ask you to act it out, use your body to move, story tell, and play an instrument like a drum to tell how you feel. So, for many people, they need to use their body to release anxiety, anger, and sadness. Sitting is not enough of a release to feel like they are truly releasing or communicating. For instance, you have a new diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. You could talk about the worry. Or, you could make a sound to show the sound of worry in your mind. Drama therapists encourage you to involve your whole self in a playful way, to help you build your intuition. You could act out what it feels like to get the new diagnosis and show the feeling in your body.
Right in creative, holistic counseling, you can work with your therapist who is getting you laughing and smiling again.
So, right when you start laughing, you can feel a muscle release and relaxation. Therefore, by working with a holistic therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling that encourages you to laugh, you get an even more enriching holistic therapy experience. You can gain positive coping tools through drama therapy that promotes laughter and lightheartedness. Laughter in holistic, expressive creative therapy creates a positive physical reaction in your body, thus lowering stress. Think back to the film, Patch Adams with Robin Willliams, and how he uses laughter to help others in the that movie. He shows us that laughter helps children with cancer live longer. By creating humor in your counseling session through improv, you lengthen your life.
How can drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut help caregiviers?
Well, when a loved one has a life threatening illness, chronic pain, or Parkinson’s disease, caregivers needs their own support too. As well, when it comes to caregivers, we find they feel sad, alone, depression, and struggle with their own anxieties. Laughter, drama therapy and improv provide caregivers with a sense of community. Caregivers can have a reason to get out of the house. There is a sense of connection to other caregivers that develops from group improv and drama therapies. At Wisdom Within Counseling, the team offers playfulness beyond just sitting and talking in a traditional counseling way. Many times, sitting and talking doesn’t work for true stress receive. From drama therapies, you can develop positive self-talk and positive coping tools for stress outside of session. You can choose from art therapy, yoga therapy, and drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut.
What is mindfulness in holistic therapy?
To add, mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment with mindfulness. As well, practicing improv means living in the present moment. So, by practice improv, you can learn to live more in the present moment with spontaneity. With living in the present moment, you can respond more artfully and with more resilience to life’s stressors. As well, you can think more creatively about stressors from having a holistic, drama therapist on your team. Plus, we have an art closet with glitter gel pens, acrylic paints, watercolors, and markers. So, you can paint out what you are feeling in a way words can not provide. Talking only can go so far. At Wisdom Within Counseling, drama therapy and improv is available in East Lyme, near Colchester, Connecticut.
How can you do mindfulness right now?
First, read this and then close your eyes to image this experience. Now, think about a lemon. You went to the food store and picked out a fresh lemon. Next, you check out of the busy, noisy grocery store and head home. You are holding your shiny, yellow lemon. There are no blemishes and it is cool to your touch. You can smell a light lemon scent when you put your nose close to the skin of the lemon. You bring it into your kitchen, pull out a cutting board, and a knife, and cut a slice. A bit of the juice trickles into a cut on your finger nail and stings. The sun shines in through your kitchen window. You then smell the lemon scent and taste the lemon slice. Now, this is a mindfulness experience.
How to reflect on this mindfulness exercise?
Notice how your mind is present and focused on the lemon and mindful lemon experience. Did you notice your mind wanting to goto the future or to the past? Was it challenging to stay in the present moment and notice the lemon image? It is all okay! Mindfulness is just about becoming aware of your mind-body-spirit connection.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for confidence and clarity through play therapy, acting, drama therapy, and improv near Colchester, Connecticut.
What happens when people are not mindful?
Many times, in life, you may not be present or mindful, and are stressed out. When worried or stressed, it is hard to stay creative and you often live in fear. Often, in life, you mind may feel scattered, frazzled, and filled with anxiety on a daily basis. Anxiety prevents the ability to laugh or even feel truly content. This is called “survival mind” rather than a playful “adventure mind.” You may feel like you are worried and needing a unique, creative type of therapy to help you develop hope, playfulness, and healing. Right at Wisdom Within Counseling in East Lyme, Connecticut, you can work with your holistic, expressive arts therapist who can help you overcome depression and anxiety.
Where can I read more on mindfulness therapies?
Authors like Thich Nhat Hanh write books on the topic of mindfulness. So, by learning to do mindfulness through meditation or mindful movement in therapy can be healing. Many times, with eating disorder therapy, we talk about being mindfulness with food. We talk about how food got to the the plate, the taste of each bite of food, and the texture of each food. Think about where you can bring mindfulness into your life. From Wisdom Within Counseling and using drama, yoga, music, and art therapies, you learn you have the permission to make mistakes.
How can improv work help you feel like you can adapt better to life?
Now, our culture teaches us how to be planners. And, often, you may plan too much. Drama therapy support you in staying fluid and flexible. Sometimes, plans fall through and it can be very hard to be flexible. So, drama therapy can help you connect with others and how to be flexible and fluid. Elements of fluidity, resilience, and adaptability are benefits from working with an improv and drama therapist. overall, expressive arts, drama therapy and improv near Colchester, Connecticut boost self-esteem, improve communication, and self-acceptance.
For some adults, it is challenging to access the intuitive, authentic self, so drama therapy can help with connection to self.
Drama therapy can help you access and connect to your intuitive, authentic self. You can listen in the moment to the feelings within your body. Taking improv and drama therapy into life, you can learn to not let your confidence get shaken when something uncertain or unexpected happens. Furthermore, you may want to control things, subconsciously. At Wisdom Within Counseling, with improv and drama therapy, you can have a counselor encourage you to explore your life in different, unique, and alternative ways. There are many core benefits such as listening to one’s own inner impulses. Wisdom Within Counseling encourages you to tune into your core impulses and be intuitive.
Drama therapy and improv in counseling near Colchester, Connecticut
Furthermore, you can feel confident and competent in any stage of life you are in. Right now, it might feel like a snuggle in your roles and responsibilities. Maybe, being a parent is stressful, or your job is horrible, but you outwardly display yourself as all put together. Other people look at you and think you have no stress. You are good at pushing stress away. This baseline anxiety and pressure of having a job you dislike and parenting doubt can make life and connecting with your children really challenging.
Plus, improvisation skills increase spontaneity, animation, emotional expression, and co-creation with the other, as well as enhance resiliency skills.
Any baseline of anxiety or fear prevents love, freedom, improvisation and flexibility in life. From drama therapy, you can embody playfulness to your children too, teaching them resilience. At Wisdom Within Counseling, you get a relationship with your holistic therapist who relates to you from the heart.
