Psychodrama and Body-Mind Awareness Groups at Four Winds Hospital are alternate therapies that allow for the expression of emotions through an avenue other than 'talk' therapy.
Psychodrama is a method of exploring, through actions, the worlds in which we live - both internal and external. It allows for the safe expression of strong feelings, the development of insight, and a wider perspective on individual and community problems as well as the opportunity to try out new, desired behaviors.

During a psychodrama group, members re-enact scenes from their lives taking on various roles for one another. Growth and healing happen with the working through of situations. Rebecca Walters, M.S., a trainer, educator and psychodrama practitioner (TEP) certified by the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychodrama Services at Four Winds Hospital. "By re-enacting key moments and important issues, and by putting a child's inner most thoughts and feelings into actions, with the help of group members, psychodrama can assist the child or adolescent in experimenting with new and more satisfying behaviors and roles in their personal lives," says Walters. "They find emotional release by experiencing the safe expression of strong feelings and develop insight into their lives, behaviors and feelings, while learning social skills and new ways of relating to themselves and to others." "Because it is so highly visual, it engages the children in a way that talk therapy is sometimes unable to," says Walters. "Psychodrama is a form of play, and children explore their worlds through play. Children often reveal things in psychodrama that they are unable to verbalize, but they are able to 'show' us through this avenue of therapeutic expression."

Psychodrama is also used in adult group settings at Four Winds and is conducted by Judy Swallow, M.A., TEP. "In a psychodrama group, adults explore their pasts, their present situations and look into the future all as corrective experiences." This therapeutic method requires a protagonist, auxiliary egos (group members who assume the roles of other people in the protagonists life,) an audience (other group members who observe and react to the drama); and a director (the therapist). The protagonist selects an event from his or her life and provides the essence of the original experience so that it can be re-enacted. Techniques used in the psychodrama may include role reversal, doubling, mirror technique, future projection and dream work.

Body-Mind Awareness

Adapted from techniques used in the Rubenfeld Synergy Method of releasing emotional and physical stress through body movements, the Four Winds Body-Mind Awareness Group is used with adults to assist them in becoming aware of how they are breathing, and using, or not using their breathing to assist them in working out tensions - how to use their own bodies, to become aware of the grounding qualities that come with feeling one's feet on the ground and sensing how one's own spine gives support.

In creating a safe, comfortable environment in which to explore oneself physically from the inside out, this experience allows individuals an avenue in which to release the 'pre-bundled' physical stress responses that they have been carrying around as well as their emotional stress. The seminal difference is teaching people to know the difference between tension and relaxation, and giving them the tools to first recognize, and then relieve the physical tension whenever they need or want to relax.

So, what is actually happening during a body-mind awareness session?

Changing habits of body movements, breathing patterns and thought processes are all by-products of body-mind awareness. Anecdotal reports from patients involved in this therapy have included improvements in self-esteem, body image, depression, head and joint aches, spinal cord, neck and shoulder tension and a change in creativity and self-expression. In a guided journey combining the elements of touch (feeling the floor, expanding your fingers) and talk, access to the emotional and physical connection is gained, and the individual experiences whatever is happening 'at that moment' thereby opening an avenue to use intuition and self-care in daily life. Attention is paid to posture, maintaining personal boundaries and conscious breathing. By teaching the body and the mind to 'read one another' there is a lessening of anxiety, a sense of well-being, a knowing that a 'bad feeling' (physical or emotional) may be a prodrome that can be headed off at the pass.

Judy Swallow, a Master Synergist trained in the Rubenfeld Method, and a member of the multidisciplinary team at Four Winds Hospital, began her career when Ilana Rubenfeld, the founder of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, offered her first professional training class in 1977. "Ilana played many roles in the Rubenfeld Synergy class" remembers Swallow. "She rented a house on Long Island where we formed a community and worked together very intensively with Ilana as the administrator, personal trainer to each trainee, and supervisor. It was a wonderful journey, an intimate exploration for each of us, a 'first', and I think that we were all aware that we were part of something very special." "Twenty four years of clinical experience has taught me that people come to these groups with many negative experiences that have hindered their ability to trust, 'open up' and learn new things", says Swallow. "It is my job to make each person feel safe and supported within the group setting, and to allow their sense of mutual expectation and anxiety at 'trying something new' to work for them as a positive."

In explaining further the benefits of combining a body-mind awareness group as an adjunct to traditional inpatient mental health treatment, Swallow evokes a few of the Principles and Theoretical Foundations of The Rubenfeld Synergy Method on which she, in part, bases her work. "In this group setting, individuals have the opportunity to explore alternate choices and to develop possibilities for emotional, physical and psychophysical change. Awareness is the first key to change, bringing the unconscious into awareness. Individuals may experience memories of the past, and think about their future, but change itself can only occur in the present," she explains, "and the ultimate responsibility for change rests within the individual." People are not forced to make changes, but rather, taught to recognize dysfunctional behavior in themselves and guided to try new behaviors, taught to recognize habits that have not been helpful, and steered toward learning new ones.

Recognizing feelings of pleasure, lightness through laughter, envisioning a beautiful, peaceful place, or envisioning a change in yourself or your situation are all places that an individual, who might otherwise be unable to allow themselves such self-expression, are able to go in a body-mind awareness group. A place that is away from the pain, the grief, or the sadness that has brought them to an inpatient setting in the first place.