Psychology Arts, a project initiated by the delightful and  inventive  Azizi Marshall of The Center for Creative Arts Therapy in Chicago, Ill., recently interviewed Karen Carnabucci, founder of the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies. Here is a transcript of that interview:

What do you do? Who do you help?
 
I use and teach psychodrama and other experiential methods that support people in rehearsing new roles and discovering new dimensions within themselves -- leading to more satisfying lives. With carefully directed experiences -- with both psychodrama and the newer Family Constellations – we are literally able to shift the molecules in our beings into embracing new realities.

I especially enjoy working with psychotherapists, educators and other helping professionals who want to learn these methods to integrate into their own work. For this reason, I've founded the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies in Lancaster, Pa.

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Welcome to my new practice space!

Experiential psychotherapy and coaching  are different than your typical talk therapy and brainstorming coaching with markers and easels. We practitioners who use action methods and experiential psychotherapies use floor space, props, pillows and other "supplies" in our work with people and groups.

The props -- which may include chairs, stools,  mats, scarves and cloths, small figures, simple musical and sound instruments, and other items -- assist in stepping directly into  the problem or situation rather than just talking about it. People invariably find that the experiential approach helps them develop fresh insights and feel dramatic and useful shifts that never come with analysis, list making and the usual ways we tend to think about things. In other words, stepping into our experience has transformative power.