Today's guest blog article is written by Linda Ciotola, M.Ed., TEP, who is the author of "Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury" with Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP. They frequently co-present at various online and in-person trainings. By Linda Ciotola, M.Ed., TEP
The use of the empty chair was one of the first things I learned early in my training to become a psychodramatist. J.L. Moreno, M.D., the originator of the action method of psychodrama, pioneered the use of the "empty chair" in his first public psychodrama on April 1, 1921 in Vienna, Austria, when he placed an empty chair on stage and asked for a person to
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 By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
When the dark approaches, we naturally feel more vulnerable. The dark is big, and we can feel so small. This is why light at this time of year seems so powerful, and why we yearn for it and call for it. We adorn our Christmas trees and porches with little lights, touch matches to the candles of the menorah, sing about light in our seasonal songs and place the candles in our windows. The Swedish holiday of St. Lucia’s Day centers on a maiden wearing a crown of candles, and the Yule log that burns in the fireplace or fire pit – and is replicated in the tasty chocolate pastry of rolled cake – a sweet reminder of the bonfires of the ancients.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
I’m always on the lookout for free continuing education courses. For me and for you. It’s a selfish thing – after you save money by taking these free courses, you have extra money in your wallet to take classes with me. (Insert smiley face emoji!) Since it’s CE gathering season for social workers, licensed counselors, marriage and family therapists and others in my home state of Pennsylvania, I’m sharing my findings with you.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
Most of us will agree that there is great upheaval in the world. It is the kind of upheaval that challenges us and tests us. Much of the challenge and the test relate to how we can celebrate during the holiday season when there is so much struggle – whether in our own homes and hearts or on the other side of the planet, or both. Really bad things are happening, and they continue to happen, darkening not only the season but also shading the upcoming new year. By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
For the those people who are psychodrama history nerds -- and I mean that in the best possible way-- you should get to know Sergio Guimaraes. Sergio, a psychodramatist and psychologist in Buenos Aires, Brazil, has made and published a number of video interviews about psychodrama. Many are interviews with Zerka Moreno, the grand dame of psychorama and third wife of Dr J.L. Moreno who continued to teach and spread the word about the magic of psychodrama after Moreno's death -- as well as many more videos about psychodrama and the people who direct psychodrama sessions, many of them well-known practitioners and trainers around the world. Sergio's latest project has been what he calls "Retracing J.L. Moreno’s Steps,” visiting Vienna, Austria, and nearby areas including Bad Voslau, where Moreno set up his first medical practice as a young physician. Accompanied by Michael Wieser, an Austrian psychodramatist, Sergio toured and filmed the historic places there and nearby that relate to Moreno and the places that both supported the birth of psychodrama and memorialize the man who created it.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
Thanksgiving Day is almost here – the time when we are encouraged to gather and to give thanks. These are times when we typically mention what we are personally thankful for, perhaps friends and family, or good health, or a health challenge that we have escaped, or a sweet pet, or some other fortunate experience. When a friend and colleague recently shared on social media what is commonly known as the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, I was again reminded that other cultures look at gratitude quite differently. Haudenosaunee – pronounced who-DIN-oh-show-nee -- is also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, or Six Nations that includes Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora. Robin Wall Kimmerer included a version of this address in her lyrical best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass, after being assured by Oren Lyons, the Faithkeeper within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in northeast North America, that its use would be valuable. He is reported to have replied, "Of course you should write about it. It's supposed to be shared, otherwise how can it work? We've been waiting for 500 years for people to listen. If they'd understood the Thanksgiving then, we wouldn't be in this mess.” Here is the address, written in an interactive style. Perhaps you would like to read it before your Thanksgiving meal, or early in the day or later in the evening. Or any time.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
As part of our commitment to professional growth and development, Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies is initiating a new scholarship and sliding scale program that is an important tool for social justice. The scholarship and sliding scale plan is based on the nationally known Green Bottle, which acknowledges peoples' different financial experiences enables participants to adjust payment based on access to resources.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
Experiential psychotherapy is based on the notion that a person cannot make a significant change until a shift happens within the experience of the person. The therapist who is practicing experiential therapy focuses on facilitating the transforming experience with the collaboration of the person -- the one we usually call the client although I continue to insist that the word "client" is too sterile and too mundane to describe this kind of experience. As the person gives themselves to the experience, of how it has been and how it is now, chance occurs in the therapeutic session. experience the difference from how it was before, and how it is now. Most psychotherapists do experiential therapy to some degree, in that what our people experience in the here-and-now therapeutic relationship makes a significant difference in their world.  By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
Welcome to a phrase that I've just coined -- body-informed care. The words "trauma-Informed" have become a well-used phrase when discussing the care and treatment of survivors of trauma in the the fields of health and wellness. However, I've come to believe that if we are to be trauma-informed, we must become body-informed as well. Attention to the physical body is crucial in trauma treatment. Although we would like to think otherwise, trauma is not solely a psychological experience that affects the thinking brain. The fact is that traumatic experiences can leave a lasting impact on the body, leading to physical sensations, tension, and dysregulation, and sometimes illness and worse. By focusing on the body, trauma treatment can address the somatic aspects of trauma and promote truly holistic healing. The practitioner is charged with rewriting the nervous system into a new pattern of safety. This challenge means that practitioners must not only be trauma-informed but also body-informed. As we learn more about the neuroscience of co-regulation -- the idea that one person's nervous system impacts another's nervous system, the practitioner must be the "more regulated" one in the session and learn and practice how to stay in his, her or their own body so they can be present when they are working with a traumatized person. Here are some reasons why attention to the body is important in trauma treatment: By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP
I never met Dr. J.L. Moreno, the European-born physician who is widely celebrated as the man who revolutionized psychiatric treatment. A pioneer in improvisational theater and a social scientist fascinated with relationships in groups, he prodded us to accept a new and vigorous way to relate to our world with the method of dramatic play that he called psychodrama. However, I had the good fortune to study closely for several years with Zerka T. Moreno, Dr. Moreno’s third wife, who is now credited as the co-developer of psychodrama. Zerka is known not only for shaping psychodrama while J.L. was alive but also for refining and polishing the method after his death in 1974 through her teaching, writing and traveling. And I have had the lovely opportunity to befriend Dr. Moreno’s daughter, Regina Moreno, who has asked me to assist with the writing of her book Words of the Daughter: A Memoir, where she warmly reveals more about the father of this method, the important contributions of her stepmother Zerka to this blended family away from the psychodrama stage, and especially her mother Florence’s hidden role in developing distinct psychodramatic and sociometric innovations of her own. Gina – as later called herself – died on June 19 in Berkeley, Calif., after a long and interesting life, a life mostly centered on psychodrama, relationships and adventure. |
AuthorKaren Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP, is an author, trainer and psychotherapist who promotes, practices and teaches experiential methods including psychodrama, Family and Systemic Constellations, sand tray, mindfulness and Tarot imagery. Archives
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