OBJECTIVE OF THE SESSION
The objective of this session is to provide caretakers with improvisation skills in order to help young people with anger and social rejection issues to identify their emotion, manage it and turn it into a positive emotion.
By the end of the session each member will be able to:
– use theatre techniques as a methodology for preventing emotional violence
– create a safe zone for any subtypes of victims and aggressors in the group via improvisation
– analyze and deepen the story and its impact on the group’s members, through drama conventions and digital drama activities
CASE SCENARIO
The protagonist is a middle-aged man having mental health issues. He is aware about his condition and he wants to find out the best medication to feel better. He has a great social life, many friends surround him and he is autonomous in his daily routine. Some days are harder for him because he doesn’t feel like to get out of the bed and he spends most of the time lying on it. He also recognizes how much help his mother gives to him; therefore, he wants to pay her back by starting an “intervention plan”. One day he goes to a day care center with his mother. While the protagonist is talking to the professional regarding the “intervention plan” to be put into practice, his mother continuously insults him by saying things such as “You do nothing” or “You spend all day smoking” or “I have to do everything for you”. Consequently, his lack of autonomy may have been provoked by the controlling attitudes of the mother itself. Therefore, the protagonist believes in what she says and he feels inferior, impotent and incapable of being very independent, especially when he is home, even if he handles his life properly. His mother attitude will not help him during the recovery, and the professional is aware about it. The man is determined to improve his life ; however, it will not work if his mother keeps telling him that he cannot do anything without her help.
TRAINING SESSION
The trainer welcomes the participants and informs them of the case scenario (see above) through narration. After having informed the participants of the case scenario the trainer presents the goals of the session by pinpointing the type of aggression, the emotions and the coping strategies:
- Aggression Type:. Relational aggression – emotional violence
- Emotions: guilt, shame
- Coping: Stressors related to mental illness/victimization and self-stigma
- Coping: Functional coping strategies.
- Questions and answers to reflect about/work on during the session relating the situation of the case scenario:
1st Question
At what point in the scenario do you find that the protagonist was a victim of violence? To what kind of violence does the scenario refer?
1st Answer
The protagonist is a victim of verbal and mental violence when his mother starts to insult him, in front of the professional, by telling that he doesn’t do anything during the day and that she is the only one that does
.2nd Question
Do you think that the thoughts, the actions, the feelings and the attitudes adopted by the protagonist of the scenario helped him/her to cope with this situation? Are there any alternative ideas?
2nd Answer
The protagonist justified the attitude of his mother because he thinks she is right since he is totally aware that the depression forces him to stay in bed. However, he should change his mind and start to believe he can do. He is autonomous during his daily routine; moreover, he is the one who decided to start the action plan. All this shows his independence in making decisions and in taking actions.
3rd Question
What other interventions and actions could further help the protagonist to deal with this incident and with any potential similar incidents in the future?
3rd Answer
The professional should propose a path to recovery together with his mother because the latter has to support his son and she has to understand he is capable of doing and that he wants change this situation to pay her back. She has to help him with nice words; on the contrary, the action plan would not have positive effects. They have to work together and she has to accept her son condition
And also:
– What are the main problematics exposed in the case scenario?
– How are the issues presented in the above case scenario related to specific emotions?
– Which are those emotions?
Then there is a discussion and the participants express their ideas. By the end of this part the participants should have determined that the case scenario deals with: relational aggression resulting in emotional violence and that the emotion this session will focus on guilt and shame.
PREPARATION
This session is carried out between the trainer (improvisation professional) and the caretakers. They should all wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
- Duration: 90 minutes.
- Number of participants: 6-20.
- Place: A room where there is space to move.
- Materials and tools.
NOTE: This sessions proposes a set of activities to deal with the emotions produced by verbal violence situations, some activities might be more suitable than others to the final trainees depending on factors like their culture or mental health condition (i.e those activities involving physical contact). The mental health professional leading the session can skip or modify those exercices adapting it to the needs of the trainees.
PROCEDURE
Introduction
Duration: 10 minutes.
Description: Introducing the case scenario, the questions and the emotion.
Introduction Exercises – Improvisational training
Exercise 1: “You, thank you!”
Purpose: Activation of a partner-feeling. Positive Accepting of an impulse and passing it on
Duration: 5 minutes.
Description: The trainees stand in a circle. Someone points to another person with their hand and says: «You!» The person addressed nods and replies with «Thank you!». It is this person’s turn to point to the next person with «You!». It continues in this way
Exercise 2: Jumping, clapping, turning
Purpose: Precise perception of the partner. Common experience of success by bringing together «my» and «your» impulse.
Duration: 10 minutes.
Description: The participants are in the room. Two people meet and try to jump on the spot simultaneously on a common impulse (participants with mobility issues can merely clap their hands). The same happens now with another partner, this time clapping their hands simultaneously. As a third variation, the two participants now try to turn on the spot together. In another variation the trainer does not give any instructions, now the aim is to create one of the three impulses together, either jumping, clapping or turning.
Exercise 3: 1, 2, 3
Purpose: Perceive and support each other. Awareness of responsibility for myself and the other person.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Description: Two participants are facing each other. At first they count together alternately up to 3, then it starts again at «1». In the next variant the number «1» is replaced by a clapping.
Here the participants will notice that the common rhythm can be disturbed by possible «errors». The participants are encouraged to support each other. Whenever a disturbance interrupts the common rhythm, both reduce the tempo to support each other and slowly build up the tempo again. If this works, the number «2» is replaced by a bounce, and later a predetermined sound is articulated instead of the «3». The important thing in this exercise is to focus on supporting each other, not on preventing «mistakes». -Awareness of responsibility for myself and the other person.
Exercise 4: “Yes, and…”
Purpose: Making decisions and experiencing positive confirmation
Duration: 15 minutes.
Description: A group of participants are forming a circle. . One starts a neutral sentence, e.g. «Peter goes into a forest». The other person takes this idea positively and confirms with «Yes, exactly…» to add another impulse to this sentence, e.g. «… and there he meets a bad-tempered mountain goat! The principle «Yes, exactly!» is now placed before each further sentence. Each of the two participants takes turns in saying another sentence. In this way a common story is developed sentence by sentence.
Exercise 5: Making plans
Purpose: With the persons who are driving the action: Learning from needs that the other person has. Flexible rethinking, to develop an alternative solution if the other person does not share my decision;
- For the persons who accept or reject: precise perception of one’s own feelings. Making decisions that I can either accept or reject based on my own feelings. To experience the positive consequences of my own decision – a rejection does not mean that the other person is angry, but that he or she is looking for alternatives.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Description: The participants (4 or 5 ideally) walk through the training room together. One of them sets the plot for the experience of a common story, e.g. «Let’s go to a jungle! The rest of the group can accept this decision (by an enthusiastic «Oh yes!») or reject it (in this case a «No» is avoided, a friendly «Nub!» has a much more positive effect). If an idea is reacted to with «Nub!», the first person should quickly find another idea that the group likes more. This is done offer by offer (they can perform the action with pantomimic), and the decision maker can ask each further strand of the action with «What comes Next?” The action goes further when the participants of this group agree on the plot.
Exercise 6: The happy Day
Purpose: Experiencing positive events.
Experiencing appreciation and commitment.
Realizing one’s personal wishes.
Strengthen one’s own self-confidence.
Duration: 20 minutes.
Description: A participant is asked about certain routines of his/her everyday life, e.g. professional tasks, private hobbies, wishes or desires for the future. Little by little a fictive day in the life of this person is created by presenting this day on stage. The moderator has an active part in this improvisation on stage, he/she has to play the game fully so that the trainee feels confident enough. The person in question experiences himself in his own environment, e.g. in the living room, and gradually other players join in and supplement this situation with offers to make the person happy. If the trainee has nothing more to add, he/she asks another participant (who doesn´t necessarily stands on stage) to lead the game. He/she can decide to “delete” people or elements from the stage or to add even more. This becomes this new person’s Happy Day and the game goes on. Wishes, desires and positive experiences are made true in a playful way.
CONCLUSION
Duration: 5 minutes.
Description: At the end of the session the trainer will ask questions that stimulate reflection, namely “How do you think the above session links to the emotion we are dealing with?”, “What did you find helpful?” and so on. Then s/he will invite participants to pinpoint what stroke their attention, what they gained and want they want to keep as a reference point from all the above procedure as well as to ask any questions related to the above exercises.
