SESSION 8: MEMORIES OF VERBAL VIOLENCE
The objective of this session is to provide mental health professionals [DS1] with improvisation skills in order to help clients with mental health condition 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 man with mental health issues. During his life, he started different medications; in the beginning, he always handled the situation pretty well and he always felt much better but every time the professionals changed his cure by eliminating the pills assumption, he always fell down once again. He remembers that when he was at school he had a professor who did not know how to deal with him nor with his mental condition. The professor used to attack the protagonist by insulting him when he gave the wrong answer to the questions and, at the same time, by ignoring him when he wanted to know more about the lesson or when he wanted to intervene during a debate. The boy felt so angry and frustrated that he preferred leaving the class. Luckily, during the other lessons he has always been treated well by all the professors; however, he started to feel uncomfortable and always less important for the class. Moreover, at a point, he lost his interest in studying and this led him to give up with his education. The protagonist still remembers all the embarrassing situations he had to deal with and his final decision. Every time he starts a new medication, he forgets about it but, as soon as he stopped taking the pills, all the memories come up once again in his mind bringing him down. However, the professionals still believe in him therefore they suggest him a different therapies even if the protagonist believes he would never heal.
TRAINING SESSION
The trainers (if it is possible, 2 or 3 facilitators should lead this session) welcome the participants and inform them of the case scenario (see above) via narration. After having informed the participants of the case scenario the trainers present the goals of the session by pinpointing the type of aggression, the emotions and the coping strategies:
- Aggression Type: Pervasive memories of verbal aggression – emotional violence resulting in the total lack of self-efficacy, and self-destruction
- Emotions: anger, shame
- Coping: Stressors related to mental illness/victimization and self-stigma. 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 to?
1st Answer
The protagonist is victim of verbal and emotional violence during his early life when he was studying at the college. The professor didn’t know how to treat him therefore he did everything to push the young boy out of the class. The teacher discriminated and humiliated him in front of the rest of the classmates
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 man during his early age felt frustrated and angry. He tried to change his educational path by following other classes but, due to the mental pressure exercised by his previous professor he started to feel inadequate, moreover he become more afraid in intervening during the classes’ debates. The protagonist should have not felt embarrassed in keep going to take the class since the professor is the only one to be blamed,. With his presence he would have shown he was determined and able as any other student
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
It would be essential that the professional explain to the men that everything he feels is given by old memories and that right now he is totally able to overcome it. It is important to work with the protagonist so that he understands that the self-esteem and self-confidence has to be built from the inside. Furthermore, would be a good advice to suggest to the protagonist to take some lessons again. In that way he will demonstrate to himself he can do it and, consequently, he can also bring to end his medication and never felt down again
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 exclusion, ostracism and that the emotion this session will focus on is anger.
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.
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 illness (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 acceptance of an impulse and passing it on.
Duration: 5 minutes.
Description: The participants are standing in a circle. Someone points to another person with their hand and says, «You!» The person addressed nods and replies with «Thank you!» This person’s turn and point to the next person with «You!». This is the way to continue
Exercise 2: Noise Ball
Purpose: Building up energy. Building up trust in the impetus. Reduce time for thinking, get into quick action instead
Duration: 5 minutes.
Description: The participants are standing in a circle. One after the other different sounds are now passed on to someone else. Each sound is first repeated by the receiver, then a new sound is sent to another person. To support this physically, the «transmitter» makes a throwing hand movement (or with another part of their body if they can’t move it : a foot, the head…), the receiver catches this noise. After some time the speed can be increased.
Exercise 3: Association Round
Purposes: Positive handling of errors. Strengthen awareness of not being a «victim“.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Description: All participants walk across the room. Listening to an inner impulse, one person remains clearly standing for the others. At this moment, all other participants stop exactly where they are. The first person (person A) throws any word that is random or that has to do with a personal subject of love, fear or hatred to a freely chosen person B. This is physically supported by pointing the hand at this person. Person B points to another person (person C) by associating the previous word with a new word. Here we go. Whenever someone hesitates too long or has no word at hand (i.e. whenever this person is too much «in his head»), he/she enthusiastically throws his/her arms up in the air and yells as positively as possible: «Again!» When this happens, all participants can go back into the space, walking until someone new stops for another round of association. The focus here should be on the positive «Again!» rather than on a correct association.
Exercise 4: Giving something around
Purpose: Being in the moment and making a decision. Positive acceptance as confirmation of the decision
Duration: 20 minutes.
Description: The participants are standing in a circle. Any object (e.g. a cup) is given in turn from person to person. From the object, a new object is now established pantomimically by each person, which has nothing to do with the real object. This is now given as a gift to the person on the right, while the person or the group can guess which item they have recognized. The recipient is encouraged to be clearly pleased with this gift, whether he has recognized the item or not. Participants should be made aware that too much time spent thinking about an original idea can create stress. They should follow the first impulse that comes to their mind as soon as they have the object in their hands. The positive acceptance of the recipient helps here.
Exercise 5: Whiskeymixer
Purpose: Celebrating mistakes. Understanding “failure» as something positive («Fail cheerfully»)
Duration: 10 minutes.
Description: The participants are standing in a circle. To the right, the word “Eureka” is now passed in turn (and as quickly as possible). Any person can return the word “Boomerang” (maybe you have to find a better word in your language) to the transmitter. When this happens, it continues in the reverse direction, but this time with the word “Crazy taxi”. Also here a change of direction is possible at any time by using the word Boomerang, then again with Eureka to the right. Of course, there will be one «mistake» after the other, as the high tempo does not leave time for reflection and correct articulation. Whenever someone makes a mistake, i.e. the word is mispronounced or the person thinks too long, he has to run around the circle and coming back to his/her position, while the word continues in time.
Exercise 6: I am a tree
Purpose: quick association; making decisions; creating images together
Duration: 15 minutes.
Description: This exercise can be performed in a «stage situation». One person walks into the middle of the room while all others are standing in a row in front of him. The first person stands in a suitable pose and says loud and clear: «I am a tree!» A second person joins in and completes the picture of the tree with a matching, freely chosen term, e.g. «I am a root». A third person does the same, again with a new term that matches the previous image, e.g. «I am a woodpecker». The first person now names one of the people who have joined the group and takes this picture back to the audience. E.g. «I’m taking the woodpecker with me! The «root» now remains on the stage, stays there and repeats his term again. Two new people are now added, with two new terms. So the three of them create a completely new picture, e.g. «I am a dentist» and «I am the anesthetist». This is the way it goes on and on.
Exercise 7: Museum game
Purpose: Making quick association. Making decisions. Creating images together. Getting inspired by the moment
Duration: 25 minutes.
Description: Any two people walk into the middle of the room at the same time and pose in a freely chosen way. Neither of them needs to have any idea what their pose means. The facilitator, together with a trainee, joins the group and takes over the function of the «museum guide». This person is now inspired by the poses and explains the others which fictitious statue these two people represent and what meaning this statue has. The facilitator must sometimes leave room to the trainee so that he/she adds more things to this improvisation. Here it is perfectly ok to slide into the absurd (e.g.: «Here we see the sun and the moon as they fight a merciless boxing match, whereby we can see from the victory pose of the sun that it has just won the fight!»). After a few sentences, the audience may ask questions about the statue, which the museum guides can of course always answer. Afterwards, three further participants, plus the facilitator, will create a completely new museum situation.
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.
