For your Psychodramatic Toolbox:

Warming Up To Directing

By Thomas Northup

In June, LPTI students met with students of Paula Catalan and Sylvia Israel for our Directors’ Intensive. Eight student directors and eight general members attended along with three trainers, who gave the directors feedback. The student psychodramatists each directed a full psychodrama over the course of our two-day Zoom workshop. Knowing your colleagues, it won’t surprise you to hear that every director was successful in guiding their protagonists to a place of healing and contentment.

As a warmup to the intensive, the directors wrote about how they prepare for a psychodrama and how they would be showing up for the weekend. From slogging through the workdays until the intensive arrived, to establishing new routines to get grounded in the weeks before, everyone realized that the days leading up to any workshop always, in some way, prepare them to direct. Most people indicated that they drew confidence from their belief that psychodrama is a valuable method. Others are reassured by their experience as clinicians to hold them as they hold others. The idea that, “I’ve done this before” assuaged many students’ doubts. All student directors recognized some inner strength that allows them to direct from a place of calm. Each personal strength offered encourages the director’s psychodramatic flair and spontaneity. Some of our group’s strengths were: curiosity, intuition, mind-body connection, groundedness, the belief that we are held, practice doubling, energetic attunement, and enthusiasm for psychodrama.

Next time you direct an action structure, what strengths will you bring along?

This post is an excerpt from BTS-LPTI: Summer 2021. Read more and subscribe to follow further LPTI updates.