World Dreaming - An Invitation to an Encounter

The 6th World Congress for Psychotherapy is being held in Sydney from the 24th-28th of August 2011. The theme is "World Dreaming".
Lorraine Michael, psychodramatist and MPS member is conducting a session at this congress based on her psychodrama work in the psychiatric field.

An Invitation to an Encounter: The function and value of Psychodramatic formulations - a crucial process of inpatient psychotherapy, care and treatment.

Abstract:

In this paper, I demonstrate how Psychodramatic formulations can offer a unique epistemological dimension to the care and treatment of people on an Acute Inpatient Psychiatric setting. Through the presentation of pieces of individual Psychodrama work, I demonstrate the use of 'role reversal' and 'doubling', in assisting individuals to make meaning of both their explicit and implicit experiences. As an auxilliary, I illustrate how I extend this understanding in some meaningful way to the wider treating team, so as to deepen our shared understanding of key conflicts/tensions underpinning people's clinical presentation. In this, I argue how a Systemic conceptualization often reveals deeply buried/hidden wounds/trauma that have continued to plague the lives of these individuals, disguised as 'symptomatology'. In the world of acute psychiatry, where psychotherapy is, at the best of times deemed futile or even a 'luxury' for the 'elite' few, I establish the centrality of Psychodrama as a necessary ingredient in bridging the trauma-healing divide, as well as, towards understanding and empowering the Other in their own healing and growth. Most importantly, this paper reaffirms that our warm-up must be to the 'Person' in front of us, and that, it is when we relate mutually as people, as beings in an I-Thou encounter, that it is this which is deeply healing. Psychodrama, just like the "world's longest surviving culture", is indeed well and alive and thriving, in the world today. "World Dreaming" indeed!