Close with sharing, not analysis

After someone works on something, respond with what it stirred in your own life, not with interpretations or questions.

Por qué funciona

The last phase of a psychodrama session is sharing. Ron describes it as the phase in which group members share their own life experiences as they relate to the protagonist's work; López-González and colleagues describe the group sharing what the session stirred, with no rational interpretations or questions allowed. In Ron's case report, sharing created a sense that others had been there too, and mutual support. The rule protects a person who has just been exposed: instead of being analysed, they hear that they are not alone, and the listeners do some of their own work through identification.

Cómo hacerlo

1. After a friend or group member has talked through or enacted something hard, wait until they have finished.
2. Each listener speaks in the first person about their own life: "When you said that, I remembered..."
3. Do not interpret, advise or ask questions of the person who did the work.
4. If you worked alone, close by writing a few lines about what the session touched in your life, then do something ordinary.

Evidencia

Sharing is the third of the three classical psychodrama phases (Cruz et al., 2018), and Blatner treats it, with closing, in its own chapter. A systematic review of controlled trials of group psychodrama describes the sharing rule, and a case report describes sharing building empathy and support. The phase has not been tested separately from the rest of the session. (clinical)

The case report is descriptive and its author notes that it cannot show cause and effect. Sharing among friends or peers is safe in itself, but a group that keeps meeting to enact painful scenes without a trained director is doing something different from psychodrama.

Fuentes

• Ron, Y. (2018). Psychodrama's role in alleviating acute distress: A case study of an open therapy group in a psychiatric inpatient ward. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2075.
• López-González, M. A., Morales-Landazábal, P., & Topa, G. (2021). Psychodrama group therapy for social issues: A systematic review of controlled clinical trials. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 4442.
• Blatner, A. (1996). Acting-In: Practical Applications of Psychodramatic Methods (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing.
• Cruz, A., Sales, C. M. D., Alves, P., & Moita, G. (2018). The core techniques of Morenian psychodrama: A systematic review of literature. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1263.

Error común

Answering a friend's painful moment with "Have you thought about..." or "I think what is really going on is...". Even kind advice turns the person back into a case to be solved.