Think out loud in a soliloquy
Step to the side of a scene and say aloud what you are actually thinking and feeling but not saying.
Why it works
Moreno borrowed the soliloquy from classical theatre. In psychodrama the director asks the protagonist to think out loud, outside the dialogue of the scene, expressing feelings, thoughts or intentions in the here and now, often at the moment the protagonist stalls or becomes torn. Cruz and colleagues describe its purpose as bringing hidden feelings and thoughts into the open; what was said in soliloquy can then be carried back into the action. It works because there are two tracks in any hard conversation, what is said and what is felt, and the soliloquy gives the second track a voice.
How to do it
- Picture a recent conversation where you held back. Set it up: where you were standing, who was there.
- Say your actual lines from that conversation out loud, as you said them.
- At the point where you went quiet or said something you did not mean, step to one side, walk a few paces, and speak in the first person, present tense: "What I am really thinking right now is..."
- Step back into the scene and say one line that carries a little of what came out in the soliloquy.
Evidence
The soliloquy is one of the core techniques identified in a systematic review of the psychodrama literature that was checked with 22 European psychodramatists; about half of the reviewed texts described it, and it was among the most consistently defined. Moreno discusses it in Psychodrama, Volume 1. No outcome study tests the soliloquy on its own. (clinical)
Evidence is from practitioner consensus, not trials. Speaking your unspoken thoughts aloud alone is a self-guided adaptation; in a session the director decides when to call for a soliloquy and what to do with what comes out.
Sources
- 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.
- Moreno, J. L. (1946). Psychodrama, Volume 1. Beacon House.
Common mistake
Turning the soliloquy into a speech about what the other person did wrong. The technique is for what is going on inside you at that moment, in the first person, not a closing argument.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Psychodrama Techniques: Role Reversal, Doubling, the Mirror and More
- Warm up before you act
Spend the first minutes loosening up and finding the scene that is actually ready to be worked on.
- Reverse roles and answer as the other person
Switch places with the person you are in conflict with and speak from their position until you feel how it looks from there.
- Let a double voice what you are not saying
A trusted person stands beside you and speaks, as "I", the feelings you are not expressing, and you keep only what fits.
- Step out and watch yourself in the mirror
Watch your own behaviour played back from the outside, so you can see what others see.
- Step into a scene from your future
Act out a specific future moment as if it were happening now, then work back to what would get you there.
- Map your social atom
Lay out the people who matter to you, at the distances they feel, and see the shape of your relationships at a glance.
- Close with sharing, not analysis
After someone works on something, respond with what it stirred in your own life, not with interpretations or questions.
Related concepts
- Shadow Work
Meeting the parts of yourself you have been ignoring
- The Empty Chair Technique: Finishing What Was Never Said
Speaking directly to the person you still carry, so the old feelings can finally move
- Two-Chair Dialogue: Working With the Inner Critic and Other Inner Splits
Giving the critic and the criticized self each a chair, so the fight inside you becomes a conversation that can change
- Gestalt Therapy: Awareness, Ownership and Contact in the Here and Now
Noticing what you are doing right now, owning it in your own words, and finishing what keeps pulling at you
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: cite or embed this practice · more practices graded Established clinical practice