Improvisation & Psychotherapy

the importance of finding the game in both forms
- the many crossovers that lots of us (therapists, improvisers, therapy clients) have noticed including:
- the value of treating people as robust
- doing vs being/being vs doing
- the place where it is messy and hard
- that therapy or a therapist is providing a 'missing' experience, around valuing being, in the way that an audience might 'receive' improvisation
- the complexities of training (& the many shit therapists - and shit improvisers!)
- the importance of yes (and no, and yes/no/maybe)
- the importance of both/and
- the duty of care that therapists and performers both hold
- Winnicott's work on play (and the importance he places on a therapist being able to play)
- Schein & 'humble enquiry'
- drama therapy
- ethics of support for/within theatre companies
- encountering authority
- Told By an Idiot as role models for play
- the value of clear, creative constraints for both forms
- that perhaps they aren't different things for all of us (and they are very different for some of us)
- bringing connection closer to the human condition (including as a director)
- silence, uncertainty, the value of not knowing
- learning from Lifegame (Phelim, Ang, Stella)
- the importance of going through/wading through the muddy, sticky, uncomfortable bits
- YES
- images & art & metaphor as vital for therapy as for theatre