Project goals: expanding the range of social services, creating new forms of social services focused on the individual needs of citizens and increasing their vital activity by maximizing the range of services for citizens receiving home care, using the material and technical base of the Center, the Day Care Department and the personnel potential of the institution. The project was presented at the Regional Social Innovation Forum, Omsk, 2015.
Project goals:
1. Contribute to improving the quality of life of elderly people living alone and their longevity by carrying out repairs to their housing.
2. Expanding the range of social services.
3. To promote the inclusion of young people in activities to provide social assistance to single disabled people, the formation of a respectful attitude of young people towards the older generation.
4. Contribute to the support and promotion of social projects aimed at providing social assistance to older people.
5. To promote the strengthening of partnerships (between social (GBU KTsSON) and educational (GBOU SPO “NTGH and P”) institutions) with students of educational institutions in solving social problems of the older generation.
6. Attract the attention of civil society, including young people, and regional media to the problems of single disabled people.
The project was presented at the Regional Social Innovation Forum, Omsk, 2015.
Objective of the project: popularization of “Finnish walking” - a modern type of social and health-improving physical activity. The project was presented at the Regional Social Innovation Forum, Omsk, 2015
Purpose of the program: nurturing interest and love for handicrafts, involving residents of the boarding house in active creative activities, developing skills and the ability to work with materials of various origins; learn how to make crafts from various materials; organization of leisure activities. The program is prepared for recipients of social services over 18 years of age.
Purpose of the program: increasing the level of adaptation of an elderly person in society, forming new and strengthening existing resources for the social, mental and physical development of elderly people in changing conditions modern life, maintaining interest in it, revealing the potential resources of the individual.
Objective of the project: increasing the social activity of older people, expanding their social circle, improving health, maintaining good physical shape, youthful appearance, increasing the vitality of older people.
Purpose of the program: introduction of a new positive methodology as a way of socio-cultural rehabilitation of elderly citizens and disabled people visiting the day care department of the MBU Central Social Security Center of the Yaya municipal district; prolongation of active longevity and preservation of satisfactory life potential of older citizens age groups.
Objective of the project: adapt older people to life, losing confidence in their own abilities, reacting conservatively and even hostilely to innovations.
Technology goal: through immersion in the creative process, contribute to changing the psycho-emotional state of recipients of social services.
Purpose of the program: prevention and reduction of psycho-emotional stress in older people
Purpose of the program: prevention and reduction of a complex of problems associated with the characteristics of old age
We work with disabled people over 18 years old
Purpose of the program: development creativity people with mental disabilities through introduction to artistic felt.
Purpose of the program: creating favorable conditions and a system for the activities of teaching staff to identify students who are disabled and persons with disabilities disabilities health, their education, studying the interests, abilities and inclinations of students in this group, introducing them to activities in various fields and their self-realization ( for young disabled people- students).
Objective of the project: social adaptation disabled people and their families, assistance in achieving maximum independence and independence in everyday life.
Purpose of the program: creating conditions for students to develop a theoretical and practical base in the field of fundamentals visual arts within the framework of amateur creativity.
The curriculum is a normative act, represented by a main and variable part. The implementation of the maintenance, upbringing, education and development of children and adults from 18 to 45 years old is carried out on the basis of the additional general development program “Creative Workshop” in the field of decorative and applied arts “Decorative and Applied Creativity”. The curriculum has been prepared for recipients of social services of the State Agrarian University of the Kemerovo Region "Yurginsky psychoneurological boarding school."
Goal of the work - the desire to find the most effective innovative means of implementing cultural - organized activities through mutual cooperation with other leisure, educational, artistic and aesthetic centers.
Purpose of the program: familiarizing recipients of social services with blue-collar professions and specialties recommended for vocational training; preparation for disabled citizens to understand their personal characteristics and correlate them with the requirements future profession taking into account the economic situation in the city.
Association of interests program. Purpose of the program: formation of social skills in everyday life.
Purpose of the program: maintaining the physical, mental and social activity of clients, reducing the level of dependence on outside help, formation of motivation for work.
Purpose of the program: assisting recipients of social services to gain life experience by engaging in a variety of activities, to develop among recipients of social services a sufficient level of independence when choosing socially acceptable ways out of extreme and ordinary problem situations. And also promote the socialization of people with disabilities into society. This goal is achieved through the organization of adaptive learning and independent work, as well as through practical work.
Target: testing new forms of organizing employment for recipients of social services to develop their independent cognitive activity and implementation social partnership on the basis of cooperation.
The purpose of this project activities“Miracles from fabric” is an amplification of the development of PSU through creative forms of work (enrichment of the content of the rehabilitation process with innovative forms of work on career guidance).
Psychological work with older people has its own characteristics. Research shows that there are several ways to compensate for the emotional stress in which older people find themselves and to increase the level of their socio-psychological adaptation. This is communication with nature, a passion for art (both in terms of creativity and in terms of perception), the emergence of new significant activities, new interests, perspectives (this is especially important for people over 70 years old).
Empirical evidence suggests that communication with nature, pets, caring for indoor flowers, gardening and vegetable gardens significantly reduce the level of tension and compensate for the lack of communication of an elderly person. People who spend a lot of time in nature have a less pronounced fear of loneliness, a lower level of aggression and virtually no depression.
Also, psychological work with older people is connected with hobbies in art. Older people who often go to the theater, conservatory, museums and exhibition halls are much more mentally stable and less susceptible to depression than their peers who are indifferent to art. It can be assumed that these interests, being part of the personality structure, form a stable motivation that does not change with a crisis and is not subject to dynamics with loss of status, narrowing of the circle of friends and other negative manifestations characteristic of aging. This behavior forms a lifestyle that gives stability to the adaptation process as a whole.
Independent creativity, regardless of its level, just like any other hobby (hobby), also becomes a meaning-forming motive, which, heading the hierarchy of personal motives, helps to give meaning to other aspirations and needs of an elderly person.
Immersion in one’s own or someone else’s creative activity increases the socio-psychological stability of the elderly and, due to the fact that it increases their creativity, stimulates innovative aspirations, which are often lacking in people of older age groups due to their age characteristics. This is necessary for older people to realize their social activity, to adequately resolve unforeseen, uncertain situations that cannot be overcome with the help of stereotypical behavior. The entire pre-retirement period and the beginning of the retirement period actually represent a new and uncertain situation, requiring the manifestation of creativity, a non-adaptive strategy of behavior, and the progressive development of those personal qualities that do not weaken even in old age when communicating with art.
Special training allows you to develop the skills and abilities necessary for new activities even in old age. This training is based on the concept of lifelong education, based on the fact that learning is a normal and necessary activity for a person in all periods of his life. It implies the opportunity at any age to update, supplement and apply previously acquired knowledge and skills, constantly expand your horizons, improve your culture, develop abilities, acquire new specialties and improve in them.
As experts note, in psychological work with older people, interest in play activity, sports and especially educational activities after all, it does not weaken with age. It’s just that older people are getting used to these forms of activity. Therefore, some psychogerontologists propose involving them in learning and play as a means of intensifying the life of old people. No less important is the fact that such activity takes place in a group of like-minded people, and therefore forms an adequate, even if not very wide, but stable circle of communication, and expands the time perspective.
The goal of group psychotherapy for older people is to involve them in social interaction, increase self-esteem, increase independence, and focus on reality and an ever-changing reality.
Complex modern psychotherapeutic techniques are, as a rule, not used with elderly clients. The strict principles of forming a group according to the syndromic-nosological principle are not observed. A feature of the composition of the groups is their small number and the creation of open groups in order to make it easier for beginners to understand the prospects for treatment. Traditional psychocorrectional methodology consists of a complex impact on a person’s mental activity through psychological training aimed at general correction of the emotional background and training of individual functions: memory, self-control, concentration and switching of attention.
When working with older people, not all, but some, mechanisms of the therapeutic effect of group psychotherapy are included:
Post information: during group psychotherapy, the client receives a variety of information about the characteristics of human behavior, interpersonal interaction, conflicts, neuropsychic health, etc.; identifying the causes of the occurrence and development of violations; information about the essence of psychotherapy and the course of the therapeutic process; information exchange between group members. Such information comes not so much didactically as through the process of communicating with other participants and getting to know their problems.
Instilling hope: the emergence of hope for the success of treatment under the influence of the improvement in the condition of other clients and one’s own achievements. Successful, advanced clients in psychotherapy serve as a positive model for others, opening up optimistic prospects for them. This factor operates most strongly in open groups.
Universality of suffering: the client’s experience and understanding that he is not alone, that other members of the group also have problems, conflicts, experiences, and symptoms. This understanding helps to overcome the egocentric position and the emergence of a sense of community and solidarity with others, and also increases self-esteem.
Altruism: the opportunity to help each other, to do something for each other in the process of group psychotherapy. By helping others, the client becomes more self-confident, he feels capable of being useful and needed, begins to respect himself and believe in his own capabilities. Such experiences are especially important for clients with low self-esteem.
Imitative behavior: the client can learn more constructive behaviors by imitating the counselor and more successful group members. Obviously, to a greater extent, the consultant is a role model, and this imposes certain restrictions on his behavior and makes special demands on his self-control and self-regulation (Yalom, 2000).
Psychotherapeutic methods in group work with older people should be used extremely carefully, since the main effect of various psychotherapeutic techniques - the opportunity to more adequately and deeply understand oneself, to see one’s own inadequate relationships and attitudes - due to the characteristics of personality changes in old age, can create a situation that provokes an increase in level of anxiety, preoccupation, deepening depression.
In this regard, among the contraindications to the use of group techniques in working with older people, experts note pronounced “sharpening” of clients’ personality traits, severe depressive symptoms, and hearing loss, which makes it difficult to participate in group discussions. At the same time, group classes can be useful when older people are united by common concerns and interests, share each other’s problems, and can use the group to obtain information and organize support. An example would be the role of a group for incapacitated elderly people or people with chronic illnesses.
The difficulties of group work with older people are as follows (Shelukhina, 2001):
Heterogeneity of the group composition by age, education, health status - from normal to disability in vision, hearing, musculoskeletal system.
Increased likelihood of conflicts in groups compared to other ages, dependence of the psychological climate on the individual characteristics of the participants.
An overly idealistic or, on the contrary, biased attitude towards the consultant and towards the possibilities of psychotherapy in general.
When working in groups with older people, it is advisable to:
Work only in a positive way.
Prevent the development of group dynamics, since its possible negative manifestations - conflicts, disputes - can destroy group work at the very beginning.
Pay attention to the well-being of all participants throughout the training.
Consider individual characteristics physical condition of the participants (for example, invite the hearing impaired to sit closer; even during meditation it is necessary to speak slowly, softly, but loudly enough).
Carefully consider the organization of classes and the necessary equipment. It is important that the room is well ventilated, the chairs are comfortable, etc.; You can put flowers in the center of the circle. It is not recommended to use candles, as this sometimes causes wariness among believers.
Psychodrama
One of the acute problems of older people is loneliness. Under the influence of psychological and social trauma, the possibility of demonstrating the communicative competence of an elderly person is blocked. Blocking disrupts the expression of individual subjectivity in communication, leads to deformation of the elderly person’s relationships with other people, and frustration. Elimination of destruction can be ensured by complex psychotherapy, synthesizing all three main levels of communication: interpersonal, personal-group and personal-social. To do this, it is necessary that the psyche of an elderly person switches to a mode of reflexive functioning. The transition to this mode is ensured:
Intensification of efforts (which allows you to mobilize human reserve capabilities);
Replacing the means of achieving the goal (revaluation and selection of more acceptable ones);
Replacing the goals themselves;
Reassessment of the entire situation (intensification of efforts, use of new means of achieving goals also form a new look at the situation, at one’s personal attitude towards it, which leads to reassessment).
This technology works if the reflection mechanism is activated, but to activate it, an affective release is required - catharsis. A method that forms personal catharsis through improvisational role-playing interaction between an individual and a group is psychodrama. The use of psychodrama corrects communication disorders of an elderly person, making his life fulfilling (Kaigorodova, 1999).
The creator of psychodrama, J. Moreno (Moreno, 1964), conceived it as a role-playing game system reflecting a person’s inner world and social behavior. Classical psychodrama is a therapeutic group process in which dramatic improvisation is a tool for studying and correcting the client’s inner world. Psychodrama is a special type of dramatic art that reflects the client’s current problems, rather than creating imaginary stage images. In psychodrama, the artificial nature of traditional theater is replaced by the spontaneous behavior of its participants.
Psychodrama is the first method of group psychotherapy developed to study personal problems, conflicts, dreams, fears and fantasies. It is based on the assumption that the exploration of feelings, the formation of new relationships and behavior patterns are more effective when using actions that are realistically close to life.
Correctly using the elements of psychodrama, you can treat, teach, educate and stimulate personal growth. You can discover internal conflicts and immediately work with them, model the future, mourn losses and discover new possibilities in yourself.
The main components of psychodrama are role play, spontaneity, “television”, catharsis and insight.
Role-playing is one of the basic concepts of psychodrama. Unlike theater in psychodrama, the participant freely improvises and actively experiments with the roles that are significant to him, which he plays in real life. The second concept, spontaneity, was identified by Moreno based on observations of children playing. He believed that spontaneity is the key that will help open the door to creativity. The concept of “body” describes a two-way flow of emotions between all participants in psychodrama. Catharsis, or emotional release, that occurs in an actor in psychodrama, represents an important step in achieving the final result - insight, a new understanding of the existing problem.
The main roles in psychodrama are the director (often played by a consultant), the protagonist, the supporting self, and the audience. Psychodrama begins with a warm-up, moves to an action phase, during which the protagonist organizes a performance, and ends with a subsequent discussion phase, during which the psychodramatic action and the experiences that arose during it are discussed by the whole group.
Nine specific psychodrama techniques: introducing oneself, playing a role, dialogue, monologue, doubling and multiple doubling, exchanging roles, remarks to the side, an empty chair, a mirror.
Self introduction consists of short role-playing activities in which the protagonist portrays himself or someone very important to him. There are two main types of this method:
Description of oneself and people in the form of successive episodes, a parade of personalities;
Psychodrama in the form of a series of completed situations;
An interview method where the protagonist answers questions from other participants.
Execution of the role is the act of taking on the role of someone else. It could be a part of the body, an animal, an inanimate object, a person. It usually does not apply to the protagonist, but there are three exceptions:
When one technique is used like monodrama;
When the role reversal technique is used;
During training, when a person is asked to take on a new, alien role.
Dialogue is a depiction in role-playing games of the relationship between real people. Support players are people with whom a person interacts in real life. Here everyone - both the protagonist and the supporting players - plays themselves. Often used in the study of conflict situations.
Monologue- a person’s expression of his feelings, thoughts, as if he were consulting with himself out loud, commenting on his actions in role-playing games at the beginning, middle and end of the scene. There are two forms of monologue: the act of fully revealing oneself and resisting the full development of a role. This self-talk technique is combined with the duplication technique, since a person may need external stimuli for conversation (the second participant plays the role of a backup).
Duplication. One of the participants plays the role of the inner voice, the “psychological double” of the protagonist. The understudy stands next to the protagonist, to the side of him (on the side opposite from the audience). You need to achieve a feeling of psychological unity with the protagonist. The understudy imitates his posture, movements, and facial expressions in order to enter as deeply as possible into the role of the protagonist and through physical keys to immerse himself in his inner world. Duplicate tasks:
Imitation of physical features, gestures, mannerisms of the protagonist;
Repetition of key words, achieving mental and emotional similarity with the protagonist;
Reading between the lines and discussing hidden thoughts and feelings;
Focusing on fears, inhibitions, dilemmas living in the protagonist;
Expressing hypotheses regarding the protagonist’s problems;
Encouraging the protagonist to openly express his problems and to come into direct contact with them.
Replies aside. Their goal is to extract and reveal a person’s inner thoughts and feelings. They are put into effect if the protagonist presents events unreliably and deliberately hides the truth. Always used in combination with “role playing” and “dialogue”. Usually the protagonist speaks to the side, but another participant can also if the exercise involves family members and other people significant to the protagonist. Then all participants can apply cues to the side.
Exchange of roles. Two participants change roles - each adopts the posture, manners, and psychological state of the other.
Empty Chair Technique– the protagonist interacts with someone or something imaginary, represented by one or more empty chairs. The protagonist speaks in the form of a monologue or role exchange. Then the chair is occupied by a secondary person with whom the protagonist could communicate, as if the imaginary interlocutor was there.
Mirror- a type of behavior imitation designed to allow the protagonist to look at himself from the outside. The understudy plays the role of the protagonist for several minutes, who observes “himself”, moving away from the action space. Sometimes the double exaggerates certain aspects of the protagonist's behavior. This technique is aimed at overcoming resistance on the part of the protagonist. Resistance can be caused by the content of the topic being discussed, the therapist, the environment, or the therapeutic process. The protagonist resists change in two forms - covertly and openly.
The use of general techniques in the specific form of “step into the future”, “return in time”, “spontaneity test” allows you to look into the future and the past, respectively, and focus on the present. “Dream technique”, “psychodramatic shock”, “hypnosis role play” represent different aspects of reality. There is also a “finding a way out test” - the protagonist plays out a series of frustrating situations that he may encounter in the outside world. The goal is to eliminate or reduce anticipated anxieties, especially those that affect behavior in the present.
More details about the theory of psychodrama can be found in the work “Group Psychotherapy” (Rudestam, 1998).
Exercise 1. “Role play”
This exercise is used to practice role play skills. It is good for them to start a group study of psychodrama.
Participants line up in two circles - one inside the other, at the back of each other's heads. The circles “rotate” towards each other. At the leader’s signal, the participants stop and turn to face a partner in another circle. Those in the outer circle play the roles of police officers, giving driving directions to their partners in the inner circle, who play the roles of motorists. Participants spontaneously continue role-playing for three minutes, then share their impressions with partners for two minutes.
After this, the group again lines up in circles and begins to move, then stops at a signal. This time, participants in the inner circle play the roles of sellers, trying to sell something to “buyers” from the outer circle. After three minutes, the participants stop the game and share their impressions.
In the same way you can lose the most different roles– relatives who have not seen each other for a long time; people who say nothing to a knowledgeable friend about the recent death of his wife (husband); children who received new toy; young people who confess to one of their parents their homosexual inclinations,
At the end of the exercise, leave time for the group to discuss their experiences and share feelings and reactions to the different roles. Some roles evoke intense emotions in participants.
Exercise 2. “Monologue with a double”
This exercise helps group members develop spontaneity and provides an opportunity to practice being a double. The exercise can also provide material for a psychodramatic performance.
Someone volunteers to be the first to stand in the center of the group and deliver a monologue about their thoughts, emotional experiences, and feelings. His task is not to give a speech, but simply to express his thoughts out loud, imagining that there is no one around. You can move freely around the room.
After a few minutes, another member of the group, on his own initiative, comes up and, without interrupting the action, stands behind the monologue, takes his pose, repeats his movements and tries to understand his feelings and thoughts. Without interfering with the flow of the first participant's speech, the second can begin to repeat each of his phrases immediately after hearing it, gradually intuitively comprehending the unspoken thoughts and feelings. It is necessary to copy the non-verbal behavior of the person delivering the monologue as accurately as possible. After a few minutes, let another participant replace the double. Each group member must work as a double at least once.
Exercise 3. “Imaginary sociogram”
This exercise explores the relationships between group members, providing them with feedback on the group's perception of their role. It also provides practice in psychodramatic performances and demonstrates the relationship between the role and the revealed aspects of oneself. The information obtained can further serve as the basis for psychodramas.
A sociogram here is understood as a visual representation of personal relationships, in which distance shows how close a given participant feels to other members of the group. Although the most popular group member may be at the center of all sociograms, members' sociograms will differ from each other because they are based on each member's unique perception of the relationships in the group. The sociogram is built on stage: group members are placed according to the strength and significance of the relationship. When the participants placed on stage begin to move, the sociogram is called an active sociogram. Using the imagination and fantasy of group members allows you to obtain an imaginary sociogram.
One of the group members volunteers to set the stage. He, as a director, places the remaining participants in the space of the stage, determines the roles that most correspond to his ideas about them. The characters are placed as if in a living picture. For a more complete description, it is necessary to determine for each participant the main theme of his statements, which are suitable both for him personally and for his role. The distribution of roles and the definition of topics of utterances provide feedback to other group members regarding the director's perception of them as individuals and as members of the group.
In the final phase of the exercise, when the scene is organized, the director allows the actors, without leaving their roles, to spontaneously interact with each other. The director can stop the action at any time. After the scene has ended, each participant should describe how they felt while playing the role or acting as director, and how they perceived the role and behavior of the other participants.
Exercise 4. “Photography”
The participant is asked to remember some family photo and reproduce it, constructing an image from auxiliary players. This technique is used on early stages development of a psychodrama group.
Exercise 5. “Creating a family sculpture”
The exercise is used to study family relationships and identify difficulties in the participant’s relationships with his family members. The exercise provides useful material for further psychodramatic studies.
One of the participants volunteers to create a living picture of his family. His task is to choose actors who resemble members of his parental family - everyone with whom he lived from early childhood until his separation from his parents. The director creates a scene that depicts a fragment of relationships in his family, placing family members in positions characteristic of them. He may seat his family around the dinner table or place the actors according to some occasion in the life of the family that has special significance for him. The director informs the participants involved in creating the sculpture the necessary information about the characters whose role they play, phrases characteristic of a given family member, etc. To reflect the relationship of family members with each other, distance should be used. Be sure to include yourself in the scene; While the director is setting the scene, he can ask one of the group members to replace him, and when the scene is built, he takes his place in the overall picture.
After finishing the improvisation, the director shares with the group his feelings and the experience he gained in this exercise.
Exercise 6. “Replacing roles”
The goal of using the role reversal technique is to encourage the client to see new perspectives and learn to appreciate the differences between people. He achieves this by experiencing the polarities of different roles and points of view.
Replacing roles is an exchange of roles between two participants in a psychodrama, when they, having already gained some experience of interacting with each other, try to get into each other’s shoes, “take out their eyes and put in someone else’s,” as Moreno wrote in his poem on this reason, and then interact as if the first had become the second and vice versa, carefully trying to reproduce the other and returning, if necessary, to one’s own role in order to concretize, substantiate and strengthen one’s portrait depicted by the partner.
The role replacement technique comes in three versions.
Classic role replacement - two real and present in this moment The participants swap roles so that the protagonist plays the supporting player, and vice versa. For example, two arguing players are swapped and asked to continue the argument, but from the other's point of view. Returning to their own role, they can correct or detail the portrait that was “drawn” for them.
Incomplete replacement of roles - the protagonist plays the role of a real, but absent person at the moment. For example, a mother plays the role of her daughter, who is not part of the group, and the role of the mother is played by an auxiliary player.
Sociodramatic role reversal - the protagonist plays the role of an abstract or fantastic character, for example, an archetype, a generalized other, Bigfoot, God, an evil witch, an ideal mother, an inexperienced teacher, etc.
"Warming up" the auxiliary player. In the role replacement technique, it is necessary for players to internalize the characteristics of the person they are playing, his life history, views on the world, manners and even turns of speech.
How to achieve this - right away, without rehearsals, with people who are not professional actors? According to psychodrama experts, starting with Moreno himself, professional acting experience can harm psychodrama rather than help. To “warm up” an auxiliary player who plays the role of a person significant to the protagonist, the protagonist stands behind him, puts both hands on his shoulders and pronounces a monologue on behalf of this person.
Another warm-up option is for the protagonist not to talk about the role, but to act it out, showing each role in person. Such a replacement of roles can be carried out repeatedly throughout the psychodrama so that the auxiliary player understands what kind of impact this person had on the protagonist and how exactly this happened.
"Chair Technique". Instead of a supporting player, the role (or roles) of significant people or parts of oneself (confident, shy, etc.) is given to an empty chair (or several chairs). The chair serves as a neutral supporting player, it is easy for him to say anything and project anything onto him, without the participants being influenced by the personality characteristics of the living partners. With a chair you can change places many times, chairs allow you to give vent to emotions, they can be pushed, hit, hugged, kicked. This technique is especially useful for people who are sensitive to the presence of real supporting players. The consultant usually stands behind a chair and asks questions related to the situation to facilitate the projection process. For the same purpose, you can use names, for example, “Agr” for aggression, “Sno” for snobbery, etc. The consultant shows what behavior is typical for chairs with these names, moves the chairs, sets the emotional tone and asks questions about what is happening , stimulating group discussion.
The “chair technique” can also be used in cases where a participant expresses two or more opposing tendencies in any interpersonal situation. Chairs are used to represent each of the alternatives. The protagonist takes on different roles, sitting in different chairs, and the consultant interviews him in each role. This technique can help the protagonist make a decision in a significant situation.
"The ideal other." This is one of the variations of the role replacement technique. The person who actually exists and is significant for the protagonist is replaced by a fantastic image of such a significant person, whom he never had, but whom he would like to see near him. This technique is usually used at the end of psychodrama in order to reduce tension.
Moreno considered role substitution to be the driving force of psychodrama: you often learn the most when you play someone else's role. What still remains unexplained, however, is that players shift their views towards the role they played if it was opposite to their own, and at the same time away from it if it was close to their own role.
Exercise 7. “Duplication”
The supporting player verbalizes thoughts and feelings that the protagonist may have difficulty expressing. Typically, the doppelgänger stands close to the protagonist, either behind him or next to him, to closely observe his nonverbal expressions, and from time to time vocally expresses his guesses about what the protagonist is feeling, thinking about, and what he is going to say. He, in turn, can change the double’s statements, supplementing and clarifying them.
Usually, the consultant himself first shows how the protagonist can be duplicated. Standing behind him and placing his right hand on his right shoulder, he speaks for him in the first person.
The protagonist must answer to what extent the double’s statements coincide with his true thoughts and feelings. In the future, the consultant, at certain moments of the psychodramatic action that seem suitable for duplication, can ask the group members: “Does anyone want to duplicate him (her)?” Anyone can approach the protagonist, stand behind him and make a statement on his behalf. Immediately after this, the consultant asks the protagonist: “Is this so?”, the protagonist answers “yes”, “no” or to what extent “yes” and, possibly, adds something of himself (his statements are not limited either in form or by volume), and then, regardless of his answer, the double is allowed to remove his hand from the protagonist’s shoulder and sit down.
The opportunity to duplicate is provided to everyone sequentially, one after another, until the protagonist agrees with any duplicate statement. In the future, duplication can be done spontaneously by the participants: at the moment when one of the group members seems that he could give the duplicating statement necessary for the protagonist, he can himself approach the protagonist, put his hand on his shoulder and say something for him first person. The protagonist responds to this by assessing the credibility of the statement; then the double removes his hand from the protagonist's shoulder and sits down, regardless of what answer the protagonist gave.
The task of the double is to give the protagonist the necessary support through empathic communication with him. Thus, the double stimulates, supports, helps the protagonist with various assumptions and interpretations.
"Multiple Doubles"- another variation of the duplication technique, where the supporting players represent two or more aspects of the protagonist's personality: one - loving grandfather, another - a downtrodden husband, the third - an angry father. The main purpose of this technique is to clarify the protagonist's dilemma. This option is reminiscent of one of the techniques of psychosynthesis, in which the protagonist himself identifies individual subpersonalities - life roles, goals, intentions and current desires, and then auxiliary players playing the role of each of the subpersonalities surround the protagonist and begin to convince him of their need and importance , “fight” among themselves for the place that the protagonist allocates to them in his personality, for the time that will be given to each of them, for the right to attract the activity and energy of the protagonist, etc.
Exercise 8. “Mirror”
The auxiliary player plays out some moments of the protagonist’s behavior, and the protagonist watches his play while sitting in the auditorium. Sometimes a characteristic feature or characteristic of the protagonist may be reflected in the mirror in an exaggerated form so that he can study it in more detail.
The consultant can specifically direct the understudies to exaggerate the emotions that the protagonist suppresses.
The mirroring technique demonstrates the dysfunctional aspects of old behaviors and allows you to model new ones. It expands the participant’s zone of psychological vision, showing him how his actions are perceived by the people around him.
The mirror technique can be used many times during the same psychodrama. The consultant may ask one of the participants: “Stand next to him and show him how he does it.” As experience shows, the mirror technique can have a discouraging effect on the protagonist if it is already difficult for him to concentrate on the psychodramatic action, and may simply not be noticed by him if he is deeply involved in the action. At the same time, the “mirror” effectively concentrates and focuses the audience’s attention on certain aspects of the protagonist’s behavior.
The mirror technique can be simplified. For example, the protagonist can be asked to perform any given or arbitrary movements, and the “mirror” must accurately and instantly reproduce all these movements. The protagonist has a feeling that the other participant’s attention is focused on him, a feeling of connection with the other person and the significance of his actions. The effect is enhanced if the protagonist moves in the “gallery of mirrors”, where his movements are repeated by many participants at once.
Exercise 9. “Monologue”
The protagonist verbalizes his thoughts and feelings out loud for the audience. He exits the scene currently being played out and delivers a monologue about what internal reactions it is currently causing in him.
Usually he is asked to talk about his problems while pacing the stage. A monologue can be used both to warm up the protagonist, prepare him for a conflict situation, and to calm him down.
A variation of this technique is “To the Side.” The consultant stops the action when it seems necessary to him and asks the protagonist: “What thoughts and feelings are you experiencing right now?” This procedure is used in cases where the protagonist is afraid to speak directly about his thoughts and feelings.
Speaking thoughts out loud allows the participant to step back from emotional reactions and form a new perspective on their problem. This technique promotes cognitive insight and cognitive elaboration of the problem. The monologue technique is the opposite of the physicalization technique (see below).
Exercise 10. “Behind your back”
Discussion of the actions, thoughts and feelings of the protagonist as if in his absence, although in fact he is among the audience. This technique is similar to the mirroring technique, but differs by emphasizing more explicitly how other people perceive the participant.
The protagonist sits on a chair with his back turned to all the other participants and cannot take part in the discussion, and the group members express their feelings, their attitude towards him.
The technique is especially useful for those participants who various reasons did not feel fully included in the group - due to missing classes, little acquaintance with other members of the group who knew each other well, or due to excessive “exposure” after participating in a psychodramatic episode. The “behind the back” method paradoxically helps the participant to face the group, and the group to face the given participant.
Exercise 11. “All with your back”
The protagonist asks the group members to leave; however, instead of leaving, they all turn their backs on him. The protagonist acts as if they really left and tells each group member how he feels about them.
Exercise 12. “Turn your back to him”
A confused, shy, or insecure protagonist expresses his thoughts and feelings to group members who instill fear in him. The consultant invites the protagonist to turn his back to the person who frightens him and imagine that he is in his usual place, alone with the consultant.
Exercise 13. “Statue”
The protagonist expresses his feelings, views or other internal states through visible images composed of one or more members of the group, which represent, as it were, individual elements of reality - people, objects, subpersonalities, emotions, etc. For example, a living sculpture can symbolize what - an important moment for the protagonist in the past or present, an event the occurrence of which he would like to experience, or, on the contrary, what scares him most.
The technique encourages participants to actively study the problem and specify it. It aims to make hidden thoughts and feelings explicit.
The process of building a sculpture is no less important than the result. So, for example, a consultant can pay attention to the fact that he chooses soft chairs for figures who are sympathetic to the protagonist, and hard ones for ambivalent ones. Therefore, it is important that the protagonist himself shapes the space of psychodrama.
Exercise 14. “Dreams”
The dream of the protagonist is played out on stage, who can, like a director, organize the action as he now remembers it, and select auxiliary players to reproduce the characters in the dream.
You can use those dreams that the participants had during the psychodrama group, or those that are often repeated or seem especially significant to the person himself. Auxiliary participants can play any objects, phenomena and even abstract concepts.
Exercise 15. “Physicalization”
This term refers to the translation of thoughts and feelings into real actions during the staging of conflicts that require just such an active way of working through. Physicalization allows you to more fully explore your role and clarify your perception of the problem. It encourages the participant not to distance himself from his feelings and actions, but to experience them more fully, awaken emotions and release blocked sources of energy.
A variant of the physicalization technique is “Pushing”. The protagonist is asked to roll or push across the stage in front of him an imaginary part of himself that he most likes or dislikes about himself. The counselor carefully observes his behavior, especially if he exhibits acute anger or high sensitivity.
Exercise 16. “Psychodramatic bodybuilding”
The protagonist chooses players to play the roles of various parts of his body. The consultant interviews the protagonist, who temporarily assumes the role of each of these parts, trying to determine how that part functions and affects the rest of the body. For example, the consultant asks the “body parts” the following questions: what do you usually do for this body? Are you active? Are you being noticed?
Having surveyed one part, the consultant moves on to others until the entire body is built. When the body is ready, the protagonist is asked to stand back and observe how the different parts interact. The consultant then invites the protagonist to identify those parts that do not satisfy him and rearrange them to achieve greater harmony. You can also role-play situations in which the “body parts” will follow the protagonist’s instructions “exactly the opposite” or act in accordance with the protagonist’s own understanding of the problems. At the stage of sharing feelings, attention is focused on bodily disturbances and difficulties.
Exercise 17. “Self-realization”
Group members are encouraged to imagine their life plans and then dramatize those plans with the help of supporting players.
In this technique, a situation that is significant for the protagonist is played out in a grotesque form, the properties of real objects or phenomena are deliberately exaggerated in order to allow the subject and group to examine the problem “under a microscope” and get to know it better. The protagonist is asked to “become” this significant person, feeling, etc. and is then interviewed in this role. Imagination and play are the main methods of exploring the protagonist’s transcendental reality.
Exercise 19. “Circle of Pressure”
This technique is sometimes called the “Breakthrough to the Outside” technique. The protagonist is surrounded by other members of the group, who, clinging to each other with their hands, do not allow him to escape from the circle. The circle symbolizes the pressure and oppression that the protagonist experiences. He receives instructions from the consultant to break through in any way possible.
A softer version of the technique uses chairs to represent significant others. The protagonist himself is invited to build a circle of chairs and designate who or what each of the chairs will represent. The protagonist must move the chairs wherever he wants in order to free himself from the oppressive circle.
Exercise 20. “Circle of Consolation”
This procedure is most often carried out following a scene of grief, despair, or tragedy. Group members surround the protagonist, expressing love and sympathy to him - both verbal and non-verbal means (hugs, kisses, touches). This procedure can also be used at the final stage of psychotherapy.
Exercise 21. “Barrier”
This technique is sometimes called the “Breakthrough Within” technique. Group members form a wall that represents the protagonist's internal barriers that separate him or her from a significant other. The protagonist is set up to break through the wall and meet the person on the other side.
A variation of this technique, the Responsive Barrier, is used to promote communication. A symbolic wall of supporting players is placed between the protagonist and the significant other (or others). Each of them is assigned a special task of the communication block, and each positive reaction to the actions of the protagonist moves him closer to the significant other, and each negative one increases the distance to him. The main purpose of this technique is to clarify interactions with significant others, not to achieve catharsis.
Exercise 22. “High chair”
The protagonist is seated in a chair positioned so that he or she begins to feel superior to the rest of the group. Alternatively, the protagonist might be asked to stand on a chair to feel more powerful when interacting with authority figures.
Exercise 23. “Judgment Seat”
Used to develop the protagonist's ability to forgive if he is very angry with a person (significant other). The protagonist is asked to choose a supporting player to play the role of God. God “carries” the protagonist aside and tells him that he has died and rests in heaven. He then asks him to take responsibility for deciding whether the significant other with whom the protagonist is so angry will be allowed into heaven. This technique is repeated in other conflict situations between the protagonist and his significant other until some resolution is reached.
Exercise 23. “Explosive psychodrama”
This method is also called the “Psychodramatic Shock” technique. It is based on the idea that a strong emotional response is necessary for any change to occur. To become aware of such a reaction, the environment in which it first appeared is reproduced and an attempt is made to evoke a response that awakens emotion or provokes anxiety. During a psychodramatic session, the protagonist plays out the traumatic scene many times until it loses its negative power. The experienced emotions are now associated with a safer environment, as a result of which the anxious reactions fade away.
Training “Working with letters”
Working with letters gives a good result when working with feelings of loneliness and other psychological problems characteristic of older people. The letters presented in this training are not designed to be sent by mail. They serve a person as an interesting and exciting means of finding solutions in difficult situations, a means of expressing and defending one’s position.
In addition to the fact that letters promote self-expression, they teach the author to anticipate the possible reaction of the addressee. They also allow people to learn to enjoy this classic, cross-cultural form of communication.
At all times, in letters, people not only told each other about their daily lives, but also reflected on deep problems, values and meanings. Additionally, journals and letters are a form of creative expression. Thus, to some extent they have always served as a means of psychotherapy, reflection and pedagogical influence. This allows you to use the epistolary genre to study psychological problems group members.
Such letters are effective means psychological work. They help people understand and express thoughts and feelings that are meaningful to them. What at first glance seems unclear, unthinkable and impossible, when written down, becomes more understandable and less threatening. Letters are capable of absorbing fear of strong sensations and daring thoughts and often become a kind of “trial actions”. They often turn out to be the first effective step towards clarifying one’s own position and reducing tension in relationships with others.
Thanks to their specific form, letters give many people the necessary feeling of security and do not cause resistance. This is especially true for those for whom clarity and structure are an integral part of their personality.
Before starting this training, participants must acquire skills in relaxation and visualization of imaginary objects and events. Before writing each letter, the consultant asks participants to close their eyes and concentrate and gives them instructions in the form of light suggestions for group meditation, pausing to allow participants to visualize what they have heard.
IN this training exercises taken from the work of (Fopel, 2000) were used.
Exercise 1. “Message from Heaven”
“Heaven's Message” is an important message that the unconscious sends to the writer. The topic of the message can be related either to the context of group work, or to the current problems of the life situation of a particular participant. The metaphor used in the title is needed mainly so that the message comes from the adult part of the personality (from the Super-I). The exercise is suitable both for starting work and for finishing it. In the first case, you could ask a question that encourages participants to think about their plans, such as: “How would I like to change my life in the next year?” In the second case, this message should be more general and final in nature.
“Imagine that you are on a walk... You are walking along a road that you like, enjoying the impressions of the world around you... You feel light and free, you are open to everything you can see and hear, to everything that is happening around you.
Imagine that some kind of letter slowly descends from the sky towards you and lies on the ground right next to your feet... You stop and pick it up.
What was in your hand? Is it a sealed envelope, a folded piece of paper, or something else? Does it have the sender's name on it? Who is indicated as the addressee?
Would you like to read this message? Can you take it apart? Is it handwritten or typed? Or maybe it was done somehow differently? What is written there?
What do you want to do with this message? Think about it? Throw it away? Forget about him? Maybe something else?
Now come back here and open your eyes.
Take a piece of paper and write on it what was in the message you received. You can change something in it if it makes it clearer and more understandable. You have 10 minutes for this."
Exercise 2. “Bottle Mail”
In this exercise, the letter can be formatted in different ways. It can “come” from someone you know, it can come from a stranger created by the participant’s imagination, it can be anonymous, or it can be perceived as the voice of one’s own destiny. Its content is determined by the specific life situation of the group member. The metaphor used in the title encourages a person to turn to that part of his personality that is aimed at perceiving something new and activating vital energy. This exercise awakens the curiosity of participants, helps them expand the boundaries of perception and take a fresh look at themselves and their lives.
“Imagine that you are on the shore of the sea or river. Standing right by the water, at the very edge, you enjoy the changing play of waves and the movement of the elements.
You rejoice in the diversity of water... Not a single wave repeats the previous one, new forms, new shades of colors are born again and again... You remember how pleasant it is to surrender to the waves so that they carry you somewhere... Relaxing, you look at the waves and notice that in Every little thing floats in the water: algae, blades of grass, tree leaves... You become curious whether the waves will bring something valuable to the shore.
And then you see that not far from you the waves have thrown a bottle onto the sandbank. You bend down, pick it up and see that there is something inside it. This is bottle mail. What message would you like to receive? What would you like to read in it? Are you ready to be amazed and surprised?
Open the bottle and see what's inside. Who is this message from? What is its content?
Now return to the group. Take a piece of paper and write down this message. You can clarify the text and make it more detailed to make the message more clear and meaningful. 15 minutes are allotted for this.”
Exercise 3. “Letter from a significant person”
This exercise gives participants the opportunity to reflect on issues that are important to them in relationships with other people. The crucial point in this exercise is to change the usual perspective: group members will try to perceive the relationship from the point of view of the partner. In most cases, as the work progresses, it becomes clear to the participants whose letter they should come up with and write. Everyone decides for himself which relationships are difficult for him, in what role he wants to conduct this one-sided dialogue.
“Do you like it when a person in a relationship with you makes the first step towards you? Or do you prefer to move things forward on your own? Do you like surprises or do you prefer to know in advance what awaits you around the next turn in life's path?
Imagine that someone significant to you decided to write you a letter. Perhaps it will be someone from whom you never expected it. Perhaps someone whose desire to communicate with you would make you very happy. Decide who it will be, and imagine him in your imagination as accurately and in detail as possible. Let his face express readiness to communicate... Watch how this person writes the frank letter you so need.
Now you have 15 minutes to write yourself a letter on behalf of this person. Use all the knowledge about this person and about your relationship, as well as the information that your inner “I” extracts from a source inaccessible to consciousness.”
Exercise 4. “Listen to your body”
Health problems concern most older people. The good thing about the proposed exercise is that it gives the body a say. In this case, we can talk about a chronic or acute illness, an injury, a dangerous addiction, prevention or rehabilitation. On the other hand, we can also talk about working with one’s own bodily image (“I don’t like my hands”, “my nose doesn’t suit me”, etc.). Use an appropriate introduction. In the proposed version of the instructions, each participant himself identifies what exactly his problems are.
“Is your body telling you anything? Is it happy with the way you are taking care of it? Or does it sometimes feel like you are asking too much of it? Perhaps some organs or parts of the body are complaining? Maybe your body senses that you are not feeding it correctly? Are there any signs indicating this? Are you giving your body enough time to rest? Are you worried about any illness? Do you have frequent pain or cramps? Do you care about maintaining your health? Maybe for some reason you are unhappy with this or that part of your body?
If you want to make sure that you treat it well and that your body can continue to give you joy in the future, here are some things you can do. Choose a part of the body or organ that particularly interests you, and imagine that this part of the body is writing you a letter. Moreover, this part of you is very pragmatic. She speaks bluntly and gets straight to the point. Can you handle what your body is trying to tell you?
You have 15 minutes to act as a secretary for the appropriate part of your body.”
Exercise 5. “Letter from the future”
Current problems can be easier to solve if a person can look confidently and optimistically into the future. In this exercise, participants must look at their present from a prosperous future in which today's problems have long since found their solution. This exercise can be effective when working with a variety of difficulties.
“Let's give your mind a little break. You have worked intensively and deeply understood the problem. You understand the reasons for your difficulties, you know how they manifest themselves. You think through solutions.
However, we can give ourselves additional help if we also give work to our unconscious, which continues to work even when we sleep. Do you know the story of the discovery of the chemical formula of benzene? It happened in a dream.
Therefore, I want to invite you into a kind of waking dream. In a dream, we can easily and simply move through time - fly to the past, to the future, return to the present again, etc. Moreover, our unconscious does all this with the grace of a figure skater drawing fancy patterns on the mirror surface of ice.
Imagine that your unconscious mind travels several years into the future, for example two years, five or ten years, and from this point in the future comments on your life today, your current circumstances and problems. It reveals to you how your life will develop next. You can see, How you have solved your current problems, When this happened, or find out what path you took to get around a problem that cannot be solved.
From some point in the future, write yourself a letter that paints a panorama of your future life, where today's anxieties have long since become the solid ground of tomorrow. Set the date, don't forget to write a message and subscribe. You have half an hour for this.”
Exercise 6. “A letter from your “I”
On the eve of making an important decision, at a time of crisis or loneliness, in a situation of life changes - in all these cases, the proposed exercise gives participants an excellent opportunity to turn to their inner “I” and receive help, healing and consolation from the depths of their own unconscious. The exercise will be more effective if the participants already have experience working internally with their problems.
“Sometimes we all need encouragement and wise guidance. I want to show you what can be done in such a situation.
Sit back and close your eyes... You are in some kind of valley. The air is fresh, the sky is blue, the grass is green around you, flowers are growing. The morning breeze caresses your face, your feet firmly planted on the ground. Slowly listen to your feelings and look around carefully.
You look around you and see some mountain not far away. When your gaze stops at its peak, you feel that you yourself have grown... You begin to climb this mountain and notice that it is quite hard work: your legs get tired, you have to breathe deeply, but at the same time you feel how your whole body is filled with vitality and vigor, you feel the warmth of your energy.
The air becomes cooler, the sounds gradually fade away... At times you are already passing through the clouds. You walk slowly, sometimes climbing along a narrow path, clinging to some ledges with your hands.
Gradually you get out of the cloud zone. You see the sky and the rich colors of the rocks again. The sun is shining brightly. Your body feels light. And now you are at the top. You feel the joy of being able to observe a beautiful panorama: the peaks of the neighboring mountains, valleys and villages scattered among them. You are standing on the top of a mountain in deep silence.
In the distance you see someone. At first it is a very small bright dot. You have a feeling that this will be some kind of exceptional meeting. You will meet a wise and friendly person who will listen to you and will be able to tell you exactly what you want to know... You have noticed each other and are meeting each other halfway. This person's presence fills you with joy and strength. And now you can look into his eyes, and he smiles at you in a friendly way. You feel that you can talk to him about anything and get an answer to everything.
Talk to this person. You can wrap up a long, long conversation in a few minutes.
And now it's time to say goodbye. If you want, you can meet this wise man more than once. Gradually work your way back... To be able to reflect on everything you learned at the top, imagine that, having descended from the mountain and returned here, you find a letter from this wise man. You now have half an hour to write this letter.”
Exercise 7. “What I have been silent about until now”
Many problems in personal relationships, in family life arises because we do not say what we think and do not think what we say. This letter provides an opportunity to express all the unspoken words of sympathy, fear, tenderness, anger or disappointment. Often we not only swallow words, but also suppress the thoughts and feelings associated with them, and as a result they become inaccessible to us. This type of letter allows participants to clearly see and rethink desires and grievances that have hitherto only been expressed indirectly. If your relationship with someone has become gray and monotonous, formal, tense or unstable, then this kind of letter can serve as the beginning of a turn for the better.
“How often do we act in accordance with the motto: “The word is silver, silence is golden!” Sometimes this strategy is effective, and sometimes it is a step that can destroy a relationship.
Choose relationships that you value and want to see be varied and fulfilling. Who is your partner in this relationship: your spouse, child, colleague, friend, someone else?
Can you decide to tell this person something that has been left unspoken until now? Often our silence is, in fact, an attempt to be tactful and delicate. However, spontaneity, openness, and honesty are also valued in life.
Can you now make up your mind and write a letter to one of the people significant to you, in which you will say something that until now - for whatever reason - has remained unspoken? You have 20 minutes to do this.”
Exercise 8. “The letter you will never receive”
Between sincerity in expressing feelings and rudeness there is often only one barely noticeable step. This is especially true when expressing negative emotions such as anger and rage. The proposed exercise gives participants the opportunity to express anger, rage and aggression without fear of consequences, since they know that this letter is their personal secret and no one will ever read it without their desire. At the same time, they will be able to become aware of the thoughts, fantasies and desires associated with these emotions. Negative emotions expressed in this way contribute to the internal “cleansing” of a person and the release of bound energy. This is neither an attack on nor an insult to another person. On the contrary, when a person has the opportunity to express his rage in writing, he is freed from it and can then in a non-offensive and constructive form express to another your dissatisfaction, irritation, anger, or calmly and confidently defend your own position. All this becomes even more important when it comes to relationships between people close to each other. Such a letter often helps to avoid significant person irreparable offense or insult.
“Rage and anger are usually accompanied by feelings of powerlessness and helplessness, and helplessness often leads to reckless and unwise actions. At the same time, rare people can perceive the behavior of a person who is in rage and anger, kindly, calmly and wisely. Unfortunately, even the people closest and most significant to us are not able to do this.
However, experiencing strong negative emotions also has its own meaning: they create in us the determination to get rid of the difficult situation we are faced with, solve a difficult problem, and extract some positive experience from all this. But for this we need to concentrate and analyze what is happening. Now I suggest you do this.
Think of someone you were very angry with at one time or with whom you are angry now. Write a letter to this person, realizing that he will never read it, and what you write now will forever remain your secret. With this letter you will not only ease your soul, but also gain a new vision of the situation, perhaps you will be able to look at your relationships differently and change them. Half an hour is allotted for this exercise.”
Exercise 9. “Letter to your “I”
This exercise is based on the activation of the unconscious of the participants. The participant can receive an answer to the questions that concern him after some time, and its form can be very diverse. This exercise can be especially effective when group members are in a situation of life changes, experience a feeling of uncertainty, internal conflict, when they need to make a difficult decision, etc. In the letter, participants turn to their inner authority, which is called differently, for example , inner “I”, self, unconscious.
“When we are faced with very difficult questions, we can turn to our inner being for help.
To do this, you can now write a letter to your Self. By doing this, you will turn to your unconscious and let it know that you are ready to accept its help. Describe the situation you are in, tell us about your problems, how you see ways to solve these problems, analyze all the pros and cons of possible solutions. Also describe your feelings and the feelings of other people involved in this situation.
The answer may come to you in different ways. Sometimes it comes already while writing the letter or immediately after, sometimes after a few days. Suddenly we realize that we already know what to do.
It also happens that a problem, unexpectedly for us, loses its significance. This means that our unconscious worked with her unnoticed by us. Sometimes the answer comes in a dream, or it is brought by our spontaneous action. At times, we are given an answer by the words of a person, a thought encountered in a book, this or that event, etc. All this acts as a catalyst for processes that are already occurring within us.
Now take half an hour to write a letter to your inner self.
Exercise 10. “Dialogue in letters”
Ordinary, real dialogue does not always help us expand the scope of discussion of the problem. In a dialogue with a real person, it is not always possible to say everything you want. In addition, it is very easy to move from clarifying the problem to “showing things off.” If a person has a need to express his point of view more fully, if he is at the same time willing to listen to the point of view of another, he can use the strategy proposed in this exercise. Dialogue in letters is best carried out with another person, but it can also be carried out with oneself (for example, the present self can write to a child or a future self) or with different parts of one’s “I” (the courageous “I” writes to the timid “ I"). The instructions provided assume that the dialogue in the letters will be with another person.
“Imagine that you have to live on a desert island for some time. There is no one near you, and you begin to imagine that you are texting with someone. Craft that correspondence: Write letters and then imagine how your partner might respond to them. You can exchange short letters. Based on the existing relationship between you and decide which of you should start the correspondence. End this dialogue in letters when you feel that everything important has already been said.
You have approximately 45 minutes to create this imaginary correspondence.”
Exercise 11. “History in letters”
The task of telling a story in several letters gives the exercise participants great freedom. It could be a story about something that happened in a distant land, a sad story, a dramatic story, a story with a happy ending, a story in which the hero experienced important changes, etc. This exercise can also be successfully used to organize and structure autobiographical writing. material: “Tell your life in several letters” or “Tell in a letter about an episode of your life that you like to mentally return to.” In this case, letters can be written on behalf of different authors and addressing different addressees, for example, to a father or mother, a child, to the best friend, boss, subordinate, etc. Writing a story in letters is especially suitable for comprehending important moments in life, in order to clarify the prerequisites for various kinds of life turns, decisions, crises, denouements and to understand their meaning and significance. The instructions below ask participants to compose a selection of letters depicting the life story of a fictional character. This task gives food to the imagination and at the same time encourages you to think about your own life.
“Come up with a biography of a stranger. Decide whether his life will be calm or full of anxiety, whether there will be many turning points in it or few, whether this life will be joyful or tragic. Tell this story in several letters. They can be written either by the hero himself or by other people. You have one hour for this."
The combination of rehabilitation activities and trainings that are organized for older people can be successfully built if two important areas are observed: communication with others and individual daily activities.
Individual daily activities are very important in matters of filling social meaning in the later period of life. If at the initial stages of old age individual daily activities for an elderly person represent preserved or partially preserved social activity, then at an older age it is possible various shapes everyday work. Often, specialists add a number of different interest groups to the activities of older people in day care departments or boarding homes or open communication clubs. But one of the most common misconceptions is the idea that such employment is easy to organize.
Note 1
Old man shows interest in a specific form of employment in later life only in cases where a person can independently choose the type of activity or recreation that is suitable for himself, based on his internal values and interests, and this activity or hobby is more important to him than a well-organized and expensive one event. The success or failure of attempts to introduce new content into the lives of older people directly depends on how attentive they are to the fact of the personal participation of older people in the proposed type of activity.
An elderly person who is involved in any type of activity pays Special attention on your social status. Therefore, speaking or speaking in front of other people serves to increase its meaning for others at the moment of self-expression. At the same time, the elderly person draws attention to his own problem and establishes contacts with people who have similar problems. The activity of older people involves the process of their interaction, cultural exchange and communication, as a result of which personal attitudes change, creative thinking develops, which in turn contributes to the growth of personality and slows down the processes of its decline in the later period of life.
In the process of group work, interest groups, discussion circles, program-oriented training groups, self-help and memory groups, and social and communication groups are organized. This variety of options makes it difficult to determine what customers themselves want.
The study of the problems of older people was given a legitimate status for widespread use in practice in connection with the development of existential and humanistic psychology and transactional analysis.
Note 2
It is important to note that even before these approaches became widespread, many aspects of their practice were applicable during the care of disabled people in late life by priests, social workers, and volunteers.
A discussion that is group or individual work, is of great importance when working with older people. In practice, there is even a term “discussing therapists.” In this activity, the employee must have such personal qualities as cordiality, sincerity and kindness.
One of the desirable areas of psychosocial work with older people is to highlight the positive aspects of life, expand social contacts and develop fantasy. Without taking these aspects into account, the work will not be complete. But special attention should be paid to developing special techniques for discussing difficult and unpleasant situations in the life of an elderly person. The main emphasis should be on prolonging life and filling it with actions, using the experience of past years.
Another problem is that as we age, our social circles become smaller, and many older people experience communication difficulties. The most optimal psychological impact for communication problems is provided by a group. But all attempts to increase the social circle and improve the communication skills of an elderly person will be meaningless if he is not interested in being active. An elderly person must not only receive information (passive position), but also transmit it (active position).
Objectives of training work with older people
An employee providing psychological assistance to an elderly person needs to determine the volume and nature of daily work. The main role is given to the elderly person. You might think that outwardly this is absolutely unnoticeable work, but it is important to know that in this situation a lot of mental work takes place, which influences the revision of one’s capabilities and a completely new position in society.
The basis of this work is to create an attitude towards your aging. The goal of the training work is to ensure that older people move from everyday perception to a feeling of a full life in the present, to freeing internal resources that will change the quality of their lives.
Important components of training for older people are explanations and role-playing practice, as well as demonstration of how to use discussions about unhelpful things.
Note 3
The emphasis should be on excessive dependence on words in difficult situations, consider the topic of conflict in personal and professional fear of failure, and also pay attention to the analysis of the need for the “omnipotence” of the employee, the use of new behavior that helps to increase the competence of the specialist.
Even small group work and joint practice with colleagues allow the employee to understand that not only he, but also his colleagues can make a mistake.
One of the indisputable indicators for training sessions can be considered the desire of an elderly person. The number of people in a group of elderly people should not exceed six to eight people. This allows the trainer who conducts the classes to monitor all changes in the condition of each person in the group. It is important that the group composition is the same from the beginning to the end of the training course. The trainer determines the composition of the exercises, which is compiled based on test diagnostic data. Before the group creation stage, the trainer conducts conversations with all group members. The main purpose of these conversations is to get to know each other and create motivation for group classes. In addition, the general health status of each elderly person is determined. Among the contraindications for participation in the training are the unsatisfactory state of health of an elderly person. This may be elevated temperature, intoxication, severe pain syndromes, etc.
Features of working with older people in support groups
One form of group work is a support group, which is organized for those older people who have a very narrow circle of friends.
Adlerian psychology sees the main problem of an elderly person in the lack of adequate awareness of life’s tasks in completing life’s journey. Therefore, support groups are a method of developing social interest and understanding of life's challenges. Older people who attend support groups learn skills in finding common ground for communication, sharing each other's feelings, implementing feedback. To do this, older adults are asked to repeat what each other says, identify each other's strengths, and talk about what they find attractive in others. When working in a group, a discussion of the topic of the life tasks of the training participants is raised, and an individual determination of goals for each week is carried out.
Definition 1
Support Group is a group that is characterized by a high level of personal contact among its members, as well as a high degree of cohesion.
It is impossible to organize the relationships that occur between group members, between two people.
Let's look at the main tasks of support groups:
- unite group members in such a way that they feel they belong to this group, feel safe and understand that others accept them;
- provide group members with conditions that will allow older people to compare their feelings and sensations with the opinions and feelings of other group members;
- help group members accurately assess reality and form an understanding of how others perceive them.
Features of the experiences of older people
Everyone knows that each of us, at any age, has the potential to face severe loss, death, and grief. But it should be noted that for an elderly person the likelihood of loss increases. Elderly people are characterized by the presence of multiple problems: severe physical suffering or loss of health, retirement of a person and, as a consequence, loss of the opportunity to actively participate in social life, death of a spouse, high level psychological or mental exhaustion, etc. Work with these problems of people of late age began to be carried out quite recently. And today we already have experience in practical developments for people of advanced age, allowing us to alleviate their experiences.
Note 4
Many psychologists argue that an older person is more at risk of experiencing bereavement than a younger person. An elderly person understands that life is not endless, and there is less and less time left every day. Not every loss of an elderly person can be compensated for by anything.
One of the first losses may be the death of a spouse, close family member, or friend. Elderly people have to come to terms with the fact that at their age the loss of familiar people is higher than in previous times. At the same time, adapting to new situations is becoming increasingly difficult. The death of a spouse is a particularly significant life event. Late age is characterized by a continuous series of losses, sudden or sequential. In addition to the loss of loved ones, there may be loss of a person's sensory abilities (hearing, vision), memory, work, independence and mobility. Also one of the losses is the loss of life expectations. All these experiences lead to the emergence of an understanding of the inevitability and proximity of death. There are also problems of loss of joy from an active lifestyle and activity. This is one of the symptoms of depression.
Note 5
Depression in old age is in most cases undiagnosed and untreated.
The fact of the onset of depression in late life, as a rule, follows from major adverse life events, such as great grief or exacerbation of the disease. But the sequence of events is not always like this. Sometimes loss precedes depression. A person who is depressed tends to not take care of himself and get sick, and this can lead, for example, to an accident or death from negligence.
An older person experiences loss, failure, or trouble in life much longer than a younger person. Reactions associated with grief may include confusion, depression, and thoughts of death. These reactions may be combined with dementia. Another problem affecting an older person is “overload” from great grief, frequent losses, and not solely from the death of a spouse.
Job loss related to a physical condition is one of the significant sources of grief for an older person. This problem acquires special significance for a person in late life only if he did not plan to stop working. Usually an elderly person does not work due to age-related characteristics that are associated with his health. An older person may have problems with hearing, mobility, and stability.
Psychology often discusses the phenomenon of “bereavement overload,” which is characterized by the repetition or overlap of multiple losses. In this situation, the body's restorative powers dry up. For example, an elderly person has just lost a loved one and has not yet had time to cope with the loss, and then another loved one dies.
Note 6
Studying the problem of death, attitudes towards it, great losses and grief in at different ages is currently poorly understood.
Methods for coping with grief for older people
Group work can help you cope with difficult life situations. These groups identify a number of factors aimed at overcoming grief by an elderly person. The purpose of working in a group is to instill hope in a person, help them accept loss, reduce social isolation, help them find new meaning in life, provide support, acquire new skills and share experiences, and help others.
Social support is the most obvious type of assistance provided to an older person in the bereavement group. This support helps older people reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. In addition to social support, bereavement groups provide a sense of acceptance. In these groups, an older person can talk about their grief without being judged by others.
Note 7
In this way, bereavement groups provide therapeutic assistance and help to release difficult experiences.
In overcoming grief, being among people who have suffered a similar situation is very important. In this place, a person's experiences can be understood. Support and acceptance of the feelings of a suffering elderly person contribute to the normal course of his experience of great loss.
The beginning of healing is the moment of working in a group when a person begins to express himself freely in the group and is not afraid of condemnation from other group members. The advantage of group work is that people who have just joined and those who have recently come to the group see people who have been attending classes for a long time and are already far advanced in the process of grieving loss.
Support and encouragement for older people in difficult endeavors is a clear advantage of group work. It happens that a person cannot notice his successes until other group members tell him about it. When working in a group, a person can see how far he has come, since new group members are at an already passed stage of experiencing loss.
Group work provides its members with several types of support:
- instrumental support;
- emotional support;
- justifying support.
Note 8
What is important about this is that it is possible to discuss issues that concern an older person and discover that other people have faced similar problems.
Emotional support is a major burden when dealing with grief. In a group, a person can receive emotional support in being listened to and allowed to talk about death. In a group, a person can cry and freely express his feelings, which leads to an easier grief process. As a rule, group members experience empathy for the speaker because they themselves are experiencing or have already experienced similar grief. This is effective emotional support, which helps to alleviate difficult emotional experiences of a person.
Another strong emotion that is expressed in a group is anger. Anger can be caused by specific grievances, for example, against an alcoholic spouse who died of cirrhosis of the liver, or it can be directed at a loved one, doctor, family, friends, or someone else. Sometimes there are cases when, during a group activity, anger is transferred to some member of the group who resembles a spouse or loved one.
Another type of support is justificatory support. Its essence lies in the fact that the group normalizes the process of grief among its members and determines an understanding of what can be expected in the future. This form of support helps reduce the fears of group members.
The value of group therapy during bereavement
Activities that take place in bereavement groups help sufferers develop an understanding of the next stages of the loss experience and the symptoms that will accompany it. This gives group members a sense of control over what happens to them.
Note 9
Particularly important properties of working in a group are the emergence of opportunities for socialization, the acquisition of friends, and the development of mutual support.
The number of older people is growing all the time, and this is an indicator that training for older people is not only effective method treatment, taking into account the cost and time of implementation, but also that this form of therapy is productive in helping older people who are experiencing a major loss of a loved one.
Unfortunately, there is currently no systematic assessment of a number of forms of group work. There is a fact of a serious lack of practical positive experience that could become the main practice.
But despite everything, when working with older people, many psychosocial methods are used: counseling, discussions, conversations, and role-playing games. There are various places where group classes are held. These are nursing homes, centers providing social services to the population, and day care centers. But it is necessary to pay special attention to ensuring that the inclusion of an elderly person in certain psychosocial work occurs not only with his consent, but also on his personal initiative. Only in this case can you count on a positive effect.
If you notice an error in the text, please highlight it and press Ctrl+Enter
A year after the death of his mother, Israeli artist Alexander Galitsky left a good, prestigious job and got a job in a nursing home as a woodcarving teacher. This work allowed him to communicate a lot with older people every day, taught him to listen, interact, find mutual language. Sasha Galitsky described 15 years of experience in this communication in the book “Mom, Don’t Cry” (Zakharov, 2018). When publishing a fragment from the book, we asked psychotherapist Grigory Gorshunin to comment and supplement the author’s observations.
What do you even talk to them about?
“You know, you’re the only person here with whom you can just laugh,” 83-year-old Wolf tells me during class.
Neighing, I'll tell you, it's very important. For example, old people of both sexes find it very funny to talk about sex: “We can’t really do anything anymore, so at least talk about it!” But first, let's talk about what you can't talk about with old people.
All manifestations of pity are prohibited. Pity offends old people. Because pity is humiliating. Getting old isn't easy. I don't want to grow old. And pity doesn't help here at all. Vice versa. It's better to joke than to feel sorry. Humor helps much better.
Continuing yesterday's quarrels, if any, is prohibited. In no case. It is prohibited to prove or try to explain again what could not be explained yesterday. This is a useless exercise that will only set the wrong tone for the conversation from the very beginning.
Fake “downing” conversations like: “Dad, you can do it,” “Mom, pull yourself together,” “Hold on” are prohibited. Remember that, most likely, parents are already trying to conserve their waning strength as much as possible, and there is no need to say anything about it again. meaningful words not worth it.
And finally, it is forbidden to tell old people about your difficulties and problems. Because it’s more expensive for themselves, they’ll torture you with advice. Otherwise, you can talk to them about anything. The most important thing is from the very beginning to once and for all prohibit yourself from evaluating what they say - completely at all. In order to talk correctly with old people, you need to firmly take the position of an observer and never leave it again under any circumstances.
Listen, study, don't argue. Become a “young naturalist” who explores the diversity of species with interest. Then you can talk to old people about anything.
One girl I know, 93 years old, for example, spent her whole life waiting in vain for humanity to meet extraterrestrial civilizations. And in order not to feel upset about this, at some point I internally decided that such a meeting had happened. She and I talked a lot about aliens inhabiting our planet. It was very interesting.
There is good talk about medicines, about medical details of modern methods of treating all sorts of ailments and sores. About their illnesses - worse. Give it a try. Do not want? Well, there’s no need to talk about their illnesses if they don’t want to. About politics - great. But don’t argue - listen more and assent, if you can stand it. If not, let's go off topic.
Conversations and memories of the past are a special category. They are probably the most desirable conversations of all, because they take old people back in time and make them feel young. It's good when we can help them with this. Professional conversations about previous work work especially well in this sense.
For example, 92-year-old Yosef can tell me for hours how in the 60s he hand-bored cylinders from old American Ford automobile engines with files, and what a long line of people who wanted to bore him stood at that time.
A separate topic, completely trouble-free, is conversations about the successes of grandchildren and their future. Just be sure to remain a “young naturalist” here too. Don't argue. Listen. Wonder to yourself. Remember that in reality, the future of your children depends only on themselves and on you. And it does not at all depend on what grandparents think about this.
The only, but very serious limitation is that the topic of conversation should not irritate parents
Proper conversation is one of the greatest pleasures you can give an elderly parent. True, you need to be able not only to start and conduct such conversations, but also to end them correctly. Old people are able to talk on a topic that is pleasant to them for an infinitely long time, with details and details.
And if you, having heard enough, abruptly interrupt the conversation, you can easily offend the old man very much. To prevent this from happening, it is best to refer to circumstances beyond your control - an ending break at work, an important meeting, a task that cannot be cancelled.
It's even better if you warn about this in advance. Well, during the conversation, if it becomes difficult or you get bored, just change the topic abruptly. Old people are usually not at all upset about this. The main thing for them is to communicate and for the topic to be pleasant, the rest is not so important. We are the conductors here.
The only, but very serious limitation is that the topic of conversation should not irritate parents. This is a taboo that must be strictly observed. By the way, they will try, on the contrary, to talk about what irritates us. It's OK.
All that needs to be done in this case is, without supporting such a conversation in any way, distract them and switch their attention to any other topic. For example, an unexpected question to my father: “Dad, tell me how in 1970 you managed to buy a humpbacked Zaporozhets for 900 rubles practically without a queue?” can greatly help out in difficult times of a quickly brewing scandal. Try it when you get the chance.”
Fragment from Sasha Galitsky’s book “Mom, Don’t Cry” (Zakharov, 2018).
“SHOWING PITY IS NOT HARMFUL!”
Grigory Gorshunin, psychiatrist
Quarrels are often provoked not by old people, but by those who care for them. Caring for the elderly is a difficult task, mentally and physically, and this in itself becomes a source of tension in the family. It’s easy to advise a caregiver: “don’t argue.” But in reality, tired spouses and children often themselves look for reasons for conflict in order to take out their irritation on their ward. Yes, and old parents know our weak points very well and step on them, without restraining themselves at all.
Therefore, I would not recommend starting any conversations at all if you feel tired and irritated - it is better to postpone communication to another time. If you notice that you are constantly hostile and can snap at any moment, think about finding a replacement for yourself - in this state there will still be no normal care. There is no way to invite assistants - ask the doctor to prescribe you sedatives. I often notice: as soon as the caregiver comes to his senses, his ward also calms down. But the opposite is rarely the case.
A joke is not a universal technique. Including anecdotes and jokes into the conversation is indeed useful, but only on the condition that the elderly person maintains a sense of humor. Unfortunately, not all old people are optimistic; many are depressed of varying degrees of depth, and it is not easy to distract them from sad thoughts with humor - witticisms will most likely cause resentment or irritation.
Quite often there is a variant of senile dementia called frontotemporal dementia - it affects the regulation of emotions and behavior. Such old people become too liberated, lustful, and overly funny. They respond easily to humor, which is good for establishing rapport. But there is also a downside: obscene jokes about sex excite them and provoke them to some inappropriate actions, harassment. In this case, it is better for the caregiver to behave with more restraint and set firm boundaries.
Many children, having long since become adults, continue to obey their parents in everything
Showing pity is not harmful. What's wrong with hugging, kissing, carrying a bag, and sympathizing? This is an opportunity to show that you understand and share the difficult condition of a loved one. Many old people feel weak, sick, and in pity, participation, compassion they see care and attention, and not something humiliating for themselves. Of course, it is important not to put yourself above the one you feel sorry for.
Elderly people feel better when they are spoken to clearly.“Mom, get yourself together!” - it depends on your intonation what will be heard in this phrase - respect and care or arrogance. Many older people need clear instructions and specific tasks. Clear instructions mean that you are in better control of the situation and are taking all necessary measures to make the old person feel better.
The rules are set by the caregiver. The entire atmosphere in the house depends on his emotional state, so he builds the life of his elderly parents for himself, in a way that is convenient for him. Then he will burn out less emotionally and will find resources to help his father or mother.
Many children, having long since become adults, continue to obey their parents in everything. They are not able to insist on their own, to make a decision that they consider correct. But if adult children, who have essentially taken responsibility for the life and health of their parents, yield to their authority and are afraid to impose their will, chaos ensues in the house. This topic needs to be discussed with a psychologist.
It is especially useful to raise issues in which older people feel confident and competent
Keep them informed about family issues. It is necessary to talk about what is happening in the family if these changes can affect their life - the illness of a relative or your divorce. But you don’t need to mention other problems in your personal life.
In principle, any topic is suitable for communicating with old people, be it politics or sports, if it does not cause strong negative emotions in them and does not provoke conflict.
It is especially useful to raise issues in which older people feel confident and competent. For example, ask about ancestors while leafing through a family album together. Or ask for professional advice in areas in which they are well versed - in construction, caring for plants or animals, preparing certain dishes.
Don't forget about physical contact. An elderly person who is depressed may perceive any topic negatively, become capricious, and deviate from the conversation. In this situation, any physical contact, respectful and friendly - stroking, holding a hand, hugging - helps and supports better than any words. Elderly people find your closeness pleasant and important.
About the expert
Grigory Gorshunin - psychiatrist, psychotherapist, employee of the Center for Systemic Family Therapy.
