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Frontiers in Psychology 2020
PubMed: 32116898
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00068 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2020Psychodrama is an effective psychotherapeutic model but interventions with adolescents require age-tailored techniques that maximize engagement and facilitate...
Psychodrama is an effective psychotherapeutic model but interventions with adolescents require age-tailored techniques that maximize engagement and facilitate communication processes. This study describes a novel adaptation of a therapeutic mask technique to psychodrama with adolescents. Over the course of eight group sessions of psychodrama, five adolescents (16 to 18 years-old) created their own mask and explored its therapeutic use. Their experiences were captured at the end of each session with the Helpful Aspects of Therapy (HAT) form, and at the end of the study with the Clinical Change Interview (CCI). Awareness/insight/self-understanding, empowerment and relief were the most significant aspects experienced by the adolescents, along with perceived increase of calmness and world connection, satisfaction in interpersonal communication and better emotional expression and regulation. The mask technique was experienced as a playful and engaging task that facilitated insight and interpersonal communication. Findings provide preliminary evidence on the clinical utility of mask-based psychodrama with adolescents.
PubMed: 33510672
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588877 -
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2023The present study investigated the effects of a hybrid online course on a group of Italian Master's degree students involved in a European Erasmus+ project. The course...
The present study investigated the effects of a hybrid online course on a group of Italian Master's degree students involved in a European Erasmus+ project. The course was composed of nine modules about death education, palliative psychology and the use of creative arts therapies-such as psychodrama, intermodal psychodrama and photovoice-in the end-of-life-field. The project involved 64 students in the experimental group (who attended the course) and 56 students as the control group. Both groups completed an online questionnaire before and after the delivery of the course and 10 students from the experimental group participated in a focus group at the end of the course. The quantitative analysis revealed that the experimental group students showed lesser levels of perception of death as annihilation, fear of the death and death avoidance, while they increased their levels of death acceptance, creative self-efficacy and attitude toward the care of the dying. Qualitative analysis identified three main themes: the positive impact of the course on death education and end-of-life care; the role of art therapies on death and end-of-life care; and the unhelpful facets of the course. Overall, this intervention changed the perception and the feelings of the students regarding the themes of death and palliative psychology and increased their creative self-efficacy and their interest in working in an end-of-life field.
PubMed: 36829411
DOI: 10.3390/bs13020182 -
Dementia (London, England) May 2022COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns created a global public health crisis generating mental health problems including social isolation, stress, and anxiety...
COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns created a global public health crisis generating mental health problems including social isolation, stress, and anxiety especially for persons with dementia and their carers. This article reports on the use of digital technology to maintain social connectivity via a virtual group session that focused on the topic of "what is home." Participants in this session included 16 day-care center clients representing an immigrant community identified with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. A trained psychodrama therapist conducted the virtual group meeting based on five key techniques: spectrogram, role reversal, doubling, mirroring, and soliloquy. The NVivo software was used for the qualitative analysis of the transcribed video recording to identify key themes based on grounded theory methodology. Zooming from home, clients engaged in significant social interaction. Findings of the NVivo analysis identified the following themes of "what is home": Emotions and home, Home is family, Home is community, and Reminiscence (with objects and traditions). Findings suggest that digital interactive technologies, like Zoom, enhance social connectivity thus mitigating the negative impact of social isolation for persons with dementia especially during pandemic lockdowns. Our pilot findings based on virtual group meetings from home demonstrate that participants can express significant emotive capacity and enhanced connectivity with one another despite a diagnosis of mild to moderate dementia. While larger studies are needed to confirm these findings, we suggest that this methodology may be used to support persons with dementia not only in times of pandemics but also as an addition to other community and home care services. Changes in reimbursement policies to include these innovative home services may be helpful in building more resilient communities for the more highly vulnerable populations.
Topics: COVID-19; Caregivers; Communicable Disease Control; Dementia; Humans; Pandemics; Psychodrama; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 35236150
DOI: 10.1177/14713012221074484 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021Empirical studies in the creative arts therapies (CATs; i.e., art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, psychodrama, and poetry/bibliotherapy)...
Empirical studies in the creative arts therapies (CATs; i.e., art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, psychodrama, and poetry/bibliotherapy) have grown rapidly in the last 10 years, documenting their positive impact on a wide range of psychological and physiological outcomes (e.g., stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and pain). However, it remains unclear and the CATs have positive effects, and which therapeutic factors account for these changes. Research that specifically focuses on the therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change in CATs is only beginning to emerge. To gain more insight into how and why the CATs influence outcomes, we conducted a scoping review ( = 67) to pinpoint therapeutic factors specific to each CATs discipline, joint factors of CATs, and more generic common factors across all psychotherapy approaches. This review therefore provides an overview of empirical CATs studies dealing with therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change, and a detailed analysis of these therapeutic factors which are grouped into domains. A framework of 19 domains of CATs therapeutic factors is proposed, of which the three domains are composed solely of factors unique to the CATs: "embodiment," "concretization," and "symbolism and metaphors." The terminology used in change process research is clarified, and the implications for future research, clinical practice, and CATs education are discussed.
PubMed: 34366998
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678397 -
MedEdPORTAL : the Journal of Teaching... May 2021Obtaining informed consent (IC) is an essential medical practice. Utilization of IC role-playing training with medication study cards and self-peer-supervisor review...
INTRODUCTION
Obtaining informed consent (IC) is an essential medical practice. Utilization of IC role-playing training with medication study cards and self-peer-supervisor review should improve student fund of knowledge and strengthen IC skills for clerkship-level medical students.
METHODS
Between 2017 and 2020, approximately 555 clerkship medical students used our formative role-playing exercise tools. Students independently prepared psychotropic medication study cards and role-played IC during group didactics. Peer and supervisor reviews were not recorded but were discussed as a group. Students completed routine anonymous postclerkship surveys regarding the IC exercise. An enhanced IC curriculum was deployed in 2020, adding a training video and peer/supervisor feedback form. Student feedback and specialty shelf exam scores were reviewed to assess the exercise's effectiveness.
RESULTS
Surveys indicated satisfaction with the exercise and increased confidence in obtaining IC. Interestingly, the student group that received enhanced IC training had fewer shelf exam failures than those without, perhaps indicating improved fund of psychotropic medication knowledge.
DISCUSSION
Peer role-playing IC training is well accepted by students, allows practice of essential elements of IC and shared decision-making, and provides an engaging way to improve medication fund of knowledge. Our clerkship has initiated development of an IC objective structured clinical examination station and is adapting the exercise across specialties for longitudinal learning in response to the positive feedback and ease of use. Structured review of psychotropics and peer IC role-playing can be tailored for other specialties, medications, and procedures and further developed for use in pre- and postclerkship education.
Topics: Clinical Clerkship; Curriculum; Humans; Informed Consent; Role Playing; Students, Medical
PubMed: 34013021
DOI: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11152 -
Acta Psychologica Oct 2022This article proposes a framework to characterize joint action in digital spaces. "Digital joint action" maintains many known elements from physical, real-world joint...
This article proposes a framework to characterize joint action in digital spaces. "Digital joint action" maintains many known elements from physical, real-world joint action including representations relating to joint goals and individual subgoals, processes such as predicting and monitoring own and others' actions, and supporting coordination through signaling and direct communication. In contrast to social interaction in the real world, joint action performed online comes with a unique additional feature: Digital joint action is mediated through (more or less vividly visualized) avatars that are controlled by the individual users but also imply particular personas that come with their own skills and acting abilities. This makes digital joint action a highly interesting research field as it allows to investigate the cognitive principles of joint action that lie outside of the constraints of human physicality but are nevertheless embodied (i.e., in a virtual body). The aim of this article is two-fold: First, we introduce digital joint action as joint action between avatars in a digital environment, and we specify commonalities and differences between joint actions in the real world and in digital spaces to provide a framework for further research. Second, using a survey study among users of the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV, we provide empirical validation for our approach.
Topics: Humans; Video Games; Social Interaction; Role Playing; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 36215803
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103758 -
Social Work With Groups 2021Blacks/African Americans have the most severe and disproportionate burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Oppression (i.e., socio-structural...
Blacks/African Americans have the most severe and disproportionate burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Oppression (i.e., socio-structural (macro), institutional (exo), community (meso), and interpersonal (micro)), operates as four interrelated prongs that perpetuate the HIV epidemic in Black/ African American communities. Oppressive (i.e., racist and sexist) cultural scripts transferred to individuals through community, family and interpersonal relationships may play a role in HIV/STI risk. However, socio-behavioral health interventions or behavioral risk reduction interventions have traditionally focused solely on individual-level health risk behaviors allowing invisible, inequitable socio-structural factors to continue unchallenged. A new intervention, was sculpted from two existing interventions and (MAALES) to develop awareness of oppressive cultural scripts operating on interpersonal and intrapersonal levels and to take action against these oppressive messages to reclaim identity, restore relationships, and build community. This paper summarizes the theory and selected sociodramatic components of the intervention that promote healing in action to reduce HIV/STI risk among heterosexually identified, low-income African American men and women with multiple sex partners. Lessons learned in theory, research and practice are also discussed.
PubMed: 34483402
DOI: 10.1080/01609513.2020.1757923 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2022Drama therapy is applied to children and adolescents with psychosocial problems. Drama therapy is an experimental form of treatment which methodologically uses drama and... (Review)
Review
Drama therapy is applied to children and adolescents with psychosocial problems. Drama therapy is an experimental form of treatment which methodologically uses drama and theatre processes to achieve psychological growth. Although in clinical practice, drama therapy has been applied successfully, little is known about how and why drama therapy contributes to a decrease in psychosocial problems. A systematic narrative review was performed to obtain more insight into this issue. Eight databases were systematically searched. Ten out of 3742 studies were included, of which there were four random controlled trails, three non-controlled trials, and three pre-and post-test design studies. We identified the results, drama therapeutic means, attitude, and mechanism of change. Positive effects were found on overall psychosocial problems, internalizing and externalizing problems, social functioning, coping and regulation processes, social identity, and cognitive development. An adaptive approach was mentioned as the therapeutic attitude. The means established contribute to a dramatic reality, which triggers the mechanisms of change. These are processes that arise during treatment and which facilitate therapeutic change. We found ten supposed mechanisms of change to be frequently used in all studies. No direct relations were found between the results, drama therapeutic attitude, means, and mechanisms of change.
PubMed: 36138667
DOI: 10.3390/children9091358 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021Psychodrama is a therapeutic method in which the stage is used to enact and reenact life events with the aim of instilling, among other positive changes, hope and...
Psychodrama is a therapeutic method in which the stage is used to enact and reenact life events with the aim of instilling, among other positive changes, hope and empowerment in a wide range of populations suffering from psychological duress. The therapeutic process in psychodrama moves away from the classic treatment of the individual in isolation to treatment of the individual in the context of a group. In domestic violence situations, in which abusive men seek to socially isolate their victims from family and friends, the social support that psychodrama provides can positively influence the psychological health and well-being of the participants. This qualitative study examines the manner in which psychodramatic treatment can empower abused women residing in domestic violence shelters and help them regain control of their lives. An action research study of domestic violence survivors living in a women's shelter in Israel, over a 12-month period, demonstrates the role of psychodrama therapy in promoting the reduction of anxiety, stress, guilt, and self-blame, while reinforcing perceptions of self-worth and confidence. These findings contribute to our understanding of the potential of psychodrama in helping reshape life roles and reframe experiences within a creative process, with the aim of facilitating a transition from powerlessness to powerfulness among vulnerable populations.
PubMed: 33868079
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.600335