sociometry

[REGINA SEWELL]

Ann,
 
 I've been reading copy of "Conducting Clinical Sociometric Explorations" the work book edition (Ann E. Hale, 1985).  And a shout out to anyone who hasn't read this ...  Get it.  You need it. I've trained with trainers who emphasize sociometry - Rebecca and Judy at HVPI, Jonathan Fox, Donna Little and Ann Hale...  Still, it's really helpful.   
 
 But I digress.  I've been processing some of the workshops with you and with you and Donna Little that I've been able to attend and what really sticks out is how fluidly you/y'all attend to sociometry... and how you/y'all use that to get both get to encounters and dramas that need to happen.   And reading through, with the experience of working with y'all in the background of my brain, I am beginning understand at a significant level how important it is to keep track of group members choices...  who chooses who over what criteria.  I also realize that this is helpful for me as a group member... to keep note of (I have a tendency to see my self as unchosen and therefore dismiss the attempts to reach out to me and/or to see the role I create for myself or have been cast in and therefore feel stuck).   
 
 So, I am writing to say that yes, I am finally getting it in my body as well as some rational aspect of my brain that sociometry is base upon which the rest of Moreno's theory stands and I see/feel the power of doing it well.  And doing sociometry - beyond "step in the circle if you like ice cream" also takes skill and courage.  How does one respond to the group member that isn't chosen and who wants to run away?  How does one intervene in a gentle, loving way that also encourages the group member to look at their role in the situation?  How does one intervene in a gentle, loving way that encourages the group to examine their own prejudices and aversion -  when it looks like the member who is rejected may be rejected based on criteria over which they have no control (ethnicity, religion, race, sexual orientation, size, attractiveness, social class, health, age ......).  And how can one, in a subtle way, help bring in the member that seems to be an outlyer?
 
 I'm fortunate in that the people I have trained with have modeled this well.  Rebecca and Judy (HVPI) and Donna Little have sat down with me and given me objective feedback of my behavior and how it seems to impact other group members and challenged my own perceptions of rejection.  Jonathan has modeled how to invovle group members in leadership roles so that they feel and connected to the group and important.  He's also modeled the importance of making holes in group transparent (there are only 2 _____ in the group and they have put themselves forward several times and have not been chosen...   I'm making the choice that we chose one of these to deal with the underlying issues around the voice that isn't being heard...  (my paraphrase with apologies to Jonathan for it's lack of eloquence).  The catch is, how do we do this on the larger political level?  How do we offer our skills to groups we are not a part of in a way that doesn't come across as patronizing?  
 
 At some level, the answer to this is easy.  Networking.  We sort through our networks and see who we know who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who is connected.......  or we introduce ourselves...     So the question is, who do we / you know?  (Who went to college with Hillary or Obama or someone on their staff or knows someone who knows someone who did?) Who has access to people in power?   And yet...   
 
 It comes down to how do we "market the idea" of being real in a world driven by superficial text messages and twitter postings?  How do we sell compassionate authenticity?
 
 Peace,
 
 Regina Sewell, ph.d.

>>From: "Ann Hale" <annehale at swva.net>
 Subject: Moreno's sociometry: a wake up call

On June 20, 2009 the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, reported the U.S. is committed to helping the world's 34 million refugees (my italics) build safe and fulfilling lives, calling their struggle a "humanitarian emergency."  (Associated Press, June 20, 2009, 09:19am EDT) What Clinton is describing is the need for a qualitative and a quantitative response. What is needed are methods with deeply humanitarian belief systems capable of examining and resolving a crisis of this magnitude, and capable of assisting one person at a time find "Where do I fit on this planet? and "Will I be able to practice my religion, support my family, feel safe and connected when I arrive?"  (If you will remember Moreno got his start resettling refugees in Mitterndorf in 1915-1917. It is here he discovered the connection between preference and lessening of conflict.)
 
 At a time when psychodramatists in the US are complaining about decreasing interest, enrollment and membership, etc. the need for our methods is escalating.  For years it has been documented that the sociometry section of the American Board exams has the highest borderline and failing grades.  Students don't seem to know more than how to do "step into the circle if you like pizza"  or "put you hand on someone who appears to be similar to you in some way".  There is a huge methodology awaiting our membership and trainees, and a huge need.  Learning to use sociometric methods is not a comfortable learning. You have to face your personal deficits, your value system, your needs, and what rejection feels like, when receiving it, or giving it.  The payoff is the restoration of hope and the managability of complex, intersecting lives.
 
 No, psychodrama, is disappearing from texts and journals. Whole books such as the popular "Social Intelligence (Goleman) can appear without one reference to Moreno.  It is past time that we examine ourselves for choosing to retreat to the safety of private practice and align ourselves with mental health when we could have been preparing large numbers of students to intervene and strategize and resolve some of the sociodynamics which lead to devestating social and political problems. I am not just pointing fingers. I know myself to be underutilized and not involved to the level of my capability.
 
 Playback Theater has risen to the challenge, and a scattering of psychodramatists are looking at the big picture.  I am grateful for every one of you who takes the method to points of crisis.  If we want our methods to be more available to those who need them we need to make sociometry more available on a global scale.
 
 The Obama administration opened the Office of Public Engagement in February, 2009.  Their Core Priniciples (7) are listed on the website of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.  If you want to you can go to www.sociometry.net and get linked to this.  Our current government is open to our methodology.  Let's respond!>>




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