robocounseling

[Regina Sewell]

What do I think of this.....

On one hand, it's nice to see psychodrama out there.  On the other.... 
I am worried that it is dangerous.  There is a reason we have to have so 
much training.  There is a reason we need to do a practicum.  All the 
studies show that the most curative aspect of counseling is relationship 
between counselor and client.  The most curative aspect of goup 
counseling is also relationships between group members...   the notion 
of crashing through the sense of our individual isolation and uniqueness 
into the bigger cosmic whole of universal suffering...   about using 
transference between group members to heal through relationships in the 
outside world.

regina sewell ph.d. / m.ed. pc


<Paul N. Adams announces that RoboCounsellor now offers the option of 
tabletop psychodrama at www.robocounsellor.com, where conventional 
counselling is available free of charge 24/7. Adams started 
computer-delivered counselling and self-development in 2006. He started 
working full-time with counselling and self-development in 1972.

Background: Jacob L. Moreno developed psychodrama in the 1930s and 40s. 
There is a stage, often simply a table and chairs. There is a 
director/therapist and a hero and villain, with a supporting cast and an 
audience. The client would usually play the part of the hero, the drama 
being some issue in her past, present or future life she wishes to work 
on. Other people play the other roles. In this way, hidden thoughts and 
feelings are brought to the surface and often expressed, and catharsis — 
a release of feeling — can occur. Later analysis can help bring about a 
change in thinking and feeling about the issue explored.

Tabletop Psychodrama is based on this, but modified for RoboCounsellor 
use. The client sits at a table, or suitable flat surface, with the 
computer and various small objects like tissue boxes and tin cans. At 
RoboCounsellor's direction, the client writes out an outline of this 
particular scene, then draws a represention of herself in that scene on 
paper, which she then wraps around a can, say. She would then position 
her character front and centre on the stage, facing in to the action, 
not out to an audience. She would create the other characters and place 
them in their correct relative positions on the stage.

When directed, she would then run through the scene. She would start by 
inhabiting her own character on the stage, usually with her head 
positioned directly above it, voicing each part herself, moving the 
characters around on the stage as appropriate, breathing life into the 
whole scene. She can whisper lovingly, yell and swear, nurture, ignore, 
or even destroy a character as she chooses. RoboCounsellor will then 
direct her to write a summary of anything new, any change of viewpoint 
or feeling she has about the issue. She will then play through the 
action, one scene or many, again and again until the topic is no longer 
an issue. She can choose from seventeen variations, including focusing 
on the emotions, another's viewpoint, spiritual/cosmic aspects, what-if 
scenarios, and many more.

Advantages of the RoboCounsellor approach include cost, convenience, 
privacy, and the fact that the other players don't interject their own 
pre-conceptions inappropriately into the client's memories or 
imagination.

RoboCounsellor now has three session modules, delivering Rogerian 
Therapy, Transactional Analysis and Tabletop Psychodrama. Adams plans to 
have the next one online by the end of November.