In this module, participants will get an overview of RTR is Dr. Tian Dayton’s model for how to incorporate experiential, embodied work into your practice or treatment setting. They will also learn some basic history of how JL Moreno’s triadic system of psychodrama and sociometry developed and the role his wife Zerka Moreno played in its continued development

RTR is designed for both virtual and in-person groups as well as one-to-one therapy. Simple, empty chair role-plays or two-person role plays can be incorporated into virtual or in-person one-to-one or group therapy.The two fundamental techniques that accompany psychodrama/role play are doubling and role reversal. Understanding how to use these techniques allows clinicians to incorporate them into one-to-one therapy, couples, family and group therapy.

Psychodrama is a full, complex form of therapy that requires much training. However, psychodrama’s basic techniques of doubling and role reversal can enrich and extend many forms of therapy. 

In role play we “talk to, not about.” A client can, for example, put a person or part of self into an empty chair and talk “to” them, then reverse roles and talk “as” them, back to themselves.

Doubling allows clients a short-cut way of “dropping down” into themselves and giving their inner world a voice; it offers a form of introspection that is direct and embodied. 

Role Reversal allows clients to experience both sides of a relational dynamic. Role reversal gives clients a visceral experience of standing in the shoes of the “other,” building empathy, insight, flexibility and strength. 

Both can be incorporated into most forms of therapy, transforming and enhancing the way your clients experience themselves and others. Through role-play, clients can talk to parts of themselves as well as attachment figures from the past or present. Through sociometrics they can experience and practice new relational behaviors in the here and now.