I am pleased to announce the publication of The Rehearsals for Growth Reference Guide for Online and In-Person Enactments (available here both as a spiral-bound book and PDF). The Reference Guide was a project two years in the making, and it is wonderful to see it finally in hand.
My coauthor Daniel J. Wiener developed Rehearsals for Growth (RfG) in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a psychotherapy that utilizes theatre improvisation as a basis for a variety of clinical assessments and interventions. I became interested in his work, especially in the realm of helping couples think creatively together, and after graduating my clinical program. I began training with Dan and have been utilizing his methods ever since. RfG works in all sorts of clinical settings, but it is most powerful when deployed in couples, families, and groups. More importantly, it deals directly with how to foster creativity as a joint venture.
Creativity is frequently mentioned as a strength on which to build a foundation of health. Nonetheless, there is not much discussion of how to foster creativity, the works of Edward de Bono excepted. Creativity often suffers from the myth that it is a gift from the gods. Either you have it or you don’t. Every art school student knows that it is quite useful to have talent or some creative spark, but the purpose of art school is to hone creativity as a learnable and teachable skill. Inherent to studying art is the presumption that creativity is a skill that can be strengthened. Psychotherapy doesn’t focus much on this changeable aspect of creativity, and consequently, students in clinical programs do not receive guidance on how to help others develop sensibilities or mastery of creative techniques. Nor is there much discussion of the dangers of failing to achieve a sense of mastery or skillfulness in the world.
RfG intrigued me because it did not take a common approach to creativity in the realm of psychotherapy. Rather than adapting expressive arts to psychological processes and goals, RfG suggested that psychological health required creative interactions and metacognition as tools for maintaining healthy relationships and gives multiple approaches to achieving skill in these areas. I hope you find this work as useful and illuminating as I have. Read more about Dan’s work at his website, Rehearsals for Growth.