Supervision in psychodrama

During their training in psychodrama students are expected to direct groups and to perform the skills gained. The training curriculum foresees that students must have the experience of 220 hours directing a group (88 sessions of 2,5 hours, according to the methodology of psychodrama) in order to graduate. These groups are addressed to persons who wish to enhance their personal development, to manage their intra- and interpersonal problems and to foster their personal and professional roles. Classical psychodrama, role theory, psychodramatic techniques, sociometry and sociodrama can be applied in many settings, e.g. psychotherapy, adult education, school class, reintegration of offenders, drug abuse treatment, health promotion, counselling, training of persons with disabilities, to mention only a few. It is a challenge for trainees to find the population and the proper environment where psychodrama can be implemented and be a benefit to all members involved. Supervision supports and guides them is this creative journey.

Trainees are systematically supervised during their practice. The total amount of supervision during their training is 96 hours, divided in 4 hours per month. It is foreseen that trainees/supervisees are participating in one individual session (1 hour) and one group session (3 hours) per month. Nonetheless, the implementation context of supervision is adjusted to the needs and the developmental stage of the supervisees.

There are three main functions of supervision in psychodrama:

(a) Resourcing supervisees by acknowledging that psychodramatist are inevitably affected by the distress, pain and fragmentation of their group members, and, hence, in need of support. The latter often occurs because supervision deals with vulnerabilities and problems of the supervisees who often need to be supported and nourished. It is clear, however, that supervision cannot substitute the need for counseling or psychotherapy.

(b) Training and facilitating supervisees’ professional development over time and amplifying their psychodramatic competence. A fundamental task of supervisors is to provide systematic and adequate feedback to their supervisees, to acknowledge their limits and consequently motivate them to develop their skills.

(c) Quality control and accountability to the public, serving as a “key activity” to ensure that psychodrama is implemented with fidelity.

Supervision in psychodrama focus on following topics:

• Identification of the implementation context for psychodrama

• Designing and organizing a psychodrama group and related workshops

• Code of ethics and quality control

• Processing the sessions conducted and evaluation of the performance of the supervisees in respect of the contract with the protagonist

• Providing constructive feedback to the supervisees on their practice

• Group dynamics and conflict resolution

• Vulnerabilities and issues of personal involvement of the supervisees

• Supervision relationship in concordance with the therapeutic relationship of the supervisees with their group members

The content of the individual supervision sessions focuses on the personal development of group members of psychodrama, while the group session focuses on group dynamics and issues of methodology and ethics.

Furthermore, in order to graduate, students are requested to write a paper about their practice on psychodrama presenting the achieved results for the group members. The paper includes a literature review related to the topic of the paper and the presentation of the application of the method of psychodrama. Therefore, supervision sessions offer as well support in editing of the final paper on the experience of directing a group.

The essence of the theory of psychodrama is the encounter in here and now, the action and the reinforcement of our potential for creativity and spontaneity, the development of new roles and the group as a media for change. Psychodrama supervision relies of the same philosophy and concepts.