[SoupDragon]

The idea of role play came up somewhere in a thread and I started to think about role play, how much I hate it and how T gently tries to get me to engage in it (he hasn't managed yet ).

So I started to wonder about role play and:

1. What it actually is
2. What is it supposed to achieve
3. Can it help everyone (or even anyone?)
4. How is it the same or different to what we do here with each other on PC

The friendships and interactions on here for me feel pretty real in a virtual kind of way, although hiding behind a computer I am more open and confident than I would be in real life - so I am guessing it is different to role play, but maybe there are some similarities? Actually I guess role play must aim to bear some similarlity to real life itself otherwise how could it benefit anyone.

[Perna]

I think role play is just an opportunity to imagine things from a different perspective. It is like acting but you are both characters, yourself and the problem or person "opposite" you. It is used a lot in Gestalt therapy.

http://www.psychologycampus.com/psyc...t-therapy.html

Just using your imagination alone, you can engage in role play through day dreaming, if you pay attention to what you daydream about and "analyze" it for yourself. It is similar with regular dreaming, at night. It helps one get a different perspective.

We (I think :-) stay ourselves when we discuss our problems or other people's problems here on PC. Sometimes it is possible to imagine we had the other person's problems (but notice, they aren't problems we have, we aren't really helping ourselves then because we aren't working on those problems "now") and remember how we worked on them in our own lives in the past or what we might try if they were our problems (how to go about making friends, for example) but we rarely "take on" that problem as if it were ours now.

[SoupDragon]

Originally Posted by Perna

I think role play is just an opportunity to imagine things from a different perspective. It is like acting but you are both characters, yourself and the problem or person "opposite" you. It is used a lot in Gestalt therapy.

http://www.psychologycampus.com/psyc...t-therapy.html

Just using your imagination alone, you can engage in role play through day dreaming, if you pay attention to what you daydream about and "analyze" it for yourself. It is similar with regular dreaming, at night. It helps one get a different perspective.

We (I think :-) stay ourselves when we discuss our problems or other people's problems here on PC. Sometimes it is possible to imagine we had the other person's problems (but notice, they aren't problems we have, we aren't really helping ourselves then because we aren't working on those problems "now") and remember how we worked on them in our own lives in the past or what we might try if they were our problems (how to go about making friends, for example) but we rarely "take on" that problem as if it were ours now.

Thanks for this Perna - that has helped me get a better understanding - love your signature, that has hit a spot in my brain somewhere - Soup

Originally Posted by SoupDragon

The idea of role play came up somewhere in a thread and I started to think about role play, how much I hate it and how T gently tries to get me to engage in it (he hasn't managed yet ).

So I started to wonder about role play and:

1. What it actually is
2. What is it supposed to achieve
3. Can it help everyone (or even anyone?)
4. How is it the same or different to what we do here with each other on PC

The friendships and interactions on here for me feel pretty real in a virtual kind of way, although hiding behind a computer I am more open and confident than I would be in real life - so I am guessing it is different to role play, but maybe there are some similarities? Actually I guess role play must aim to bear some similarlity to real life itself otherwise how could it benefit anyone.

I've never been willing to roleplay in therapy despite my T. trying to get me to participate. Maybe its been my own insecurities...but I always thought that the roleplaying would be more for the T. to see how I think/react then it would be for me to realize that there are other outcomes to situations... or another perspective to an issue... Its also something I think about group therapy which is something else that my T. is encouraging me to do... I think he would learn more about me than I would learn about myself... which might not be a bad thing unless its stuff I don't realize about myself...

love to hear from people who roleplay in session to hear about an experience.

[stopdog]

I don't think I would do it with a therapist as an exercise but I think I do it in life. For my partner to get the kind of comfort she wanted from me began as a sort of role play for me where I practiced it. When I am around people who are displaying a lot of emotion (or feeling - I did not quite understand the distinction in the other thread) and I need to respond in some supportive way -is like role play for me (I remember where a character I like from a novel did in a situation like this- and then I try to do it) Some of teaching or going to court is role play. Acting!

[Chopin99]

A former T tried to get me to role-play with an empty chair representing someone in my life (the empty chair is Gestalt, but she was using redecision therapy). I couldn't do it and had panic attacks on and off for the next week afterward. It triggered something but neither she nor I could figure out what the trigger was.

I'll never do it again!

[Kacey2]

My t and I have done role playing before. One of the best times is when we were having a rough patch and I had the idea to have an intake session as "Meghan" a new client. He filled out all the paperwork and asked every question he would ask at the first session. We talked about why I was in therapy which helped me figure out what to talk about. I was having a hard time letting him in and seeing my need for therapy at the time. He actually came out to the waiting room and called for "Meghan." Then he introduced himself and shook my hand. At the very end of the intake he said that next time we would go over a therapy plan. He walked me out and told the receptionist that "Meghan needed an appointment for the following week." We carried on for a few weeks until I wanted to be me again. It was pretty awesome.

[CantExplain]

Originally Posted by SoupDragon

The idea of role play came up somewhere in a thread and I started to think about role play, how much I hate it and how T gently tries to get me to engage in it (he hasn't managed yet ).

I've never done it with my T, but it did happen once at group.

I had unfinished business with someone who had left, so someone else played her role. I think it helped.

[mixedup_emotions]

I become very anxious by the idea of role playing.....and my T is gestalt-based, so he's all for it. On one hand, I feel incredibly silly and self-conscious about the idea...yet on the other hand, I fear it intensely. My T wanted me to "talk to" my dad who passed away via the empty chair technique...and I wanted RUN as fast as I could. I refused to do it....just imagining my dad in that chair set me into a major panic. So, I imagine that it could be a very effective tool...I'm just too scared to use it.

[CantExplain]

Originally Posted by mixedup_emotions

My T wanted me to "talk to" my dad who passed away via the empty chair technique...

Oh, is that role-playing? Yes, I've done that a couple of times. But the chair stays empty.

[roads]

I've had Ts use the empty-chair role-play, which I'm never comfortable with. It was used in another context, though, that worked well--twice. I was being trained for a crisis line, a suicide & a rape line. Both were trained volunteers, & when we got to training for the interview we alternated, one roll-playing the caller. It was quite effective, and everyone seemed both involved yet at ease with it.

But I really think it's probably better as a teaching/training tool. IMO.