Our society often idolizes extreme emotional calm. It can be used to depict high levels of competence and near-indifference to possible failure and real danger. But we evolved to have emotions and they matter. If we experience genuine trauma, our mind, brain and body may more or less shut down or go into a hypervigilant state where everything is threatening.
I just finished reading "The Body Keeps the Score" by van der Kolk, a specialist psychiatrist who has worked for more than 30 years with deeply traumatized people. The end of his book is about using drama as a therapeutic tool. He makes it clear that with the right gentle guidance, encouragement and timing, participating in a scene of a play can help a person who has closed off to open up to himself and the world:
In a typical presentation the professional actors might portray a group of kids excluding a newcomer from a lunch table in the cafeteria. As the scene approaches a choice point— for example, the new student responds to their put-downs— the director freezes the action. A member of the class is then invited to replace one of the actors and show how he or she would feel and behave in this situation. These scenarios enable the students to observe day-to-day problems with some emotional distance while experimenting with various solutions: Will they confront the tormenters, talk to a friend, call the homeroom teacher, tell their parents what happened?
van der Kolk MD, Bessel (2014-09-25). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 6333-6337). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
It is not just youngsters who can benefit:
This can be a life-changing process, as I witnessed in a workshop run by actors trained by Shakespeare & Company at the VA Medical Center in Bath, New York. Larry, a fifty-nine-year-old Vietnam veteran with twenty-seven detox hospitalizations during the previous year, had volunteered to play the role of Brutus in a scene from Julius Caesar. As the rehearsal began, he mumbled and hurried through his lines; he seemed to be terrified of what people were thinking of him.
After a short break and a sip of water, back to work [on his lines]. "Justice— did you receive justice? Did you ever bleed for justice's sake? What does justice mean to you? Struck. Have you ever struck someone? Have you ever been struck? What was it like? What do you wish you had done? Stab. Have you ever stabbed someone? Have you ever felt stabbed in the back? Have you stabbed someone in the back?" At this point Larry bolted from the room.
The next day he returned and we began again— Larry standing there, perspiring, heart racing, having a million associations going through his mind, gradually allowing himself to feel every word and learning to own the lines that he uttered. At the end of the program Larry started his first job in seven years, and he was still working the last I heard, six months later. Learning to experience and tolerate deep emotions is essential for recovery from trauma.
van der Kolk MD, Bessel (2014-09-25). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 6440-6457). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
