Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors: Acting Out Your Pain [Paperback]

Peter Felix Kellermann (Editor), M.K. Hudgins (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1853028932 | ISBN-13: 978-1853028939 | Publication Date: October 19, 2000 | Edition: 1

In a world where natural, social, and political disasters are a daily reality, the therapist is increasingly called upon to find rapid and effective methods of treating the survivors of trauma, including sexual abuse, torture, war-related trauma, addiction, depression, and bereavement. The contributors to this book provide persuasive evidence of how psychodrama can safely be used to create paths of change for even the most severe traumatization and they also discuss the possible transmission of trauma patterns across generations. Research following World War II, neurobiological studies and other recent research into PTSD has shown that many trauma symptoms are unconscious, non-verbal, right-brained experiences which cannot be accessed through talk therapy. Psychodrama creates a place to act out unprocessed trauma within the containment of therapy, in order to stop the obsessive repetition of the past.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Felix Kellermann is a clinical psychologist who qualified as a practitioner of psychodrama at the Moreno Institute, New York. He teaches psychodrama in Israel and around the world. He is the author of Focus on Psychodrama, also published by Jessica Kingsley. M.K.Hudgins is a clinical psychologist and psychodrama trainer in the USA. She is chair of the board of directors for the Therapeutic Spiral International Charity, created to fund psychodrama with trauma survivors in the global community.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Pub; 1 edition (October 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853028932
• ISBN-13: 978-1853028939
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,890,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Natan Peter Felix Kellermann

Clinical Psychologist; Psychodramatist.
MA, U. Stockholm, Sweden, 1979, PhD in Psychology, 1986.
Fellow ASGPP (Zerka T. Moreno award 1993);
Elected chair of the psychodrama-section of IAGP 1998-2000
Chief psychologist AMCHA/Jerusalem, 1996-2000.
Executive Director AMCHA/Israel, 2001 - 2004.
Project Director AMCHA/Israel, 2004 - 2009.
Lecturer in the International School for Holocaust Studies in Yad Vashem.

Author of
Focus on Psychodrama (1992). London: Jessica Kingsley.
Sociodrama and collective trauma (2007). London: Jessica Kingsley.
(with K. Hudgins) Psychodrama with trauma survivors (2000). London: Jessica Kingsley.
Holocaust Trauma: Psychological Effects and Treatment (2009). Bloomington: iUniverse.

Web page: http://peterfelix.tripod.com/home/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good overview of psychodrama and trauma, March 26, 2001

By 

Karen Carnabucci (Racine, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors: Acting Out Your Pain (Paperback)

"Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors: Acting Out Your Pain" is a good overview of the current ways that the method of psychodrama is being used to treat survivors of trauma.

Some clinicians shy away from using experiential methods with survivors, particularly because the power of the method and its potential to produce regression. Yet many clinicians know that talk therapy, while providing symptomatic relief, often does not get to the deep healing that many survivors are seeking. When used responsibly and safely, experiential methods like psychodrama are better able to address experiences which are stored in the unconscious cubbyholes of our being that can hardly be accessed with verbal methods.

The book documents the impact of a variety of kinds of trauma -- war, physical and sexual abuse, significant loss, torture, addiction and traffic accidents among others -- and shows the various approaches of psychodramatists from around the world.

Of special interest are the chapters by French psychologist Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger, who has researched hidden transmission of trauma from generation to generation, and by co-editor Kate Hudgins, an American psychologist, who has developed the Therapeutic Spiral Model that identifies a number of inner roles that solidify within survivors as a result of the trauma.

Innovative work with juvenile and adult sexual offenders is also documented, as well as treatment with secondary victims of trauma, like family members of combat veterans and psychotherapists themselves.

Psychodrama is not a simple method so this information is less of a manual for clinicians who are not versed in this field. However, it offers a great window of possibilities for clinicians and others seeking new options for treatment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors, August 13, 2001

By 

Robert J. Versteeg (Bowling Green, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors: Acting Out Your Pain (Paperback)

Some valuable information. As expected, uneven quality among articles. Some authors are stars; others are willingly lost in intergalactic dust clouds of jargon. Editors take a sink-or-swim approach to authors. For the non-specialist, the incomplete index (short on listings for particular items) and absence of a badly needed glossary impair the book's usefulness. All the same, I read it and took notes.