<
You may enjoy hearing from improv teachers and innovators including Colin Mochrie and David Pasquesi *Improv Interviews podcast‘ is introduced by Susan L. Parker of yourinternationalvoice.com
Licenced Clinical Social Worker and Improv Therapist
<
You may enjoy hearing from improv teachers and innovators including Colin Mochrie and David Pasquesi *Improv Interviews podcast‘ is introduced by Susan L. Parker of yourinternationalvoice.com
<
You may enjoy hearing from improv teachers and innovators including Colin Mochrie and David Pasquesi *Improv Interviews podcast‘ is introduced by Susan L. Parker of yourinternationalvoice.com
Amy Seham is a director, author, professor, and improvisor whose book, Whose Improv Is It, Anyway? Beyond Second City (2001) is a ground-breaking study of race, gender, and power in Chicago improv-comedy. Her writing on improv has been published in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies and in Radical Acts: Theatre and Pedagogies of Change. In the last 20 years, Seham has created improv workshops for social workers and professional actors in India, college students in China, and children in the Dominican Republic. She has offered classes at Second City in Toronto, Fringe Benefits in LA, and the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis taught for Funny Woman Festivals in Minneapolis and Chicago and given workshops for colleges and universities across the country. Her 2016 keynote address for the Mellon Foundation Series on Comedy and Gender at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, launched a new book project, Improv for the 21st. Century, to be published by Routledge in 2023.
IMPROV FOR PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Margot Escott LCSW
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a movement disorder that affects up to 1 million people in the US and over 40 million worldwide. There are many other kinds of movement disorders, with over 40 million in the U.S.
Improvisational Theater Games, based on the work of Viola Spolin, are being used around the world with diverse people suffering physical and emotional issues.
PD is characterized by many problems such as facial rigidity (or masking), gait impairment characterized by a stuttering gait as well as anxiety and depression. Some of the Improvisational exercises we teach are directly related to helping these issues.
We do an exercise called “Show, don’t tell, your feelings” where students have to use facial muscles to portray a feeling. This exercise is important as students with facial masks need to practice using their muscles to indicate their emotions, as opposed to the usual lack of affect.
A typical session starts with singing a familiar song, with lyrics on a YouTube Karaoke video, easy to read. We teach “Yes, and…. “ in various games.
PD can be isolating not only for the individual with PD but for the family as well. In my weekly classes, participants play a variety of improv exercises each week. In these classes, participants get a chance to express themselves non-verbally through movement and music activities which aid in cognition and memory skills, improvisational games present fun challenges to solve.
I’ve been working with some of the same students for over the past eight years and they’ve formed a social support group, making dates to share a meal or go to an event. Our meetings have been virtual for the past few years allowing students from other parts of the country to join us!
We focus on the concept that there are no mistakes, only gifts. Students with PD, other movement disorders, and dementia often feel embarrassed or hesitant to speak, afraid of saying the wrong word or getting confused. Often their care partner shares the screen with them for tech support and will try to “correct” their loved ones. In a gentle way, I remind all players that there’s only one coach! From the first classes, students learn to raise their hands over their heads and say “ta, da” if they think they’ve made a mistake.
Acceptance is an important concept as people with PD have difficulty accepting their disease. The idea that they don’t have to like it but rather accept the reality helps with the denial that often accompanies this disorder. This holds true for the care partners as they are often frustrated with the demanding schedules and role reversals. (PD is more common in men.) Allowing time for games, no one is pressured to speak quickly which supports those with vocal issues.
I teach mindfulness, which helps students learn to be in the here and now, so essential for improv play. It gives them time to slow down and calm their thoughts. I use many of Viola Spolin’s games like “Feel your Body”. One of Spolin’s quotes speaks to the importance of this.
If you can get it out of the head and into the body…Body, Mind, and Intuition. This is what we’re after. Body, Mind, Intuition” – Viola Spolin
Since we’ve been holding virtual classes since the pandemic, I’ve seen wonderful improvements in many of my students and am honored to work with these brilliant, genius improvisers.
As a clinical social worker, my job is to help people who suffer. Applied improv is a wonderful tool to help people living with behavioral issues such as anxiety and coping with chronic diseases, like PD. Discovering improv has not only benefited my life but those of my patients.
REFERENCES
Boyd, Neva. Handbook of Recreational Games Paperback – June 1, 1975
Spolin, V. (1999). Improvisation for the Theater (3rd ed.). Evanston IL: Northwestern University. Stern, D. N., Sand
ABOUT MARGOT ESCOTT, LCSW
Margot Escott LCSW is considered a leader in the development and use of applied improvisational theatre techniques to benefit those with Parkinson’s Disease and other neurological issues. She presents her improv for PD teaching techniques at national mental health conferences throughout the country and teaches improvisational theatre classes locally for people with anxiety, PD, Care Partners, and children with autism. Margot hosts a popular podcast highlighting people who are using and researching improvisational theatre as a therapeutic tool — including Ed Asner — to benefit adults and children with anxiety, mental health issues, autism, PD, and more. Margot has been a social worker in Naples, Florida for over 35 years and has presented workshops on humor, laughter, and play for over 25 of those years. Since being introduced to improvisational theater, Margot has been performing and teaching improv to diverse groups such as people with neurocognitive issues like Parkinson’s disease, anxiety disorders, caregivers, children on the autism spectrum, and to therapists. You can learn more about her at Improv4Wellness.com.
TREATING PAIN & ANXIETY WITH MINDFULNESS & IMPROV
Margot Escott, LICSW, RfG-CP
I have been a licensed social worker for over 35 and trained in Mindfulness 30 years ago and have been teaching and performing Improvisational theater for the past 12 years. In my clinical practice, I combine cognitive behavioral therapy with mindfulness and applied improvisation to help people heal their chronic pain and anxiety among other complaints. Applied improv is a wonderful tool to help people living with behavioral issues such as anxiety and coping with chronic issues like pain and anxiety. Discovering improv has not only benefited my life but those of my patients.
Let’s discuss the case of my recent client, Carla, a 63-year-old, former nurse. She has been seen in my practice since February 2022.
She received a BSA in nursing and owned a Home Infusion Center for 24 years. She was forced to take early retirement due to an accident. She has been happily married for 30 years.
Carla suffered an accident in 2018 that led to a spinal fusion and subsequent pain in her lower back and generalized anxiety. She reported a history of depression that started after her accident and timely correlated with the use of morphine. Her daily pain is not controlled with morphine and other medications.
My training has included pain management, and mindfulness training and I’ve found that using improvisational theatre games is very useful. When the patient is focused, they often become unaware of their pain, and the production of endorphins and dopamine increase feelings of well-being.
Because of her sense of humor, self-confidence, and intelligence, I decided to introduce mindfulness, meditation, and improv games quickly into her treatment. However, not all of my patients have such high self-confidence. Many of my clients struggle with social anxiety and it often takes several sessions for them to develop a trusting, therapeutic relationship with their therapist before we can try some of these experiential techniques. But they can also be helped with Improvisational Games.
At our first session, I introduced the concept of mindfulness and meditation. We explored the idea of being in the present. When she started to experience anxiety, I asked her to say to herself “be here now.” I used a technique called “body scan,” where I led her to relax each part of her body, from the top of her head to her feet. The Viola Spolin exercise called “Feeling Self with Self “, teaches students to connect with their bodies and produces calm feelings as well. We worked on her breathing and the idea that her thoughts of anxiety and fear would dissipate through focused breathing as we increased the time of each silent meditation. I directed her into a two-minute silent meditation. She reported that even after such a short time, she was feeling more relaxed.
In session two I introduced the improv concept of “Yes, and.” This is a concept that teaches you one of the basic skills of improv. It is about agreeing with your scene partner and accepting whatever they say to you. For example, your improv partner says “I heard you just returned from Mars.” You accept their thought (the Yes) that you went to Mars and add to that statement (the and). You might respond with, “Yes, and I’ll be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas back on Mars.”
We also taught the Gibberish exercise and games. Gibberish is a Spolin exercise that she developed while working with Neva Boyd at Hull House. Their students were immigrant children from all over Europe and spoke many different languages. Gibberish is exactly what it sounds like! The player speaks in a non-sensical language made up of vowels and consonants. Gibberish allowed the children to be able to communicate with each other while using facial expressions and miming to be understood.
Like most newcomers to improv, she was concerned about “doing it wrong,” but was able to overcome that with the improv concept that “nothing is wrong or a mistake when we improvise.” This idea that there are no failures in improv and that you can’t get things wrong decreases the anxiety or performance stress when they understand that no matter what they do it’s going to be a gift to their partner, me a therapist, or the other students if they’re in group therapy. Quite often I teach the “Ta-Da “
A fun way to overcome a perceived mistake is the “Ta-Da” exercise. This is a movement combined with the words “ta-da”. They throw their hands up in the air and in a loud voice say “Ta-Da”! I frequently observed that when one person says the Ta-Da and breaks the ice, soon everyone is using that little phrase and laughing at themselves.
These interventions produced laughter and smiles from Carla. Laughter increases Dopamine levels, which decreases feelings of sadness.
We began meeting bi-weekly as she had many doctor appointments and physical therapy at a therapeutic indoor pool with licensed physical therapists. In our fourth session, we played the game “Tiger, Martian. Cow.” In this exercise, the player is required to change their facial expression, use specific body movements, and make a sound as either a tiger, a Martian, or a cow. When making these faces and sounds like a tiger, my patience “get out of their head” and just relax into the game. It’s very hard to have stressful thoughts when you’re involved in such a game. Carla and other of my patients find that this exercise takes them away from those anxiety-provoking thoughts and leads them into the relaxation response.
We increased the time of the meditation to seven minutes, with the suggestion that she practice this daily (the caveat being that if she didn’t practice, she wouldn’t be graded or judged).
In the following session, we played the Fortunately/Unfortunately a storytelling game that requires focus and active listening. Then I introduced a two-person scene game with a Who, What, and Where. Carla threw herself into this experience. She described how much better she felt at the end of this session.
Over the next few sessions, we played Spolin’s exercise Mirror and Follow the Follower at the beginning of each meeting. Carla found this game particularly calming.
Carla was seeing multiple pain specialists about injections to decrease pain and possible surgery. She was disappointed that her injections weren’t helping with the pain. And, there was no evidence that the suggested surgery would be successful, which led to the “What If” game. This is used in CBT to help a patient go to the very worst scenario when they have fear about an event that may or may not happen. This reinforces the use of meditation which Carla is currently practicing for ten minutes, usually twice a day.
In our fifth month of treatment, I asked Carla if she was feeling any benefit from the improv. She responded “It makes me laugh! I feel less anxious and forget the pain.” She is one of several patients who have reported this after doing improv in therapy.
Many researchers are investigating and measuring the impact that improvisational theatre games have in psychotherapy with individuals, couples, and families. The results are encouraging and we hope that Improv Therapy will someday be considered a creative arts therapy like music, art, and drama.
Another improv technique is called Story Spine, attributed to Kenn Adams.
This is a form of telling a story where one could use flashcards for each part of the story. I use this method when working with improv groups for people with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners and clients with mild dementia. The flash card has the beginning line for the first player, “Once upon a time..” and the player completes that thought. The next player adds to the story with the line “Every day”. The point of this tool is to provide a model for a well-constructed story with a beginning that establishes a routine, an event that breaks the routine, a middle that shows the consequence of having broken the routine, a climax that sets the resolution to the story in motion, and the resolution. It goes like this:
These are just a few of the many improvisational theater games that I use in my practice. There is growing research among psychologists and doctors on the psychological and physical benefits of improv and those are included in the Resources below.
If you are a clinician and have ever thought about using applied improv, there are many sources you can go to, especially the book “Rehearsals for Growth, which you can find at www.rehearsalforgrowth.com. Dr. Daniel Wiener, a psychologist who studied improv with Keith Johnstone, wrote this groundbreaking book in 1994. He has a training program for clinicians to understand and use applied improv in their practices.
In this book he illuminates the connection between theater and therapy, shows how performing improvisation enriches our understanding of social behavior, and enables players to experience greater freedom of expression and power based on cooperation, imagination, and spontaneity.
Over 160 improv games, modified for use in psychotherapy, are described, along with a score of case examples. As a recognized “Drama Therapy of /Relationships” Rehearsals for Growth continues to evolve as a helpful method that may be used in combination with nearly all other psychotherapy and counseling approaches.
BIBLIOGRAPHY or RESOURCES?
Benson, Herbert & Miriam Z. Kipper. (1975) The Relaxation Response. William Morrow and Company.
Boyd, Neva. (June 1, 1975) Handbook of Recreational Games. Dover Publications
Campbell, J., & Christopher, J. (2012). Teaching mindfulness to create effective counselors. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 34, 213–226.
DeKoven, B. (1978). The Well-Played Game. Anchor Books. Garden City, New York.
DeMichele, Mary & Kuenneke, (2021) Scott. Short-Form, Comedy Improv Affects the Functional Connectivity in the Brain of Adolescents with Complex
Developmental Trauma as Measured by qEEG, NeuroRegulation, Vol 8 No 1
Felsman, P., Gunawardena, S., Seifert, C. M. (2020). Improv experience promotes divergent thinking, uncertainty, and affective well-being. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 35, 100632.Golding, M. (2014). Listen Harder. ISBN-13:978-1497418028.
Jagodowski, T., Pasquesi, D., & Victor, P. (2015). Improvisation at the speed of life. Chicago, IL: Solo Roma.
Kornfield, Jack. (1993). A Path with a Heart. Bantam.
Krueger, K. R., Murphy, J. W., & Bink, A. B. (2019). Thera-prov: a pilot study of improv used to treat anxiety and depression. Journal of Mental Health, 28(6), 621-626.
Romanelli A. Tishby &. Moran, G. (2016). Coming home to myself. School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University, Israel Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501.
Spolin, V. (1999). Improvisation for the Theater (3rd ed.). Evanston IL: Northwestern University.
Wiener, D.J. & Oxford, L.K. (2003) Action therapy with families and groups. Washington, DC. APA
Wiener, D. J. (1994) Rehearsals for Growth. New York. W.W. Norton.
Join me to take a look back at NPR’s coverage of our Improv Inspiration Group through the Parkinson’s Association of Southwest Florida. Click to read the full story
Continue reading “Blue Cavell-Allette Improviser and So Much More”