In this presentation we propose a view of therapy as imaginative participatory theater. In it we illustrate how this approach can serve to unleash imaginative possibilities in our relationship with our clients. Transformative theater and its dialogic practices can co-generate a relational space of trust and openness that enables joint exploration and reflection. It also maximizes the use of conversational resources such as creative improvisation, humor, hyperbole, metaphor, storytelling, art and drama to relationally engage clients, disrupt dominant stories and discourses, evoke alternate relational performances, and promote the re-authoring of new narratives and identities in therapy, as well as the emergence of new possibilities in the life of the person, couple or family.

2. FIRST ACT:
"ENTERING THE
RABBIT HOLE"

3. “THERE IS A CRACK IN
EVERYTHING,
THAT’S HOW THE LIGHT
GETS IN”
L E O N A R D C O H E N , ‘ A N T H E M ’ , 1 9 9 2

4. What if we thought that the heart of
our art is live performance?
What if we then viewed therapy as
a Tr a n s f o r m a t i v e T h e a t e r ,
and its participants as ingenious
performers?

5. Participative Theater
physical movement
ambience backstage
imaginary presences
Stage
resources
joint enactment
drama props
non-scripted
dialogue

6. “In live drama, the possibilities of
transformation are breathed, metaphors are
animated and emotions mingle together and
affect one another in an ever shifting flux that
refuses to be framed by any narrator’s or
interpreter’s rendering.” (Bradford Keeney)

7. Therapy:
A dramatic play that begins
in tragedy, degenerative
flows and devaluing
performances
The Staging of the
Official Story

8. THE
OFFICIAL STORY…
Treatment Medication Prescription Disorder
Truth
Mental Illness S y mptom Diagnosis
Syndrome Evidence Conditions
Repetitive
disempowering
performances
and identities

9. Possibilities Co-creation Exceptions
Social constructions Relational Resources
Multiple realities Collaborative practices

10. In transformative
theater, we engage,
re-author, and perform
multiple choreographies,
roles and storylines.
We may move from tragedy to the absurd,
then to comedy and redemption.

12. Transformation
thrives in spontaneity and
experimentation.
Alternative futures may be
imagined and designed, and
new relational performances
and scenarios can be initiated
in daily life.
Through the staging of both
troubling and liberating
performances, debilitating
storylines can be
deconstructed and
disengaged from.

13. WHAT ABOUT THOSE THAT SHARE
THE STAGE OF THERAPY WITH US?

14. Therapy:
An unscripted play that
transforms into meaningful,
paradoxical and
encouraging performances
The Staging of
Alternate Stories

15. FIRST INTERLUDE
• What does the idea of therapy as
transformational theater evoke in
you?
• What generative possibilities
emerge?

16. SECOND ACT:
"OF TIMELESS
FOREVERS AND
UNCOMMON
NONSENSE"

18. Slow down
inner talk
delight in pause
Notice what’s new
Return
to the body
Contact the other…
become aware
Be aware of
conversational flow
Wake up
your eyes

19. Relational Presence Dramatic Enactment
Oppositional Disorder Irreverence
Responsive curiosity about emergence
Generative Recycling Joint Action
As we engage in the
dance of transformation,
what is distinctive about
our performance?

20. Traditions of dialogue and relationship
Our nature of Multi-Being
Communities of Practice
Blessings, Talents andBenefactors
As we begin the dance of
transformation, who and what
accompanies us?

21. SECOND INTERLUDE
• Who do you bring into the stage? How
many of you are there?
• What talents accompany you?
(resources, presences, stories)
• What makes your practice alive?

22. FINAL ACT:
"BUT THE WORLD HAS
ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE,
WHO'S STOPPING US
FROM INVENTING ONE?"

24. Relationship is always present
in transformative theater.
It is the dance through which
the actors and the stories they
perform are co-created and
transformed.

25. Our art consists in the co-creation of a
performative space that expands the
limits of what is permissible and
possible.

27. Co-creating a space of openness
and dialogue
Disrupting the official story
Unleashing the possibilities
of generativity…
WE ORGANIZE OUR PERFORMANCE
AROUND THREE KEY ACTIVITIES :

28. ENABLING TRANSFORMATIVE
THEATER

29. • Confucion is your friend
• Become an unpredictable audience
• Trust emergence
• Nothing is fixed, solid or stays the same for long
• No thing is ever one thing
• Practice generative recycling. Everything that is provided is
potentially useful.
• Search for the “crack”, it will lead the way in.

30. • Are we dancing together or are
we stepping on each other’s feet?
• What has been created?
• Have we co-created alternate
"departures”?
• Have new possibilities for
understanding and action been
generated?