How are Psychodrama and neurobiology related?
Traumatic experiences and relationships leave behind different repercussions in our brain. The “freezing” that occurs upon awakening to these sensations (often unconsciously) seems to block the body and mind. What it is that the body remembers and the mind forgets we can see through the perspective and interconnections between psychodrama and neurobiology.
The brain plasticity
Researchers keep looking for answers about how the brain functions. In recent decades, attention has turned to the brain’s plasticity, or how it keeps changing and adapting as it reacts to new life events. The delicate nature of the brain shows us that different experiences, traumas and life changes have an impact on it.
Interpersonal neurobiology
The brain is a social organ and the experience it acquires modifies its physiology. Caring and supportive relationships positively influence its healthy development. Daniel Siegel, clinical professor of Psychiatry and author of many books, introduces the term “interpersonal neurobiology.” He points out that social relationships determine the way our brains develop. Relationships focused on empathy, support important connections in the brain and personality, creating resilience, compassion, and well-being in the behavior and relationships between people.
The body and the play
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, the psychiatrist who studies PTSD, points out that play, improvisation, theatre and other experiential methods have many advantages in the treatment of psychological trauma. He repeatedly highlights the importance of intentional and meaningful action to loosen hard-to-carry sensations that seem to be “stuck” in the nonverbal and unconscious subcortical areas of the brain, where they are inaccessible to its thinking and reasoning parts. His research confirms the words of Dr. Moreno, the creator of Psychodrama, who said, “The body remembers what the mind forgets.”
Psychodrama and neurobiology
Psychodrama provides a safe and secure space in which a person can explore themselves through action. Much of the method involves improvisation, creativity, role-playing and other techniques and patterns of thinking that helps a person to come out of the feeling of ‘freezing’ when they approach a traumatic sensation. Through play, the person has the opportunity to give a different response and continuation, which in turn would lead to new responses and a transition into regulation of the nervous system.
Conclusion
The plasticity of our brains shows us that change is an ongoing process that has its reflections and interconnections in our relationships with others. Awareness through experience and action reaches deep aspects of the personality, which lead in their turn to changes in the perception and physiology of the brain.
References
Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. Penguin Life
Kolk, B. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Publishing Group
Carnabucci, K. (2018). Neurobiology validates the power of psychodrama. Published in the official website of the Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute: https://hvpi.net/2020/12/08/neurobiology-validates-the-power-of-psychodrama/
Siegel, D. (2012). Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
