Bridging the Gap: The Effectiveness of Individual Teletherapy Psychodrama for Members of Immigrant Communities
Keywords:
immigrants, individual psychodrama, roles, techniques, teletherapyAbstract
Psychodrama conducted under a traditional face-to-face setting relies heavily on the
presence of a physical stage and an audience. However, despite this need, psychodrama
conducted through teletherapy is possible but must find methods to complement standard
psychodrama techniques so that the therapy may be conducted virtually. This paper
explores these techniques and how they are adapted through visualization, a virtual safe
space, and guidance from the therapist who helps adapt the techniques in an online
individual therapeutic setting. Moreover, immigrants may suffer at greater rates of mental
distress as they try to adjust to their new target culture, finding it difficult to adapt. They
may need therapy, but the linguistic hurdle of performing it in a foreign language may also
discourage them. Therein, this paper explores how individual psychodrama conducted
through therapy may be applied to immigrant communities and explores such teletherapy
through study cases applied to immigrants who have moved to English-speaking countries.
References
Bacallao, M., & Smokowski, P. (2017). Between two worlds: Using the acculturation
spectrogram in psychodrama intervention for promoting biculturalism in
immigrant families. The Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and
Sociometry, 65, 41–56. https://doi.org/10.12926/16-00005.1
Biancalani, G., Franco, C., Guglielmin, M., Moretto, L., Orkibi, H., Keisari S., &
Testoni I. (2021). Tele-psychodrama therapy during COVID-19 pandemic:
Participants’ experiences. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 75, 101836. https://doi.org/
1016/j.aip.2021.101836
Blather, A., & Blather, A. (1988). Foundations of psychodrama: History, drama, and
practice. Springer Publishing Company.
Effectiveness of Individual Psychodrama with Immigrants 17
Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jpsgp/article-pdf/69/1/7/3293764/i0731-1273-69-1-7.pdf by Scott Giacomucci on 28 November 2023
Campbell, L., Milla´n, F., Larsen, M., Barnwell, S., Crow, B., Gock, T., Harris, E.,
Martin, J., Miller, T., Rallo, J., Palomares, R., Freund, J., Davis, J., DeMers, S.,
Siegel, A., & Pippin Orwig, J. (Joint Task Force for the Development of
Telepsychology Guidelines for Psychologists). (2013). Guidelines for the
practice of telepsychology. American Psychologist, 68(9), 791–800. https://doi.
org/10.1037/a0035001
Chesner, A. (2019). One-to-one psychodrama psychotherapy: Applications and
technique. Routledge.
Close, C., Kouvonen, A., Bosqui, T., Patel, K., O’Reilly, D., & Donnelly, M. 2016. The
mental health and wellbeing of first generation migrants: A systematic-narrative
review of reviews. Global Health, I2–1, 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-016-
-3
Cruz, A., Sales, C., Alves, P., & Moita, G. (2018). The core techniques of Morenian
psychodrama: A systematic review of literature. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1263.
https://doi.org/0.3389/fpsyg.2018.01263
Giacomucci, S. (2021). Social work, sociometry, and psychodrama: Experiential
approaches for group therapists, community leaders, and social workers. Springer
Nature.
Kellerman, P. (2007). Psychodrama advance in theory and practice. Routledge.
Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah,
M., Chakinala, R., Kanugula, A., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020).
Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: A
narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family
Medicine and Community Health, 8(3), e000530. https://doi.org/10.1136/
fmch-2020-000530
Kirmayer, K., Narasiah, L., Munoz, M., Rasid, M., Ryder, A., Guzder, J., Hassan, G.,
Rousseau, C., & Pottie, K. (2011). Common mental health problems in
immigrants and refugees: general approach in primary care. CMAJ, 183-12,
–967. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.090292
Kushnir, A., & Orkibi, H. (2021). Concretization as a mechanism of change in
psychodrama: Procedures and benefits. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 176. https://
doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.633069
Langumier, C. (2021). Individual psychoanalytic psychodrama: Truly playing by her
own in the corner. Le Coq-he´ron, 245(2), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.3917/cohe.
0132
Nawyn, S., Gjokaj, L., Agbenyida, D., & Grace, B. (2012). Linguistic isolation, social
capital, and immigrant belonging. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 41(3),
–282. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241611433623
Orkibi, H., & Feniger-Schaal, R. (2019). Integrative systematic review of
psychodrama psychotherapy research: Trends and methodological
implications. PLoS ONE, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212575
Puspitasari, A., Heredia, D., Coombes, B., Geske, J., Gentry, M., Moore, W.,
Sawchuk, C., & Schak, K. M. (2021). Feasibility and initial outcomes of a group-
TYURINA
Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jpsgp/article-pdf/69/1/7/3293764/i0731-1273-69-1-7.pdf by Scott Giacomucci on 28 November 2023
based teletherapy psychiatric day program for adults with serious mental illness:
Open, nonrandomized trial in the context of COVID-19. JMIR Mental Health,
(3), e25542. https://doi.org/10.2196/25542
Soni, S. (2015). Immigrants’ greatest fear isn’t what you think. https://www.thenation.
com/article/archive/immigrants-greatest-fear-isnt-what-you-think/
Tushar, T. (2017). Use of future projection technique as motivation enhancement tool
for substance abuse treatment [Paper presentation]. First Annual Conference on
Expressive Art Therapy: Expression of the Soul (Vol. 1), Chenni, India.
von Ameln, F., & Becker-Ebel, J. (2020). Basic elements of psychodrama. In
Fundamentals of psychodrama (pp. 19–27). Springer.
Wilkins, P. (1999). Psychodrama. Sage Publications Ltd
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.