Theater workshops help patients create new narrative

Some addiction treatment centers have found an innovative way to assist patients in the process of transformation, thanks to the efforts of an individual with a background in classical theater.

A concept that first formed in working with a group of prison inmates is now coming alive for patients in treatment for substance use disorders, with Lessons from the Stage in Recovery workshops conducted as three-day programs in treatment centers. Jesse Wilson, the Julliard-trained actor who co-facilitates the workshops, tells Addiction Professional that the sessions help patients in creating a new narrative for their lives.

“I was invited to teach a theater workshop in a prison, and I saw how powerful this could be,” says Wilson, CEO of Tell the Winning Story. “I saw people broken and in pain. Addicts, gangsters ... The core of their dilemma was identity, and the human ego.”

Part of his workshop addresses unmasking the ego, and the vehicles for assisting patients are tools one might not expect individuals in early recovery to embrace: the wearing of theater masks and the creation of a monologue over the course of the three-day program. “They are creating an original piece of art that they perform,” says Wilson.

Red Rock Recovery Center in Lakewood, Colo., has made these workshops a mandatory experiential component of treatment for its patients. The brothers who run the Colorado facility are the sons of Wilson's co-collaborator in the workshops, Alan Henley.

“We integrate it into our IOP programming,” says Dan Henley, Red Rock's executive director. “Jesse works with our clinicians to incorporate evidence-based modalities into his workshop.”

Dan Henley adds, “I've witnessed some powerful moments of clients having breakthroughs.”

How workshops unfold

Wilson says the workshops work best with a group of fewer than 20 patients. He believes the timing of these sessions within the patient's treatment stay doesn't really make a difference. “We'll work with people in the first 24 hours of recovery,” he says.

In day one, the workshop attempts to convey an in-depth understanding of the functioning of the ego. Wilson brings mirrors into the room, and patients wear masks and create a voice and a scene. “What comes out of this is extraordinary,” he says, with the only basic requirement being that patients agree to participate in some way.

Those who might at first shy away from performing often help another storyteller in the group by being the director of that person's scene.

In a common scenario, a villainous character depicted via the wearing of the mask will transform into someone the group might care about. The rude, inappropriate guy at the end of the bar suddenly becomes the lonely man begging the last person in the room not to leave, taking a picture of his grandchild out of his pocket to show the stranger, Wilson says in citing an actual example he witnessed.

Day two involves “flipping the script” as patients begin to process the shift from their old story to a new one. Work begins on the monologue that each patient will present in day three. “The monologue is their opportunity to teach how the dark part of the ego can be translated into something positive,” Wilson says.

The monologue will depict some sort of shift, such as one from resentment to forgiveness, or from self-loathing to acceptance. Feedback is offered for each presentation, and the patients receive a workbook upon completion of the session.

A key message in all of this is, “We are not our story,” says Wilson. Patients hear, “You are far greater than the story you came here with.”

Recovery tool

Dan Henley says he has enjoyed working with Wilson, who he says has taken a selfless approach in the way he reaches out to patients. The sessions have allowed Red Rock “to offer an authentic experience, for people to have some form of self-discovery.” He considers the workshops another experiential tool in the facility's arsenal.

He sees the sessions encouraging patients to get out of their comfort zone and overcome hesitancy. “He makes it fun, lighthearted,” Henley says.