Helpful and Hindering Factors in Psychodrama Field Training: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study of Student Development

Abstract

Although the literature indicates that students in mental health professions start to form their professional identity and competence in graduate school, there are few studies on the in-training experience of creative arts therapies students. This mixed methods study examined how five first-year students in a psychodrama master’s degree program in Israel experienced their field training, with the aim of identifying the factors likely to promote or hinder the development of their professional identity and sense of professional ability. Longitudinal data were collected weekly throughout the 20-week field training experience. The students reported qualitatively on helpful and hindering factors and were assessed quantitatively on questionnaires measuring professional identity, perceived demands-abilities fit, client involvement, and therapy session evaluations. A thematic analysis of the students’ reports indicated that a clear and defined setting and structure, observing the instructor as a role model, actively leading parts of the session, and observing fellow students were all helpful factors. The hindering factors included role confusion, issues related to coping with client resistance and disciplinary problems, as well as school end-of-year activities that disrupted the continuity of therapy. The quantitative results indicated that students’ professional identity did not significantly change over the year, whereas a U-shaped curve trajectory characterized the changes in demands-abilities fit and other measures. Students began their field training with an overstated sense of ability that soon declined and later increased. These findings provide indications of which helping and hindering factors should be maximized and minimized, to enhance students’ field training.

Trajectories of Change in Creative and Personal Factors in First‐Year Creative Arts Therapies Students

“…Specifically, they often start to question their suitability for the helping profession (Orkibi, 2014). The decreased CSE among psychodrama students is also consistent with concerns over suitability reported in another study where psychodrama students indicated increased self‐doubts about their suitability (Azoulay & Orkibi, 2018). It may also be associated with a lack of a strong background in drama skills for some students when entering psychodrama training, which may have challenged their understanding of how drama is used in therapy (Orkibi, 2018), and thus impacted their domain‐specific CSE.…”

“…CATs students' professional development has specific features related to the creative and expressive components of art-making that rely heavily on experiential training (Orkibi, 2018(Orkibi, , 2020. Student in-training experiences have generally been studied across CATs (Orkibi, 2010(Orkibi, , 2012a(Orkibi, , 2012b(Orkibi, , 2014, psychodrama (Azoulay & Orkibi, 2018), art therapy (Feen-Calligan, 2005), music therapy (Luce, 2008), dance-movement therapy (Federman, 2011), and drama therapy (Butler, 2017). 1 By contrast, this study was designed to examine changes in unstudied creative and personal factors in CATs students during their first year of graduate training.…”

Studying the Efficacy of Psychodrama With the Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design: Results From a Longitudinal Study

“…It is probably due to this association that the study of psychodrama’s effectiveness, in a controlled and more rigid academic way, has been neglected.” Nevertheless, the discovery of the therapeutic potency of spontaneity ( Moreno, 2010 ) and its effect on developing human interactions has been central to the process of recognizing the importance of psychodrama. The relevance of our study is directly linked to the discussion of the effects of psychodrama in several different contexts of application, clinical and non-clinical ( Kipper, 1978 ; D’Amato and Dean, 1988 ; Kipper and Hundal, 2003 ; Orkibi et al, 2017a , b ; Azoulay and Orkibi, 2018 ; Testoni et al, 2018 ) and to the need for solid methodologies that gather mixed approaches and acknowledge the complexity of this type of intervention, not always easily amenable to empirical research ( Kim, 2003 ). All in all, as stated by Kipper and Ritchie (2003 , p. 23) in their meta-analysis about the effectiveness of psychodramatic techniques, “the findings appear to shed a positive light on the issue of the validity of psychodramatic interventions and to encourage research regarding the specific psychotherapeutic effects of its basic techniques.”…”

Students’ Perceptions of Crisis-Mode Tele-Drama Therapy Training with Older Adults

“…Field training provides students essential opportunities to acquire supervised practical experience in applying clinical skills and knowledge in various settings (Azoulay & Orkibi, 2018). In 2020 and 2021, because of COVID-19 restrictions, field training was suspended for several months or shifted to online psychotherapy and supervision (King, 2020).…”