In our third installment of Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches web-based television show, A Year in Sobriety, we examine the potential life-changing value of psychodrama therapy. This unique brand of therapy utilizes roleplaying exercises, designed to give addiction recovery patients the opportunity to reexamine key episodes of their past through another person’s perspective. The ultimate goal of the psychodrama therapy workshop is to raise the patient’s own self-awareness.

Vance Johnson, a former professional football player, recovering addict and employee of Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches, was extremely successful and courageous in utilizing psychodrama therapy during his treatment. As a result, he was asked to join the Problem Solving Theatre Troupe and became a certified therapeutic thespian.

The Problem Solving Theatre Troupe was founded by Dr. Meg Givnish, a highly regarded and well-known mental health expert, and Director of Professional Education and Psychodrama at Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches. The Troupe performs all over the nation, putting on skits in which a moderating therapist and therapeutic thespians act out common scenarios in dysfunctional families, in addition to problems given by members of the audience. These skits simulate interactions in various life circumstances and situations.

A Year in Sobriety episode three was shot on location in Nashville, Tennessee and centers on how domestic violence and anger can negatively impact every family member.