The ‘role’ of improvisational theater in learning family therapy

Mastering family therapy is a core competence in the Brown child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program. To acuminate our skills, in addition to working doing a half day per week of family therapy for the duration of our training, we have weekly family therapy seminars led by Dr. Michelle Rickerby. Most of the time, we spend the hour discussing one or two challenging cases among our class, and if there is time, allot the last 5 to 10 minutes of class to play out a particularly arduous interaction. However, once or twice a year, Dr. Rickerby invites improvisational “improv” actors from a local theater for an extended workshop on family therapy. I was fortunate that my case was chosen as a prompt for this year's workshop.