From Oct. 10-12 the East Side Institute and the All Stars Project hosted the Performing the World international conference for over 400 community activists, artists, educators, mental health professionals, mathematicians, business leaders, doctors, poets, clowns and many others. As a social therapist who has dedicated her life to creating environments that support emotional and social development, I was overjoyed! The conference very quickly became a celebratory experience for me. The diversity of people from 34 countries working to create a more humane world allowed everyone to play and perform a new way of living — of being together and of having interesting out-of-the-box (or perhaps even no-box) conversations from a variety of perspectives.
As a therapist, I sit for many hours a day. Being a former dancer and choreographer, I decided to go to all the movement workshops. It was fun. Participants in the conference had the wonderful growth opportunity to be serious, ridiculous, intellectually stimulated, politically inspired and moved by the work of our international colleagues.
I was very proud to lead a social therapy group at PTW and invite our visitors to observe. People were mesmerized by the collective creativity of how this wonderful and varied group (my ongoing Thursday night group of 25 years) creates their therapy together.
How do you do therapy in front of an audience? What role do the people outside the group play in our therapy play? Are they really observers? Are they participants? We discovered that the lines were blurred. As we always do in social therapy, we talked about what is happening in the room. The group played with how to be a group with people watching and listening to what they were saying. There were many twists and turns. The group members talked about their history as a group. Many of them are community activists. They were able to share the emotionality of the success of the conference and all that it has taken to build it.
For this session, they were joined by members of the Globotherapy group, our international online social therapy group led by my long- time colleague Barbara Silverman. A few of her patients were able to take part in this session in person. The group created a very moving conversation about its history. There have been many years of creating growth and development together. We were able to express the richness of what it means to be living our lives through hard times and joyful ones and learning and growing from our collective conversations. After all, that is what therapy is!
The group grappled with some questions: How do you keep growing emotionally in a world that is unraveling? How do we make demands on each other to break out of the self absorption of our culture and to develop ourselves as givers?
Our international group members gave us what it means to them to have social therapeutic conversations that support ongoing exploration and discovery of how to live meaningful lives. They expressed their gratitude to the Thursday-night group for continuing the creation of a community therapy that has profoundly touched them.
Here’s what some of our participant observers had to say:
Audrey C., Brooklyn, USA – It was very generous and moving. I’m honored to be present. I see a lot of theatre on a regular basis. This was one of the most engaging pieces I have seen in a long time. I laughed and cried.
Vanessa de A., Michigan, USA – It was very touching for me to see some people I met two years ago at PTW sharing their valuable experience and building (many) possibilities for this growing environment. It makes me desire to get out of my bubble and be part of this. Someone said it was scary to be part of something beautiful/big like this, and I felt like that two years ago and I feel like that now.
Michael F., Georgia, USA – I felt very encouraged witnessing and being part of the group. Their vulnerability inspires me.
Alex S., South Africa – A privilege to be part of/observe. It really was a “performed conversation” — open, generous and “truthful.” I love the notion of being loving and demanding too, and that was certainly part of the way the group related.
Tine G., Copenhagen, Denmark – I experienced a group full of generosity, engagement, and listening.
Marilia P., Sao Paulo, Brazil – My experience and my feelings confirm my belief in group therapy and the possibility of helping one (and at the same time) all together.
Ar
t A., Toronto, Canada – Experiencing the group-oriented intentional dialogue that is social therapy is an elevating and inherently growthful experience. I want more!
Dina K., Thessaloniki, Greece – It was an amazing experience to be in your group, to listen to your conversation and watch you create together. I like the way you listen and help each other and show your compassion to members’ difficulties.
William S., New Jersey, USA – It was enlightening, enlivening, energizing, emotional, everyday, extraordinary – thank you.
Mayra S., UK – It felt authentic and human. It made me question my own way of reacting to others in my everyday life. How can I live a more “real” and truthful life?
Monica V., New York, USA – It was an exciting and powerful experience. I appreciate your generosity and willingness to open the conversation to us, rather than reinforcing an old stereotype of therapy as private and personal. Today’s group revealed a new model that is open, vulnerable, generous and human – more ontological than psychological, asking, “Who can we be?”
Yun-Wen Ru (Yvonne), New York, USA – It was a very intimate group. The members built deep connections with each other.
Ya Ting C. (Lydia), Taipei, Taiwan – Thumbs up!
The Community Therapist 
This was very interesting to read about this article. to see how people struggle and made it through their obstacles was very inspiring to read about . It can be a little scary to see a therapist. Think of it this way, Therapist are just emotional helpers. When we find we need a little help that is what they can do. Help us sort out what we maybe feeling. It just like going to a Doctor. They are emotional Doctors. They help us in that department. We can all use some help once in a wile. They have very high standards. Therapist can not discuss what you say with any one. Not your Mom, dad, love, or husband.
Thanks for comment. I think we all need a lot of help. Needing help doesn’t mean we are crazy. It means that we are living in a crazy world that makes us feel alone and isolated. Building a new kind of community therapy where people work to create their lives together in ways that are helpful and supportive to them is good for everyone. It is important for us to breakdown the stigma of needing help. We need each other to help us grow and develop.
This was an interesting read. It’s nice to know that people from various backgrounds can come together for a common goal. PTW has created an atmosphere where people can grow in all aspects. I believe this event is brilliant. It allows people to connect with others around the world and listen to one another stories. This is something I wish to be a apart of.
This was a very interesting read. It’s always a pleasure to learn about people coming together to accomplish a goal. To read about a group getting together for therapeutic purposes is a lovely surprise being that it hasn’t yet become the norm of therapy, especially not in a setting with an audience. I would imagine it provides a certain kind of support that helps enforce growth in development. The questions asked in this group in addition to the out of the box setting prompts an open honesty allowing others to witness a rare kind of vulnerability. This idea of performing and combining it with therapy is undeniably a form of therapy that should occur more often.
Reblogged this on openfuturesvision and commented:
Good stuff
This is a very interesting form of therapy. It is definitely unconventional compared to the traditional form, where there is more privacy. I think it’s very brave of people to go up on stage and share their troubles with complete strangers. I wonder if this boldness is a step towards solving our problems. The way I see it is, if your can acknowledge you have a problem, especially in front of others, you are on the right path. Also, I imagine this kind of therapy is extremely helpful for those who need someone to talk to but are afraid. They may not what to share their difficulties with their friends and family because they fear being judged or for any other personal reason. When everyone is being so open about their own problems, there is no fear of being judged. This kind of social therapy is a great innovative way to reach each other in the community. I hope I have the opportunity to partake in such a event in the future. Keep up the good work!
What an enlightening experience this conference must have been particularly the onstage group therapy. I found the point about whether the people in the audience were observers or participants the most interesting. I would have found it hard not to be a participant especially when you see people letting their guard down and letting themselves be apart of something bigger and more collective than their usual individual self. At times we see our humanism dwindle in this individualize and egocentric society because of our lack of community involved activities. I feel like something as wonderful as group therapy is a step in the right direction in the process of getting some of our humanity back. The fact that this event was taking place in front of an audience that aloud more people to be a part of it is just wonderful. Very enjoyable article and I imagine it was an even more enjoyable conference.
This article was a great experience for all. I was able to tell that it was very interactive, intellectual, stimulating and inspiring. To hear different people share their success story and how they made it with all their obstacles that came along was surely inspiring to those that are still in their run for success. Although there were many people from all over the world, am sure it still felt like a one on one therapy section. In this discussion they were able to build together new techniques in how to grow and develop together to reach where they would want to be. Having a social therapeutic conversation helps each person that attended experience new ways in how to make their lives more meaningful and fun.
We are inseparable from our environment. It helps to shape and mold who we are. This blog emphasizes the impact of social therapy and how it reflects from one person to the next.
I believe we,the people who haven’t gone to this event, by reading this article can grasp only a bit of what actually happened in it. Only being there can actually give meaning to everything said in this note. I think is a ‘must go’ for next year.
That is great! We learn from our environment, so to be able to be in a setting concentrated on growth is amazing.
+Hello, It was an interesting article about a different type of therapy that I did not know existed.The therapist works with a diversity of people to create an environment that supports the emotional and social development of people and brings joy to others that really need it a– not traditional therapy .It is amazing how you can interact with people that come from a different culture and sometimes because of the diversity we do not understand a person’s situation. How I view a situation is different from another person’s perspective.These therapists are engaging people to step out their zone of comfort and meet new people and see a different type of therapy as a group and help each other. It is cool that there is globotherapy and social therapy that give support and discovery to live meaningful lives and how these therapist is helping to change people lives around the world therapy and performance .How can therapy and performance work together ? What play has to do with therapy ? The feedback from the audience gave was positive and it is kind of weird speaking in front of an audience about your personal perspectives .It made people realize how can they live their lives than only having traditional psychology and how you can help one and others in the same time .Helping others to get out of their shell and to combat those difficulties that are only struggles in their lives .It touches people and people want more of it . It was very interesting made me feel like you are doing a workshop and changing people lives .Thank you and keep up the great work !!