Staging dramatic enactments to resolve conflicts in couples

Re-enacting an event that has triggered conflict from each partner’s perspective during couples therapy, while employing one’s actual partner as an auxiliary, is a distinctive, theatrical application of psychodrama that develops perspective, promotes empathy, lowers resistance to being invalidated by disagreement and points the way to novel resolutions. Each client’s enactment is followed by a role-reversed encounter between the auxiliary and the character assigned the auxiliary by the partner. Post-enactment processing of video feedback facilitates collaboration and reflection by the couple. A case example illustrates the application of this method.