f Transforming families using performance: Witnessing performed lived experience

This research investigated how performances based on lived experience can be used as a tool within family support or pyshcosocial education groups to initiate a process of transformation for the participants/witnesses. This study found that witnesses’ emotional arousal and reflection appear to be encouraged by a sense of resonance resulting from the inclusion of lived experience presented using combined representation strategies (realistic and symbolic), which assisted in achieving optimal aesthetic distance.