Psychodrama is a group psychotherapy method created by Jacob Levy Moreno and popularized in the legal field by Gerry Spence through Trial Lawyers College. Thousands of civil trial lawyers and criminal defense lawyers have been introduced to the power of psychodrama at TLC by Gerry Spence, Psychodramatist Don Clarkson, Psychodramatist Louise Lipman, and others. Trial in Action is a book published by Trial Guides by former Trial Lawyers College Executive Director Joane Garcia-Colson, and faculty Fredilyn Sison & Mary Peckham.
An excerpt from Trial in Action: The Persuasive Power of Psychodrama
As any practicing trial attorney can attest, law school alone does not prepare you for the intensely personal experience of taking a case to trial. Yes, law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer, analyze the law and interpret particular rules, statutes, codes, and regulations—but you have learned very little in the way of truly communicating with other human beings.
At any point in your trial practice, you need not only a thorough understanding of the law, but also the ability to be a good storyteller, director, and performer—and, most importantly, an empathic, genuine, and real human being. Through your courtroom presentations, your goal is to help your juries hear, see, and feel your clients’ stories. To do so, you need special tools to assist you. Enter, psychodrama.
By definition, psychodrama is:
. . . above all a form of drama, an art form. Like all art . . . forms, it is a method of communication. It is also a way for one to examine one’s life experiences, a profound kind of reflection, so to speak, a way to explore the contents of our inner lives, often making sense out of what initially seemed like nonsense. John Nolte, PhD, The Psychodrama Papers, Psychodrama and the Dimensions of Experience, 61.
This method has helped countless individuals “clarify their thinking, enable them to make important life decisions, give them courage and inspiration to continue to struggle with life’s problems, and help them to know themselves in more profound ways.” Nolte, The Psychodrama Papers, 61.
As a lecturing psychodramatist and trial lawyer, I now use the tools of this method to help other advocates communicate more effectively with their clients. As a lecturer, I help attorneys learn, understand, and apply the tools of psychodrama to their practices, through personal introspection that leads to a thoughtful preparation of every case. Using these tools, they learn to present their stories so that the jury hears, sees, and most importantly, feels the story. I have also used these skills and the tools of psychodrama in my own practice.)
Your Role as a Lawyer Using Psychodramatic Methods
A psychodrama gets people involved emotionally; it moves them and stimulates their desire and need to help the person working through his or her issues (known as the protagonist in psychodrama). It is primal for human beings to have empathy and to want to help others. When you are too intellectual, you lose the power of emotion and empathy; by using psychodrama to first understand yourself, and then others, you can bridge the gap between your emotions and your intellect.
As lawyers, instead of first looking at ourselves to determine if an issue is one that originates with us, we have a tendency to project onto others. That is, we make everything about the other rather than about ourselves. In the trial setting, the “other” would be jurors. For example, in voir dire, a lawyer with a client of color who is faced with an all-white jury may say to the panel, “I am afraid that you will hold my client’s race against him,” rather than admit the bias and prejudice that lives within himself. The lawyer-mind and the fear of rejection get in the way of human connection and conversation.
So what does this lawyer do? Instead of taking the risk to be vulnerable in front of the jury, he skips the personal work he needs to do for insight and empathy and moves into persuasion mode; after all, persuasion is what lawyers do. Without doing the work to understand his own feelings on the issue of race, and starting from that point with the panel, he becomes nothing more than a professional manipulator. Lawyers who manipulate feed right into the stereotype that people have of lawyers, and is one reason people don’t trust us. But we can change this. When we speak the truth that comes from our hearts, when we are real, honest, and fully present in the moment, we have great credibility and great power. The fear of being vulnerable, of rejection, is so frightening, however, that it makes it hard for a trial lawyer to take the risk of being real and open. It is far easier to put on a mask and be a “lawyer.”
The first step to taking off the mask is psychodrama: experiencing it, connecting with others, and realizing emotionally we are all the same, with similar stories. You must learn that we are all more alike than we are different. When you step into the role of the protagonist, you gain a better understanding of your own story. It is an eye-opening experience that hastens your journey to becoming a more credible, honest, and empathetic human being.
The best way to learn your own story, about who you are and why you are the way you are, can and often does come from being in the protagonist role in a psychodrama. The more you look at yourself, the easier it becomes to be who you are and to take the risk of being vulnerable in front of a group of people. In short, you become comfortable in your own skin, and you gain confidence and credibility. It helps you become your most authentic self. That is where you have great power, when you open up to your full potential.
Our life stories, the messages we learned as children, continue to run in our minds, often unconsciously, throughout our lives. What psychodrama does is make you conscious of these messages and stories. When you become conscious of them, they no longer control you. At the very least, you are able to make different choices about how you act and react to the triggers that set off the narrative from your past. The ultimate goal is to respond versus react. This consciousness is a valuable tool.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to intellectualize the personal experience of psychodrama. You cannot gain the understanding of the self through intellectual analysis. There is no shortcut to knowing your own story, who you are, and why you are the way you are. It is hard work that continues throughout your life.
Psychodrama in Action: Example #1
Imagine you are working on a case where your female client, a postal worker, suffered age discrimination at the hands of her supervisor. At some point in your preparation of the case, reverse roles with the supervisor to better understand his behavior, what motivates him, why he did what he did, who he is, and what he feels about your client. You may also want your client to reverse roles with the supervisor to help her show you her experience of the supervisor with exact language, intonation, and actions that he used. This will give you information about him that would not be available in a simple reporting of what he may have said or done.
Using the example of the supervisor in an age discrimination case, a step-by-step approach follows:
1. Physically move from the spot where you are standing in your own role, to another spot where you will take on the role of the supervisor. Moving to another spot in order to actually change roles is important. It concretely marks changing roles. Then, allow yourself to take on the role. What is your name? How old are you? What do you look like? What color are your hair and eyes? How tall are you? How are you dressed? What type of shoes are you wearing?
2. Take a moment and feel yourself physically in the role. How do you walk? Sit? Stand? What is your posture like? Walk around in this new body. Do you shuffle or step firmly? Feel your center of gravity.
3. Once you have taken on the physical qualities of the supervisor, continue exploring the role. How long have you worked for the postal service? Why did you go to work there? How is it that you became a supervisor? Do you like your job? What are your job duties? What type of problems do you have on your job? Who do you report to?
4. As the supervisor, look at the plaintiff. How long have you known her? When did you first meet? What do you feel as you look at her? Describe your relationship with her. How do you feel about your relationship with her? What type of employee is she? Have you had any problems with her? What do you want from her? Why? Let us hear your soliloquy (your inner thoughts that you might not express aloud to anyone else) about her allegations that you discriminated against her because of her age. Did you discriminate against her? Perhaps you are unwilling to use the word “discriminate.” If so, use the word you would choose. Why did you behave in this way?
Psychodrama in Action: Example #2
Not only is role reversal useful with people, this tool can be used with inanimate objects and even with the spirit or essence of various spaces. The following example comes from a case against a homeowner’s association (HOA) for failure to maintain the plumbing in a high-rise, which resulted in a ruptured pipe and a massive flood in the client’s condominium. The HOA refused to accept responsibility for the resulting damage. In this case, you can ask the client to reverse roles with the spirit or essence of the condo.
Lawyer: Reverse roles with the spirit or essence of your condo.
Client: Okay.
Lawyer: (to client as spirit or essence of the condo): You are the spirit or essence of Jane’s condo?
Client (as spirit or essence of condo): Yes, I am.
Lawyer: Tell us about yourself.
Client: Well, I represent all that this condo means to Jane. I know how important I am to her and what role I play in her life.
Lawyer: How long have you been a part of Jane’s life?
Client: For about five years. She bought me in 2005.
Lawyer: Was it hard for Jane to buy you?
Client: Yes, it was. She saved for many years and had always dreamed of having a place like me.
Lawyer: Tell us about her dream.
Client: When she was young and living in South Central Los Angeles, she and her friends would talk about where they wanted to live when they grew up. Jane and her best friend would talk about living in a high-rise up on a high floor that had real wood floors and where they could look out the window and see the city. Jane always loved big cities like New York and fantasized about living in a high-rise. She had a vision of the life she wanted and the type of place she wanted to live in some day. The high-rise meant success to her, that she had made it. She always wanted a beautiful place that she could decorate herself, exactly the way she wanted it.
Lawyer: Sounds like Jane’s dream came true.
Client: One of them. She has other dreams.
Lawyer: What do you mean to Jane?
Client: I used to mean success, freedom, safety.
Lawyer: Say more about that.
Client: Well, Jane worked very hard to buy me. Her job was going well and her side business was growing and she was really becoming successful. The first time she walked in she knew I was the home she always wanted. I am on the eighteenth floor, I have floor-to-ceiling windows, a view of L.A., and a wraparound balcony. I was upgraded with wood floors, granite counters, and stainless steel appliances. And I had room for an in-home office.
Lawyer: You sound pretty special.
Client: I used to be.
Lawyer: What feelings do you get from Jane as you watch her every day?
Client: Now, or before the flood?
Lawyer: Before the flood.
Client: Before the flood, she was happy here. She was filled with so much joy. She had a sense of peace and comfort. She always had people over and loved to entertain. She felt proud of me, not in a prideful or arrogant way, but just, you know, because of how much she had accomplished in her life. If she wasn’t working, she was home, either spending time alone or sharing her home with family and friends. I was her sanctuary. She decorated me beautifully and painted my walls with her favorite colors, gold and mint green, and filled me with nice furniture and beautiful rugs. I was a warm and comforting place. She felt safe here.
Lawyer: That was before the flood.
Client: Yes.
Lawyer: Sounds like you were much more than just a place for Jane to live.
Client: Yes, I was. I was her home. Not just a house, but a home. A place where she could relax and be herself. Where she felt happy. And safe.
Lawyer: And now?
Client: It’s just not the same. She had to gut me to repair the damage. She didn’t repaint the walls with the warm gold and green. She left my walls white. The flood destroyed her dream. Her side business has pretty much gone to hell. She doesn’t feel safe here anymore. She always worries there will be another flood because the homeowner’s association doesn’t want to fix the pipes of the building right. It keeps her up at night. She doesn’t have people over anymore, not even her parents or her brother. And she doesn’t even like to be home. She tried to sell me, but she can’t. I am no longer her sanctuary.
Lawyer: How does that feel?
Client: It makes me really sad, breaks my heart really. Jane doesn’t like to talk about it or let anyone know how much pain she is in or how sad and depressed she is. She tries to put on a good face, but she has lost so much. She feels betrayed by the homeowner’s association she trusted. All I am now is a place for her to sleep and store her things. I am not a home at all. I am just a roof over her head.
As both examples show, role reversal brings the experience alive and makes it three-dimensional—you hear it, see it, and feel it—versus a one-dimensional narrative that is unlikely to provide as much valuable information or detail. Because your client knows the supervisor better than you and has greater knowledge about who this person is and why he behaved as he did, she can become an active participant in preparing the case.
Conclusion
Psychodrama will help you on your journey to be your most authentic self and a more effective and successful advocate on behalf of your clients. The personal work that you do through psychodrama—that is, understanding yourself—is the most essential building block to prepare yourself to be an effective and successful trial lawyer. This is where we all struggle, both as lawyers and as human beings. Looking at your own story and discovering not only who you are but why you are the way you are is not an intellectual process, nor can you simply follow a formula to gain self-knowledge.
Using the tools of psychodrama to explore and reenact various scenes of your client’s story provides the most effective way to discover the universal stories we all share as human beings. The power of psychodrama lies not in the intellect but in emotion, connection, and realization that as human beings we share many universal stories and are not alone. And universal stories that resonate with jurors is the key to your success in the courtroom.
For more other Trial Guides products addressing the use of Psychodrama in Law, please see:
Preparing a Witness Using Psychodrama by Louise Lipman