Psychodrama, sociodrama, sociometry and axiodrama (Moreno)

1. Introduction

Version followed: classical Morenian psychodrama (warm-up, action, sharing) with its sociometric, sociodramatic and axiodramatic extensions, as described by certified trainers (TEP-level authors), the European training standard of the Psychodrama Association for Europe (FEPTO-aligned) and the 2018 systematic review of Morenian core techniques by Cruz et al.; trauma work follows the Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM) safety modifications (see guide 105). J. L. Moreno's own volumes (Psychodrama vols 1–3, 1946/1959/1969; Who Shall Survive?, 1934/1953) are the primary texts but are not drawn on in this guide, so nothing below is attributed to them directly [uncertain: primary volumes].

This is a family of group action methods, not a single manualised therapy. Psychodrama enacts one person's (the protagonist's) life situation on a stage with the help of the group; sociodrama enacts a shared social situation with the group as protagonist; sociometry maps and makes visible the pattern of choices and connections in a group; axiodrama enacts values and ethical questions. All rest on Moreno's spontaneity–creativity theory, role theory and the concept of tele, the two-way web of feeling between people [source: Propper, Concise Introduction; Teszáry, FEPTO].

Core idea of change: problems are understood as constrained or missing roles. Acting a situation "as if" it is happening now, in surplus reality (the imagined world beside and beyond everyday reality made concrete on stage), lets the person see themselves from outside, take the other's position, express what was held back and rehearse new roles; the group's sharing then reintegrates the protagonist [source: Propper; Vander May; Cruz et al. 2018].

Professional frame. Psychodrama is a specialist group psychotherapy method requiring long training, and must not be run as therapy by people without it. USA: the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy (ABE) certifies Certified Practitioners (CP) and Trainer, Educator, Practitioners (TEP); a secondary summary lists for CP a related master's degree, at least 780 training hours (half from a primary trainer, who must be a TEP), 52 weeks of supervised practice, 40 supervised sessions and observed directing [source: GoodTherapy, secondary; ABE's own pages not drawn on, uncertain]. The American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP) is the professional society Moreno founded in 1942 [source: GoodTherapy]. Europe: the PAfE curriculum (revised March 2025) states it meets FEPTO standards: 1,195 academic hours across an elementary level (Psychodrama Assistant/Practitioner) and an advanced level (Psychodrama Therapist, requiring a clinical psychology or medical degree, or Psychodrama Leader), with 90 hours of supervision and 160 hours of supervised practical application; national rules may add requirements [source: PAfE 2025]. UK: the British Psychodrama Association (BPA) is the training and professional body; psychodrama psychotherapists usually register through a psychotherapy register (UKCP) rather than the HCPC, which regulates dramatherapists [uncertain: BPA and UKCP standards]. GoodTherapy reports that "psychodrama" is treated in the field as a profession-specific term that non-credentialed clinicians should not use for their work [source: GoodTherapy]. A therapist without this training can still use single action techniques (empty chair, a spectrogram) inside their own modality, but should not direct full protagonist-centred enactments [synthesis].

Physical safety: a cleared room with no sharp-edged furniture in the action space, soft props (cushions, scarves) for anger work, enough floor space for movement and falls, chairs at the edge for anyone who steps out, and a no-harm rule to self, others and property [source: Vander May for the no-harm rule and props; rest synthesis].

2. Framework

Session phases (classical) [source: Cruz et al. 2018; Vander May; GoodTherapy]:

Warm-up. Goal: build trust, cohesion, spontaneity and readiness; surface themes; let a protagonist (or a group theme) emerge. Means: games, role presentation, sociometric exercises (spectrograms, hands-on-shoulder choices, step-in circles), movement, social atom or letter writing. Move on when one person's or the group's warm-up is focused enough to carry a scene and the group has chosen or accepted the protagonist [criteria: synthesis].
Action (enactment). Goal: enact the conflict as if it is happening now, speaking to people rather than about them; move from the presenting scene to deeper or earlier scenes and then to new or reparative scenes. Means: scene setting, auxiliaries, double, role reversal, mirror, soliloquy, concretisation, surplus reality. The action ends when the protagonist's energy subsides and they feel unburdened, or when a planned stopping point is reached [source: Vander May]; in trauma work, only while the protagonist stays within their window of tolerance [source: TSI, TSM stages].
Sharing (sharing-integration). Goal: reintegrate the protagonist into the group; group members say what in their own lives the drama touched; integrate learning and defer new issues to later sessions. Ends the session [source: Vander May; GoodTherapy].
Processing (in training groups and in sociodrama/axiodrama): a separate review of the director's choices and the group's dynamics; sociodrama and axiodrama are described as running warm-up, dramatisation, sharing and processing [source: de Souza & Drummond 2017].

Format: groups of roughly 8–15 [synthesis]; weekly groups of about 90 minutes to 2 hours, with courses of 8–13 sessions common, plus residential workshops and one-to-one "psychodrama à deux" [source: GoodTherapy; Vander May]. In individual work there are no auxiliaries: the client uses empty chairs and the therapist may take roles; Vander May advises not concretising forces with the therapist's own body, to keep objectivity [source: Vander May].

Group development criteria [source: Propper for the first; TSM for the second; rest synthesis]: with groups that are oppressed, newly formed or low in trust, use sociodrama before personal psychodrama; with trauma survivors, build strengths and containing roles before any trauma scene; move to deeper personal scenes only when group sociometry shows the protagonist is connected (chosen, not isolated), the contract is clear and the protagonist can step back into an observing position.

TSM trauma sequence (for trauma-focused groups) [source: TSI, Stages of Working Through Trauma]: contract → build prescriptive roles (observing, containing, restoring; a containing double as standard, body double if needed) → describe the trauma → observe it as a still tableau → witness it as a moving scene from outside → rescue the younger self from an adult/protective role → conscious re-experiencing with developmental repair → transformation scene → closure (protagonist names what to take away) and group sharing. Some dramas stop at resourcing only.

3. Guiding principles

Spontaneity–creativity. The aim is an adequate new response to an old situation or a fresh response to a new one; practically, the director warms people up rather than pushing them, and values new responses over "correct" re-tellings [source: Propper; Teszáry].
Tele. Two-way, real feeling between people, distinct from projection; practically, cast auxiliaries and choose protagonists through the group's actual choices, and notice who is chosen and unchosen [source: Propper; Hudgins TSM handout].
Role theory. Every role has a reciprocal role and roles can be developed, overdeveloped or missing; practically, assess which roles the person needs and train or strengthen them in action [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Here and now, as if. Enact rather than narrate; practically, ask the protagonist to speak to the person, in the present tense, in the place [source: Vander May].
Surplus reality. The stage can hold what never happened, what should have happened or what could happen; practically, allow reparative and future scenes, the dead, absent and imagined [source: Propper; Vander May].
The protagonist is in charge of their life material. The director follows the protagonist's warm-up and contract [source: TSM contract; synthesis].
The group is the therapeutic agent. Auxiliaries, doubles and sharers carry much of the work; practically, invest in group cohesion and in training auxiliaries [source: Cruz et al. 2018; Propper].
Safety and containment first in trauma work. "Too much, too soon, too fast" can retraumatise; practically, work within the window of tolerance and use observing and containing roles [source: TSI stages].
Warm, supportive direction. In the Stanford encounter group study, groups with warm, caring leaders had no severe casualties while dominating, aggressive and laissez-faire styles produced them [source: Smith on Lieberman, Yalom & Miles].
No physical harm; acting in, not acting out. Practically, use cushions or props for aggression and keep a clear line between expression in session and behaviour outside [source: Vander May].
Sharing, not analysing. Group members share personal identification rather than advice or interpretation, so the exposed protagonist is not judged [synthesis: widely taught].
Techniques belong in their frame. Morenian techniques used outside their theory can become distorted [source: Cruz et al. 2018]; practically, do not borrow intense techniques without the warm-up, sharing and closure that hold them.
Few techniques when less trained. Vander May advises therapists with little psychodrama training to use few techniques and to respect the client's readiness [source: Vander May].

4. Intervention inventory

The five instruments of a session are protagonist, stage, auxiliary ego(s), director and audience [source: Cruz et al. 2018]. Items are grouped as warm-up and sociometry, enactment techniques, closing procedures, and group-level methods. Risk flags appear where a technique carries one.

A. Warm-up and sociometry

1. Warm-up games

Purpose: lower tension, build cohesion and surface material; dramatic games have set goals and rules [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: start with low-exposure, whole-group movement; move to pairs; then to small-group tasks with light disclosure; watch who is energised by which theme [synthesis on sequencing].
Example language (illustrative): "Walk around the room at your own pace. Now walk as if you're late for something you're dreading."
Watch for: anyone who freezes or withdraws early; offer an observer seat. Working when the room is livelier and themes are named spontaneously.

2. Role presentation

Purpose: build spontaneity and connection; in a drama, give the auxiliary an impression of a role they will play [source: Propper].
Steps: the member steps into a role (a person, part of self, animal, substance or quality) and introduces themselves in first person; others may ask brief questions; the member then de-roles back into themselves [source: Propper].
Example language (illustrative): "Stand behind your chair as your morning alarm. Tell us who you are and what you think of this person."
Watch for: grading from casual to serious; a heavy role (an estranged parent) early in a group is a deep step [source: Propper notes the range].

3. Spectrogram

Purpose: show the spread of experience in the group on a criterion; move the group toward action and cohesion [source: Propper; Hudgins TSM handout].
Steps: mark an imaginary line across the room with two named poles (or 1 to 10); give a criterion; members place themselves; invite brief statements from individuals, neighbours or clusters; a reporter can name each cluster's theme [source: Propper; Hudgins]. TSM sequences criteria through strengths, then defences, then trauma and feelings, then transformation [source: Hudgins].
Example language (illustrative): "One end of this line is 'I slept well last night', the other 'hardly at all'. Find your spot and tell the person next to you why you're there."
Watch for: trauma or shame criteria asked before strengths; criteria that force public disclosure. Working when members speak readily from their position.

4. Hands on shoulder (action sociogram)

Purpose: make choices visible; reveal central, isolated and unchosen members; teach role choosing; bring tele, projection and transference into the open [source: Propper; Hudgins].
Steps: give a criterion; each member places a hand on the shoulder of the person they choose; the chosen may hear the choosers' reasons; the shape of choices is the sociogram [source: Propper]. A containing double may support a member who struggles to say something [source: Hudgins].
Example language (illustrative): "Put your hand on the shoulder of someone who could play your courage."
Watch for: the unchosen; criteria that rank people's attractiveness or likability in public are high-risk [synthesis]. Afterwards, the director acknowledges who was not chosen and links them in [synthesis].

5. Step-in circle (circle of similarities)

Purpose: counter isolation through shared experience and assess who may be at risk of dissociation or uncontrolled regression before trauma work [source: Hudgins].
Steps: members stand in a circle; anyone who shares the named criterion steps in, looks around, steps back; the team discloses first to lower shame; then members propose criteria, often "popcorn style"; sequence strengths, defences, trauma, transformation; TSM often moves this to the next day so the first evening ends on strengths [source: Hudgins].
Example language (illustrative): "Step in if you have ever kept going when you were exhausted."
Watch for: who steps in on trauma criteria and then looks absent; check in quietly.

6. Paper sociometric test

Purpose: map choices when the group lacks the trust to reveal them openly [source: Propper].
Steps: members privately name choices on a stated criterion; results are kept private to the investigators and used to plan grouping or casting [source: Propper]. Moreno's original sociometric tests are in Who Shall Survive? [uncertain].
Watch for: honour any promise about privacy and how results will be used [synthesis].

7. Social atom

Purpose: map a person's significant relationships (positive, negative, mixed) as a warm-up, assessment or starting point for change; the social atom is described as the individual's tele-range [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: on paper, the person places self at the centre and others by closeness and size; in action, the protagonist places auxiliaries or objects in the space by distance and posture, then role reverses with each [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Example language (illustrative): "Put yourself in the middle of the page. Who is close, who is far, who looms large?"
Watch for: deceased or abusive figures appearing; decide in advance whether to stay at mapping level.

8. Protagonist selection [synthesis]

Purpose: choose a protagonist the group is warmed up to and connected with.
Steps: invite those warmed up to a personal theme to say a sentence about it; the group chooses by hand on shoulder or standing behind them, or the director chooses on the basis of readiness and contract. Choices follow sociometric principles [source: Propper for sociometric choice; procedure synthesis].
Watch for: a reluctant member pushed forward by a keen group or director (see Harm account); a self-selected protagonist the group is not with.

B. Enactment techniques

9. Contract

Purpose: agree what the protagonist wants to look at and gain [source: TSI, TSM stages].
Steps: walk with the protagonist around the stage, ask what they want to explore and what would make it worthwhile; agree limits (e.g. "no scene with the abuser today").
Example language (illustrative): "What would you like to be different by the end of this?"
Watch for: a vague contract makes it harder to stop; revisit it if the drama moves to an unagreed area.

10. Scene setting

Purpose: anchor the scene in concrete time and place to warm up memory and spontaneity [source: Vander May].
Steps: define where, when and who; the protagonist sets the furniture and adds light, sound, temperature and objects; describe in present tense [source: Vander May].
Example language (illustrative): "Show us the kitchen. Where's the window? What time is it?"
Watch for: sensory detail sharply raises arousal in trauma scenes; slow down.

11. Role interview (interview in role)

Purpose: deepen the role, warm up the protagonist and give the auxiliary information [source: Propper; Vander May].
Steps: the protagonist role reverses into a significant other; the director interviews them, starting with facts (name, age, occupation) and moving toward feelings; the director may freeze action to interview [source: Vander May; Propper].
Example language (illustrative): "You're Sam's father. How old are you? What worries you about Sam?"

12. Auxiliary ego and casting

Purpose: an auxiliary plays a significant other, part of self or abstract force [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: the protagonist chooses the auxiliary; the protagonist shows the role first through role reversal; the auxiliary plays it as shown, adding only within the warm-up; trained auxiliaries can be used in individual work [source: Vander May; Propper].
Watch for: an auxiliary playing out their own material; roles such as perpetrator are heavy for both the protagonist and the auxiliary, so cast with care and always de-role [synthesis].

13. Role reversal

Purpose: see oneself from the other's position, gain empathy and insight, widen perspective; also used to transmit the role to the auxiliary [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: protagonist and auxiliary physically swap places; the protagonist speaks from the other's role; the auxiliary repeats the protagonist's last line; reverse back [source: Propper; Vander May; the line-repeating step is synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Reverse roles. You are now your sister. Answer what Jo just said."
Watch for (risk flag): in TSM, role reversal with the perpetrator is rare and only for an apology or reparative act; post-rescue encounters happen from an empowered adult role [source: TSI]. Do not ask a trauma survivor to become their abuser to "understand" them [synthesis].

14. Double

Purpose: voice the protagonist's unspoken feelings and thoughts, increase awareness and support [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: the double stands beside or slightly behind the protagonist, adopts the posture, and speaks in first person; the protagonist repeats what fits and corrects what does not; group members may take turns, a hand on the shoulder [source: Cruz et al. 2018; Vander May; correcting step synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): as double, "I'm smiling, but I'm furious."
Watch for: doubles that interpret or push; the protagonist must feel free to reject them.

15. Containing double and body double (TSM)

Purpose: a containing double is prescribed at the start of any drama revisiting trauma, to hold and regulate; a body double supports bodily grounding when needed [source: TSI, TSM stages].
Steps: assign a trained group member beside the protagonist before any trauma material; the containing double speaks to calm, name and contain; the body double attends to breath and body [source: TSI; specifics see guide 105].

16. Mirror

Purpose: let the protagonist step outside the scene to gain perspective when stuck, confused, overwhelmed or disconnected [source: Propper; GoodTherapy].
Steps: an auxiliary takes the protagonist's place; the protagonist watches from the edge with the director; may then speak to their in-scene self or re-enter [source: Propper; Cruz et al. 2018].
Example language (illustrative): "Come and stand here with me. Someone will take your place. Just watch."
Watch for (risk flag): the mirror can feel ridiculing; Cruz et al. recommend a professional auxiliary and suggest several doublers to soften feeling imitated [source: Cruz et al. 2018]. Never caricature.

17. Soliloquy and aside

Purpose: make inner experience audible [source: Propper; Vander May].
Steps: soliloquy, the protagonist walks the stage alone, thinking aloud before or between scenes; aside, the protagonist turns away mid-scene and voices what they are not saying [source: Vander May; Cruz et al. 2018].
Example language (illustrative): "Walk with me. What's going through your mind on the way home?"

18. Empty chair (auxiliary chair)

Purpose: meet a significant other, living or dead, or a part of self, when no auxiliary is available or in individual work [source: Vander May].
Steps: place the chair; protagonist speaks directly to it; role reverses into it as needed; may be interviewed in role [source: Vander May].
Example language (illustrative): "Put your grandmother in this chair. What do you want to tell her?"

19. Chairing alternatives

Purpose: explore a decision [source: Vander May].
Steps: one chair per option; client sits in each and speaks as that option; options dialogue with each other [source: Vander May].

20. Concretisation

Purpose: give physical form to a vague feeling, phrase or force so it can be met and dialogued with [source: Vander May].
Steps: ask the protagonist to show the feeling with an object, a person or a posture; consider position, size, distance, sound, colour, light, texture, temperature, body language and symbol; role reverse with the concretised element [source: Vander May lists nine such factors].
Example language (illustrative): "Where in the room is this pressure? Pick someone to be it and show them how it presses."
Watch for: physical pressure on the body; keep any touch light, consented and stoppable [synthesis].

21. Sculpture

Purpose: represent an aspect of life (a family, a team, a feeling over time) as a still image [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: the protagonist arranges people or objects into a figure; the director can ask for further images across time (before, now, wished-for), space or contrasting values [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Example language (illustrative): "Make a picture of your family at dinner when you were twelve. Now how you'd like it to be."

22. Surplus reality scenes

Purpose: enact what did not or could not happen in life: meeting the dead, saying goodbye, receiving what was missing [source: Propper; Vander May].
Steps: name the imagined scene; cast it; play it fully; return to the protagonist's own role to receive it [source: Propper; steps synthesis].
Watch for: grief scenes are powerful; leave ample time for sharing.

23. Future projection

Purpose: rehearse or explore a future situation [source: Vander May].
Steps: set a future date and place; interview the protagonist there about how things turned out; enact; return to the present and reflect [source: Vander May].
Example language (illustrative): "It's a year from today. Where are you? What has changed?"

24. Age regression (risk flag)

Purpose: the client sets a past scene and experiences it at that age [source: Vander May].
Steps: scene setting at the earlier age; the protagonist speaks as their younger self. Vander May describes a variant where the therapist regresses alongside while keeping therapist identity, which needs skilled timing [source: Vander May].
Watch for: high risk of dissociation and retraumatisation in trauma survivors; in trauma work use TSM's sequence instead (observe from outside before entering; enter as adult/protector before becoming the child) [source: TSI; synthesis].

25. Resistance interpolation

Purpose: test and stretch the protagonist's spontaneity by an unexpected turn [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: the director instructs the auxiliary to respond differently from expectation, e.g. an authoritarian character turning submissive [source: Cruz et al. 2018, citing Pio de Abreu 1992].
Watch for: a twist that humiliates or traps; use only with a well-warmed, resourced protagonist [synthesis].

26. Maximisation

Purpose: amplify a gesture, sentence or feeling so it becomes clear [source: named only, de Souza & Drummond 2017; procedure synthesis].
Steps: ask for the gesture or line larger, louder or repeated, then stop and check.
Watch for (risk flag): amplifying anger past what the person can own afterwards is one of the reported hazards (see Harm account) [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].

27. Intermediate objects

Purpose: communicate through puppets, dolls, masks or props when direct verbal contact is hard [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: invite the person to speak through the object; remove the object once face-to-face contact is established [source: Cruz et al. 2018].

28. Role training

Purpose: practise a feared or poorly played role in a protected setting [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Steps: set the scene; the protagonist tries the role; feedback or modelling via mirror; repeat with variations until the new response feels available [source: Cruz et al. 2018 for definition; steps synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Try saying no to your manager again. This time stand where you can see the door."

29. Role reversal with the therapist (individual work)

Purpose: in psychodrama à deux, give the client the therapist's view and test the relationship [source: Vander May].
Steps: swap chairs, copy posture, voice and mannerisms; afterwards discuss how accurate the portrayals were [source: Vander May].

C. Containment and closing procedures

30. Observing ego role (TSM)

Purpose: a non-judging, fact-collecting vantage point that keeps people in the here and now and offers a place to step out when overwhelmed [source: Hudgins].
Steps: members pick inspirational cards that help them see themselves without judgement, share in pairs, and the cards stay on the wall; a protagonist can step into the observing ego during a drama or role reverse into it at the end [source: Hudgins].

31. Circle of safety (TSM)

Purpose: build strengths before trauma emerges and visually contain flashbacks, body memories and dissociated affect [source: Hudgins].
Steps: scarves laid in a circle; members name strengths by picking up scarves; in a drama, a flashback can be placed inside a circle of scarves and examined from outside; perpetrator roles are removed outside the circle [source: Hudgins; TSI].

32. Art project as container (TSM)

Purpose: tangible container for strengths, trauma and transformation over a workshop [source: Hudgins, crediting Francesca Toscani].
Steps: build the piece in sequence: strengths first, then defences and trauma, then transformation [source: Hudgins].

33. Sharing

Purpose: reintegrate the protagonist; members share how the drama touched their own lives; integrate learning; defer new issues [source: Vander May; GoodTherapy].
Steps: protagonist sits with the director facing the group; auxiliaries first share from their role (what it was like to play it), then de-role and share from their own life; audience members share personal identification; the director blocks advice and analysis and checks the protagonist at the end [source: GoodTherapy and Vander May for sharing; role-feedback order and blocking advice are synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Please share what in your own life was touched, rather than advice for Anna."
Watch for: a protagonist left alone with an unshared intense disclosure; members newly activated by the drama.

34. De-roling

Purpose: return auxiliaries and the protagonist to themselves and separate the person from the role they played [source: Propper describes de-roling after role presentation; Vander May describes leaving the scene and returning to one's own chair; formal procedure synthesis].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) the director names that the scene is over; (2) auxiliaries physically step out of the role spot, say "I am not your father, I am Mark" or similar in their own words, and may brush off or shake out; (3) the protagonist confirms by name; (4) scarves or props used for roles are removed and the stage cleared; (5) anyone who played a perpetrator, the dead or a hated figure gets a brief check-in.
Watch for: members still treating each other in role at the break; an auxiliary who carried a heavy role and goes quiet.

35. Closure

Purpose: end the action when the protagonist's energy subsides and they feel unburdened; set aside unresolved issues for future sessions [source: Vander May]; in TSM the protagonist states in words what they want to remember and take away, then the group shares [source: TSI].
Steps [synthesis beyond the sources above]: end on a scene of mastery, repair or resource rather than at the trauma point; ground (feet, breath, naming the room); state one take-away; check safety and supports for the time after the session; offer a follow-up contact for anyone heavily activated.

D. Group-level methods

36. Sociodrama

Purpose: the group, not an individual, is the protagonist; a method for examining cultural and social systems, group norms, subgroup dynamics and inherited values [source: Teszáry, FEPTO; Propper]. Sternberg's definition: participants spontaneously act out an agreed social situation to discover alternative ways of handling it [source: Plotkin, citing Sternberg].
Steps: identify the group's themes; formulate a sociodramatic question; dramatise the social system, often around a central role with other roles clustered round it; use all psychodramatic techniques (doubling, soliloquy, mirror, role reversal); analyse and reflect; support new perspectives [source: Teszáry; Propper; Plotkin]. Run warm-up, dramatisation, sharing, processing [source: de Souza & Drummond].
Example language (illustrative): "Today's question: what happens on a ward when a patient's complaint arrives? Who's in the room?"
Watch for: personal material emerging; acknowledge it and offer a separate, appropriate setting rather than turning a sociodrama into a psychodrama without contract [synthesis]. Preferred over psychodrama with oppressed groups until enough trust exists [source: Propper].

37. Living Newspaper

Purpose: enact news or shared events; Moreno's Vienna method of the early 1920s [source: Propper].
Steps: subgroups of four or five choose an article, create roles, prepare briefly and perform to the whole group; a "personal" variant enacts members' own experience of a disaster [source: Propper].
Watch for: disaster survivors' variant needs trauma-level pacing.

38. Axiodrama

Purpose: enact values and ethical questions; Moreno defined it as a synthesis of psychodrama and axiology (the science of values), dramatising aspirations such as justice, beauty, goodness and peace [source: de Souza & Drummond 2017, citing Moreno 1974]. Commentators place it within the sociodrama method with a focus on group values [source: de Souza & Drummond].
Steps: map the group's values (in organisations, the climate, mission and stated values); subgroups create scenes of value conflict; enact with role reversal across positions (manager, client, team); use doubling, mirror, soliloquy and maximisation; share and process [source: de Souza & Drummond 2017].
Example language (illustrative): "Make a scene where two things this team cares about pull against each other."
Watch for: value scenes in organisations can expose individuals to managers; agree confidentiality and that no one is assessed on their role [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

Screening and contraindications

Prescreen every member; if someone is not ready, refer them to individual therapy [source: GoodTherapy]. Psychodrama may not suit people in acute crisis or with certain severe conditions [source: GoodTherapy]; Vander May notes clients who are actively suicidal or homicidal usually do not benefit [source: Vander May].
Ahmed & Tyrer recommend screening candidates more carefully, as drama can be inhibiting for some; fear of failure and exposure was most marked in a participant with social anxiety [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Screening interview [synthesis]: current risk (standard suicide and self-harm assessment), dissociation and trauma history, psychosis and reality testing, substance use, recent losses, social anxiety and shame sensitivity, prior group experiences (including harmful ones), relationships with other members, and capacity to tolerate watching others' material. Agree in writing confidentiality, the right to pass or stop at any moment, touch rules, and how to reach you between sessions.
Children and young people [synthesis]: assent and parental consent; safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties apply to disclosures in enactment; prefer play, story and sociodramatic distance over enacted personal abuse scenes; enactments are not evidence of abuse.
Touch [synthesis]: ask before any touch (hand on shoulder, holding, physical resistance); offer non-touch alternatives (a scarf, a cushion, standing near); never sexual or genital touch; respect cultural and trauma-related limits.

Overwhelm, dissociation and retraumatisation (risk flag)

Signs: glazed eyes, frozen posture, flat voice, hyperventilation, sudden childlike voice, loss of awareness of the room.
Response: stop the action; bring in the containing double; move the protagonist into the mirror or observing ego position outside the scene; ground with breath, feet and naming the room; turn the scene into a still tableau or remove the perpetrator role outside the circle of safety [source: TSI; Hudgins]. Resume only if the protagonist can stay in an observing position; otherwise end on a resourcing scene [source: TSI on resourcing-only dramas; rest synthesis].
Prevention: "too much, too soon, too fast" causes harm; build prescriptive roles before any trauma scene [source: TSI]. For a full trauma protocol use TSM (guide 105).

Premature or pushed enactment

Ahmed & Tyrer warn that an enthusiastic therapist may persuade a patient into dramatic action that backfires, and note patients rarely choose drama themselves, so it should be introduced and explained rather than pressed on them [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Response [synthesis]: treat hesitation as information; offer a lower-exposure role (double, auxiliary, observer, sociodrama); never select a protagonist who has not said yes, and re-ask consent before each deepening step.

Exposure, shame and feeling belittled

Reported: feeling childish or silly, imagining onlookers judging, embarrassment increasing until a participant stopped performing [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025]; a mirror can feel like ridicule [source: Cruz et al. 2018].
Response [synthesis]: lower exposure (pairs before whole group, chairs before bodies); use several doublers; ensure sharing is identification, not critique; follow up individually after a session in which someone visibly shrank.

Rebound demoralisation

Reported: a poor audience response led to a strong emotional rebound, demoralisation and a wish to quit [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025, performance context].
Response [synthesis]: forewarn that a dip after a powerful session is common; schedule a check-in within days; end sessions on achieved roles rather than unfinished peaks.

Anger released beyond intent

Reported: pent-up anger could be overstated, leading people to say or do things they would not normally do [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Response: no-harm rule and props [source: Vander May]; avoid maximising rage in people with poor impulse control; follow cathartic scenes with integration and with role training of how anger will be expressed outside [synthesis].

Stuck protagonist or flat drama

Use soliloquy, a double, or the mirror to get perspective; re-check the contract; change scene to an earlier or wished-for scene; or stop and share [source: Propper and Vander May on mirror and soliloquy; strategy synthesis]. Vander May notes resistance can prevent a sense of completion; defer unresolved issues [source: Vander May].

Resistance and non-participation

Treat a refusal as a choice to be honoured; warm up more slowly; use sociometric exercises to find who the person feels connected to; offer observer or auxiliary roles [synthesis].

Group ruptures and sociometric hurts

Being unchosen in hands-on-shoulder exercises is painful; name it and link the person to the group [synthesis]. Make tele and transference overt rather than covert [source: Hudgins]. Conflicts between members can be explored in role reversal once both agree [synthesis].

Auxiliary over-involvement

An auxiliary bringing their own material, or shaken by a heavy role: replace them, de-role carefully and invite them to share in sharing [synthesis].

Confidentiality breaches

Members sign confidentiality agreements but breaches have no legal consequence and damage trust [source: GoodTherapy]; restate the agreement and address breaches in the group [synthesis].

Leader style

In the Stanford encounter group study, the most dominating and aggressive leader types and laissez-faire leaders accounted for the severe casualties [source: Smith on Lieberman, Yalom & Miles]. Seek supervision if you notice yourself driving the drama for its intensity [synthesis].

Harm account

Note on scope: no source opened for this guide documents deaths or serious injuries specifically caused by classical psychodrama run by certified directors. What is documented is (a) qualitative reports of adverse experiences in therapeutic drama, (b) casualty data from 1960s–70s encounter groups in which psychodramatists were among the leaders, and (c) professional warnings about unregulated personal growth courses that use forced disclosure. No reliable source opened documents psychodrama itself being used in a named cultic group [uncertain: not found]. Each item below is attributed.

What was actually done

Drama within nidotherapy, England (published 2025). Ahmed and Tyrer interviewed five men (aged 25–57; diagnoses including depression, social anxiety disorder, a remitted cannabis-related psychosis and personality disorder with alcohol dependence) under the care of the charity NIDUS-UK. The men had taken part in or rehearsed two radio plays and a live musical before audiences; three had acted in plays written by the senior author, who knew them all. Although the title says psychodrama, the article mainly discusses drama therapy and performance and does not describe session structure or facilitator qualifications [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025]. The study's warnings therefore apply to therapeutic drama in general more than to classical protagonist-centred psychodrama.
Stanford encounter group study (early 1970s). Eighteen leaders each ran a 30-hour group for a total of 209 Stanford students, with 69 non-attenders for comparison. Leaders were classified by observed behaviour; the "energiser" type (active, dominating, warm but controlling) included one psychodramatist alongside Gestalt and Synanon leaders, and another psychodramatist fell into the less active "social engineer" type [source: Smith, Self & Society, reporting Lieberman, Yalom & Miles, later published as Encounter Groups: First Facts, 1973]. The source does not say which individual leaders' groups had casualties.
Unregulated personal growth courses (Taiwan, 2025). The Taiwan Counseling Psychologist Union warned about courses, including large group awareness trainings, that pressure participants to reveal past trauma, lack transparency about instructors' backgrounds, escalate costs and recruit, and make false healing promises or involve inappropriate physical contact [source: Taiwan News, 18 Feb 2025]. The report names no organisation and does not mention psychodrama; it is included because enactment and forced-disclosure exercises borrowed from group therapy appear in such settings [uncertain: link to psychodrama not documented in this source].

How it caused harm

Exposure and self-consciousness. Anxious participants felt watched; embarrassment grew until one stopped performing altogether [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025]. Mechanism: public performance of personal or emotional material in front of peers, without enough graded warm-up, raises shame in socially anxious people.
Devaluation. Some felt childish or silly doing things they would not normally do and imagined onlookers judging them [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Vulnerability and rebound demoralisation. Fear of failure was universal; a poor audience response could produce a strong emotional rebound, demoralisation and a wish to quit, most marked in the participant with social anxiety [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Negative emotional release. Pent-up anger could be overstated so that participants said or did things they would not normally do; the authors note this may be over-represented in mental illness [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].
Pressure from enthusiastic therapists. The authors warn that an enthusiastic therapist may persuade a patient into dramatic action that backfires [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025, introduction; a warning, not a study finding].
Under-reporting. Uncontrolled studies by enthusiasts tend to downplay or omit adverse effects [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025]. Practically, the absence of reported harms in the psychodrama literature is not evidence of their absence.
Casualties in intensive groups. In the Stanford study, a casualty was persistent psychological decompensation attributed to the group. Initially 8% of members versus 3% of non-attenders were counted; on a fairer comparison (entering therapy) 7 of 209 (3%) matched the non-group rate, which the reporter thought might underestimate the true rate. The seven severe casualties fell in groups with energiser, laissez-faire and cool aggressive-stimulator leaders; groups with warm, caring leaders had none; 17% of energiser-group members versus 3% of provider-group members were classed as casualties; one dominating leader whose group had three casualties described members as too infantile to take responsibility [source: Smith, reporting Lieberman, Yalom & Miles]. Mechanism: high-intensity, leader-driven confrontation and emotional stimulation without support or structure, or with no leadership at all.
Retraumatisation in trauma enactment. TSM practitioners state that moving "too much, too soon, too fast" through trauma material can cause harm and retraumatisation [source: TSI, TSM stages]. Mechanism (as TSM describes it): re-entering a trauma scene without observing and containing roles, so the protagonist is flooded rather than able to witness and repair.
Forced disclosure in growth courses. The Taiwan union warned such courses may worsen psychological conditions and cause lasting damage [source: Taiwan News 2025]; no outcomes for specific people were reported.
Who is most at risk (from the sources above, with synthesis marked): people with social anxiety and high shame [source: Ahmed & Tyrer]; trauma survivors and people prone to dissociation [source: TSI; Hudgins]; people in acute crisis or actively suicidal [source: GoodTherapy; Vander May]; members of groups run by dominating or absent leaders [source: Smith]; people with poor impulse control in anger work [synthesis from Ahmed & Tyrer].

Recognising it today

A director who selects a protagonist who has not clearly agreed, or keeps deepening after the person says stop.
Trauma scenes (abuse, assault, death) enacted on the first day or without a containing double, observing position or contract; a protagonist pushed to role reverse with an abuser or to "become the child" without first being resourced [contrast: TSI].
Catharsis treated as the goal: maximising rage or screaming as proof of progress; no-harm rule absent; no props [contrast: Vander May].
Mirror or doubling used to mock, confront or "break down defences" [contrast: Cruz et al. 2018 on ridicule risk].
Sharing turned into feedback, analysis or confrontation of the protagonist.
Sessions ending at the peak of the trauma scene; no de-roling; members leaving in role or dysregulated with no follow-up.
No screening; no stated right to pass.
The facilitator's training cannot be verified; "psychodrama" enactment sold in large weekend or online events, with escalating fees, pressure to recruit, forced sharing of trauma, promises of healing, or unwanted touch [source: TCPU warning signs via Taiwan News 2025; link to psychodrama not documented].
How legitimate practice differs: trained and certified directors (ABE CP/TEP, FEPTO-standard training); screening; contract; graded warm-up; containing and observing roles in trauma work; de-roling, sharing and closure in every session; supervision [source: GoodTherapy; PAfE 2025; TSI; Hudgins].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

Safer alternatives: for trauma, the Therapeutic Spiral Model (guide 105) or individual trauma-focused therapy before group enactment; for socially anxious or shame-prone clients, sociodrama, sociometric warm-ups and role training at low exposure before protagonist work; for organisations and communities, sociodrama or axiodrama with explicit contracts [source: TSI; Propper; synthesis on matching].
Assessment of a harmed client [synthesis]: ask what was enacted, who chose them, whether they could stop, what happened at closure; screen for post-traumatic intrusions linked to the enactment, shame, demoralisation, dissociation and suicidality (standard risk assessment); ask about contact with the group or facilitator since.
Treatment [synthesis]: validate that the experience can be harmful even if well meant; restore control (the client sets pace and can stop); stabilise before processing; process the enactment itself as a stressful event, in individual work first; consider later group work only with a screened, trauma-informed group, with explicit consent and the right to observe only.
Ethics and reporting [source: Taiwan News 2025 for Taiwan routes; rest synthesis]: a certified director's misconduct can be raised with their certifying body (ABE in the USA; the national psychodrama association or FEPTO-member body in Europe; the BPA or the relevant register in the UK) [uncertain: complaint procedures]; the Taiwan union directed the public to the Health Bureau and psychologists' associations. Unregulated courses can be reported to consumer protection or health authorities; safeguarding duties apply where children or adults at risk were involved; follow your own professional code on reporting a colleague.
Your own practice: record adverse reactions and report them in case studies and audits, since under-reporting is documented [source: Ahmed & Tyrer 2025].

Sources

Sources:

Further reading (not drawn on) [uncertain for content]:

Moreno JL (1946). Psychodrama Volume 1. Beacon House.
Moreno JL (1959). Psychodrama: Foundations of Psychotherapy, second volume. Beacon House.
Moreno ZT, Moreno JL (1969). Psychodrama Volume 3: Action Therapy and Principles of Practice. Beacon House.
Moreno JL, Jennings HH (1934). Who Shall Survive? Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing; Moreno JL (1953) Who Shall Survive? Foundations of Sociometry, Group Psychotherapy and Sociodrama. Beacon House.
Moreno JL (1947). The Theatre of Spontaneity. Beacon House.
Lieberman MA, Yalom ID, Miles MB. Encounter Groups: First Facts. Basic Books [uncertain: year given as 1973 from catalogue listings].
Moreno ZT, Horvatin T, Schreiber E (eds) (2015). The Quintessential Zerka. Routledge.

← Previous · VIII-102DanceAbility Next · VIII-105 →Therapeutic Spiral Model for trauma