In a climate of managed cost concerns, Scenario Role Play: The Blees Method provides the therapist with a powerful and efficient therapeutic tool for facilitating improved functioning with several clients at a time. Using "Scenarios" which are drawn from--and similar to--the kind of life experiences that clients face, this unique form of role play employs the group as a miniature society while the clients "play" themselves. This allows the group therapist to work with heterogeneous groups. It enables the clients to witness and experience alternatives to their maladaptive responses, helping them to change their thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns without the risks of loss of a job, or a marriage, etc. The norms of this therapeutic approach permit clients to "work" at the edge of their comfort level.
After presenting the theory undergirding this group therapy, the book furnishes a step-by-step orientation to the process. Chapters show the therapist ways to establish a group, choose Scenarios and Role Characters, and set up a Scenario. Guidelines for observing the action, ending the "playing," and processing the event are provided. An appendix of 24 Scenarios furnishes tools for immediate use in the therapist's own practice.
While Scenario Role Play has been relatively unknown, the therapist does not need to learn new jargon or change the methods of assessing or understanding clients in order to use this procedure, and can easily add his or her own interventions to the process. Since the method simultaneously incorporates intellectual, affective, and behavioral components, the client is moving toward more maturity wholistically.
This book is a valuable resource for professionals who wish to work with groups in either in- or out-patient settings, including schools, half-way houses, etc.; as well as for professors and students in the helping professions.