When I did a call out for content for the self-care themed conference I asked for things like Yoga, Breathing, Mindfulness, Somatic Practices. What I overlooked in this focus was the vital need for feelings to be expressed. Thankfully the Dramatherapy community did not miss this and there were two submissions which focused on releasing anger.
Working with teenagers I regularly hear things like “my anger goes from 0 to 100 instantly” or “it’s like I flip and lose all control”. All feelings are welcome in dramatherapy so I spend as much time talking about accepting and befriending anger as I do about restraining or controlling anger.
First thing on Saturday at conference, I attended a workshop called “The Shit Cup”.
This metaphor came up when Natasha was working with a client who had been incarcerated throughout the pandemic. The client suggested that because of that intensive incarceration that all her chances to express her anger had been taken from her, she stated that this unexpressed anger had turned to feelings of exhaustion, sadness, and physical pain. Natasha wonders how many of us have unexpressed anger that has led to burnout.
Natasha and this client created “The Shit Cup” a place to put all the weight you do not want to carry anymore. This is a chance to release some of that anger that has been built. Through the use of Somatic Expression (Levine, 1997), Dramatic Metaphor (Jennings, 2005) and Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 2014) we can creatively release and redirect the anger to where it needs to be.
This workshop was a place to take all the weight that has been given to you, that you have held, take that weight and throw it away. Fill up your cup with all that weight in whatever way you need to write it, speak it, dance it and once it is full throw it away.
The workshop was structured to get us in touch with how anger feels in the body and to use our physicality and voice to channel our inner Hulk rage.
We then began to use the paper to write down all our anger and fill up our paper cups.
Finally we destroyed the paper and cups, stomping on them, ripping them, tearing them, slam-dunking them into the bin or projecting them across the room.
To help with regulation after we used joyful breathing AKA bubbles.
We have a right to our anger, even the irrational anger. It is a feeling and it tells us when our boundaries are crossed or when we are overwhelmed. We do need to find healthy ways to express the anger. The Shit cup was joyful rage, a playful paddy, jolly fury, whimsical wrath. It was absolutely real anger, and it was expressed safely, playfully, collectivly.
This weekend at the @badthopen conference l…
— Natasha Hargrove (@tashamermaid) October 3, 2022
– Led a workshop with 27 Dramatherapists and we made a beautiful mess
– Was nominated and inducted on to the Exacutive Board
– And was made to feel part of lovely community of people#badth2022 #thisisselfcare #dramatherapy pic.twitter.com/MGw6BImR4D
Natasha Hargrove is Head of Services at A Mind Apart and a Trainee Dramatherapist who will be fully qualified by September 2022. Natasha is neurodivergent and has fifteen years’ experience working as a Facilitator, Actor, Director. Trainer and Manager at A Mind Apart. Natasha believes in the power in myself and the power in others.”
Want to try it:
Anger Release Workshop
Monday 24 October 2022.
A chance to take part in a popular well received workshop from the BADth conference
“LOVED it. Went in expecting to learn a tool I could use with clients, and I did. but man did I NEED that workshop”
#badth2022 #thisisselfcare #dramatherapy #somaticrelease
*Disclaimer: This blog contains affiliate links. That means that I am awarded a small commission for Amazon purchases made through them, at no added cost for you. The products have been selected as relevant to the theme and are suggestions. There are many ways to open up this conversation without buying additional tools.
