Collaborative Therapy and Playback Theatre: A Collaborative-Dialogic Model of Insight

This chapter discusses findings from two original empirical studies in psychotherapy/counseling and playback theatre (PT) using creative collaborative methods to examine insight in professional practice domains. One study was an exploration of the meaning-making process amongst social workers and social work students who engaged in PT, while the other was an investigation of the experience of clients’ insight while undergoing collaborative language systems (CLS) psychotherapy. Both counselors and social workers belong to the super creative core, that is, creative professionals who work in professional services that help individuals gain a creative perspective in making changes in one’s personal development. An original collaborative-dialogic model of psychotherapeutic insight, proposing that insight is a collaborative accomplishment through dialogue, is presented as a framework for insight development. Additionally, the mechanisms (the how), objects/contents (the what) and outcomes (the significance/meaning) of insight and meaning-making are compared in these two studies. Our studies indicate that PT is a creative medium for enhancing reflective thinking among social workers/social work students in professional education, and that collaborative therapy is a creative technique for professional counselors in generating clients’ insights. Implications for theory and professional practice domains are discussed.