Originally presented online at MET Conference: Neuroscience and Theater Therapy, Bucharest, Romania, May 28, 2021.
This presentation from members of the Transformative Play Initiative at he Uppsala University Campus Gotland’s discusses the potential of live action role-playing games (larps) as vehicles for embodied experiential learning and therapeutic interventions.
Presenters:
Elektra Diaklolambrianou, Institution for Counseling and Psychological Studies
Josephine Baird, Uppsala University
Josefin Westborg, Uppsala University
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Uppsala University
Larp is a type of improvisational performance that involves spontaneous co-creation between players enacting characters in a fictional setting for a bounded period of time. This format encourages agency and collaboration as a means to playfully co-construct identity and reality within a group setting, which can lead to an increased sense of internal locus of control, as well as meta-reflection.
This presentation contextualizes larp with relationship to other therapeutic modalities that use storytelling and/or role enactment , e.g. psychodrama, sociodrama, Gestalt, narrative therapy, Integral Family Systems, inner child work, drama therapy, person-centred therapy etc. The presenters discuss some of the cognitive elements that make larp particularly useful as a tool, including the development of perspective taking, empathy, and metacognitive awareness through the dual consciousness of identification with character and aesthetic distancing. The presentation explore larp’s potential as a vehicle for learning — including its limitations — with an emphasis on theories of assimilation, accommodation, and cognitive dissonance, e.g. Knud Illeris’ work building upon concepts from Jean Piaget.
The presentation discusses a specific example of the ways players can use larp as a playground to experiment with identity and personally transform. This example centers upon player who use role-playing as a space for queer performance where they can feel secure enough in their containment to physically present as different gender identities than were assigned to them at birth. This process can not only feel radically liberating for queer participants, but can be paired with adjunctive therapeutic modalities to aid in their process of transitioning their gender socially outside of playful spaces. Thus, this presentation considers the potential of larp as a transformational container or holding environment for experimentation that can support other therapeutic processes occurring parallel to play.