Healing in action

Salt Lake psychologist Rob Pramann is certified in the use of psychodrama, another therapy that engages the body, and says the practice is popular on the East and West coasts. He hasn't seen any studies about what Utah counselors are doing. From what he observes, though, psychodrama is on the rise here.

Pramann explains that it began in the 1950s with J.L. Moreno, who believed "what is learned in action must also be unlearned in action." Gestalt therapy and transactional analysis are among the techniques that trace their beginnings to Moreno.

As Mundt explains Journey he also credits Moreno and says, "Research shows experiential therapy is the best treatment for victims. Trauma is stored in the right brain and you can't get inside the right side by talking. People have to be in the moment to get closure."

You don't necessarily have to be abused to benefit from experiential therapy, Mundt adds. "You don't have to be a train wreck." Still, he and Woirhaye agree she was a train wreck the first time she came to see him.

Woirhaye was suicidal when she walked in his door two years ago. Mundt says she was actually a powerful woman, at her core, but she'd been "sort of covered up by the trauma in her life."

Today Woirhaye will be the main character in a play she'll direct. Someone will take the part of her ex-husband and let her say what she needs to say. The group will stand by her in her anger.

Sometimes a person spends only a half hour, but often an entire afternoon or morning, as the center of the group drama. "It all depends on how long they need to get through their stuff," Woirhaye says.

Woirhaye chooses Mundt's co-worker, a psychologist named Steve Renfeldt, to play the role of ex-husband. She swears at him and yells at him and tells him he is empty, a shell of a person.

Eventually Renfeldt comes out of character to say, "I've run sex-offender groups and I have also worked with victims. I've seen all the pain and all the damage." He says he's seen the offender's shame and guilt, too. Woirhaye says, "I know my ex-husband is a wounded child and I don't know the reasons."

Mundt says, "She did love the man and there is

grief . . ." He suggests the group hold Woirhaye and let her mourn the loss of the man she thought she knew. "You OK with that?" he asks. She nods. Everyone surrounds her in a long hug.