"Trauma is about trying to forget, hiding how scared, enraged, or helpless you are. Theater is about finding ways of telling the truth and conveying deep truths to your audience. This requires pushing through blockages to discover your own truth, exploring and examining your own internal experiences so that it can emerge in your voice and body on stage.”
- Bessel Van Der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score
Adult Improv Group Therapy
That's right! The worlds of comedy, therapy, and healing collide in this exciting adult group therapy series!
Cherie Spellman, MS, LMFT-S and Paul Kolker, Actor, Improv Comedian, join forces to help bring healing through laughter.
What you will learn!
- Tools for Regulating Emotions
- How to Improve Self Confidence and Self-Esteem
- Coping Skills for Anxiety
- How to Process Through Difficult Emotions
- How to Let Go and Have Fun
- Mindfulness
- Mind Body Connection
Stop explaining yourself. Shut up and act! — Craig MacDonald
Improv teaches the importance of support through the act of true listening. — Rob Schiffman
What to Expect
Many students of improv classes often leave the class thinking "wow, that was almost like a mini therapy session." Northstar Counseling and Wellness takes this to the next level by guiding the group through tailored improv comedy-based exercises that naturally lead to therapeutic healing, drawing from emotion regulation techniques, trauma research, mindfulness, and self-compassion.
Within a small supportive group that meets for six weeks, you will learn coping skills that will help you to better manage uncomfortable feelings so that you can feel freer and more connected.
This group proves that laughter is one of the best medicines! Combining comedy and therapy methodologies that are proven to help regulate emotions and provide coping skills for anxiety.
Attendees are able to increase self-confidence, process difficult emotions, learn mindfulness, and have a better mind-body connection. These exercises will help you develop your psychological flexibility and resilience by tapping into creativity, movement, and communal connection and acceptance.
At it's core, improv comedy therapy helps you to gain a freedom to be, without having to filter yourself and take yourself so seriously.
Join us and learn to let go and have fun!
There’s power in looking silly and not caring that you do. — Amy Poehler
Details
- Location: 414 N Main St. Ste. 103 Grapevine, TX 76051
- Time: Tuesdays, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm for 6 weeks (next session starting on September 20th); Other days/times are also being considered in the future (let us know if interested!)
- Group Make-Up: Limited to 8 people
Facilitators: Cherie Spellman, MS, LMFT-S Certified Trauma and Body Based Therapist, and Paul Kolker, Improv Comedian and Actor - Cost: $350 for the session, due when securing your spot; (one spot in each group session is reserved for a pro bono client - If you are experiencing financial hardship, please just ask!)
- How to register: Call us at 817-961-1600.
- Learn More: read this great Psychology Today article!
- Book Recommendations: The Body Keeps the Score: Bessel Van Der Kolk and his chapter on Finding your voice: Communal Rhythms and Theater.
