Doubling, Role Playing Role Reversal: Three Core Interventions in Psychodrama
Thomas Treadwell, EdD, TEP, CGP
Among the many action methods developed by Jacob L. Moreno, doubling, role-playing and role reversal remain two of the most powerful and frequently utilized interventions in psychodrama practice (Moreno 1946, 1959). These techniques help individuals move beyond intellectual insight and enter the realm of lived experience, where emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal learning can occur simultaneously. While each technique serves a distinct therapeutic purpose, together they create a dynamic process that promotes self-awareness, empathy, cognitive restructuring, and Behavioral Activation as a Catalyst for Change.
Empirical evidence supports the therapeutic efficacy of role-playing and role-reversal techniques are effective techniques. Early investigations (e.g., Kipper et al., 2003) found that structured role-playing and role-reversal interventions yielded significant psychological benefits, fostering greater self-awareness, emotional insight, interpersonal sensitivity, and adaptive behavioral change. More recently, Abeditehrani et al. (2021) conducted a randomized controlled experimental study with 36 patients diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Participants were randomly assigned either to a role-playing condition twice or to role playing followed by role reversal condition. The study examined changes in the believability of negative cognitions, as well as the probability and cost estimates of being negatively judged by others. Their results indicated that although role playing alone reduced negative cognitions after the first enactment, adding role reversal produced significantly greater reductions, particularly in the believability and probability of negative judgments.
Doubling allows one’s voice to express Hidden Thoughts and Feelings
Doubling occurs when the therapist or another group member stands beside the protagonist and expresses thoughts, feelings, wishes, or concerns that may be operating beneath the surface of awareness. The double attempts to enter the protagonist’s phenomenological world and articulate what the protagonist may be unable or unwilling to express directly.
Moreno (1946) described the double as an extension of the protagonist’s inner voice. The intervention is offered tentatively, allowing the protagonist to accept, reject, or modify the statement. In this way, doubling does not impose meaning but rather facilitates discovery.
Doubling serves several important clinical functions:
Enhances Emotional Awareness
Clients often struggle to identify or verbalize emotions. A well-tuned double helps bring latent feelings into conscious awareness.
Reduces Isolation
Many clients experience relief when another person (as the double)accurately expresses an internal thoughts and emotions. The realization that someone understands their emotional world reduces feelings of loneliness and shame.
Facilitates Cognitive Insight
From a Cognitive Behavioral perspective, doubling frequently uncovers automatic thoughts, assumptions, and core beliefs operating beneath conscious awareness.
For example:
Client: “I did not speak during the meeting.”
Double: “If I say something, people will think I’m incompetent.”
This intervention reveals an automatic thought that can later be examined and challenged through cognitive restructuring.
Doubling Strengthens Group Cohesion
When group members serve as doubles, empathy and interpersonal connection increase. Group members often discover shared emotional experiences despite having very different life circumstances.
Role Reversal: Walking in Another’s Shoes
Doubling allows clients to hear their own inner voice; role reversal allows them to experience another person’s perspective. During role reversal, the protagonist exchanges roles with another significant person and speaks from that individual’s perspective.
Moreno (1946,1959,Blatner 2000) considered role reversal the central technique of psychodrama for it fosters empathy, spontaneity, and broadens self-awareness.
For example, A client in conflict with a parent may first portray themselves and then reverse roles with the parent. By speaking as the parent, the client often gains new insight into the parent’s thoughts, fears, and emotions.”
Development of Empathy
Role reversal encourages individuals to move beyond rigid perceptions and experience the emotional world of another person. Rather than merely discussing empathy, clients actively practice it.
In summary, Doubling and role reversal are two foundational psychodrama techniques that promote emotional awareness, insight, and interpersonal learning. Doubling assists participants in identifying underlying emotions, automatic thoughts, and core beliefs that may not be immediately accessible to conscious awareness (Moreno, 1959; Blatner, 2000). Role reversal facilitates empathy, cognitive flexibility, and perspective-taking by allowing individuals to experience the world from another person’s viewpoint (Moreno, 1946; Kellermann, 1992). Together, these interventions create opportunities for both emotional processing and cognitive restructuring.
References
Abeditehrani, H., & Dijk, C., & Toghchi, S. M., Arntz, A. 2020. Integrating cognitive behavioral group therapy and psychodrama for social anxiety disorder: a pilot study. Clinical Psychology in Europe.
Blatner, A. (2000). Foundations of psychodrama (4th ed.). Springer Publishing.
Kellermann, P. F. (1992). Focus on psychodrama: The therapeutic aspects of psychodrama. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Moreno, J. L. (1946). Psychodrama (Vol. 1). Beacon House.
Moreno, J. L. (1959). Psychodrama (Vol. 2). Beacon House.