Book Review--Challenging Experiences

I like the book "Challenging Experiences" by John Bergman and Saul Hewish. I once ran a Drama Therapy group to promote empathy with the sex offenders at the hospital. I used many exercises in this book which provides drama therapy ideas to help treat offenders. One exercise that was popular was to have the group break into pairs. The first person would start a conversation with the word "Fortunately" and the second person would counter with a statement that started with the word "Unfortunately." ("Fortunately, I have the day off." "Unfortunately, you have to clean your house.") This exchange could go on for a few minutes and the pair could switch roles. After, each person could talk about what the experience was like to be positive, negative, come up with a comment spontaneously, etc. The book is broken down into warm up, low intensity, and high intensity exercises, and how to process the experience. There were many different exercises provided that included visual, verbal, and kinaesthetic techniques. The patients in the group enjoyed the exercises and were able to learn about themselves, their coping skills, and their behaviors through this group.