When I practice facilitating and co-facilitating group therapy at my internship in an in-patient psychiatric hospital, I am frequently reminded of important lessons learned through improv training (shout out to Station Theater!). Here are some of the skills I acquired through improv that make me a better therapist for my clients.

“Yes, And” reinforces validation

Most people who hear I do improv respond with something to the effect of, “Oh — I know about yes, and!” so we’ll start there. “Yes, and” is a phrase that describes the way improv scenes are built. When you receive a line from your scene partner, you accept that reality through both your verbal response and actions, and then you add a new detail to the scene.

For instance, if my scene partner comes out and says, “I’m tired of staring at a half-decorated Christmas tree, Janice!” an example of “yes, and” would be for me to reply, “Yes, you do think it's weird, and it's important to me that all the ornaments are facing the window so the neighbors know how festive we are.” The “yes” part is “Yes, you do think it’s weird,” (affirming that the tree is in fact empty and the partner thinks it’s odd), and then the “and” part is adding the justification for why the decorated side is facing the window.

So what does this have to do with therapy? During a session, a client may share something very vulnerable. When that happens, it’s important to validate their thoughts and feelings in order to build rapport and trust and to make sure the client feels heard. An example might be, “Wow, Sarah*, it must have been very difficult for you to be honest with your mother in that situation. Thank you for sharing that.”

Validation is essentially the “yes” part of “yes, and.” In improv, it establishes that we are living in the same reality, and in therapy, it validates the feelings or thoughts of the client.

While some therapy simply allows clients to process what happened to them, much of therapy is goal-directed. This is where the “and” comes in. After validating a client’s statement, you can take the session a step further by asking a question or making an assertion that may open up a new line of thought for the client. For example, I might add onto the last thing I said to Sarah, adding, “You said you’ve never stood up to your mother like that before. What was different this time?”

This allows for focused reflection on what was positive about the interaction the client brought up.

Finding the Game Gets to the root

In each scene, improvisers have their radars up to find the first weird thing. So in the example above, the weird thing is that Janice cares more about neighbors seeing her decorated Christmas tree than she does about being able to see it herself. As the players move forward through the scene, we may find that Janice only does the left side of her makeup so that passing cars can see her made-up face when she’s driving, but she neglects the right side, which no one can see.

Once you find the weird thing, you focus on it. It can be hard to find the game or the weird thing at times when there’s a lot going on in the scene.

Similarly, sometimes during a session, you may find a client is discussing many different topics that all have something in common. The client may be distressed about feeling like they have to continue taking on too much at work, and they aren’t able to be home enough for their kids, and their partner is always trying to help out around the house, but then they feel like they’re not pulling their own weight. While each of these stressors is unique in some ways, they all have in common a sense that the client is over-stretching themselves beyond what they may be comfortable with.

Being able to find the common denominator means you can move forward meaningfully, recognizing the larger contributing pattern at work.

“Why Today?” or the Precipitating Factor

In improv, it’s important that each action or line means something. In the lives of the characters the improvisers portray, this day is different than the other days. There is a reason we’re getting a glimpse into this specific day of these characters’ lives. So the scene should answer the question, “Why today?”

In the previously mentioned scene, we assume Janice exhibits this strange behavior every single day. Finding out why her partner is finally confronting her today will make the scene more meaningful and give it more direction, in addition to giving her partner more of his own perspective. So how does that connect to therapy?

When it comes to pursuing mental health services, people often do not come right away. People will live with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings until something pushes them over the edge to where they are no longer able to tolerate it and have to get help. While sometimes that’s just a decision they come to completely internally, many times there is a precipitating factor.

This sounds obvious, but it’s important to find out what pushed a client to the point where they wanted to seek help. I find that some clients don’t want to discuss the problem, only focus on the solution. But finding out the exigence for them coming to you can give you great insight into what matters to them, how they handle difficult situations, and what their goals are moving forward.

Listening & being Affected

This one needs less introduction, because hopefully we’re all familiar with listening! A common phenomenon shared by both veteran improvisers and veteran therapists is that deer-in-the-headlights feeling of not knowing what to say next. In improv, as in therapy, this is where listening comes in.

Both onstage and in your therapists chair (a white, plastic folding chair where I work), there is pressure to think of something really great to say next. But as many of us know, if you’re thinking of what to say next, you’re not listening. It’s not necessarily self-centered to think of what you’re going to say next. Often it happens because we don’t want to let the client down or we want to give our scene partner something truly great to work with. We want to honor what was just said to us with a glorious response.

I find that if you are really listening, it gets you out of your head, and you don’t have to think of what to say. You may always keep a path in the back of your mind — in improv, that’s the game; in therapy, that might be the goals your client is working toward. But letting yourself be truly present and listen makes your next response more natural, even if it’s just, “Wow. That sounds really, really devastating.”

When you’re truly listening, you allow yourself to be affected.

Acknowledge The Gifts

In improv scenes, an improviser may do something great, glorious, and hilarious. In improv, we call those actions or lines “gifts.” If you regularly watch improv, you will routinely see beautiful gifts ignored. When gifts are ignored, which usually happens because one scene partner is stuck in his or her head, the scene can stagnate as each person continues to search for the next step.

As a new clinical social work intern practicing therapy, I have caught myself ignoring “gifts” of information. This could be a glimmer of hope not reinforced or validated, or it could be a sign of despair unintentionally glossed over.

I recently became certified in lethal means counseling (an excellent free program that I highly recommend for anyone in the mental healthcare setting). Throughout the training, there were sample dialogues with clients similar to conversations I’ve had at work. I learned that there were many nonverbal and verbal cues about suicidality that I’d been missing, and how to acknowledge those cues as the gifts they are in order to try to ensure a client stays safe. I am so grateful for this training, and it has made me more vigilant in many aspects of my work as a growing therapist.

Building Trust & Rapport

While two improvisers who’ve never met can absolutely have hilarious, meaningful, grounded scenes, there is nothing like performing with someone who you know has your back. When you’re out onstage with no props and no lines, being able to make eye contact with someone you’ve performed with before is a comfort that allows you to experiment and allows for a new level of freedom in scenes. You know you won’t be met with denials (the opposite of yes, and) or a multitude of questions (can be good for therapy, not great in improv).

If it takes trust to feel open performing improv, which is made up by you for the purpose of comedy, think of the level of rapport needed to be honest and vulnerable about your deepest, most authentic thoughts and feelings. Therapeutic alliance, or the relationship between the therapist and client, is one of the most significant factors influencing client success according to many of my professors.

If that’s the case, you have to use the aforementioned skills of validation and listening to create a safe space for clients to be honest.

While there are a multitude of soft skills and subtle ways improv has improved my ability to work with clients, these are the ones that most frequently arise in practice. Are there aspects of your background that contribute to your success in the mental health field? Please share!

*all names, quotes, and scenarios are completely fictional