Ritual: Session structure

The therapeutic use of structure within the Sesame Approach.

A session normally lasts for up to an hour and the golden rule is that you do as much or as little as you like. Each person is encouraged to be fully responsible for what they contribute and to participate at their own level. They are asked to reflect on rather than analyse why they chose a particular role or moved in such a way.

Sessions are structured through the use of a Warm-up, a Main Event and Grounding.

Warm-up

Time of arrival and focusing firstly on the individual and then on meeting others We begin with the body - increasing our awareness of how our actual physical body holds itself.

Main Event

The active experience of working spontaneously through movement or with a known or created story using role play or visualisation. The choice of story will reflect and support the agreed psychological aims of the therapy.

Grounding

The aim being to create a time to reflect and return to the here and now, no longer in role.

The session works by

• Offering a safe space for creativity and the chance to play
• Providing a different mode for meeting people and making relationships
• Using imagination and embodiment to explore personal material
• Trusting the healthy part of personality to find solutions to difficulties.

Billy Lindkvist, the founder of Sesame, summarises the aim of a session in this way:

'If the Sesame approach does not 'cure', what does it do? It helps people to come to terms with their difficulties through getting to know themselves better. It is likely to create harmony where there is chaos. It helps to create inner balance. It does so because we aim to help people discover balance... balance in movement, balance through the use of myths, balance in the Jungian sense, created by the tension of opposites. It is part of a process.'