Improv Improves and Alleviates Anxiety
by Lacy Schley, Medill School, Northwestern University
Laughter is the best medicine — at least that’s the case for some anxiety sufferers trying improvisation training at The Second City. The Panic/Anxiety/Recovery Center in Chicago is partnering with The Second City to use improv to help people overcome their fears.
The Second City improv coaches who instruct these aspiring comedians work with another group of students (not shown) - people with social anxiety who turn to improv for treatment. p>
“It’s just a space where nothing you could say was wrong, so you didn’t even have to worry about making a fool of yourself or saying the wrong thing,” something that is a major relief for people with social anxiety, said Chicago college student Danny Chacon. He suffered from social anxiety for years before he found the program, he said.
So far, some 36 people have used improv to pave the way beyond their panic, said Mark Pfeffer, a licensed Illinois psychotherapist and director of the Panic/Anxiety/Recovery Center.
He kicked off this collaboration with The Second City in 2010 when he met the president of The Second City Training Centers and Educational Programs on set of a phobia documentary.
“We’ve partnered up with The Second City here in Chicago to develop more of a unique approach to helping people face their fear,” Pfeffer said.
Pfeffer uses improv as an option of cognitive behavioral therapy to enable patients to deal with their anxiety.
“Cognitive behavioral therapy really just means that we deal more in the here and now and focus more on thinking and behavior,” Pfeffer said. “We put people in the feared situation, we evoke a response, a fear response, and try to get the person not to do the very thing that they would typically do in the situation.”
But before diving into the theatrics of improv, participants of this program first receive some one-on-one counseling with Pfeffer. They then join a group of others with anxiety disorders, where they learn the art of improv from a Second City coach.
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