| Although the Communicube
was invented during dramatherapy research it has much wider applications.
It is being used by therapists of many different orientations including
psychodramatists, gestaltists, psychosynthesists, transactional
analysts, counsellors (including those working with couples), psychologists,
psychiatrists and other creative psychotherapists.
The structure is neutral: the levels can mean anything the client
wishes. For example they may represent different times in a person’s
life with the top level being the future, the bottom being the past,
the centre being the present and the intermediate levels being the
immediate past and the immediate future.
Contemplating the Communicube
the different levels, from the top, down, might represent:
| Head |
Spirit |
Thought/Intellect
|
Air
|
Joy |
Maturity
|
Heaven |
| Chest/Lungs |
Heart
|
Feeling
|
Fire |
Love
|
Adulthood
|
Sky |
| Belly/Sex
|
Soul
|
Imagination/Intuition
|
Water
|
Grief
|
Adolescence
|
Earth |
| Legs |
Body
|
Senses |
Earth |
Hope
|
Childhood
|
Sea |
| Feet
|
Unconscious
|
Memory |
Metal
|
Despair
|
Birth/Death
|
Hell |
|
It is the client who chooses what the levels mean and these meanings
usually emerge during the process of using the structure rather
than at the start of the session.
Amongst the effective elements in the process of using the Communicube
in therapy are the following:
| the value
of a containing structure; |
| the
integrative holding of diverse elements and polarities
so that the whole is visible; |
| the
focusing effect of the structure: its ability to encourage
concentration; |
| the distance
afforded by the use of miniature objects to symbolise
aspects of people’s experience that might otherwise
be overwhelming; |
| the
different perspectives available and the development of
the observer ego; |
| the
generative power of the structure which evokes archetypal
imagery and energy; |
| its
open flexibility and neutrality: meaning emerges but the
meaning is decided by the client; |
| the
value of the structure as an intermediary object between
client and therapist (evoking Winnicott’s ‘playground’,
1991, 47 and Bannister’s ‘the space between’,
2003, 27); |
| the
creative fun of pattern making; |
|
Pattern recognition is a right brain activity. When we are born
the right brain is more developed than the left brain. This ensures
that within hours and days of being born babies can recognise their
mother’s face: facial recognition being an instantaneous appreciation
of a complex pattern. This helps to promote attachment and therefore
forms a bedrock of human psychological development. Faces communicate
feelings and so there is a close relationship in the right brain
between patterns, faces, feelings and communication. The way the
mother/carer looks at the baby promotes brain development and affect
regulation (Schore, 1994). Through the subtle modulation of facial
patterns therefore the parent communicates non-verbally potentially
integrative and developmental signals (or their reverse: destructive,
negative messages). The infant absorbs these messages and patterns
into the very fabric of their nascent self structure. Often when
we struggle in life the patterns we have difficulty with are those
that are fundamental to our struggle: the patterns of our emotional
life, our relationships, the different parts of ourselves. The Communicube
facilitates communication about these complex patterns. Psychotherapy
has not only to do with examining old, dysfunctional patterns but
also with creating and exploring new patterns. As we build a more
complex picture of ourselves the view of the whole enables us to
achieve greater insight and integration.
We all need structure in our lives. When people are struggling
with the chaos of trauma, complex feelings, conflicted interpersonal
relations, the Communicube and the Communiwell can provide a containing
structure to achieve some order and discover meaning. The Five Story
Self Structure, as a therapeutic method, promotes communication,
can be powerful and fun.
The Communicube also has potential value in group therapy, family
therapy, team building and organisational work. Further uses are
being developed.
References:
Bannister, A. (2003) Creative Therapies with Traumatised
Children, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd
Schore, A. N. (1994) Affect Regulation and the
Origin of the Self, The Neurobiology of Emotional Development, New
Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Winnicott, D. W. (1991) Playing and Reality,
London, Tavistock/Routledge
|
