Traditional talk therapy uses verbal communication to help people gain insight into their thoughts, feelings and behaviors and to learn coping strategies. But some people don't feel comfortable discussing their deepest emotions one-on-one, and talk therapy – which usually involves a series of sessions over an extended period – can take a long time.
Even people who find talk therapy helpful sometimes get mired down in the cerebral aspects of it. They may understand why they feel and do certain things but find themselves unable to alter destructive behaviors or make meaningful change in relationships.
Experiential therapy offers an alternative.
Rather than relying on verbal communication, experiential therapy uses activities, such as art and music therapy, guided imagery, animal care and role playing, to help people in real-time encounters with a therapist – or with a therapist and a group – explore connections between thoughts, emotions and behaviors. One of the "unabashedly ambitious aims" of experiential therapy is to "enable the person to undergo a radical, deep-seated, transformational change, into becoming the person that he or she is capable of becoming," according to a 2005 paper.
The research on experiential therapy is mixed, in part because it lacks a unified definition. But a 2019 study about the use of psychodrama with veterans offered "preliminary evidence" of its efficacy in improving the quality of life and decreasing psychological distress among the group. A 2004 review of research into experiential therapy found evidence supporting its effectiveness for trauma, marital problems and depression.
Joe Emick, a therapist at Caron Treatment Centers, said he has repeatedly seen how experiential therapy techniques have worked in "Breakthrough at Caron." The five-day, immersive, small-group experience is identified as a program as opposed to therapy, and Caron only accepts private pay for it. The $5,300 price tag covers three sessions of experiential group work a day, as well as housing at a bed and breakfast at Caron's Wernersville, Berks County campus. The goal is to help people break out of ineffective emotional patterns that hold them back from the relationships and lives they want.
Many people who take part in the Breakthrough program are "caught up in the cognitive parts" of their prior therapy, Emick said. "What we're helping them do is drop down more into the emotional and physical areas, because that's where the change could occur."
The immersion in the group and experiential therapy techniques such as psychodrama – in which people act out events from the past – is key to its effectiveness, Emick said.
"Our philosophy is, if these wounds that are impacting people came from relationships, then they're healed best in relationships," Emick said. "And in this case, the relationship is the other people that are in the group."
Although people attend the program for a variety of reasons – including trauma that affects people's ability to be in relationships and complex grief in which people are having trouble moving forward in their lives after a significant loss – they gain insight from each other, Emick said.
"It was good to be validated with my feelings and knowing it's not just me that's struggling," said Maria, who went through the program three years ago and only wanted to use her first name for privacy.
A married realtor who had been in long-term therapy for significant childhood trauma, Maria said she had made a lot of progress but felt stuck, especially in certain relationship patterns. During the Breakthrough program, Maria gained a better understanding of her emotions, identifying triggers and being able to handle those triggers differently, she said.
"I realized that a lot of my childhood trauma was coming from generational dysfunction, that my mom's bad decisions made me carry a lot of shame, which I was not responsible for," Maria said. "So it empowered me to know that that's not mine, that that was her."
Maria said she left the Breakthrough program feeling "very hopeful, full of clarity and healing."
