by Simon Wong
Applied Puppetry - Application of Puppetry in Human Professional Sectors. A spectrum of professional puppet services integrating therapy, coaching, group activities and teaching.
How puppets became a therapy, coaching and educational tool
“Puppet" as a comprehensive performing arts, covers a wide range. Because of the "safe distance" feature that participants can hide behind the puppets, they have room for psychological maintenance, plus the effect of "acting is fake but feelings are real". The attractiveness of the "cute" appearance. There is no hearing impairment and no dialogue. The comprehensive coverage from observation, dialogue, puppet making, acting to appreciation makes it easier for young people of different ages to conduct one-on-one "psychotherapy and counseling" conversations and group counseling through puppetry. Especially for young people and those with "difficulty in expressing", it can open their hearts, eliminate their "fear", and achieve soothing and healing functions.(2005 Matthew Bernier & Judith O’Hare)（2018 Athena A. Drewes & Charles E. Schaefer ）
In terms of "group counseling" learning, it has certain inspiration and help for participating in the growth needs of young people and the "supplement" of emotional experiences. Through the mutual infection of content and form, it can effectively "correct" participants' behavioral deviations and achieve educational results. In terms of puppet rehearsal and performance, participants have the opportunity to "train" in language, body, and space, and let them be infected in music and art, so as to achieve the results of "basic education" of body, knowledge and mind. (2019 Johanna Smith) Puppet activities are more important because they manipulate the disciplined behavior of puppets during performances, so that participants can practice a lot in terms of "cooperation", "self-communication" and "expression skills", and because of the inspiration of the creative process , so that participants have "innovative ideas", dare to try, self-learning and development space for reflection on everything.（1982 Tamara Hunt & Nancy Renfro ）（2011 Buffy Serene Quintero）
Puppets become the focus of therapy and counselling professionals
Due to the diverse contributions of "Puppet" in counseling, education and therapy, including: case dialogue therapy, group counseling activities, group teaching, group puppet making activities, integrated learning, video program production, large-scale puppet stage performances, etc. . Participants do not need to be responsible for the entire process, just play and participate in part of it, but also gain the satisfaction of sharing the full achievement. The elements of the puppet process cooperate with each other to form an effect of mutual dependence and accumulation, so that the participants gain a multiplied sense of success. Coupled with the satisfaction of improving the hands-on ability when making puppets. In the past two to three decades, it has developed into a tool for psychotherapy, counseling and education around the world.
Various categories of Application of Puppetry in Human Professional Sectors
And what should this "Puppetizing" system of therapy, counseling, group study, integrated curriculum and teaching medium be called? Perhaps, we can borrow the name concept of "Applied Drama" and summarize all kinds of “Application of Puppetry in Human Professional Sectors". With a unified name, it is convenient for everyone to conduct in-depth research, learn from each other, and expand the scope of services. There are many different types of "applied puppets", which can be roughly divided into six categories, namely: 1. puppet therapy; 2. group puppet counseling; 3. group puppet teaching ; 4. Teaching through puppets; 5. integrate teaching; 6. puppet performance and appreciation activities.
Among them, categories 1 and 2, the basic service objects and goals can be regarded as very similar, that is, services mainly related to trauma treatment, behavior improvement, emotional management and mental state relief, only the difference in the number of services, and the case service (category 1) due to Its complexity requires the involvement of professionals and psychologists. Categories 2 and 3 serve similar numbers of people, but have different goals. Category 3 focuses on educational goals and inspiration for growth. Category 3 and 4 have the same goals, but the teaching space is different. Category 4 mainly involves the subject content of basic schools, and uses puppets as the teaching medium of basic education. Classes 4 and 5 are both regular school-wide education, but Class 5 only becomes a part of comprehensive learning. Category 6 involves the activities of participating in puppet making and appreciating puppet performances, and building the participants' creativity, self-awareness and affirmation, cooperation and gregarious functions through the process. There is a lot of mutual reference and overlap between the categories. Categories 1, 2, 3 and 6 are more suitable for social welfare organizations, while categories 3, 4, 5 and 6 are teaching media for school teachers.
Professional Development of "Puppet Therapy"
First of all, we will introduce two well-known "puppet therapy" methods. The first is the Adlerian Play Therapy AdPT method approved by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration. Will use puppets as a medium to carry out the work of "play therapy", establish "equal cooperative relationship" with the clients, "identity with mutual empathy", "enlighten their insight into themselves" and "improvement expectations". These puppet therapy principles have generally become the common rules for most "applied puppets".（2018 Athena A. Drewes & Charles E. Schaefer ）
Adlerian Play Therapy applies to services, including: 1. Power disputes and control (temper, disputes with authority (parents, teachers), bullying); 2. Traumatic experiences (sexual assault, neglect, parental divorce , death of friends and family members, post-disaster, adoption); 3. Depression (self-abandonment, self-defeating); 4. Difficulty getting along with family members (competition with siblings, quarrels with parents); 5. Social weakness (difficulty making friends, unable to communicate with others).（2019 Terry Kottman , Kristin Meany-Walen）
The dialogue skills of the Berkeley Puppet interview (BPI) are introduced, and the use of positive and negative puppets with the same appearance can effectively carry out identification with the young and language-difficult groups, so that the clients can "eliminate barriers" and understand Their "troubles and fears" can effectively "repair wounds and relieve negative problems". Professor Eleanor C. Irwin emphasized that puppet therapy can be applied to children of a wide range of ages.（2018 Athena A. Drewes & Charles E. Schaefer ）
These techniques must be performed by professional psychologists and psychotherapists. Some of these minimalist techniques have begun to be generally accepted by the psychological counseling profession, and can be transferred to trained counselors and art educators for "group counseling". In recent years, the techniques and techniques of "puppet therapy" have emerged one after another, and are widely used in trauma therapy and psychological counseling in Europe, America, and Asia.
“Group Puppet Counseling" is a good partner for the counselling services of social welfare organisations
For serious cases that do not involve "mental health" and "trauma therapy", trained counselors and art educators can use "puppet therapy" techniques to perform simple operations and apply them to group counseling. Provide psychological support counseling for "children with chronic illness", relieve the emotional distress of "family members of chronically ill and mentally ill", assist persons with autism, hyperactivity, learning difficulties and mild disabilities to join the society , Negative Addicts rebuilding the mind and body, etc.
Helene Hugel introduced that artists and counselors cooperated with children's hospitals in the United States to use puppet activities and performances, through puppet-playing games, character creation, and story creation, to help children face the worries of the medical process. There are also Autism people who improve their ability to soothe their emotions and establish contact with people through puppetry and performance activities. Of course, through puppet activities, teachers and social workers can help students with minor behavioral deviations in school, as well as people with social confusion, to gain insight and improve their behaviors.（2005 Matthew Bernier & Judith O’Hare ）（2019 Johanna Smith）
“Group puppet teaching" facilitates the development of community and school activities
The non-verbal characteristics of puppets can transcend language and effectively establish self-discipline, communication and interactive learning in group learning. Helena Korosec has a lot of experience teaching Slovenia. (2008 Edi Majaron & Livija Kroflin) The "Story School" of the Hong Kong Mingri Institute for Arts Education through puppet making, storytelling skills, language, body and movement expression training, to build "group parents" parent-child communication skills (http:/ /www.mingri.org.hk/group/f?doc_id=2880). Of course, puppets also arouse participants' interest in music and build their foundation for notes, rhythm, and listening. Mary S. Mazzacane of the United States has a lot of experience in music teaching with puppets.（2005 Matthew Bernier & Judith O’Hare ）
Teaching through puppets is a teaching tool for teachers
Classroom learning is more difficult than group learning, which is the increase in the number of students, the lack of the right to select students, and the need for clear teaching goals. Therefore, puppet art is not the focus, but the learning steps, the process of enlightenment from scratch to completion. In the classroom, teachers use the power of puppets to enhance and stimulate students' participation and creative inspiration. For the learning that requires students to have additional abilities without standard answers, the puppets are exceptionally excellent by building a mastery process of students' self-learning through steps. Therefore, it has excellent advantages in writing, artistic creation, thinking and learning of historical scenes and social phenomena, especially in the interest inspiration stage of any subject. In Hong Kong and the United States, there is sufficient evidence in the experimental teaching of puppetry in kindergartens and primary schools, and it has obvious help for students in language development, life experience, abstract concepts, creative problem solving, and cooperation.（1982 Tamara Hunt & Nancy Renfro ）（2004 王添強、麥美玉 ）（2012 Livija Kroflin ）
Puppets are the glue of "Integrate Teaching"
Due to the characteristics of comprehensive art, puppets cover the following areas: language, music, visual arts, body movements, rhythm, facial expressions, data collection, organization and development, transformation and creation, communication skills, and expression skills. Of course, it is interdisciplinary. Good tool for learning. The United States has achieved remarkable results in the subject of science and humanities. The puppet story development lesson plan of "Coral Fish" is a good example. Because of the diversified learning process of puppets, students have in-depth scientific knowledge of coral environmental protection. Exploration, and at the same time have a high humanistic awareness of respecting different opinions.（2019 Johanna Smith）
Of course, because of its diverse range, it is of great help in how to simultaneously activate and stimulate students' multiple intelligences in language, logic, natural history, music, body, space, introspection and interpersonal relationships. (2005 Matthew Bernier & Judith O'Hare) Due to its friendly "easy" learning environment, the "equal" characteristics of no innate advantages, the "average" opportunities for the puppets to exert their talents, and the transcendence of hands-on and artistic skills , so that "educational puppets" can absorb most of the advantages of "educational dramas" and become a good glue for "integrate teaching".
“Puppet Show and Appreciation" is an extension of community and school activities
The development of puppet activities, dance, and rhythm music has become the best companion for community art, especially puppets can give participants a sense of security behind them. Of course, puppets do not have the concerted training of group dance and rhythm music, but they need The experience of bringing together people to control a puppet is a good development for cooperation and gregariousness. The "bread and puppet theater" in the United States combines dance, rhythm, improvisation and puppet performance through parade dance, large-scale puppet manipulation, improvisational rehearsal methods, and the accompaniment of rhythm music.
This method has indirectly and directly influenced the creative style of "community puppets" in countries around the world over the past 50 years. Now not only from "large-scale outdoor parade" activities to "theatre", and even narrowed to "table top puppet" performances, community puppet activities have widely used this kind of rehearsal of dance, rhythm, puppet and drama Principles, techniques and processes to extend puppet coaching and education puppets to the community. Of course, the appreciation of puppet theatre is also a good aesthetic learning process.
“Collaboration" should be the best direction for Hong Kong to promote Applied puppetry
Hong Kong had a problem in art education in the past. It was precisely because the division of labor between industries was too clear that teachers, social workers and artists did not know each other well, so it was difficult to cooperate in terms of cooperation, especially in comprehensive art projects, which required comprehensive cooperation. types of art. In the past, the model of train the Trainer was popular for a long time, in order to train social workers and teachers to have the ability of artists through the assistance of experts at home and abroad, but it should not be shallow for teachers and social workers to quickly enter another professional field. In recent years, it has been discovered that "collaborative teaching and coaching", which is "collaboration" between artists, social workers and teachers, is a better way.（2002 黃素蘭、劉仲嚴）
Through the cooperation of social workers, artists and teachers, puppets are used for dialogue and counseling to help members of social disadvantaged groups such as "SEN", "mildly mentally handicapped", "elderly" and "young children". It is also possible to make puppets and perform to the community through the participation of "elderly", "street sleepers", "women", "middle-aged men", "blind", "deaf" and "marginal youth", so as to gain self-reliance. The sublimation of life, regaining dignity, and the will to invest in society.
5/9/2022
參考書：
2019 Terry Kottman , Kristin Meany-Walen 著 程翼如等譯 遊戲中的夥伴
2019 Johanna Smith Puppetry in Theatre and Arts Education
2018 Athena A. Drewes & Charles E. Schaefer Puppet Play Therapy: A Practical Guidebook
2012 Livija Kroflin The Power of the Puppet(UNIMA Education Commission)
2011 Buffy Serene Quintero Puppetry and Art Education: a personal journey
2005 Matthew Bernier & Judith O’Hare Puppetry in Education & Therapy
2008 Edi Majaron & Livija Kroflin The Puppet-What a Miracle(UNIMA Education Commission)
2004 王添強、麥美玉 戲偶在樂團-幼兒戲偶教學工具
2002 黃素蘭、劉仲嚴 創意美術-學與教的互動
2002 創藝幻影 MIS - 綜合媒體課程試險計劃教材套
2001 木偶教學-學前老師培訓計劃木偶教學實踐教案一及二
1982 Tamara Hunt & Nancy Renfro Puppetry in Early Childhood Education