We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karen Carnabucci. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karen below.

Alright, Karen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I did not plan to be a healing professional. Yet many years ago, when working as a daily newspaper journalist, I learned about a nearby residential program that treated adults reared in chaotic homes with an unusual interactive style of psychotherapy. I signed up for the program as a reporter to experience its philosophy firsthand, and I was startled to observe a style of psychotherapy that was very different from the usual sedentary talk therapy that I had known.The psychotherapists, in casual jean wear, were approachable, relaxed and funny. They encouraged group members to play roles for each other, creating dramatic vignettes that revealed the landscape of their inner lives, struggles and dreams. The premise was that drama, other creative arts, empathic relationships and play could repair the early wounds inflicted by our families’ troubles.

By mid-week, I was asked by a group member – let’s call him Jerry – to play the role of his mother.

Because he recalled his mother as the hard-working wife of a hard-drinking man, we decided that I would pose in the way that he most clearly remembered her: on her hands and knees, vigorously scrubbing the kitchen floor when he returned home from school as a boy. I took the kneeling pose, using an imaginary scrub brush as I “washed” the pretend dirty “floor.”

Then something very powerful happened, a kind of time shifting. I was no longer the young journalist, pretending to be a middle-aged mother in a therapy group in a treatment center somewhere in rural south-central Pennsylvania. I became Jerry’s mother, and he seemed to feel it. With tears streaming down his reddened face, he talked and sobbed for 30 minutes, untangling the thick knot of memories and pain that he had held so closely for many years.

“I needed you when I was a child and you weren’t there,” Jerry said, between the floods of tears.

As his “mother,” I listened as he told “her” how the combination of alcohol, neglect, fear and abandonment had wounded him as a child. How these experiences had contributed to decades of bad decisions, destructive relationships and painful feelings of low self worth. How he had continued to carry this early pain inside, without relief, to this very day.

“Wow,” I remember thinking, “This stuff is powerful! Where did it come from, and why haven’t I known about it before?”

When the dramatic vignette concluded, it was clear that Jerry had changed in a deep way. His face seemed calm and more open. He was holding his body more loosely, and he was able to joke and talk more comfortably in our group.

My exposure to this different style of psychotherapy led me to begin a journey that I still travel today. I began my own group therapy that employed these experiential methods, and my life evolved to meet profound personal change.

Later I would return to school to study substance abuse, addiction, and family systems; I learned that this interactive style of psychotherapy came from the theory and practice of psychodrama, sociodrama and sociometry, a larger method co-developed by the European-born physician Dr. J.L. Moreno and his third wife Zerka Moreno. I found teachers, pioneers in this singular field, who demonstrated the subtle nuances of the use of the action methods, taking me beyond that one week in September.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a trainer, author and consultant in private practice in Lancaster, Pa., and the founder of the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies.

My joy and honor is teaching psychotherapists, coaches, educators and other helping and healing professionals how to create sessions and groups that are enlivened with authentic human connection, spontaneity and sensitivity.

I’m the author of “Show and Tell Psychodrama: Skills for Therapists, Coaches, Teachers, Leaders” and co-author of “Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellations: New Directions with Action Methods, Mind-Body Therapies and Energy Healing” with Ronald Anderson and “Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury” with Linda Ciotola. Most recently, I assisted in the writing of “Words of the Daughter: A Memoir” by Regina Moreno, the daughter of J.L. Moreno, the originator of psychodrama, and Florence Bridge Moreno.

We live in a world where people often feel disconnected, lonely and misunderstood. I have particular interest in expanding creativity and spontaneity, the use of embodiment as a way of deep learning and understanding, and social change.

In addition to my trainings for helping and healing professionals, I just started a one-year online certification program for psychotherapists who want to incorporate the Tarot into their practices. I also offer clinical supervision and consultation in all of these alternative methods, along with selling sand tray miniatures – I’m a giant fan of the sand tray method of working with people, which involves using small figures and symbolic objects to create scenes in a tray of sand.

If you’d like to know more about my work, please visit my website at ww.realtruekaren.com and subscribe to my e-letter for professionals.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Yes, for sure. In my first profession as a journalist, I wanted to give people information that would improve their lives. I believed that if people were correctly informed, they could make good decisions for themselves, and their lives could change for the better. Now I realize that humans in their heart of hearts yearn to connect deeply with other humans. But typically, they don’t know how to connect or don’t feel safe enough to connect — or both.

The methods that I love and teach — psychodrama, Family Constellations and more — support people making authentic connections and building authentic community. This work is more than just work, it’s a mission.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I keep speaking out about what I do, but what’s even more important are opportunities to demonstrate the magic of experiential work. When people make connections and experience personal shifts, their experience does more than any talking that I could do. Of course, I make use of social media, write blog articles, publish an e-mail newsletter and advertise in particular venues. I’m also active in my professional association, the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, where members regularly inspire me with their amazing work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.realtruekaren.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/realtruekaren
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lancasaterpsychodrama
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karencarnabucci/ [LinkedIn]
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/karencarnabucci
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@realtruekaren [YouTube]
• Other: You’re invited to subscribe to Karen’s free e-letter for professionals atwww.realtruekaren.com.
• Other: American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama may be found at www.asgpp.org

Image Credits
Photos by Sam Interrante.