Ensemble!

Ensemble!

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Self-help

Jeff Katzman

North Atlantic

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208 pages
Carton count : 24
Trim Size: 6 x 9

Using the Power of Improv and Play to Forge Connections in a Lonely World

Drawing on a combined expertise in improvisational theatre and psychiatry, author team Dan O’Connor and Dr. Jeff Katzman show readers how improv skills are the perfect antidote to loneliness and isolation.

I know what you’re thinking: Hold on…improv? Like getting on a stage in front of an audience? What if that’s not my thing?

Don’t worry: this isn’t a book about becoming an improv theater expert, and it’s not really a book about performing. It’s a book about loneliness–about our feelings of disconnection and isolation, ones that we may have been experiencing since long before the pandemic. More importantly, it’s a book about becoming unlonely–by borrowing from the collaborative and creative tools of improv.

Authors of Life Unscripted Jeff Katzman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, and Dan O’Connor, multifaceted actor, writer, and director, have created a process they call Ensembling that helps us build an ensemble of relationships in our lives and more deeply enjoy the groups we already belong to. This is a process of becoming a little vulnerable with each other, and of embracing the moment in which we find ourselves. Drawing on concepts from narrative improvisational theatre and depth psychology, the authors present us with the skills we need to connect with each other more actively and meaningfully. To ensemble or not to ensemble–that is not a question. With the rise of loneliness and isolation in an increasingly virtually connected society, we must find ways to come together. We must ensemble!

THE LONELINESS EPIDEMIC IS REAL: According to a nation-wide survey conducted in 2019, more than three out of five Americans report suffering from loneliness. This is a 13% rise since 2018, as more and more people report feeling like they are left out, poorly understood, and lacking companionship.

MULTIDISCPLINARY APPROACH: No other book on the market uses concepts from depth psychology, infant attachment, and neuroscience to ground the concepts from improvisational theater into a handbook to living a more satisfying life – this is the prime motivator for most participants in improvisational workshops.

 

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Jeff Katzman

JEFF KATZMAN is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, serves as Vice Chair and director of an international program on psychological resilience training, and maintains a private practice. He previously directed Behavioral Health Care services at the New Mexico VA Health Care System and programs for veterans with PTSD in Los Angeles. He holds multiple leadership roles in the American Academy of Dynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis and is a board member of the Mentalizing Initiative in Los Angeles. Katzman has applied improvisational theatre with interdisciplinary hospital teams, psychiatric trainees, psychotherapists, and patients. DAN O'CONNOR is a multifaceted actor, improviser, writer, and director working in television and stage around the world. He graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has trained with the American Conservatory Theater and Keith Johnstone since 1986. O'Connor is the founder and producing artistic director of Impro Theatre, and co-founded BATS Improv in San Francisco and LA Theatresports. For 30 years, he has trained writers, actors, and directors in narrative storytelling, and has taught corporate clients to use improvisation as a tool for adaptation and change.

Agence Schweiger