Roleplay

The purpose of it comes back to neuroscience

It can be very helpful to roleplay a conversation you might need to have or one you never want to have. It could be a conversation you’ve already had and you want to try it differently.

"Every time you learn a new fact or skill, you change your brain." Dr Lara Boyd

When you give yourself different experiences of dialogue to the ones you normally have, you are creating new neural pathways. It’s surprising how much is opened up by giving ourselves the opportunity to practice, in a low stakes environment. It’s very difficult to do new things in stressed situations that are already charged. We aren’t going to do anything different, we are going to do our patterns, the things we always do, we are going to do the things that have always kept us safe. So, a role play is a low stakes environment, where there are no consequences to getting it wrong, or putting your foot in it. This is a place where you can learn.

There are different ways you can do it.

·       Your partner can role play the other person as a) realistic (resistant, defensive) or b) empathic.

·       You can be the other person in the role play and you role play from their perspective.

·       You can ask two people to have the conversation so you are witnessing. You get to see someone else holding your perspective which is helpful if you are feeling very alone with the issue.