When the film begins art therapist, Mary Ann Shaughnessy, has already involved substance use clients in making all types of puppets with a variety of art media, including paper mâché and cardboard, fabric, foam and wood. The puppets reflect the ingenuity and uniqueness of each client. They perform in front of expressive backdrop scenery the clients have drawn with various media. As a result of their creative efforts, viewers meet a range of exuberant characters who enact some of the challenges and issues of early recovery. The creativity of these cautionary dramas brings several tenets of recovery to life. The film contains 3 play-vignettes followed by a brief example of the post-production processing that Shaughnessy conducts with participants. In the session following viewing a videotape of their production, they critique their own work and process feelings that were evoked. The film shows diverse groups of adult men and women engaging playfully with the vicissitudes of their active addictions, and transitions to recovery both by choice and by mandate. The collaborative, spontaneous dramas use their colorful characters to predict consequences, and to plan paths to safety with humor, insight and candor.
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Mary Ann Shaughnessy
Mary Ann Shaughnessy was compensated for her contribution. None of her books or additional offerings are required for any of the Psychotherapy.net content. Should such materials be references, it is as an additional resource.
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