Meet Co-Facilitators: Marianne and Bob Shapiro
Marianne and Bob Shapiro have been co-facilitating experiential group work for 25 years. They have been facilitating psychodrama, group psychotherapy and sociometry groups, workshops, and training for 20 years. They have developed their skills and are well suited to holding healing and learning space for adult participants who come to this work with and without prior experience.
They each bring unique capabilities to their group facilitation, complementing, reinforcing and supporting one another as they aide the group in moving through complex, dynamic, fun, and challenging processes.
Marianneʼs strengths come through in her ability to connect with others, working intuitively and creatively within the group with the challenges that arise while bringing enthusiasm, sensitivity, vulnerability, and humor to the process of modifying change. Her background is in the creative arts, mental health counseling, and group processes.
She earned a Masterʼs Degree in Psychology and Counseling 30 years ago and has a private practice in Mount Vernon. Marianne has been certified by the American Board of Examiners as a Trainer, Educator, and Practitioner of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama, and Sociometry.
Bob is respectful, grounded, kind, and focused as he works consciously, carefully and creatively, helping group members explore the issues they are carrying with them. His steady heartbeat holds the group well. He enjoys an active Tʼai Chi and Qi Gong teaching schedule in both Skagit and Whatcom County. His background is in conflict resolution, community organizing, and mediation. He is Certified as a Practitioner of Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy, and Sociometry by the American Board of Examiners. Bob holds a Masterʼs Degree in Adult Education.
More About Marianne:
Marianne earned a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and a Teaching Certification in 1972 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from York University in Ontario, Canada in 1976. She taught art and Humanities part-time at Whatcom Community College, 1982-1985. She practiced as a Certified Acupressure Practitioner, a form of mind body work incorporating Chinese Five Element Theory and emotional health from 1985-2000, during this time she had a Washington State Massage License.
Marianne earned a Masters Degree in Psychology and Counseling from Antioch University in Seattle in 1989. She has been a Mental Health Counselor in private practice in Skagit County for 30 years. She became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in 1992. In 2005, Marianne became a Board Certified Practitioner and in 2009 a Board Certified Trainer and Teacher of Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy, and Sociometry. From 2017-2020 she served on the Executive Council of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. She and Bob have been co-facilitating Psychodrama groups and workshops since 2000.
More About Bob:
Bob graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana University, with a Bachelor’s in Economics and Community Organizing, and with a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from Western Washington University in 2004. He Trained and Certified as a Mediator and is a Superior Court registered Family Mediator as well as training in Business Mediation. He became a Board Certified Psychodrama Practitioner in 2005. Bob owned and operated Deli Llama Wilderness Adventures for 27 years, serving as an outfitter and guide. He has been practicing Tai Chi for 50 years and teaching T’ai Chi and Qi Gong for 30 years.
Psychodrama is experiential, YouTube links, of which there are many, show rather than talk about psychodrama. Psychodrama is hard to describe, as the dynamics of what happens emerges out of the group’s concerns. There are psychodramatists all over the world, and every one of them shares the basic philosophy and methods developed over the past one hundred years from the founder, J.L.Moreno and his co-creators. Because it is creativity training, each trainer creates their own way of working within this complex modality. The best way to find out about Psychodrama is to experience this living group process.
Why Rehearsals for Living?
Through rehearsals, you put into action the self you imagine you can be. Step by step, you enact an inspired life and explore living actively, creatively, and authentically, with greater joy and connection. Rehearsals for Living is an experiential group process that creates a supportive environment for trying fresh ways of responding to life’s surprises and challenges.
In our group work and play, we practice living in the here and now. The work evolves out of the work that we do together, we co create d from the efforts of the group participants. Rehearsals for Living explores our dynamic relationship conundrums in engaging and revealing ways, helping us to release patterns of behavior that are no longer working for us. We practice new ways of responding. We learn to become fluid, connective, and responsive to ourselves and the people in our lives.
Our groups provide that Extra that life might not provide–an opportunity to try out new behaviors and explore possibilities with the support of experienced and trained facilitators and the integrity of focused, exploratory, and committed group activity. The group learns and evolves together. Our rehearsals are held within the structure of Psychodrama, Group Psychotherapy, and Sociometry, which is the experiential study, practice, and exploration of complex, dynamic group interaction.