WISDOM FIGURES IN PSYCHODRAMA
Rebecca Walters MS, TEP 

Understanding Psychodrama

Psychodrama, the pioneering action method developed by Jacob Levy Moreno, invites participants into the realm of experiential healing through dramatic representation of life’s dilemmas, relationships, and aspirations. It is an action-based therapeutic method that emphasizes spontaneity, creativity, and role theory as pathways to psychological healing and growth. 

Psychodrama is a group-oriented therapeutic approach that encourages participants to express and explore their emotions, conflicts, and interpersonal relationships by dramatizing them on a stage. The protagonist—a group member—acts out significant events from their life, supported by auxiliaries (other group members who play key roles) and guided by the director (therapist/facilitator). Through enactment, participants gain new perspectives, release pent-up emotions, and experiment with alternative solutions, fostering psychological growth and integration. Although psychodrama is primarily done in groups, the method can also be adapted to individual therapy with the use of empty chairs and props.

At the heart of psychodrama lies spontaneity, creativity, and the living moment. The method integrates a vivid array of techniques, including role reversal, doubling, mirroring, and surplus reality—the imaginative expansion of lived experience into what might have been, what could be, or what one wishes to manifest. In surplus reality, wisdom figures often appear, bridging the ordinary with the extraordinary.

What are Wisdom Figures

Within psychodrama, the use of wisdom figures has emerged as a powerful technique for accessing internal and transpersonal resources that support integration, meaning-making, and resilience. Their development and enactment on the psychodramatic stage allows protagonists to externalize wisdom, receive guidance, and re-author internal narratives in embodied ways.

Wisdom figures are powerful tools in both individual and group psychodrama, offering clients access to guidance, perspective, and inner resources that may feel unavailable in everyday consciousness. A wisdom figure can be drawn from personal experience, cultural mythology, literature and cinema, spiritual traditions, or symbolic imagination. It can be an  imagined character, a cultural or spiritual symbol, a respected elder, a future self, an archetypal presence embodying compassion, clarity, and strength. It can be an animal, the ocean or other representational symbol from nature.  Through role reversal, doubling, and enactment, the protagonist externalizes this figure and engages in dialogue, allowing implicit knowledge to become explicit and actionable.

In individual psychodrama, wisdom figures help clients regulate affect and reframe personal narratives. When a client is overwhelmed by conflict or trauma, stepping into the role of a wisdom figure can create psychological distance and foster self-compassion. The therapist may invite the client to consult the figure during moments of impasse, supporting insight, decision-making, and integration of conflicting parts of the self.

In group psychodrama, wisdom figures also serve a collective function. Group members play the wisdom figure for the protagonist, enriching the role with diverse perspectives while strengthening group cohesion. The presence of wisdom figures can normalize vulnerability, model reflective functioning, and anchor the group in safety and meaning. Overall, wisdom figures bridge imagination and action, enabling healing through embodied wisdom rather than purely cognitive understanding.

Conceptual Foundations of Wisdom Figures

Wisdom figures are consistent with Moreno’s role theory, which views the self as a constellation of roles developed through relational experience. While early roles often emerge in response to physical needs, later roles may reflect integration, reflection, and moral or existential understanding. Wisdom figures represent integrated roles that hold perspective across time, tolerate ambiguity, and offer compassion rather than judgment.

From a psychodramatic perspective, wisdom is not merely cognitive insight but an embodied, relational capacity that can be enacted, dialogued with, and internalized. The surplus reality of psychodrama allows protagonists to encounter wisdom figures that have been manifested from the protagonist’s own imagination or experience.

Wisdom figures also align with trauma-informed practice. They provide containment, pacing, and safety, helping regulate affect during emotionally intense scenes. When carefully introduced, they can function as internal resources that remain accessible beyond the psychodramatic enactment.

Defining Wisdom Figures

Wisdom figures are personal representations of knowledge, guidance, compassion, unconditional support. The Wisdom Figure may be anyone or anything that the protagonist chooses who encompasses wisdom, compassion and who has the protagonist’ s best interest at heart. The choice is only limited by the protagonist’s imagination but often include: 

• Real, literal or imagined individuals—such as a revered teacher, a therapist, a grandparent or an ancestral presence offering ancestral knowledge, comfort, and unconditional love.Spiritual Entities: Guardian Angels, Jesus, Guanyin (Kuan Yin), or Moses offer unconditional love and moral clarity.

• Mythological or Literary Figures: Gandalf, Yoda, Atticus Finch, Athena, Chiron, the Oracle (Greek), Aja or Oya (Yoruba), Grandmother Spider (Hopi), Isis (Egyptian) appear in surplus reality, bringing mythic resonance and transcendent wisdom

• Spiritual Teachers: Embodiments of moral and spiritual guidance, such as priests, rabbis, or gurus, offer insight into existential struggles and encourage ethical decision-making.

• Inner Wisdom: Sometimes the protagonist imagines a version of themselves—older, wiser, healed—who offers clarity and encouragement.

Historical figures like Harriet Tubman, King Solomon, Confucius, Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi and representations of the natural world, such as Mother Earth, the tall pine tree, the ocean, a lion or other animal may also be enrolled as Wisdom Figures.

In psychodrama, wisdom figures are introduced to facilitate insight, resolve inner or interpersonal conflicts, offer guidance and provide a safe container for emotional exploration. These figures are not limited to benevolent advisers; sometimes, a wisdom figure may challenge the protagonist, reflecting the harsh truths necessary for growth. Their presence transcends simple problem-solving, inviting the protagonist to access deep reservoirs of intuition and understanding. Through role reversal, doubling, and mirroring, the protagonist not only receives wisdom but learns to be the wisdom figure, strengthening autonomy and integration. Over time, repeated encounters help consolidate this role so it becomes accessible in daily life.

The Origins and Theoretical Foundations

The Autonomous Healing Center, a core concept in J.L. Moreno’s psychodrama philosophy, describes an innate, self-healing capacity within individuals, groups, and communities that psychodrama aims to unlock through action, spontaneity, and creativity, rather than just talking. It’s the idea that healing power resides within, empowering clients as co-healers and shifting the therapist’s role to a guide accessing this inner resource. This is echoed in other orientations that bring into play The Wise Mind (DBT), the Self (IFS), Healthy Adult (Schema),  Adult (Transactional Analysis), etc.

However, the wise and compassionate inner ‘voices” may be very hard for some people to access due to limited experience with “good enough” parents and adults. They can be at a loss when asked to act in a kind and nurturing role with themselves or with others. By enrolling a wisdom figure in a psychodrama, they can begin to develop the role and connect with their own inner wisdom and compassion.

Functions of Wisdom Figures in Psychodrama

• Guidance and Support: Wisdom figures offer counsel to protagonists, helping them navigate complex emotional terrain. Their advice is grounded in compassion and experience, providing reassurance and stability.

• Perspective Shift: By embodying wisdom, these figures can offer alternative viewpoints, challenge rigid thinking and enable protagonists to see situations from a broader lens.

• Integration of Experience: Wisdom figures help protagonists synthesize conflicting emotions or reconcile past hurts, promoting healing and wholeness.

• Symbolic Nurturing Parent or Spiritual Guide: For those who lack nurturing or guidance in their lives, a wisdom figure can temporarily fill this void, modeling unconditional acceptance and care.

• Facilitating Surplus Reality: Wisdom figures thrive in the imaginative landscape of what Moreno termed surplus reality, where the dramatized scene extends beyond literal experience, enabling protagonists to access messages, forgiveness, or closure that was unavailable in real life.

Creating and Enacting Wisdom Figures

The process of introducing a wisdom figure in psychodrama begins with the director’s attunement to the protagonist’s needs. When a participant feels stuck, lost, or in need of support, the director may suggest the presence of a wisdom figure. This figure can be chosen consciously, or emerge spontaneously from the protagonist’s imagination or cultural background. Wisdom figures are often introduced after sufficient warm-up and role development, particularly when the protagonist is vulnerable to overwhelm or self-criticism. They can also be enrolled at the very beginning of a psychodrama to offer support to the protagonist and aid in creating safety.

Wisdom figures are used in psychodrama to:

• Counteract internalized shame or harsh inner critics

• Support meaning-making after trauma or loss

• Facilitate ethical decision-making

• Bridge fragmented self-states

• Promote post-traumatic growth

Their use requires cultural sensitivity and collaborative exploration; directors must avoid imposing spiritual or symbolic content incongruent with the protagonist’s worldview.
A group member, known as the auxiliary, is chosen by the protagonist to embody their wisdom figure on the stage. The protagonist steps into the Wisdom Figure role and demonstrates this role, guided by the director’s interview. The auxiliary then takes on this role, and their portrayal should be authentic, respectful, and responsive, allowing the protagonist to engage in genuine dialogue with the Wisdom Figure. The auxiliary must be careful to play the Wisdom Figure as the protagonist has presented. The protagonist often spends much time in role reversal, inhabiting the wisdom figure to access their own dormant wisdom and compassion within.

In individual sessions, the client chooses objects, scarves, chairs and other props to represent the Wisdom figure.

Therapeutic Benefits of Wisdom Figures

The incorporation of wisdom figures in psychodrama yields a multitude of therapeutic benefits:

• Emotional Safety: Wisdom figures create a safe relational space, allowing participants to disclose vulnerabilities and receive acceptance.

• Empowerment: By engaging with wisdom, protagonists often discover inner strengths and resources previously obscured by pain or confusion.

• Resolution of Conflict: Wisdom figures facilitate reconciliation, forgiveness, and understanding in scenes involving interpersonal strife or grief.

• Promotion of Healing Narratives: Through surplus reality, wisdom figures enable protagonists to rewrite personal stories, integrating trauma and fostering hope.

Integrating Wisdom Figures with Other Psychodramatic Techniques

Wisdom figures work synergistically with other psychodramatic interventions:

• Doubling: The wisdom figure may double the protagonist, articulating unspoken thoughts or feelings, modeling compassion and insight.

• Role Reversal: Protagonists step into the shoes of their wisdom figures, accessing new vantage points and internalizing supportive messages. 

• Mirroring: Wisdom figures reflect back the protagonist’s strengths and growth, affirming progress and potential.

Examples of Wisdom Figures in Practice

Marc, a young adult protagonist grappling with fear about an upcoming decision imagined a revered grandfather sitting beside them, offering words of encouragement and reminiscence. The grandparent listened empathetically, shared stories of resilience, and assured the protagonist of their inherent strength. Jane, an other young adult, was rtying to decide if moving in with her boyfriend was a good idea. She brought Atticus Finch, the wisest character she knew of into the scene, and he provided the guidance she needed.

Janet, a protagonist who felt directionless, chose to encounter a mythic sage—Athena—who asks probing questions, reframes self-doubt, and illuminates hidden possibilities. The wisdom figure’s intervention turned the tide of the drama, infusing it with hope and clarity.

Thomas, a gay adolescent, struggling with religiously conservative parental judgment, enrolled Jesus who reassured him of God’s love which reduced his suicidal ideation. 

Mariah, a woman struggling with family messages to be strong and not show vulnerability, brought her great grandmother onto the stage, who explained that the message was a survival tactic from years ago that had gotten passed down, and together they symbolically transformed that message to one that allowed for vulnerability in safe relationships.

Herb, who was dealing tremendous guilt resulting from being told it was because he was a difficult child that he had  repeatedly been left at an orphanage, enrolled a group member to play his fairy godmother who removed him from the situation and reminded him that none of what happened was his fault, helping him forgive himself for his acting out.

Lucy, discouraged and lonely at the recent dissolution of her marriage, was feeling the echoes of her emotionally impoverished childhood. She brought her therapist from years ago, into conversation. In the role of her old therapist, Lucy reminded herself of all the ways she had grown and all the internal and external resources she developed over the years.

Jonas was trying to decide how he should handle an upcoming meeting with family who crossed boundaries. He brought in Confucius and Quan Yim who helped him understand his parents’ limitations and coach him in a rehearsal for how to manage his own feelings during the visit.

Cultural Variations and Sensitivities

The choice and depiction of wisdom figures must honor the cultural, spiritual, and personal backgrounds of participants. In multicultural groups, directors are encouraged to invite wisdom figures that reflect diverse traditions: sages from African, Asian, Indigenous, or Western mythologies. Sensitivity to religious or familial history ensures that the wisdom figure is truly supportive, rather than alienating. While the director or group may offer ideas, it is always up to the protagonist to choose who they want to bring onto the stage. 

Limitations and Considerations

While wisdom figures can be transformative, their use must be carefully managed. The director’s skill in helping the protagonist integrate the role they have created with their own internal resources is crucial. Additionally, some participants may harbor ambivalence or resistance toward wisdom figures, especially if they have experienced betrayal or disappointment by those in positions of authority. In this case, a different or additional wisdom figure may need to be enrolled.

It is also important for the director to contain an auxiliary who wants to impart their own wisdom and compassion, rather than the Protagonist’s. Frequent role reversal may be necessary.
In individual therapy, empty chairs, stuffed animals, pictures created by the client or photographs may be used to represent the Wisdom Figure. It is important for the client to develop the Wisdom Figure role within themselves, and so it is usually contraindicated for the therapist to step into the Wisdom Figure’s role.  Instead, the client plays both roles. 

Premature introduction can lead to intellectualization or spiritual bypassing, where emotional processing is avoided in favor of “higher” insight. Directors must ensure that wisdom figures do not replace authentic emotional expression but rather support it.
Additionally, the authority of wisdom figures should remain with the protagonist. The role of the director is to facilitate discovery, not to define what wisdom looks like. Respect for cultural, spiritual, and personal meaning systems is essential.

Conclusion: The Lasting Impact of Wisdom Figures

In psychodrama, wisdom figures are more than narrative devices; they are living bridges to possibility, healing, and self-realization. Whether they appear as cherished elders, spiritual guides, mythic sages, or facets of the protagonist’s own self, their presence invites participants to step beyond the confines of habitual suffering and into the landscape of transformation.

For therapists, facilitators, and participants alike, the careful and creative use of wisdom figures in psychodrama can unlock new pathways of growth, resilience, and connection. In a world where wisdom is often sought and seldom found, the psychodramatic stage becomes a sanctuary where ancient truths are spoken, deep wounds are tended, and each soul is invited to listen, learn, and flourish beneath the gentle guidance of wisdom’s hand.

Rebecca Walters, MS, LMHC, LCAT, TEP is the Director of the Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute in Highland, NY, which she co-founded in 1989. For over 40 years Rebecca has utilized action methods with individuals and groups of children, adolescents and adults and is an internationally respected trainer of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy.