2004 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 49-60
Dog and rose role playing technique is a counselor training method, which aims to improve counseling techniques. The technique is a self-symbolic training method that creates the original and specific process (self-symbolic process) via a client role playing a dog as an animal, a rose as a flower except human beings, etc. In this study, we considered the therapeutic significance of the technique by focusing on the experiences of a client role player, which were analyzed from a psychoanalytic point of view. The research subjects were 22 participants, excluding four participants with incomplete responses, of a counselor training seminar of dog and rose role playing technique. After the seminar we asked them the following four questions:(1) Do you think that your own self was reflected in your client role? (2) Why do you think so? (3) Did you have any self-insight? (4) Did you feel any therapeutic effectiveness? We found that playing a client role in dog and rose role playing technique has a therapeutic significance because it facilitates client role players' self-symbolization processes to gain self-insight and change their self-cognition and behaviors. This means that a client role players' gaining self-insight, and changing in self-cognition and behavior, becomes an important indicator in judging a counselor role player's training effects.
