IJSP Number 3, 2021

33 Winnecott [1] believed that in adulthood verbal communication is the means of playing, noting that play is manifested in choice of words, inflection of voice, and sense of humor. Mimesis has participants play achosen story by verbalizing roles in their own subjective way. Those productions are received and reacted to by the other players and the Mimesis leaders. Furthermore, it is clear that adult players reveal themselves through their body language and how they inhabit the physical space as well. Play is “intensely real” for the child and this is also true for adult role play participants who find themselves enacting their own relational patterns and having characteristic emotional reactions to conversations they participate in or observe. A concept that is useful in understanding this experience for adults is that of liminal space . A liminal space is one in which the participant is on a threshold of sorts. It is an in-between space of transition where one may experience further development. In supervision using role play the threshold can be thought of as that between the more cognitive, contained, and linearworld of thinking about patients and discussing them, and the engaged and embodied version of role playing the patient and the therapist, or through characters that appear in mythor story. By embodying roles empathy, disgust, and all manner of reactions will be viscerally felt by both trainees and supervisors. If handled well – with compassion and humility - it enables a transformative experience where emotional as well as intellectual understanding is gained. It is important to note that there is a dialectic between the more cognitive and emotional ways to process material in supervision. For example, after role playing it is important to discuss what comes to light, to solidify learning and maintain working relationships between the players. This raises the topic of the instructions given by Mimesis leaders to adult participants as they relate to Axline’s “permissive space.” [2] To allow adults to play freely in Mimesis they are told that they may take any role offered by the leaders. They need not follow the received version of character identities when scenes from the chosen story are played out. For example, a young woman may play an elderly king or a young man may play a crone. The reason for this is that participants in a role play will resonate with characters in stories regardless of gender, age, social status and so on, for reasons conscious and unconscious. They are also reminded that the play is not a performance, and they do not have to follow the “script” (the supervisor’s told version of the story). This enables participants to examine parts of their identities that may be more or less hidden in their everyday lives and professional roles. It also enables participants to “try on” alternative identities to the ones they are aware of. By playing with roles the vulnerability of both supervisor and supervisee is more transparent. The supervisor may choose to play a role along with their supervisees, thus entering the play space and increasing their level of exposure. They may serve as a model of self-acceptance and transparencyfor the trainees.