Buddhist Psychology and Psychodrama Certification Program
© Tele'Drama

Directed by: Jaye Moyer, LCSW, TEP, CTP-2 & Daniela Simmons, PhD, TEP

Program Overview
An advanced professional certification program designed for individuals with prior training or experience in psychodrama, sociodrama, sociometry, or other action methods. This program supports practitioners in deepening and expanding their competency by integrating mindfulness practices and core teachings of Buddhist psychology into their work with individuals, groups, and communities.This 10-session experiential training equips professionals with practical tools for applying mindful role exploration, relational mapping, and action-based interventions with clients, while also supporting their own personal insight and professional embodiment of these methods.

Buddhist Psychology offers a rich and complementary resource for Experiential Therapists and Psychodramatists. With its emphasis on direct experience, embodied awareness, and the fluidity of identity, it aligns naturally with action methods that explore roles, relational dynamics, and the unfolding present moment.Whether in warm-up, enactment, or integration, Buddhist psychological principles can support therapists in cultivating mindful attention, emotional regulation and ethical clarity—essential elements for safe and impactful experiential work. This program invites practitioners to integrate these teachings, not as doctrine, but as a living, practical framework that enriches the depth and presence of their therapeutic practice.

Who Should Attend
This training is intended for professionals with experience in action methods, including:

• Certified or trainee psychodramatists, sociodramatists, and sociometrists
• Mental health professionals (therapists, social workers, counselors, psychologists)
• Coaches, educators, group facilitators, and spiritual care providers
• Mindfulness teachers seeking to integrate action methods into therapeutic or educational settings

ModulesModule 1:
Orientation & Intention – Setting the PathThemes:

• Intention
• Group Safety
• Establishing an internal and external holding environment for the group

Experiential:

• Group agreements to establish a sense of safety and shared responsibility
• Sociometric introductions to connect participants and build relational awareness
• A short meditation to center the group and promote mindfulness. The meditation focuses on grounding participants in the present moment, cultivating openness, and encouraging a reflective mindset on their intentions for the group work
• Warm-up activity exploring the roles we bring to spiritual and therapeutic spaces

Educational Goals:

• Understand the core philosophical concepts of Buddhist psychology, particularly Dukkha, (suffering) and Impermanence, (Annica)
• Establish psychological safety within the group, fostering mutual trust and respect through clear group agreements
• Emphasize the power of intention-setting as a fundamental ethical compass for both individual and collective healing

Module 2:
The Four Noble Truths in ActionThemes:

• Understanding the causes of suffering (Attraction and Aversion)
• Freedom from suffering (release and the path)
• Inquiry into what we cling to and what we might begin to release

Experiential:

• Psychodramatic enactments of personal suffering and transformation
• Sociometric mapping to visualize where participants stand in relation to each of the Four Noble Truths

Educational Goals:

• Describe the Four Noble Truths and their relevance to mental and relational health
• Enact personal narratives that reflect the dynamics of grasping and release

Module 3:
The Worldly Winds – What Moves Us?Themes:

• The 8 worldly winds, (Gain/Loss, Praise/Blame, Pleasure and Pain, Fame and Disrepute)

Experiential:

• Role reversal and action scenes with the “winds”
• Sociometry on which winds destabilize the group most

Educational Goals:

• Identify the 8 worldly winds and their psychological impact on both individual and group dynamics
• Experience how we are pushed/pulled by external conditions and learn to recognize the impact of external validation (or its lack) on our sense of self-worth and stability
• Strengthen inner stability through role training, including exercises like the "Inner Anchor," which allows participants to develop a grounded sense of self that remains resilient despite the chaotic winds of external feedback and circumstances

Module 4:
Ethical Foundations – Living the PreceptsThemes:

• The Five Precepts, embodied ethics orienting in the direction of well-being and non-harm.

Experiential:

• Sociodramatic vignettes of ethical tension
• Role training with the Ethical Self

Educational Goals:

• Define and interpret the Five Precepts in contemporary contexts
• Recognize internal and interpersonal conflicts rooted in ethics
• Practice moral reflection and skillfulness through action and dialogue

Module 5:
Inner Roles – Exploring Identity and Voice with Kind CuriosityThemes:

• Role theory, internalized roles (Inner Critic, Compassionate Witness)

Experiential:

• Psychodramatic interviews and role work

Educational Goals:

• Identify common inner roles that shape self-perception
• Deepen the Double
• Practice role reversal and integration with mindfulness and handshake practice. Understand role theory within psychodrama through the lens of Buddhist psychology, particularly how concepts such as impermanence can help reframe rigid, internalized roles.

Module 6:
Sociometry & the Relational FieldThemes:

• Attachment, belonging, and sangha dynamics

Experiential:

• Working with a Benefactor Practice

Educational Goals:

• Use sociometry to map emotional and relational dynamics
• Reflect on attachment patterns in group participation
• Foster connection utilizing benefactor meditation and action exploration

Module 7:
Cultivating the Heart – Introduction to the Brahma ViharasThe Brahma Viharas are four qualities of heart that promote emotional well-being and compassionate living:

1. Loving-Kindness (Metta)
2. Compassion (Karuna)
3. Sympathetic Joy (Mudita)
4. Equanimity (Upekkha)

Educational Goals:

1. Cultivate Loving-Kindness and Compassion (Metta and Karuna)
2. Practice psychodramatic techniques that will develop the ability to offer themselves and others unconditional positive regard
3. Learn heart-centered practices to strengthen emotional stability and group cohesion

Module 8:
Joy & Mudita – Cultivating Inner ResourceTheme:

• Joy as an Inner Strength

Experiential:

• What is our relationship with Joy? How do we nurture and cultivate Joy?
• Enactment of joyful memory/resource
• Group witnessing and resonance

Educational Goals:

• Distinguish different kinds of joy in Buddhist psychology
• Use psychodramatic action to access joyful internal states
• Strengthen the capacity to celebrate others' success, (Mudita)

Module 9:
Release & Ritual – Letting Go, Letting Be and EquanimityThemes:

• Impermanence (Anicca), grief, forgiveness, symbolic release

Experiential:

• Creative ritual, symbolic enactment, shared letting-go ceremony

Educational Goals:

• Cultivating Equanimity in the Face of Loss
• “Letting go” is explored as a means of creating space for new growth, healing, and transformation
• Recognize the wisdom that arises when we learn to let go
• Practice emotional integration through symbolic and dramatic ritual, using mindfulness and creative enactments

Module 10:
The Future Self & Closing CircleThemes:

• Intention, embodiment of change, closure

Experiential:

• Psychodramatic future projection, role expansion, group sharing

Educational Goals:

• Identify and embody a “Future Self” aligned with internal wisdom
• Reflect on personal and relational transformation across the series
• Participate in closing ceremony to honor group process and shared growth

The course offers 20 hours of online psychodrama training that count toward certification through the American Board of Examiners (ABE) and the International Society for Experiential Professionals (ISEP). 
 
Buddhist Psychology is one of the related fields approved by the American Board of Examiners (ABE) for the certification process as Certified Practitioners (CPs) and Trainers, Educators, and Practitioners (TEPs).