"Aging is a natural and lifelong journey. Like every stage of human development, it brings both challenges and opportunities that can be welcomed, embraced, and transformed into pathways toward growth, meaning, connection, and happiness."
—  Dr. Daniela Simmons, Phd, TEP, Sociodramatist / Gerontologist

Description 
Aging is a lifelong human process. From one stage of life to another, we move through changing roles, relationships, expectations, responsibilities, losses, discoveries, and new possibilities. While aging is experienced individually, it also takes place within families, communities, cultures, and societies that influence how we understand and experience the different stages of life.
 
This experiential workshop uses sociodrama to explore aging across the human lifespan through the roles we hold and the roles we encounter. Through sociometry, role reversal, enactment, and group action, participants will identify shared themes and bring collective experiences of aging onto the sociodramatic stage. Rather than beginning with a predetermined issue, the group will discover what is most meaningful to explore in the moment. Themes may emerge around changing roles and relationships, identity, independence and interdependence, loss and transition, caregiving and receiving care, age-related expectations, belonging, purpose, and the possibilities that accompany new chapters of life. Together, participants will explore multiple perspectives, encounter roles different from their own, and discover new responses to the challenges and opportunities of aging.
 
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:

• Identify personal, relational, cultural, and societal roles and expectations associated with aging across the human lifespan.
• Explore shared experiences of aging through sociodramatic methods, including sociometry, role reversal, and enactment.
• Examine aging-related situations from multiple roles and perspectives and recognize how these perspectives influence relationships and experiences.
• Discover new responses and possibilities for navigating changing roles, relationships, transitions, and expectations throughout life.
• Apply insights gained through sociodramatic exploration to support greater connection, resilience, spontaneity, and meaningful engagement across the lifespan.