Using puppets in therapeutic work

In a blog last week Theatresaurus outlined the uses for a mice and cheese puppet. 


I am now showing five ways to use 'Mice and Cheese' in therapeutic work

The delightful five finger puppets inside a lump of yellow cheese can be used in a variety of different ways for personal development group and dramatherapy and play therapy.  They are enjoyed by young and old alike and I have also used them for staff training for Social Services, in Care Homes and Arts Therapies Training in UK and overseas.

1. Invite the group to move in to smaller groups of 3 or 4 people; each group chooses a mouse.  Describe the cheese as a Dickensian orphanage and each group writes the life story of how their mouse arrived to live in the cheese.  Share stories in the main group, and any feelings that have been aroused.

2.  The same as 1. but this time invite each group to create a play of the arrival at the Cheese Orphanage - invent new characters of the staff and porter with the gate keys.  Show plays to rest of group with or with out words, and leave time for feedback

3.  Suggest to an individual that maybe the mice can become a family who live in a cheese house.  What stories happen in this house that the mice might tell?  The stories can be drawn or spoken.  Some children or adults may want to tell just one story of 'the mouse who has a story'.

4.  Working with familes or foster families: suggest that the mouse family can be a mirror for their family.  Arrange the mice to illustrate a difficulty or conflict that prevents the family being relaxed together.  Each person can choose a mouse in the family and speak for that person, speaking as 'I am...'

5.  Describe the cheese as a prison that everyone is desperate to break out of - what has kept them in the prison and why?  The door does not look locked and there is a flowering shrub that looks inviting.  Improvise the ideas and then create a play called 'The Great Escape'.  Share experiences and feedback, especially any feelings of liberation from being free at last!.. However perhaps there are also people who do not want to escape.  Allow for all different experiences.