What is the role reversal technique, and how is it used in psychodrama and drama work? Read what stepping into another person's place can offer, and its limits.
How many times have we said, or heard, "Just look at it from my side for once"? In the middle of an argument everyone is sure they are right, and understanding why the other person behaves as they do seems almost impossible. Psychodrama has developed a very concrete response to this problem: the person really does step into the other person's place, sits in their chair and speaks in their voice. This exercise, known as the role reversal technique, is regarded as one of the most widely known and powerful tools in psychodrama. In this article we explain what the role reversal technique is, how it is used in a session, what it can offer a person, where it calls for caution, and how the idea can be drawn on in everyday life.
What Is the Role Reversal Technique?
The role reversal technique is used in psychodrama and drama-based work: a person steps into the role of another significant person in their life. A teenager in constant conflict with their mother, for example, takes on their mother's role on stage for a while; they stand as she stands, speak with her words and try to voice her worries. Meanwhile, another group member or the professional may play the teenager's own role.
The founder of psychodrama is Jacob Levy Moreno. Moreno regarded a performance he gave at a theatre in Vienna on 1 April 1921 as the birthday of the method. In Moreno's approach, a human being is someone who takes on many roles throughout life: child, parent, partner, friend, employee. Some psychological distress comes from these roles becoming stuck or rigid, or from never being able to see other people's roles at all. Role reversal was conceived as a way of softening this rigidity.
In Turkey, Prof. Dr. Abdülkadir Özbek is said to have played an important part in establishing psychodrama as an institution. Today psychodrama training is mostly provided through associations and institutes. You can find the general framework of the method in detail in our article what is psychodrama.
Key Concepts in Psychodrama: Protagonist, Auxiliary Ego, Stage
To understand the role reversal technique, it helps to know a few key concepts in psychodrama:
- Protagonist: The person whose own story is being worked on. They are the "lead actor" of the session.
- Auxiliary ego: The group member or professional who plays other people in the protagonist's life (such as a mother, partner or boss).
- Stage: The space where the story is enacted. A room, a few chairs and simple objects are enough; what matters is not the set but the experience.
- Director: The trained professional who runs the session, sets up the scenes and keeps the process safe.
- Sharing: The part after the enactment in which group members, without commenting on the protagonist, share similar experiences from their own lives.
Role reversal, within this structure, is the protagonist changing places with the auxiliary ego. The protagonist steps into the place of the person who was standing opposite them a moment ago, and this time hears their own words from that person's point of view.
How Is the Role Reversal Technique Used in a Session?
Every session is different, but role reversal usually proceeds through these steps:
- Setting the scene: The protagonist describes the situation they want to work on, for example: "My father and I argue at dinner every evening." The director asks where the scene takes place and who sits where, and sets up the scene with simple objects.
- Introducing the other person: The protagonist briefly steps into their father's role to introduce him: "I'm Hasan, I'm fifty-two, I've worked at the same factory for thirty years..." In this way the auxiliary ego gets to know the person they will play.
- The encounter: The protagonist returns to their own role, and the auxiliary ego plays the father. The argument is relived.
- Role reversal: At a critical moment the director says, "Reverse roles." The protagonist moves to their father's chair, and the auxiliary ego repeats exactly what the protagonist has just said. This time the protagonist hears their own words from their father's place and answers as their father.
- Returning and noticing: The protagonist goes back to their own role. The director asks how the role reversal felt and what they saw differently.
- Sharing: Group members share their own experiences; the protagonist feels they are not alone.
Sometimes role reversal is done not just once but several times in the same scene. The protagonist moves back and forth between their own role and their father's; with each switch, the conversation deepens a little. While only accusations are heard in the first round, in later rounds more hidden emotions such as tiredness, hurt or love may become visible. The director adjusts the pace of these switches to the protagonist's resilience.
This structure shows how concretely the method works on stage. Saying "I'm trying to understand my father" in conversation and sitting in your father's chair, feeling his tiredness in your body, are different experiences.
What Can Stepping into the Other Person's Shoes Offer?
Some of the experiences the role reversal technique can offer a person are:
- A different perspective: The person may notice the possible worries, tiredness or fears behind the other person's behaviour.
- Seeing yourself from the outside: Hearing your own words from someone else's mouth can let you see what effect your tone of voice and your sentences have on the other side.
- Expressing emotions: Things that have gone unsaid for a long time can be said on stage. This can sometimes bring deep relief.
- Trying out new behaviours: The person can rehearse, in a safe setting, a conversation they are reluctant to attempt in real life.
Imagine a young woman in her late twenties who is deeply bothered that her mother-in-law goes into the kitchen on every visit and "corrects" the cooking. When she steps into her mother-in-law's role on stage, she suddenly finds herself speaking like someone "afraid she no longer has a place in her son's home". This realisation does not justify her mother-in-law's behaviour; but it makes it easier for the daughter-in-law to approach her not with anger but by setting a clearer boundary.
Another side of role reversal concerns the body. When a person sits in the other person's chair, they also try to imitate their posture, tone of voice and hand movements. Unlike an empathy exercise that takes place in the mind, this bodily imitation can create a more direct experience. Many participants describe it with sentences such as "When I sat in their place, I noticed my shoulders dropping."
Reversing roles is not about agreeing with the other person; it is about seeing their world for a while and looking at our own from a wider vantage point.
In Which Areas Is This Method Used?
The idea of role reversal appears in various forms outside classic psychodrama groups too:
- Family and parenting work: A parent briefly stepping into their child's place can help them notice, for example, how a teenager feels when they hear constant reminders to "go and study" during exam season.
- Grief: In some work, a person steps into the role of a loved one they have lost, voices what they were unable to say to them, and hears "what they would answer" in their own voice. This is extremely delicate work and is done only within a safe framework, at a time when the person is ready.
- Self-compassion: A person can step into the role of a close friend who loves them dearly and look at their own difficulties through that friend's eyes. For people who constantly criticise themselves, this can be an unfamiliar but illuminating experience.
- Educational settings: In creative drama lessons, having pupils step into the place of different characters in a story is used to support empathy and perspective-taking skills. This is an educational practice, not therapy.
What all these examples have in common is that the person steps outside their own point of view for a while and looks from somewhere else. It is important, however, to keep the distinction between therapeutic work and educational or everyday uses: where heavy emotions may surface, the presence of a trained professional matters.
Limits of the Role Reversal Technique and Situations That Call for Caution
Role reversal is a powerful tool, and precisely for that reason it calls for care. In some situations it should not be used, or should be used only with great caution:
- Experiences of abuse and violence: Stepping into the role of someone who has harmed you can lead to being wounded again. In such cases the person's safety always comes first; role reversal is either not used at all or considered only after very careful preparation.
- Severe trauma: Enacting traumatic memories quickly and intensely can unsettle a person rather than relieve them.
- When the connection with reality is weakened: In some mental health conditions it can become hard to keep the boundaries between roles; the method should therefore be assessed according to the person's situation.
- Not being ready: If a person does not feel ready, they are not pushed. There is always the right to say "no".
It is also important to be honest about the scientific evidence. At present it is not possible to speak with certainty about the effectiveness of psychodrama and role reversal on the basis of strong systematic reviews. The method is valued by many practitioners and participants; but more research is needed to clarify the size of its effect and for whom it is most suitable.
Drawing on the Idea of Role Reversal in Everyday Life
Even without joining a psychodrama group, you can try some simple exercises inspired by the idea of role reversal. These are not therapy; but they can help you look at a relationship from a different angle:
- A paragraph from the other side: Write about an argument you had in the voice of the other person, in the first person: "When I came home this evening..." Then note down what you noticed.
- Two chairs: Place two chairs in the room. In one, say a sentence as yourself; then move to the other and give the answer you think the other person would give. Keep going for a few rounds.
- A third person's eye: Imagine how a neutral friend would describe the argument. This can help you look at both sides from a little more distance.
Imagine a forty-year-old man working at a bank who complains that his manager keeps interrupting him in team meetings. One evening he tries the first exercise and writes about the meeting in his manager's voice: "Head office has asked about the figures three times this month, and the longer the meeting runs, the more I panic that I won't get anything else done..." He does not know how accurate his writing is; but the paragraph shows him that he could read the interruptions not only as a personal slight but also as a reflection of pressure. The next day, he tries sending his manager a short briefing note before the meeting.
As this example shows, the aim is not to read the other person's mind with certainty. What you write are your own guesses, and you may be wrong. What is valuable is being able to see several possibilities instead of getting stuck in a single explanation. Sometimes the exercise may also lead you to realise that an open conversation with the other person is needed; that in itself is an important gain.
Try these exercises only for relationships that are challenging but safe. Do not try on your own to step into the role of someone who has harmed you or who frightens you; experiences of this kind should be addressed with professional support. We describe a similar approach, empty chair work, separately in our article on the empty chair technique.
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
Getting stuck in relationships from time to time is entirely natural. In the following situations, however, it may be helpful to talk to a mental health professional:
- If the same arguments repeat for months or even years and nothing changes
- If a relationship or family conflict is affecting your sleep, your work or your health
- If an old hurt or loss constantly casts a shadow over your current relationships
- If bursts of anger or complete withdrawal are straining your relationships
- If thoughts of harming yourself or ending your life cross your mind
If the last point applies, call 112 (emergency services) without delay or go to your nearest emergency department.
In therapy, work aimed at understanding the other person's perspective can take different forms. In cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), for example, a person's automatic thoughts about the other person's intentions are identified and alternative explanations are considered together. When working with couples, each partner listening to the other's experience and reflecting it back in their own words can work like a simpler form of role reversal. For recurring conflicts with your partner, work of this kind can be addressed in couples therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the role reversal technique only used in groups?
In classic psychodrama it is usually used within a group, because group members take on the role of auxiliary ego. Simpler forms, however, can also be used in individual sessions with the help of chairs or objects.
I have no acting talent. Can I still take part?
Yes. Psychodrama is not a theatre performance; you are not expected to act well or be impressive. What matters is approaching your own experience sincerely.
Does reversing roles mean proving the other person right?
No. The aim is not to excuse the other person but to see their point of view for a while. This can also help a person express their own boundaries and needs more clearly.
What happens if I become very emotional during role reversal?
Intense emotions can be a natural part of the work. The professional running the session can slow the process down, return the person to their own role and make sure the person is settled again before the session ends.
Bu yazı genel bilgilendirme amaçlıdır; tanı veya tedavi yerine geçmez. Yaşadığınız güçlükler için bir ruh sağlığı uzmanına başvurmanız önerilir. Acil bir durumda lütfen 112'yi arayın.
Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
Eğitimler
