Performance, Spirituality, and Social Therapeutics: Development Through Collective Participation

When I finally had disposable income, I invested in my own education. By the second year of my full-time job, I was studying for three different classes, and I also hired a guitar teacher for my own sanity. The first course supported my pursuit of a K–12 teaching license, which was a professional requirement. The second involved studying social therapeutics with the East Side Institute—first as a graduate of their International Program, and later through training as a social therapeutic coach, where I learned facilitation skills grounded in the philosophy of care developed by Fred Newman and Lois Holzman. During this same period, I studied under Dr. Rachel Mann, initially learning how to use shamanism to support my own mental health and lifestyle, and later training in her practice of Shamanic Somatic Emotional Energy Transformation therapy (SEET).

I integrate everything I have learned—including my MFA training in acting—into Scaros Performance Healing. One of my favorite quotes, which tends to annoy people, is “everything is connected,” and I believe this with every fiber of my being.

For me, the interweaving connection between classical theater, spirituality (both theology and neo-spirituality), and social therapeutics is performance. The challenge lies in breaking down traditional notions of performance and discovering new applications for this complex concept.

What Is Performance?

In The Republic, Aristotle defines drama by identifying six elements that continue to shape theatrical practice today: plot, character, theme or central idea, language (dialogue or poetry), music, and spectacle (visual elements).

All six of these elements can be found in religious settings such as churches, temples, and mosques, and recognizing this should not be understood as diminishing theology. The call to prayer in an Islamic country is one of the most powerful spectacles I have ever experienced, and it is precisely this collective, sensory experience that supports the ongoing development of a religious community.

At the same time, we do not typically encounter spectacle or music in everyday life, yet we are constantly performing. Some of the clearest examples of performance in daily life include:

• Societal performance: following established norms that define how to function within a culture

  
  

• Personal performance: adapting behavior to meet the expectations of specific individuals

  
  

• Individual performance: using performance as a tool for manifestation and development

  
  

Within each of these performances, there is an objective (plot), a character (the self), and a theme or central idea. At times, there is even a shift in language or dialogue.

The performance that offers the greatest opportunity for development is individual performance. As Newman argues, “there is a powerful and important connection between spirituality and human growth,” noting that psychology has largely failed when it attempts to understand development solely through behavioral or quantitative frameworks, because “human growth is in some fundamental sense spiritual” (Newman & Holzman, 2003, p. 168).

Within social therapeutics, Holzman and Newman describe the dialectic of “who we are and who we are becoming,” which captures the essence of individual performance. Theater practitioner Sanford Meisner famously defined acting as “behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” The truth refers to who we are, while the imaginary circumstances represent who we are becoming. Performance, then, becomes a method of manifestation grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

A contemporary example appears in Ted Lasso, when Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham) performs a ritual of physically expanding her body before entering a difficult situation. She is enacting both who she is and who she is becoming—a confident, powerful leader—through a single, embodied performance.

Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham) in TED LASSO

Who We Are and Who We Are Becoming in Spirituality

Peter Brook (1968) writes in The Empty Space, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage… and this is all I need for an act of theater to be engaged” (p. 11).

This concept lies at the heart of social therapeutics. Within a social therapeutic dynamic, participants simultaneously perform who they are (their present truth) and who they are becoming (imaginary circumstances oriented toward development). This performance is not only for oneself, but also for fellow group members, who are engaged in the same process. Without a traditional stage—and sometimes without a physical room at all, as in virtual spaces—participants function as both actors and audience members at the same time.

As a child in the church, I was focused almost entirely on who I was. One reason Christianity ultimately did not work for me—aside from political hypocrisy—was the absence of who I was becoming. By the time I was seventeen, I had memorized every prayer in the service. Sermons and gospel readings felt repetitive. I was, by definition, a “good Christian,” yet I was unable to develop further. This lack of development was tied to societal expectations emphasizing obedience over inquiry and growth.

My spiritual performance shifted when I began exploring animism. By understanding who I am, I can shed traumatic identities and cultivate self-love. By understanding who I am becoming, I am able to heal myself while also supporting the healing of others. I perform rituals of gratitude toward spirit while simultaneously performing gratitude toward myself. Teaching about divine genders becomes inseparable from learning how they function within my own spirituality.

I am who I am. I am also who I am becoming—the best version of myself in body, mind, and spirit.

Less Individual, More Communal

Newman frequently cautions against dependence on religious institutions while clarifying that this stance is not anti-religious. Reflecting on the cultural transformations of the 1960s, he writes that the era was “cultural and spiritual more than it was political,” and that these shifts occurred across religious and cultural communities alike, impacts we are “barely beginning to see” (Newman & Holzman, 2003, p. 167).

This is a sentiment I share. The essential connections between spirituality and social therapeutics include the release of excessive individualism, the necessity of development, and the recognition of community as a primary tool for growth.

Philosophically, this raises the question of whether there is a right or wrong way to do the “right thing.” While this may sound absolute, it ultimately dismantles rigid notions of objective good and evil. Popular culture explores this tension in The Good Place: if an act of good is motivated by individual reward, is it truly good? Conversely, if an act labeled as evil leads to collective benefit, is it actually evil?

I went to church because it was the “right thing to do” and because I wanted to get into heaven. This individualistic motivation did not support my development. I also felt constrained by a model of service that transformed community from a developmental resource into obedience disguised as virtue.

As an animist, I recognize that “Luke” does not exist as a separate entity. Luke is part of the universe, interconnected with every tree, molecule, and organism in this plane of existence. As Newman and Holzman (2003) observe, “our nourishment as human beings is connected to our spiritual interconnectedness to other human beings and to the rest of the world,” and an excess of individualism deprives us of this essential dimension of human life (p. 169).

When I help another person heal—whether through energy work or social therapeutic practice—I am not focused on helping them or myself as isolated individuals. A prayer my teacher taught me, which I use at the end of energy healing sessions, reflects this orientation:

We ask that this healing not only benefits this individual, but all peoples, as we grow together in peace, community, and love.

Both spirituality and social therapeutics are ultimately in service of global human development. This practice rejects individualism, prioritizes becoming, and affirms that growth is only possible through community.

That is the connection between shamanism and social therapeutics.

References

Brook, P. (1968). The empty space. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Meisner, S., & Longwell, D. (1987). Sanford Meisner on acting. New York, NY: Vintage.

Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (2003). Psychological investigations: A clinician’s guide to social therapy. New York, NY: Routledge.