Look Who Gets It – Thought Leaders

How Making Things Up Together Helps Us Deal With Reality

Jude Treder-Wolff  (judetrederwolff) LCSW, CGP, MT & Certified Practitioner of Applied Improvisation, consultant/trainer and writer/performer.  www.lifestage.org, www.mostlytruethings.com Resilience is a strength which, when we face a difficult reality that stretches our capacity to cope, doesn’t go away. It provides a kind of emotional and cognitive elasticity we need to reimagine our lives when they are turned upside-down. Improv is an ideal playground for developing this elasticity. From the very start of…

Its Not Magic: How “Heroic Improv” Training Can Bring Out Our Best At The Worst Of Times

Jude Treder-Wolff  (judetrederwolff) LCSW, CGP, MT & Certified Practitioner of Applied Improvisation, consultant/trainer and writer/performer.  www.lifestage.org, www.mostlytruethings.com There are real-life, high-stakes situations in which moment-to-moment choices can have life or death consequences, specifically “no-notice” events like natural disasters, or shootings, which are, sadly, increasingly a possibility anyone might have to deal with in a public space. These situations call for the ability to prioritize and problem-solve under pressure and connect rapidly with other…

Rx Improv: How Group Creative Experiences Boost Mental Health

Jude Treder-Wolff  (judetrederwolff) LCSW, CGP, MT & Certified Practitioner of Applied Improvisation, consultant/trainer and writer/performer.  www.lifestage.org, www.mostlytruethings.com After a difficult year of separation from loved ones due to the pandemic, ongoing uncertainty about our health and safety, and the pressures of negotiating the post-pandemic social environment we need to do all we can to build each other up and maintain mental health. Improv can be a non-medical, unconventional resource that can…

No kidding: Theater improv makes you happier, creative, tolerant of uncertainty

Interesting study from researchers at the University of Michigan on the therapeutic benefits of improv. We appreciate this type of thoughtful approach to the topic. From the article….. ANN ARBOR—Can theater improvisation actually make adults feel better and more creative? “Yes, and …” A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Stony Brook University found that 20 minutes of improv experience causes people to feel comfortable and…

Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation – A Study by Charles Limb and Allen Braun

Charles Limb and Allen Braun used fMRI (Functional MRI) to study the parts of the brains activated during spontaneous musical performance or improvisation.  This study showed that there is a ” distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity.” We find this very interesting as it applies also to improvisation in endeavors other than musical improvisation, such as comedic improvisation and the day-to-day…