I have developed a way of working with people in the 3 dimensional virtual world of Second Life (www.secondlife.com) which I call Symbolic Modeling or SymMod for short.
Briefly, they make structures out of the building technology (geometric forms of all sorts plus the ability to add texture, color, etc) which represent feeling states, values, decision processes, conflicts, ideas, or whatever they want to gain new perspectives about. I guide them with Gestalt awareness and also train people who are doing virtual counseling, group facilitation, education programs, and creative explorations to use SymMod with their clients. — Niela Miller, artsfem2003@yahoo.com
Posted December 22, 2022
I think it’s amazing how technology can sometimes help with personal growth. Your work reminds me of Virginia Satir’s approach of encouraging various people to ineract with each other in real life in a group. Is your work with SymMod based partly on Satir’s work?
I knew and worked with many of the frontier people of the human potential movement like Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, Janie Rhyne, Carl Rogers, Viola Spolin,
Will Schutz, Jean Houston, Ilana Rubenfeld , Stan Grof and the Esalen teachers , especially John Heider. More recently, a major teacher of mine was Jungian
Arny Mindell and his cohort in Process Psychology. I feel as though, as an entity, the human potential movement continued to represent my values and ways
of designing and implementing experiential learning following an education that emphasized both (H.S of Music &Art in NYC
and Antioch College where I majored in Creative Arts/Theater). My unique contribution of SymMod has been combining many arts-based processes with
psychological and educational models (John Dewey’s Art as Experience and his philosophy of education were great influences, namely, hands-on learning and experiential education). The development of it in virtual education is an extension of what I have been doing all along in the physical world with individuals,
families, groups and organizations.