At the Flying Pig, you can catch an improv comedy show every weekend. There, actors engage with the crowd and cast members weave scenes out of thin air. When it’s not the weekend, the Flying Pig doubles as a school, where anyone can take a class or seminar.
“When I first started taking improv classes at Flying Pig, I realized that improv itself is healing,” child therapist Jenny Hudson Findling said. “I left each class feeling joy and wonder and creativity and just that spark, and I felt like this is more healing, more therapeutic than talk therapy. So that's how I became inspired to do this work.”
Findling performs on Flying Pig’s in-house comedy team, Speakeasy. She’s combining her two passions with a six-week seminar called Improv Therapy for Anxiety, which begins in March.
“We will play improv games, which is so great for developing creativity, cognitive flexibility, sharpening those memory skills,” Findling said. “And then just building community and joy and intentional relationships with others. And we'll talk about some worries that people have.”
“So we'll go deep for just a little bit in each session – talk about people's fears, anxiety – and then go back into the games and some scene work, and end on a high note.”
It’s part of a practice called applied improv, in which acting exercises are used in non-acting situations.
Andrew Bennett is a marriage and family therapist who performs with the Say What improv team. He says the fundamentals of improv can be useful in therapeutic settings.
“The whole foundation of improv is ‘Yes, and…,’ right?” Bennett said. “It’s like, ‘Okay, I'm going to accept where I'm at in my situation. I'm going to accept what life has given me, and what am I going to add to that? How am I going to move forward with that?’ Those basic concepts are just key for anybody's life, really, and you can add those in any therapy session.”
Findling attributes her love of improv to the Flying Pig and its founder and owner, Jessie Gray.
“Jessie is one of the most creative, intelligent and kind people I've ever met, and she shares that with everyone that she meets in class,” Findling said. “She is encouraging and creates that trust in her classes. We're not just playing around, but we're developing relationships. You just be real with people as you pretend, if that makes any sense.”
Gray said her theater is a space where people can come to shake off their everyday worries and live in the moment.
“I'm not saying that it's a miracle place for everybody,” Gray said. “But I'll tell you, if you're working through some stuff, you can spend several hours doing this and not think about that at all, because this keeps your brain busy.”
Of all the people that could lead the Improv Therapy for Anxiety seminar, Gray said Findling is the most equipped to take it on.
“Jenny is an expert in therapy, and she's got a Ph.D, and she's smart, and she is such an empathetic person,” Gray said. “She cares about everybody.
“When I say, ‘How was the class today?’ She would say,’ I love the people who came.’ She doesn't give me details about what happened and how many people and what the demographics were or anything else. It was all about how wonderful the people were and how they felt.”
For Findling, who describes improv as “play therapy” for adults, the attraction of the art form lies in connecting with others and being present.
“I love the passion that happens, the raw emotion that can come out through improv,” she said. “It's something that is different from your everyday experiences. There's no problem-solving that has to happen. You just get to be creative and free and expressive and play like a child.”
Improv Therapy for Anxiety is a six-week seminar that begins on March 5th. Visit flyingpigimprov.com for details.
