In the News

We're In the News!  Check out feature article in The Bulletin entitled  Improvisational Toolbox:  Using Comedy as Social Therapy by Andrea Hammer about our work.

At the Philadelphia Center for Human Development (PCHD) in Center City, improvisation is a catalyst for growth, change and interconnection in a more humane world...."Right now, the work I'm doing is primarily building this center as a hub of activities and events, where people can grow emotionally," For full article go to tinyurl.com/5h6ms8

The following are articles and blog excerpts by Jennifer Bullock designed to provide you with more information about how we can help you. Feel free to contact us if you'd like us to write about a specific topic.

Improv(e) Your Life

Social Therapy:  How does our therapy / approach help you?

I am often asked a question that goes along this line:  You practice Social Therapy—What’s that? I know what a therapist does, she helps people having problems in life, difficulties in relationships or who are in emotional pain of some sort, but how does social therapy help people?  And why did you choose to practice therapy in this way? read more about our approach

Got Stress?  Get Creative!

My favorite daily practice is to smile when I feel one of those feelings (stressed, upset, overwhelmed, anxious…)  I immediately feel better and am able to respond effectively to what is in front of me (like car going too slow when I’m in a hurry or someone being rude/unthoughtful/difficult).  

read more about being creative with your stress

The Family Development Program
Creativity, Performance and Play to Help Families Develop  

In our current over-scheduled, over-pressured world, families are confronting problems they have little capacity to do anything about. We can tend to cope by getting stuck in a narrow range of behaviors and responses even if they are not helpful.

A child who has learned to have temper tantrums when she is angry, and her parents who have learned to punish or pamper her, are stuck in maladaptive, non-growthful environments—‘a bad play’.  It’s like playing the same part in the same play on the same stage day after day.

read more about family relationships and parenting

Improvisational Toolbox

by Andrea K. Hammer for The Bulletin, August 18, 2008 (REPRINTED with PERMISSION)

Founder Jennifer Bullock, who received master's degrees in counseling psychology from Temple University
and law and social policy from Bryn Mawr College, has worked in the mental health and child welfare fields
for 20 years. As the director of PCHD, she has a social therapy practice and facilitates workshops, drawing
on her extensive theater work as the founder and director of the all-volunteer Philadelphia Committee for
Independent Culture (PCIC). And she is a producer of the All-Stars Philadelphia youth development
program, a nationally renowned supplemental-education and anti-violence project for inner-city youth.

read more about using improvisation as a catalyst for growth