‘It’s not for me’ – or is it?

• January 19, 2025
• Esther Waterhouse

When I’m talking to people about medical improv, they often say ‘oh that’s not for me’.  When I probe further, I get comments such as ‘I’m an introvert’, ‘I don’t like performing in front of others’ or ‘I can’t do role play’.  They often have memories of other training modalities where they have felt under pressure to perform, and found this very stressful, despite the best attempts of the training facilitators.

One of the first attendees at our Study Days was a self-confessed introvert.  He was astonished to find himself enjoying the day – and learning from it.  We work hard as facilitators to ensure that everyone is engaged and learning.  No-one is asked to ‘perform’ and there is no role play.  Indeed, we do nothing directly related to clinical work – so no role playing of conversations between health care professionals and patients.  We have written a separate blog about our ‘content free’ training – do have a look at it.

Every session that we run has experiential exercises interspersed with time to reflect and to discuss learning.  We give plenty of time for breaks as we know that some participants find it tiring, and need time and space to recover their energy.  We provide lunch in a communal space – if you would prefer to sit quietly on your own and have some downtime that’s perfectly acceptable!

If you’re thinking of coming on a study day, and you want to talk through accommodations that you might need, please do get in touch.  We can certainly support you and help you to understand what you are coming to and how we make it as safe as possible for all participants.

Come and try this way of learning.  Extrovert or introvert, someone with performance anxiety, someone who is very confident, someone who is afraid of making a mistake;  there is a place for everyone.