Seoul's Nowon-gu has launched a psychodrama group counseling program called "My Stage, My Story" to help elderly residents recover psychologically and find emotional stability.
The program invites participants to express their life experiences and emotions directly on stage through psychodrama. Its defining feature is the use of role-play to work through inner conflicts and emotional wounds, with participants offering one another empathy and support to foster psychological healing and recovery.
Kim Ju-hyeon, director of the Korea Enneadrama Research Institute and a psychiatrist, will lead five sessions beginning Aug. 20. Participants will bring each other's life stories to the stage, taking on and performing different roles. Through this process, they are expected to rediscover vitality, reflect on their lives, and build psychological resilience and emotional bonds through the shared understanding of peers.
Since Nowon-gu first ran a psychodrama program for seniors in 2024 — a nationwide first — the response from participants has been consistently strong. Because the program relies on deep empathy and immersion, sessions are kept to around 10 participants, but that intimacy also amplifies the healing effect. At a past senior counseling case presentation, audience members were visibly moved to tears as participants shared candid accounts of their lives, underscoring the therapeutic power of psychodrama.
At the center of these efforts is the Nowon Senior Counseling Center. The district directly operates the center — the first of its kind in the country — and has built an integrated counseling framework that goes beyond social welfare consultation to encompass psychological counseling and mental health support.
The center provides individual and group psychological counseling, as well as welfare services and case management in partnership with local welfare and care organizations, functioning as a psychological and emotional safety net for seniors. In the first half of this year, it conducted 1,639 counseling sessions — including in-person visits, outreach counseling and group sessions — along with 27 rounds of community institution visits and psychological assessments serving 989 people, and 15 meetings of the crisis senior safety network, cementing its role as a mental health hub for the local elderly community.
"In a super-aged society, protecting mental health is just as important as physical health," said Nowon-gu District Mayor Seo Jun-o. "We will continue to expand professional psychological and emotional support through the Nowon Senior Counseling Center, building a robust mental health support system so that seniors can find stability and renewed vitality in their daily lives."
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