The ongoing Family Simulation Training (FaST) Project is an innovative and interdisciplinary partnership between psychology and theatre, where simulated family therapy sessions provide experiential and engaging pedagogical opportunities that significantly enhance the quality of training in both health service and performance disciplines.
Founded in 2019, there are presently two permutations of the prograam, depending on the target health-service students (undergrads: FaST-UG; graduate clinical [psychology] students: FaST-G). For undergrads, students observe and study live simulated therapy sessions, with a course instructor (or senior graduate student) serving as the therapist alongside actors who have theatrically formed into a “family”. At the graduate level, advanced clinical trainees practice engaging with the simulated family directly as clinicians and are evaluated (and given feedback) on their developing family therapy skills. In both scenarios, actors are supervised by theatre faculty and supported in the development of improvisation acting skills.