The Leelah Play
What is Leelah?
Leelah is a distinctive approach to deep personal development in a group, within a space shaped by play, imagination and exploration.
Developed by Dr. Dov Bloom-Yazdi over more than 20 years of therapy, teaching, research and play, Leelah grew from the understanding that certain processes unfold only through direct encounter — between people, within a group, and inside a world created together.
In Leelah, participants create characters and enter a shared world. Through the play and the relationships that emerge within it, both the individual and the group begin to reveal themselves, change and take shape.
What actually happens in Leelah?
A group gathers. Each participant begins to create a character — not in order to “act well,” but in order to encounter another possibility of themselves.
Slowly, something like a town begins to take shape: places people return to, characters who meet again and again, closeness and distance, secrets, alliances, tensions and memories.
This town is not a backdrop. It becomes a living space that the group comes to know and remember. Through the character, the encounters and the life of the town, each participant meets something within themselves — sometimes familiar, sometimes surprising, and sometimes impossible to reach directly.
In Leelah, play is given room to be serious in its own way — a space where character, group and town begin to reveal something that could not have appeared alone.
Who might Leelah speak to?
Leelah may speak to those looking for a more experiential way to know themselves, work with others, or create a group space shaped by play, imagination and relationship. No acting experience is needed. This is not an acting workshop, but a gentle way of meeting character, relationship and process through play.
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For groups and communities
For spaces that wish to create encounter, conversation and movement — not through a lecture, but through shared experience.
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For therapists, educators and facilitators
For those who wish to bring an experiential, group-based and creative language into their work — through roles, relationships and scenes.
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For people looking for a living process
For those who wish to meet themselves not only through talking and understanding, but also through play, imagination, movement and encounter.
Leelah Training and Deepening Program
9 months of personal process, professional learning and living group work
From the world of Leelah comes a nine-month Training and Deepening Program — for those who wish to enter this language from within, go through a meaningful process, and gradually develop the ability to hold it for others.
It is a year of ongoing group work, character exploration, personal process, professional learning, immersive days, personal guidance and a retreat in the spirit of Leelah.
Throughout the Program, participants encounter the experiential layer of Leelah within a group, while also developing professional understanding: how a play-based developmental space is created, how to read a group process, how to work with character and avatar, and how to facilitate by listening to what begins to emerge in the space.
Ongoing group process · Character work · Immersive days · Retreat · Facilitation practice
Why Leelah needs to be experienced from within
You can read about Leelah in articles or in the book.
You can understand part of it through conversation, text or video.
But Leelah takes its true shape only when it is encountered from within:
when a character begins to live.
when a group begins to hold a world.
when relationships, play and imagination begin to create a movement that cannot be explained in advance.
That is why the best way to get to know Leelah is through an encounter.
Who stands behind Leelah?
Leelah was developed by Dr. Dov Bloom-Yazdi — Doctor of Drama Therapy, clinical criminologist, lecturer, spiritual care practitioner accompanying people at the end of life, and former head of the Psychodrama and Drama Therapy department at the University of Haifa – Mivchar.
For more than 20 years, Dov has been researching, teaching, facilitating and developing Leelah in Israel and internationally — in groups, academic settings, retreats and professional-development spaces. He is also the author of "Leelah – The Play Paradigm".
Participants Share Their Experience of Leelah
I came home feeling recharged, and then reality came rushing in — things at home, a lot of pressure at work, and important meetings ahead. I kept trying to tell myself, “You’re not being tested,” but nothing helped.
On the way to a meeting, something suddenly clicked: if Tamar couldn’t calm down, maybe someone else could go in her place. I created a character, stepped into her, and left Tamar at the entrance to the organization. Someone else walked in. The meetings went beautifully.
Tamar, Leelah participant
I felt the beginning of a process taking root — fresh qualities and experiences, very different from sitting across from a therapist. There was real potential for development and reflection. The process intrigues me, and I’m looking forward to it. Thank you for your patience and support.
Radai, Leelah participant
At first, I felt that I both understood and didn’t understand, agreed and disagreed. During the play, I felt confusion and embarrassment, but I chose to stay with it.
The next morning, I realized how much I shrink myself in everyday life into a character I think I’m supposed to be. Maybe in life itself, we are playing a character we believe is who we are — and that character no longer always serves us.