Dramatherapy
What is it?
Dramatherapy is a creative form of psychotherapy that integrates creative dramatic techniques such as stories, role-play, characters, and embodiment to support emotional expression, self discovery and personal growth. It provides a safe and supportive space where imagination can be used to explore experiences and feelings that can sometimes be too difficult to express in words.
Who is it for?
Dramatherapy is for anyone and everyone who needs a safe space to express themselves. Dramatherapy is not acting, and you do not need to ‘perform’ during a session. You do not need to be able to verbalise your difficulties to benefit from Dramatherapy. Through creative methods and play, the therapist will support you to explore what you need to, safely and at your own pace. However, if you need to talk, that is also fine.
Method Examples:
Stories - During a Dramatherapy session, we may use a story or create a story to explore emotions or difficulties through a different lens. For example, if you are struggling with anger and it’s impact on your life, we may explore a story of a character who is facing similar difficulties to enable you to empathise with yourself and others, and process the difficulties without it becoming too overwhelming.
Play - Imaginary play, sensory play, free play, board games, creating games, improvisation, and puppets are all examples of the play a Dramatherapist may use in a session. Through play we help to build the therapeutic relationship, explore boundaries and the client’s inner world. In my practice, I often use play in sessions to form a relationship with the client, but I also use it to support emotional and psychological development that may have been missed if you experienced trauma or a difficult experience as a child during a particular stage of development.
Embodiment - We know the body holds trauma and our emotions, and through embodiment we are able to connect our mind and body to help process the trauma and/or emotions. In Dramatherapy, we may use body scans, meditation, movement, and somatic body work. We may also embody a role or character as well as doing work around the voice. Embodiment can be powerful in allowing our inner world to be seen and explored.
Characters - If a client struggles with anxiety, through Dramatherapy we may look at creating a character for this emotion. In doing this, we are creating distance and exploring the emotion and what affect it is having on their life. We may explore this character in creative ways, such as bringing it to life with tools such as art, clay, pen and paper, visualisation and embodiment. Whatever the client feels most drawn to.
To learn more about Dramatherapy - please click the link below for the British Association of Dramatherapists Website.
Talking - In Dramatherapy, if you need to verbalise your emotions and express yourself through words, that is more than ok. Dramatherapy is person-centered, and can adapt to whatever you need as a client and what helps you.