Mental health articles

drama therapy stages and techniques.Dramatherapy is by its nature a structured therapy and therapist-directive, suggesting activities and guiding the client through the creative process. Aids are provided for the drama, such as pictures, figures, small objects, stories and scripts, costumes and props. It may be particularly appropriate for clients who need the containment of structure and direction to feel secure. There are many possibilities to the drama from story-making to role play, depending on how imaginatively the client can work and what level of distance is needed from their problems. Dramatic distance is a central concept in dramatherapy. This is the distance between the drama created by the individual and their real life. The distance can be enhanced by using or creating stories about fictional characters that are not in the client’s real world. It can enable personal material to be explored, through the drama, which otherwise may have been too difficult for the individual to address. Jones  calls this process ‘dramatic projection’. ‘Clients project aspects of themselves into …dramatic materials or into enactment, and thereby externalise inner conflicts’,which can then be worked through in the drama. The drama becomes a metaphor for the client’s own experience. An example would be creating an imaginative story with picture cards, exploring what happens to the hero, what problems they encounter, how they deal with them, how they feel and exploring different endings.

drama therapy stages and techniques.Through verbal reflection, connections may be made with the client’s real life and new insights gained into how they feel, how they cope with problems and possible alternatives, or the exploration may stay in the drama and change might happen at an unconscious level.

drama therapy stages and techniques.For some people, using imagination is difficult, but they can use the drama in a more concrete way, for example creating a spectogram. This involves representing the important relationships in one’s life with small figures and objects, experimenting with how they are arranged – who is in front, who is close or far away – and making connections between the qualities of the objects and who they are representing, for example a lion that is powerful and fierce because it is protecting its family. This work may develop into representing how life used to be and how the client would like it to be in the future and exploring what is in the way. In a group, clients can negotiate and explore group dramas and experiment with interaction and playing different roles.

Tags: drama therapy, therapy