What Drama Therapy Is

If you are wondering what Drama Therapy is, welcome!

Drama therapy practice is focused on strengthening the mind-body connection which can lead to expression of feelings, provide a context for storytelling, goal-setting and problem solving leading to change and often feelings of cathartic release. This process can be experienced in individual therapy or group sessions.

Who we are is often defined by who we have been in relationship with – family, teachers, co-workers, romantic partners and chosen family and friends. It may also be defined by personal experiences or the environments that you have been in. Your body in the world experiences life alongside your mind. It is often a silent part of you that has a memory that will instinctually act as storage for trauma.

In brief, Drama therapy is a versatile therapeutic discipline which generally focuses on several creative processes to achieve a therapeutic outcome. The creative processes draw from theatre exercises to include embodiment, projection, story, role, metaphor, performance and ‘witnessing’ to provide the context for creatively engaging in the expression of feelings and catharsis. Invitations to create may range from working with metaphor and story, to engaged role play or dramatic enactment, creative and/or reflective writing exercises, and other balancing energetic interactive or reflective and meditative exercises which are invitations to explore and never prescriptive or mandatory to engage with.

Drama therapy is known as a gentle method for exploring and addressing trauma or other difficulties affecting personal expression. It can be used for self-exploration leading to gains in empathy, ‘role-exploration’, and ‘role-taking’. This means that you may work through the roles given, taken or bestowed upon you in life to find a balance between who you are, who you want to be, and perhaps explore what that may look like in practice.

Wondering what might happen in an individual session with a trained Drama Therapist or how its different from other types of therapy?

You may be invited to talk or tell your story and you may be invited to interact in a more embodied way (the body is a wealth of information into your lived experiences!). You may find yourself reflecting on what authentic emotional expression feels like for you in a supported space and exploring what blocks you may have to full emotional expression.

Drama therapy, a method of creative art therapy uses techniques such as projection, embodiment, role, storytelling and emotional expression to explore the knowledge of the body and help you to release the tensions of holding specific roles in your life.

A drama therapist might invite you to use objects, drawings or free movement to share your feelings or relationship dynamics which helps you as the client to see what is happening inside of yourself and in your relationships from outside of yourself in a more ‘distanced’ way.

Is Drama Therapy a Psychotherapy modality?

The short answer is that Drama Therapy can be viewed as an experiential, active/ embodied, and narrative form of psychotherapy. A longer answer is that Drama Therapy is actually its own integrative discipline within the framework of the Creative Arts Therapies. Drama therapy is a trauma-informed, person-centred, humanistic, therapeutic practice gently informed by psychodynamic theory, disability justice theory, queer theory, feminist theory, somatic practices, and neuroscience among other influences depending on the practitioners training.

Drama Therapists often have a background in psychology in a addition to extensive theatre or alternative theatre study and/or are experienced through work or volunteered in a helping capacity. In a Masters program or equivalent, Drama Therapists complete a specialized training program which includes studying and practicing counselling skills in coursework, through internship components both alone and with co-therapists and usually with both individual clients and with groups prior to becoming fully licensed. Drama Therapists may be classified as Psychotherapists and/or Counsellors or Social Workers and/or may be classified under Naturopathy or Art(s) Therapy depending on provincial (or world-wide) regulations. In Canada there is currently only one recognized training program for Drama Therapists (Concordia University’s Creative Arts Therapies MA program: Drama Therapy Option in Montreal, Quebec)*. Drama Therapy can also be practiced outside the context of Psychotherapy and Counselling such as in community focused spaces.

Alternative options for Drama Therapy trainings outside Canada

• Training programs are also available in the US, UK, South Africa, Lebanon, Switzerland and Italy. Alternative track may also be an option for some individuals to complete training with a recognized board certified Drama Therapist.

Who is Drama Therapy for?

Drama Therapy can be used with groups, dyads, and individually. Clients may range in ages across the lifespan from very young to much older in addition to having a range of support needs from ‘no support needed’ to ‘higher supports needed’. As with any therapy service support, it will depend on the practitioners training, experience and competence with different ages and experience with issues that clients are looking to explore or resolve in sessions.

How is Drama Therapy Different than a Drama or Acting class?

You may have heard that taking an improv class or acting in a play can help you to be more confident and that the arts inherently can be therapeutic. While this can be true, the differences, well, make a difference! See the infographic below to get a quick overview of what that means and why it matters.

The Difference Between Drama Therapy and a Drama Class…
Created by Venus Lukic, a Drama Therapist

Check back soon for more info on Drama Therapy or check out the blog for articles and links! Further resources about Drama Therapy and Poetry Therapy here.