Dramatherapy
Dramatherapy is a psychological therapy that uses drama and other ways to help you express how you are feeling and to explore issues and concerns that have led you to seeking therapy. Read on or download our Dramatherapy leaflet here.
Dramatherapy uses...
Story telling and enactment, improvisation and role-play, movement, drama games, play, instruments and props, and verbal reflection.
Why dramatherapy?
Sometimes it can be difficult to talk directly about our problems, feelings and life experiences, but the process of creating stories, enactments, role-play, and movement can help to do so.
Müge Erdoğmuş talks about our dramatherapy work at Off Centre
What can I expect?
Although it is up to you and your Dramatherapist to find a way of working that best suits each person individually a typical Dramatherapy session could look something like this:
- An initial check-in to see how your week has been and to see if the last session bought anything up for you, a time to arrive and “warm-up”
- A period of creating stories/enactments/role-play/improvisations/movement (depending on how you feel and what you need)
- A period of reflecting on your experience, discussing issues that it has raised for you.
While some clients prefer to talk about their experiences during the session, dramatherapy is not dependent on spoken language and it can be helpful to anyone who finds it difficult to express their thoughts and feelings verbally.
Important to keep in mind that...
- You do not need to have previous experience or skill or to be good in acting, theatre or drama to attend to the dramatherapy sessions.
- The Dramatherapist is not there to judge you or to tell you what to do but to explore with you what you bring to the session.
- Each session lasts for 50 minutes or an hour (depending on what you agree with your Dramatherapist at the start of your contract) and will be at the same time and place each week.
- The sessions are confidential. This means that the therapist will not share what has happened or was said in the sessions unless she feels that the young person is at risk from harm or may harm someone else.
Who is a Dramatherapist?
Dramatherapists abide by the code of conduct and principles of practice set by their professional body, the British Association of Dramatherapists (BADTH).
Dramatherapy is a state registered profession, which means that there are national standards for training and professional development and that it is illegal to practice as a Dramatherapist unless properly qualified or registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC).