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“I use creative therapy techniques with individuals and groups to facilitate change, healing, strength and resilience”
Kitty facilitates sessions for individuals online through Coviu (an encrypted online platform) and in-person in the Northern Rivers. Kitty’s therapy room is in Lismore, and she also offers a mobile service within the Northern Rivers with sessions being run at various locations including schools, early childhood centres, supported residential facilities, social service agencies, neighbourhood centres, medical facilities and corrective services.
Kitty develops and runs group sessions using drama therapy techniques specialising in working with clients with additional needs and mental health issues, including grief and loss, trauma, depression and anxiety. The duration of the sessions and length of the programs can be developed in conjunction with the needs of the group or facility.
Programs are designed to assist the participants to work through personal issues, including negative feelings, thoughts and behaviours, challenging life issues and difficult life transitions. Along with tailored programs she also runs the program Seasons for Growth (grief and loss for primary-aged children and adolescents), Sex and Ethics (for teens and young adults), the Life Story Program (for clients in rehabilitation for drug and alcohol addiction) and a Boundaries Program (for adult women). For information about these programs or to discuss the needs of your group please contact Kitty directly.
For general practitioners, mental health workers or teachers who wish to make a referral please contact Kitty directly through this website or by e-mailing kitty@compasscounselling.com.au.
What is Drama Therapy?
Drama Therapy (also spelt Dramatherapy) is a form of creative arts therapy that uses drama to facilitate change and healing. Clients do not need experience in drama to benefit from this creative method of therapy. All clients need is a willingness to change and to engage in this gentle, supportive and playful way of working. A normal session begins with a warm-up game or activity, a drama therapy process working on the clients’ issues and goals for change, and an integration of the learning and closing ritual. The sessions are client-centred and clients are invited to participate on the understanding that they are the experts of their own life and healing, and every invitation is optional.
The use of drama in therapy began in modern western culture in Europe in the nineteenth century. By the middle of the twentieth century the use of drama in therapy and education was growing and in 1976 the British Association of Dramatherapy was formed. This gave a ‘professional base for the initiatives that were developing across the country’ (British Association of Dramatherapy, website: http://www.badth.org.uk). The British Association of Dramatherapy uses the following definition to define dramatherapy:
Dramatherapy has as its main focus the intentional use of healing aspects of drama and theatre as the therapeutic process. It is a method of working and playing that uses action methods to facilitate creativity, imagination, learning, insight and growth.
This definition highlights the common application of drama therapy, in that its main focus is the intentional use of the healing aspects of drama and theatre as the therapeutic process. There are however different ways of approaching dramatherapy depending on the model the Drama Therapist uses, which changes the definition of dramatherapy according to each person’s chosen approach.
Links for more information: