The use of story-work in dramatherapy has many beneficial applications for clients. Through story-work clients are able to process areas of their own lives by engaging and resonating with the characters and the narrative. Stories are also very accessible for clients as all cultures have used storytelling as a way of understanding themselves and the world.
Stories also provide distancing for clients who are then able to start to work through their difficult issues at a safe distance through the characters own experiences. Autobiographical story-work however, can also provide under-distancing for clients who are too removed from their own issues. Through the exploration of story-work on the dramatherapy course I experienced my own insight and healing through the story of Ulu and the Breadfruit Tree and an exercise we did where I told a story from my own adolescent years.
Dramatherapists use story in their practice as a way of providing an opportunity for clients to identify and process areas for change through the characters, narrative and themes of the stories themselves. As Holmwood explains in his article A Tale of Tales, ‘the use of stories, myths and legends is central to dramatherapy practice…[as]…stories are central to our lives and the way these stories are constructed and told influence the ways in which we see ourselves and relate to others’ (Holmwood, 2005, p. 19). As individuals, communities and cultures we operate through the creating and sharing of stories, and stories are the way that history has been passed through generations, lessons have been taught, and people have understood themselves and their place in the world. As a result, it is a natural tool for Dramatherapists who use role, narrative and performance in their work to facilitate clients in exploring other perspectives and ways of looking at themselves to gain greater understanding and insight.
Along with the accessibility of stories for clients, there is also an unlimited supply of stories to work from. Although particular stories may not be known initially to the client stories have the ability to communicate what is unknown, and through the very process of story-making and the structure of stories, what can be imagined is allowed into the consciousness to become part of the known, which contributes to a greater awareness of self (Gersie, 1983, p. 8). It is within the dramatherapy process that a ‘client can latch on to the inert ‘collective unconscious’ (Jung, 1964) which is etched into each story, and find meaning through the narrative, characters or happenings within the story’ (Holmwood, 2005, p. 19). This experience can also assist clients to come to the realisation that their experiences are often universal and part of the greater ‘human experience’ creating a sense of not feeling alone in our problems, and to some extent normalising clients’ problems.
Further to assisting clients in having a greater understanding of themselves and their connection with other people, stories can also be used by Dramatherapists to facilitate better understanding of culture and society, helping to create empathy and understanding for others. Lewis and Banerjee, quoting Bhattacharyya (1997), explain that ‘anthropologically, stories offer a means by which nature can be turned into culture, offering explanations of why the world is as it is and why people act as they do’ (Lewis and Banerjee, 2013, p. 29). In this way stories can provide a platform for clients to work thorough existentialist issues, or to make better sense of their own worldview. It is particularly good when working within a multicultural context or with refugees or asylum seekers for example, to use stories to look at the bigger issues that effect whole cultures and societies.
There are compelling reasons why Dramatherapists choose to use stories in their work, and through using stories Dramatherapists assist clients in a variety of ways. Stories can be used very directly or quite indirectly in assisting clients to identify and work through their difficult issues. The story may be one that is very close to the client’s own story, or it could be a myth or fairly tale that has archetypal characters that represent common human emotions, traits and behaviours. Quoting Bettelheim (1975), ‘the fairy tale is therapeutic because the patient finds his own solutions, through contemplating what the story seems to imply about him and his inner conflicts at this moment in life’ (Couroucli-Robertson, 1998, p. 3). Through the universality of the themes the client will resonate with the aspect of the story that they need to hear or understand, and that will help them to process or solve the problems they are facing.
Dramatherapists use story in a variety of ways with clients. Clients may act out a scene from a story or perform the whole story in its entirety. Clients might also use the characters from a story to perform role-plays, exercises such as hot-seating where the client answers questions as the character from the story, use puppets or masks of characters from stories and interview or role-play with them. Clients can also perform a story but choose to change the ending of the story to suit the issues that they are processing or want to resolve. This is a very effective therapeutic approach to story, as through storymaking people are helped to re-work difficult life experiences and to create greater concordance between the way they live and the way they would prefer to live (Gersie, 1994, p. 2). By re-creating a story that represents how a client would like to be, or traits that they would like to strengthen or develop, the use of story in dramatherapy can be particularly empowering. In story anything can happen, so by ‘playing out the ‘real’ story…[a client]…can rewrite the ending as he wished it had occurred which facilitates reflection on the loss and regret at the reality of what happened’ (Moore, 2010, p. 7). Even through the process of simply telling a story we not only ‘articulate our often painful experience, we also learn to demand our space, to have our say, to ensure that we are heard and to present a perspective’ (Gersie, 1994, p. 7).
Along with using story to facilitate clients re-authoring their own story and being empowered through exploring different perspectives, story can also be used to provide distance and safety for clients as they process their difficult issues. As Couroucli-Robertson explains, ‘for a client relating a traumatic experience, using a story or a myth about other people can be less painful than talking about their own abuse’ (Couroucli-Robertson, 1998, p. 4). In this way the use of distance allows clients to work more indirectly with their own experiences, while still working through their difficult issues vicariously through the characters experiences in the story. This distance provides a freedom for the client ‘because it is not real life and everyday defence mechanisms are unnecessary, and unconscious processes can be revealed relatively safely’ (Dent-Brown, 1999, p. 11).
The use of distance with story-work in dramatherapy has a further benefit however, to providing a safe way for clients to work through their issues. The use of distance can also be used to bring clients closer to their problems, creating more clarity and insight. As story-work allows the client to access their subconscious thoughts through their engagement and connection with the story, ‘paradoxically, the further from real life the story is set, the greater the degree of revelation is possible’ (Dent-Brown, 1999, p. 11). Through the safety of working with a metaphorical story, and the subconscious engagement with the story and its characters, clients can experience their own painful experiences more readily and more deeply than if they were working directly with their own actual story. Often the experiences and reactions of the characters to the problems they face will provide unexpected clarity for the client who is facing the same difficulties.
As metaphorical stories can provide distance for clients, autobiographical story-work can provide under-distancing for clients who are too removed from their understanding of, or feelings for, their difficult issues. Dramatherapy offers a particular way of ‘engaging with life-story…[as]…it encourages a connection with felt experience (which may be expressed as a remembered smell, taste, sound or image) before developing those ‘deep self-experiences’ into narrative representations’ (Redhouse, 2014, p. 77). As a result the autobiographical story has the potential to allow the client to explore deep, meaningful and intimate moments from their life through the story they write and the parts of their own life-story they want to understand or process further. In using dramatherapy techniques, such as landscapes, puppets and masks, to facilitate clients in exploring parts of their life-story clients can then choose the memories they want to represent in story form, and the theatrical methods they want to use to tell their story. Using a creative medium for clients to tell their autobiographical story is a way to honour and respect their memories, as ‘memory is not entirely rational but performative; memory is a creative and enactive process through which history and identity are rehearsed and constructed’ (Nicholson, 2012, p.69).
As in metaphorical stories, in autobiographical stories clients can also choose to change their narrative and explore other endings or roles they would like to play. This can be very empowering for clients as ‘given insight and awareness, we still have, even in the most interrupted of personal biographies, some power to change, order and ameliorate our lives’ (Taylor, 2000, p. 260). Through story-work clients have the agency to re-author their lives and experience alternative stories, including happier endings, resolutions and the undoing of regrets as ‘through working with a story and its conclusion, a person can put an end to the past and experiences which might remain unfinished’ (Couroucli-Robertson, 1998, p. 9). The act of performing alternative narratives through autobiographical work can create new memories for the client, model a different way to think or behave and strengthen clients with the belief that positive change is possible.
Along with the ability to use under-distancing and alternative endings with autobiographical story-work, it is also a powerful way to enable healing from past trauma. In their article Being Before Doing: Life Story Work for Children with Attachment Difficulties outlining a dramatherapy group run for children and their foster or adopted families, Moore and Peacock found that ‘engaging in the child’s life story in an ‘embodied’ way, not just with ‘thinking’ but using their senses helps reconnect with early un-worded trauma through play and enactment’ (Moore and Peacock, 2007, p. 19). In reconnecting with unspoken trauma through their senses child clients have the opportunity to process the trauma and work through their engagement with it, bringing insight, understanding and eventually healing. For adults who were abused as children their life-story may be quite fractured and their memories hazy or even non-existent. Through embodiment the memories stored in the body can be accessed and brought into the conscious mind, again allowing processing and healing to begin through the story work.
Story-work in dramatherapy is a powerful way of working with clients, and is so accessible as all cultures are made up of stories and all clients have their own life-story to tell. Story-work allows for both distancing and under-distancing depending on the needs of the clients, and in this way is a very respectful and client-centred approach.
Story allows clients to find insight through the symbolism and metaphors in stories and through the embodying of characters that releases the memories stored in our own bodies. Story-work is as beneficial for children, adults and seniors alike and can be healing and empowering for clients who work with stories through the skill of a Dramatherapist.
References
Couroucli-Robertson, K. (1998) The Application of Myth and Stories in Dramatherapy, Dramatherapy, 20:2, 3-10.
Dent-Brown, K. (1999) The Six Part Story Method (6PSM), Dramatherapy, 21:2, 10-14.
Gersie, A. (1983) Story-Telling and its Links with the Unconscious: A Story About Stories, Dramatherapy, 7:1, 7-12.
Gersie, A. (1993) On Being Both Author and Actor: Reflections on Therapeutic Storymaking, Dramatherapy, 15:3, 2-11.
Holmwood, C. (2005) A Tale of Tales, Dramatherapy 27:1, 19-23.
Lewis, J. and Banerjee, S. (2013) An Investigation of the Therapeutic Potential of Stories in Dramatherapy with Young People with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Dramatherapy, 35:1, 29-42.
Moore, J. (2010) A Story to Tell: Use of Story and Drama in Work with Substitute Families, Dramatherapy, 31:3, 3-9.
Moore, J. and Peacock, F. (2007) Being Before Doing: Life Story Work for Children with Attachment Difficulties, Dramatherapy, 29:1, 19-21.
Nicholson, H. (2012) The Performance of Memory: Drama Reminiscence and Autobiography, NJ Drama Australia Journal, 36:1, 62-74.
Redhouse, R. (2014) Life-story; Meaning Making through Dramatherapy in a Palliative Care Context, Dramatherapy, 36:2, 66-80.
Taylor, A. (2000) (Auto)biography and Drama: Life History Work with Adult Returners to Education, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 5:2, 249-261.
