Drama Therapy Australia

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:

www.anzacata.com.au
www.badt.com.uk
www.naadt.com