What it is
What is Drama Therapy
Providing the necessary tools
In drama and play therapy we bring creative processes into the room when working with our emotions, expressing our life stories and facing our fears. It is also an embodied therapy using play and drama tools as an extension of expressing our ‘selves’; the parts that are wounded and the parts that desire to experience wholeness, but let us not forget the parts that are whole, all of them are welcome.
Drama therapy is a creative form of psychotherapy which uses different mediums in order to express and explore feelings and issues. These creative mediums can include play, drama, sandtray, puppetry, story, myth, improvisation, voice and movement, and may often also include aspects of dance, art and music.
Drama therapy has been around since the 1960, but is a modality that is recently acknowledged more and more for its results with trauma, stress and anxiety, as it is an embodied modality that has been proven to be very effective.
“Our sense of agency, how much we feel in control, is defined by our relationship with our bodies and its rhythms…in order to find our voice, we have to be in our bodies – be able to breathe fully and be able to access our inner sensations… Acting is an experience of using our body to take your place in life.” Bessel van der Kolk.
Drama therapy is found in many settings such as:
- Mainstream and Special Need Schools
- Mental Health Settings
- NHS & Private Hospitals
- Prisons
- Voluntary Institutions and NPO’s
- Adult and Child Care Homes
Drama therapy is an evidence-based approach and one of the four recognised and accredited by the HPCSA (Health Professional Council of South Africa). As a drama therapist you are required to complete professional training at MA level including an internship with supervision.
