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” British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth) http://badth.org.uk/
WHAT IS DRAMATHERAPY?
My view alongside this is that my role is to enable, encourage, be alongside you as you/we discover what it is that is causing you distress, dis-ease and what it is that needs or wants to be healed, seen or heard. This is where the creativity comes in – it can range from using more obvious creative processes such as story making, telling, object work in or out of sand tray, puppets, music and TALKING to working through media such as Minecraft conversations (writing messages on a screen to each other, creating rollercoasters of feelings…all on a shared screen.
It doesn’t matter that I have no clue how, as the young people I work with-do!) where creativity can occur through gaming – if that is the accessible language needed. The need to “look” at each other is removed, allowing images from the client to be created that matches their internal visual emotional sense and is combined with a use of more formal language.
Who are Dramatherapists?
We are part of a group known as Allied Health Professionals (AHP’s) and we are regulated by the Health Care Professions Council. (http://www.hpc-uk.org/) This means that our title is protected and that no-one can call themselves and Art(s) therapist (drama, music, dance or art) without having completed and MA level qualification with an HCPC registered course. It is illegal to call oneself an Art(s) therapist without being registered or trained. This is the kind of regulation counselling and psychotherapy strives to achieve.
The HCPC helps maintain standards around ethics and conduct of those registered by our having to make a declaration every 2 years around fitness to practice. Part of this involves us undertaking regular training.
You can check my registration on the site by surname or number: AS01806. Here you can check whether there are any current complaints against me. I invite you to check this out.
Dramatherapists can choose whether to be a member of our professional body. I am a member of the British Association of Dramatherapists and undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD) with them and elsewhere.
"...One thing with sandtray was that I could create something and while talking to you through it, I'd explain it to myself and ended up saying stuff I wouldn't have said without it. "
Dramatherapy has been a fundamental intervention for some of our most vulnerable children. It has helped them to develop trust and open up about the barriers they face. Without exception they have changed as a result of the support and become more able to engage with their peers, adults and in learning. Dramatherapy has the power to transform the lives of children and young people and I cannot recommend this approach highly enough.
