Drama therapy

Encyclopedia : D : DR : DRA : Drama therapy

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Drama therapy is a health and human services profession that seeks to facilitate physical integration and personal growth for individuals, couples, families, and various groups through the use of theatrical and dramatic processes. Drama therapists work in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, mental centers, prisons, and businesses.

Using role-play, theater games, group-dynamic games, mime, puppetry, and other improvisational techniques, drama therapists help the client to tell his or her story in order to:

• Solve a problem
• Achieve a catharsis
• Extend the depth and breadth of inner experience
• Understand the meaning of images
• Strengthen the ability to observe personal roles while increasing flexibility between roles
• This may also involve movement with therapeutic touch

The therapeutic efficacy of Drama Therapy has not yet been proven scientifically. Some contend, however, that it is virtually impossible to scientifically prove the efficacy of any psychotherapeutic modality, new or old. They argue that the variables are simply too vast, infinite in fact, making a controlled experiment impossible. In fact, the efficacy of several scientifically-based therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, has been well established as one of the most effective forms of treatment for many mental illnesses. Drama Therapy or other Creative Arts Therapies, not unlike Psychoanalysis, may elude scientific validation as the goals and methods of the modality is fundamentally based in art, not science.

See also

• Art Therapy
• Theraplay
• Dramaturgy
• Eco-somatics
• Play therapy
• Psychology
• Psychodrama

External links

• [National Association of Drama Therapy]
• [Insight Improvisation]

 

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