A Question of Identity and Belonging. the Self between Familiar and Unfamiliar, Foreign Spaces

This paper was presented at the ECArTE conference 2009 in London. It was one of three papers which formed a paper presentation slot at the conference, with 15 minutes allocated for each paper. The overall title for the conference was ‘The Space Between; the potential for change’. There were a number of different headers suggested in terms of themes for papers and workshops. We opted for the area of professional identity. We felt it was important to give a brief overview of what DEEP is and how its identity as a working party of BADth came about. At the same time we didn’t want the paper to be purely factual in terms of what the working party does; rather we felt it important to present some of the material that has arisen in our research into experiences of dramatherapist immigrants within Europe, particularly the struggle for professional (and personal) definition in a foreign place. We also wanted to make some reference to the theme of ‘role’ as in professional identity and ‘role’ as we understand it within dramatherapy. As the convenors of the working party we were aware that we were describing both an autobiographical experience in our writing and one that we have heard echoed throughout our meetings with other dramatherapists who have emigrated.