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Volume 46, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0263-0672
  • E-ISSN: 2157-1430
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Abstract

This ethnographic study examines the integration of multicultural bereavement rituals – including South African Zulu mourning practices, Hindu funeral and mourning rites and Muslim burial customs – within the Sesame dramatherapy framework. Conducted in London, United Kingdom, with children and young persons permanently residing there, the study foregrounds the triadic positionality of the researcher as practitioner, scholar and bereaved client. The ethnographic inquiry examines three culturally situated bereavement cases as illustrative exemplars, including researcher reflexivity. In each case, participants faced disruptions to culturally significant mourning practices due to circumstantial constraints. Through role-play and enactment of cultural bereavement rituals in dramatherapy sessions, symbolic and embodied engagement facilitated grief processing, meaning-making and psychosocial integration. The findings highlight how culturally responsive dramatherapy can mediate the impact of interrupted mourning rituals across diverse contexts while allowing the researcher to critically reflect on personal and clinical experiences of loss.

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Intellect Ltd.
This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The CC BY licence permits commercial and noncommercial reuse. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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2026-04-07
2026-04-17

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/content/journals/10.1386/dj_00053_1
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Cross-cultural bereavement rituals in Sesame dramatherapy: An ethnographic study of Zulu, Hindu and Muslim traditions
Dramatherapy 46, 251 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1386/dj_00053_1
/content/journals/10.1386/dj_00053_1
/content/journals/10.1386/dj_00053_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): dramatic play; enactment; grief; mourning; psychosocial; psychosomatic; role-play; storytelling

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