Dramatherapy - Volume 46, Issue 2, 2025

Dramatherapy is practised within Europe across diverse cultural contexts and a wide range of professional settings. To promote greater alignment in the profession’s profile, the European Federation of Dramatherapy (EFD) established a working group to coordinate collaboration among its member associations. However, this proved challenging and to avoid continuing disputes over educational prerequisites, the group prioritized creating a broadly agreed definition of dramatherapy. This article argues that such a definition, when clearly articulated and widely endorsed, strengthens the profession internally by providing a foundation for professional standards, curriculum design and the systematic advancement of knowledge. Externally, it fosters interprofessional collaboration, facilitates clearer communication with clients and supports dialogue with policy-makers, thereby contributing to recognition and legitimization of the field. The article details the methodological process undertaken, the challenges encountered and the eventual unanimous ratification of the definition by EFD members in 2025. The definition identifies dramatherapy’s distinctive qualities: intersubjective engagement, creative exploration and playfulness as catalysts for transformation; a commitment to holistic health and well-being and adaptability to both independent practice and multidisciplinary contexts. The inclusive process demonstrated that professional unity can be achieved without diminishing the diversity of traditions, methodologies and cultural perspectives represented within the EFD. Further refinement of the agreed definition has the potential to strengthen the articulation of the professional attributes and expertise essential to the practice of dramatherapy, thereby providing a more solid foundation for achieving consensus on a comprehensive professional profile.

Migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking populations face significant challenges to their wellbeing and mental health. As such, dramatherapy as an intervention for these groups is an important, and growing, area of focus for many in the profession. Following a recent systematic review on the use of dramatherapy with these populations, which found sixteen eligible studies, this article aimed to gain perspectives from experienced clinicians on the topic. Two creative workshops (one online, one in-person) were held with UK-based dramatherapists who work with migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers to generate sharable knowledge surrounding their work. First, a key area of discussion related to the expanded offering that is provided by dramatherapists in this context; for example, an offering which goes beyond a typical psychotherapeutic relationship, such as support with booking GP appointments and accessing schools, was noted. Second, the variety of dramatherapeutic methods used with these groups was discussed; embodiment and projection were thought to be useful methods following trauma, which is often faced by these populations. Additionally, a flexible approach to methods, and the use of ‘whatever works’ to engage, interest and involve participants were noted. For example, dramatherapists discussed gardening, cooking and writing poetry with their clients in this context. Third, the challenges of not sharing a spoken language, and preferences surrounding the use of translation, were discussed. If used, the need for consistent, therapeutically-informed translators who are embedded into the therapeutic alliance, were noted. Finally, the need for dramatherapists who work with these groups to be politically, socially and culturally aware and engaged was discussed; this included having knowledge of current affairs in the client’s home country, understanding that psychotherapy is a western, often foreign, concept and the need for rigorous supervision, peer learning and ongoing reflexivity regarding power and bias present in the therapy space.

This article examines the Latvian Vilkatis (‘werewolf’) through an autoethnographic and historical approach, tracing its origins from ancient myth to its presence in contemporary cultural imagination. This study highlights the werewolf’s role as a liminal figure embodying otherness, resilience and transformation. Drawing on Agamben’s concept of homo sacer, the Vilkatis is positioned as an archetype of the outcast, excluded from both legal and social order, yet embodying a form of moral agency. Situating this within the framework of dramatherapy, this article argues for the archetype’s potential to support identity exploration, integration of personal and collective shadows and therapeutic transformation for individuals and communities in states of exile, crisis or transition.

Member countries of the European Federation of Dramatherapy hold distinct stories about how dramatherapy evolved within their unique cultural and professional landscapes. Each story reveals a pioneer whose qualities, works and encounters were key in how the plot then unfolded. This article will tell the story of how dramatherapy evolved in Switzerland, giving insight into the characteristics of dramatherapy in Switzerland in terms of recognition, training and practice.

This article describes an arts therapy training workshop held at the 3rd International Conference of the European Federation of Art Therapy at Brunel University of London in July 2025. Based on the consideration that any new construction is actually a re-construction, artists, philosophers, health professionals, sociologists and anthropologists explore over time the art/creative process both in its specificities and for its use in arts therapies. Art accompanies personal and social emotional regulation and change, responding to the fundamental need of our aesthetic brain to produce beauty, harmony and balance. In this workshop, a theoretical presentation introduced a few concepts on the merging of the art, the therapeutic and the art therapeutic transformative process. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to a practical exploration of the creative steps and challenges, with an expressive therapies continuum approach. Creating paper masks and playing them offered a group of fifteen participants the opportunity to experience a complex pathway to face continuity and disruption in the polyvalent, constructive/destructive reality of the creative process. Facing specific challenges in the art process helps to develop resilience and facilitates the access to the core of the arts therapies. In clinical contexts, specific relationships are fostered through empathic creativity. The choice of working with masks is due to the potential of this media to deal with complex issues in a therapeutic context. In this workshop, both individual creative work and group cooperation offered material for discussion and sharing among professionals. Possible applications in art and drama therapy practice focus on the implementation of a healing continuity from disruption to resilience.

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.

This work presents a single case study of brief, open group dramatherapy with adults in a palliative care setting. It explores the feasibility and potential benefits of this approach for individuals with life-limiting conditions. Grounded in dramatherapy principles and drawing on concepts such as total pain, this study considers how dramatherapy might address the holistic needs of palliative care patients. With the global demand for palliative care rising due to demographic shifts, this research examines the potential of group dramatherapy to meet evolving needs. Using qualitative data from observation and evaluation forms, participants’ experiences are explored. Reflexive thematic analysis generated key themes, including change, transformation, death and the unknown, and grief, highlighting how dramatherapy may support individuals through existential challenges.

Review of: Embodied Approaches to Supervision: The Listening Body, Celine Butte and Tasha Colbert (2023)

Abingdon: Routledge, 180 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-36747-334-1, p/bk, GBP 26.99,

ISBN 978-1-00303-494-0, e-book, GBP 23.59

Review of: Trauma and Embodied Healing in Dramatherapy, Theatre and Performance, J. F. Jacques (ed.) (2024)

London and New York: Routledge, 257 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-03234-482-9, p/bk, GBP 26.99

Review of: Ethics, Identity, and the Dramatherapy Informed Classroom: Processes of Identity Negotiation and Performance, Jeanne Roberts (2024)

London: Routledge, 149 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-03272-985-5, h/bk, GBP 112.00

Review of: Dramatherapy and Learning Disabilities: Developing Emotional Growth, Autonomy and Self-Worth, Helen Milward and Anna Seymour (eds) (2024)

Abingdon: Routledge, 228 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-36755-059-2, p/bk, GBP 31.99M