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- Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
Drama Therapy Review - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
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Therapeutic theatre as family therapy: Integrating drama therapy and experiential family therapy
Authors: Barbara Kaynan and Cameron WadeAbstractThis article juxtaposes two case studies that integrated drama therapy, therapeutic theatre and experiential family therapy. Both authors engaged in arts-based research projects creating theatre with their respective families as therapy. Theoretical justifications, methodologies, limitations and future implications for how drama therapists can impact clinical work with families are presented in this account.
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Transforming families using performance: Witnessing performed lived experience
By Shea M. WoodAbstractThis research investigated how performances based on lived experience can be used as a tool within family support or pyshcosocial education groups to initiate a process of transformation for the participants/witnesses. This study found that witnesses’ emotional arousal and reflection appear to be encouraged by a sense of resonance resulting from the inclusion of lived experience presented using combined representation strategies (realistic and symbolic), which assisted in achieving optimal aesthetic distance.
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Performing status manoeuvres in conducting couples therapy
More LessAbstractStatus, defined as the perceived importance of persons relative to others within a social system, is manifested by intentional behaviours, termed status manoeuvres (SMs), which aim to alter or maintain the status of each person relative to others. In couples therapy, the Treatment System (consisting of a therapist and the two client partners in a couples relationship) can be assessed meaningfully and changed by attending to its recurrent SMs. This article first illustrates SMs in dyads and triads by examples encountered in everyday life; next sets forth descriptions of three exercises useful in training therapists to detect and experience SMs; then offers examples of intentional SMs applicable to couples therapy; and finally presents a case vignette illustrating the effective performance of SMs by the therapist. Some advantages over other mental health professionals possessed by drama therapists in utilizing SMs are cited.
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Improvisation and meditation as interactional (relational) approaches: Theory and practice for drama therapy for couples
By Jerry GaleAbstractThis article presents an interactional framework for working with couples. Building on theories of social constructionism, systems theory and ethnomethodology, and incorporating practices of improvisation and meditation, a new framework is provided for conducting drama therapy with couples. This is a relational perspective that attends to interaction focused on dialogue. This relational perspective also brings into practice a theory-based approach to address relational power and social inequalities. How we interact determines how we come to assign and define what is real.
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How we use action explorations to improve and enhance our relationship
Authors: Adam Blatner and Allee BlatnerAbstract‘Action explorations’ is the term we use for drama therapy and psychodrama techniques applied outside of psychotherapy. This article also describes how sublimated pretend play can be explored for role relief and fun in a relationship. These approaches have helped us as a couple to expand our capacity to understand and manage various day-to-day issues, compassionately respond to one another and provide new perspectives on disagreements. We have actively used these methods in our own relationship for over 40 years. Illustrated examples of these methods can serve as tools for practitioners to add to their therapeutic repertoire when working with couples, and more importantly, as ways of improving and enhancing their own interpersonal lives.
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Participatory family theatre: A historical review of Theatre Workshop Boston’s creative, transformational, healing theatre for young audiences and families
More LessAbstractParticipatory, environmental plays evolved in the 1960s amidst social unrest through several experimental theatres. Original plays were created, using theatre space in new ways, awakening audiences to a new consciousness. This article offers a historical review of Theater Workshop Boston’s evolution within that movement. Their first experiments were adult environmental plays. Next, they developed participatory environmental plays for young audiences, and then for families to explore family issues/dynamics together creatively.
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This way to the playground: A drama therapeutic treatment protocol for the parentified child who has witnessed domestic violence
More LessAbstractThis article is an exploration of drama therapy for the treatment of the parentified child, ages 4–6, who has witnessed domestic violence. A theoretical model is presented exploring how the therapeutic needs of parentified children who have experienced domestic violence can be met. Following the review of related literature, a three-phase drama therapeutic treatment protocol will be offered as a treatment to correct the potentially detrimental role reversal of parentification, prompted by domestic violence.
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Reflections on marriage and family therapy training for drama therapy students at the California Institute of Integral Studies
Authors: Gary Raucher and Susan Coto McKennaAbstractThis article consists of reflections on the training of drama therapy students in the area of marriage (relationship)-family-child therapy via a transcribed conversation between two educators with the Drama Therapy Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco. Areas discussed include: relating theory to practice; multicultural perspectives in relationship therapy theory; balancing cognitive and affective aspects of clinical training; recognition of student learning curves; qualities that drama therapy students bring to relationship training; licensure and credentialing.
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Reviews
Authors: Elizabeth McAdam and Craig HaenAbstractPlay in Family Therapy, Eliana Gil (2016) (2ND ED.) New York: The Guilford Press, 202 pp., ISBN-10: 1462517498, h/bk, $30.00; ISBN-10: 1462526451, p/bk, $21.25
Drama, Creativity and Intersubjectivity, Salvo Pitruzzella (2017) New York: Routledge, 148 pp., ISBN: 9781138927223, h/bk, $170.00; ISBN: 9781138927230, p/bk, $52.95
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