Drama Therapy Review - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2018

Can Shakespeare be a treatment for posttraumatic stress in military veterans? This is the question that our research team has been examining through the empirical investigation of the DE-CRUIT program. DE-CRUIT uses Shakespeare’s verse to help veterans with the articulation, sharing and processing of trauma. In this article, we focus specifically on the therapeutic process of the program that involves various modes of aesthetic distance in combination with mimetic induction, a treatment technique in which fictionalized narrative reflects the real-life experience of trauma. After describing that process, we illustrate these various intersecting therapeutic components through the case of ‘D.’, a military veteran who took part in DE-CRUIT after many years of living with a secret, non-disclosed trauma.

This article aims to further dialogue between drama therapists and other mental health professionals by scaffolding and bridging knowledge of common psychodynamic processes to illuminate drama therapy’s potential to deepen psychodynamic trauma therapy. While there are many converges between drama therapy and other forms of psychotherapy, clinical vignettes will show dramatic reality’s unique potential to address and transform common areas impacted by complex trauma: self-concept, affect regulation and the ability to be in a relationship.

This article is based on the Keynote for the 38th Annual Conference of the North American Drama Therapy Association, ‘From theory to practice: The drama therapist’s toolbox’, Danvers, Massachusetts, 2017. The speech explored the notion of the ‘invisible’ in drama therapy, in dialogue with four interrelated bodies of knowledge that partake of this concept: shamanism, theatre/arts, psychotherapy and spirituality. By focusing on the invisible, a genuine tool of drama therapy, within a comparative outlook, this article positions the field within a broader perspective while simultaneously pointing out its uniqueness.

By integrating meditation and authentic movement with psychodrama, psolodrama is a healing drama therapy method that is well suited for peer practice among healthy adults seeking new avenues for personal growth through body-based active imagination work. Detailed descriptions illustrate how thirteen years of twice-monthly practice have helped the author facilitate grieving, discover evocative gestures and scenes, and provide support to another’s growth by witnessing in a non-judgemental and present manner.

Insight Improvisation, a form of drama therapy incorporating ideas and practices from mindfulness meditation, has many potential benefits for Koreans. Despite the challenges in introducing a new form, it has been shown to be effective in helping individuals achieve personal insights, increase awareness of their body and feeling state, and support those who tend to be introverted in expressing themselves. This article specifically focuses on the benefits and challenges of applying Insight Improvisation to a Korean historical and cultural context.

This article explores the performance of race and racism in clinical practice. Poetry in this piece is used as a vehicle to grapple with seven questions related to race within treatment spaces. This autoethnographic exploration focuses on narratives of clients and clinicians of colour that this writer has encountered or experienced either directly or indirectly.

This article is a performative exploration of Developmental Transformations’ (DvT) potential as a political practice of resistance and imagining the world in which we want to live. Following a review of the literature on DvT and social justice, this article employs a radical performative methodology, which attempts to embody in its form the principles of DvT practice and the carnivalesque. This writing style aims to disrupt and engage the reader, point to how knowledge is produced through the status quo of academic writing, and to spark the creative impulses that drive many to drama therapy in the first place. This article attempts to articulate ways in which DvT might allow us to engage with complexities of social justice, power, and inequities within an aesthetic, relational frame. It also points to the complexities and failings of attempting to deploy DvT, or any drama therapy practice, within political or social justice frameworks. The article does not attempt to resolve these tensions for the reader.

This article describes the evolution of The Fear Project based on interviews with people about what they fear. Guiding influences and excerpts from the scripts of productions in the Czech Republic, India and the United States are included to illustrate key phases of the script development process. The author reflects on the potential therapeutic and social value of the project.

As the profession of drama therapy within North America continues to grow, there is a concurrent need to further understand the occupational experiences of those engaged in service delivery. This secondary data analysis utilized Applied Thematic Analysis to identify common themes among responses to a survey prompt of how personal identifiers impact career advancement among North American drama therapists. Emergent broad themes include Personal Priorities or Values, Lack of Professional Recognition and Mentorship. Findings are interpreted within the context of the current state of the profession. Future directions for research and professional viability are provided.

Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women, Paul Lucas, Cambridge MA, USA (2017)

The Self in Performance: Autobiographical, Self-Revelatory, and Autoethnographic Forms of Therapeutic Theatre, Susana Pendzik, Renee Emunah and David R. Johnson (eds) (2016) New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 271 pp., ISBN: 9781137535931, h/bk, $99.99