I was recently able to attend the British Association of Dramatherapists’ annual conference. This year it was held in Cirencester, picturesque capital of the Cotswolds, providing a green and open space that supported the dramatherapy community’s annual opportunity to connect with one another, themselves and the soul and mechanics of their profession and practice.
Dramatherapy is defined by the Health and Care Professions Council of the UK as “a unique form of psychotherapy in which creativity, play, movement, voice, storytelling, dramatisation and the performance arts have a central position within the therapeutic relationship”. The British Association of Dramatherapists is the professional body that represents dramatherapy in the UK.
The conference theme this year was Cultivating the Field: Innovation, Performance and Risk in Dramatherapy.
It provided a platform for dramatherapists to re-evaluate and enrich their practice by walking and reflecting on the tightrope between innovation and best practice; exploring new ideas coming from the profession and what can be learned from other disciplines.
During a long-table discussion, the relationship between arts-in-health and the arts therapies was explored
Dramatherapy is in itself an interdisciplinary profession, bringing together the practice of psychotherapy and drama. It is a profession that supports the development of relational potential, and at the same time is a profession that is inherently relational in its own constitution. It thus based on developments in the specific fields from which it draws upon –
namely psychotherapy, psychology, creativity, theatre, performance and the arts – as well as developments growing from within the profession itself.
The conference also gave space to exploring developing paradigms of performance and their relevance to the profession of dramatherapist, particularly addressing the performance of self. Dramatherapy is a confidential process in which therapist and client(s) co-create a therapeutic relationship using dramatic techniques.
Although the role of witness is important and this is taken on by the therapist and/or group members, there is no external audience looking in on the work or seeing the creative work of the client. And yet when we refer to performance, we are referring to that aspect of ‘showing’ and giving expression to something that is then met by an external eye.
Within the safety and confidentiality of the therapeutic space and the dramatic metaphor, the client takes risks in showing off themselves and giving external expression to aspects of themselves while having this witnessed by the therapist and/or group members.
In the keynote speech, Anna Seymour addressed the performance of self in the practice of solo performance that is the culmination of some of the dramatherapy trainings (there are variations within the trainings offered by different universities).
At Roehampton University, for example, where I completed my dramatherapy training and where Seymour is also on the teaching staff, the final exam consists of an autobiographical piece in which the trainee creates and performs a piece expressing his/her journey towards becoming a dramatherapist.
Drawing on students’ experience of this, Seymour highlighted the risk that is required in putting oneself out there, and the particular safe context that allows for this. She presented her speech performatively, showing the experience and reflections as much as talking about them.
Significantly, actor, director and dramatherapist Dominic McHale also used the medium of performance to convey his reflections. In a monologue written and performed specifically for the conference, he enacted a scenario of a therapist preparing for a session and waiting for the clients to arrive. Thus, he put out there the risk that the therapist takes and the vulnerability experienced in bringing themselves to the work.
In this way, dramatherapists use drama in their therapeutic practice, but also in their way of reflecting and communicating about their work.
Other notable presentations at the conference included a paper and workshop presented by Rinat Feniger-Schaal in which she outlined a research project carried out at the Centre for the Study of Child Development, The Graduate School for Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Israel.
The research explored the effectiveness of a dramatherapy intervention on maternal insightfulness with mothers experiencing difficulties in parenting. Dramatherapy techniques were used to support the mothers to develop empathy and skills in understanding the separate needs of their child.
Alida Gersie explored the relationship between the private therapeutic space and the political world that exists beyond the therapeutic space.
During a long-table discussion, the relationship between arts-in-health and the arts therapies was explored. It was interesting to observe the evaluation of these fields of now-long-standing practice in the UK while both fields are still in their infancy in Malta.
Notes from here that are particularly important to highlight for our context include the importance of supporting artists engaging in arts-in-health work with appropriate skills needed to work in the context and ethical awareness, as well as the reiteration that the primary difference between arts-in-health and arts therapies is the clinical context of work and clinical intention towards change and healing with which arts therapists practise.
I am grateful to the Farsons Foundation that supported me to attend the conference, an experience that will allow for further professional growth.
• Lou Ghirando is an HCPC-UK registered dramatherapist, international member of the British Association of Dramatherapists and president of Creative Arts Therapies Society Malta.