Drama therapy

History

The historical roots of drama therapy have been discussed by Jones (2007). At different times in history, drama has been used for psychological, political and religious change, such as Aristotle’s idea to use tragedy for ‘catharsis’. Several drama therapists have analyzed the historical roots of drama therapy in the context of ancient traditions and rituals (Jones, 2007). However, according to Jones (2007), the specific connection between drama and therapy did not emerge until the nineteenth century and developed further throughout the twentieth century. The development of drama therapy did not occur through one given pioneer, or even in one field, country or moment. Ideas about drama and healing were formed through several individual journeys and more or less accidental elements. David Johnstone and Renée Emunah stated that in the early stages of drama therapy, most drama therapists started as doers, actors or clinicians, "who discovered for themselves the exciting possibility of linking drama with healing"(Johnstone and Emunah, 2009, p. 16). Robert Landy noted that "(t)he field of drama therapy is an expansive one, developing in a number of countries simultaneously, most notably England, the United States and the Netherlands"(Landy, 1994, p. 32).

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the emergence of drama therapy has been closely tied to the jobs of activity leader, youth worker and social welfare worker (Jones, 2007). Learning about therapy and arts in these professions increased during the 1950s. Drama in the context of learning about the arts was strongly influenced by ‘play therapy’. Two main influencers in the early stages were Lex Wils and Jan Boomsluiter, who wrote about drama as therapy in the 1950s. Dutch drama therapist Gé Cimmermans argued that the arts therapies, including drama therapy, were initially mainly practiced by artists from Art Academies (Cimmermans, 2014, interviewed by Jorine Beck). Cimmermans (2014) also pointed to the influence of the School of Middeloo. This school was initially set up to train caregivers who had to work with children affected by the Second World War (van der Linde, 2010). Students were trained in using play and creative activities as the main methodology, and gained knowledge in psychology, pedagogy and other courses related to human development. In the 1960s the school started to offer different art therapy courses, based on the experience in teaching both creativity and human development.

England

According to Brenda Meldrum (1994), drama therapy in England evolved from drama in education, theatre in education and remedial drama from the 1960s onwards. Meldrum placed the start of drama therapy in the context of the 1960s, when the establishment, including psychiatry, was being questioned and an optimism about new ideas and approaches to learning and the arts was embraced. These radical approaches can similarly be found in Grotowski’s new way of training actors through laboratory theatre, in which the process was therapy for the actors and spectators and the work of Heathcote, who encouraged children to learn and reflect through drama. Meldrum noted that these radical ideas frightened the establishment, but despite that other practitioners were influenced by these ideas and centres for remedial drama and drama therapy started to be formed. In recent years, the wellbeing of actors in the creative industries has come into sharp focus in the UK. Beyond the therapeutic by-products of a life in the theatre, industrial protocols and educational policies are beginning to emerge that offer formalised support for student actors and actors in the profession.

Further development of the field

After the initial discoveries of the healing aspect of drama, the emerging field of drama therapy became more organized. Different schools of emerged in both the Netherlands and England. In the Netherlands the first two art therapy organisations were formed in the 1960s and from 1974 onwards official training courses were created (Jones, 2007).

Cimmermans (2014) asserted that three main schools of thought emerged in drama therapy in The Netherlands: the Creative Process Theory, the Analogue Process Model and the Cognitive Behavioural Model. According to Cimmermans, the Creative Process Theory was influenced by psychoanalytical and Rogerian theory. Henk Smeijsters (2006) wrote that the Creative Process Theory is based on the idea that through the creative arts process the client explores his or her needs, rediscovers suppressed needs, lets go of rigid patterns and experiments with new behaviour that fulfils the new discovered needs. The important element is the ‘aesthetic illusion’ that creates a safe distance in exploring the suppressed needs, which makes it less threatening for the client (Smeijsters, 2006). The Analogue Process Model is based on how the personal characteristics and the mental health issues of the client resonate with the client’s expression in the artistic process. The therapist tunes in with the client’s creative expression and explores alternative ways of thinking, feeling and acting together with the client through play and creativity (Smeijsters, 2006). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can be implemented in drama therapy, for instance in skills-based trainings (Cleven, 2004). The emphasis here is on ‘rationalising objectively what clients hear, where and when, based on the idea that thoughts influence the experience, just such as the feeling about and meaning of the thoughts’ (Cleven, 2004, p. 44, translated from Dutch). The dialectical behavioural therapy and schema therapy as sub-branches of CBT, are part of this school of thought in drama therapy (Cimmermans, 2014).

In England, by 1977 drama therapy was known as an alternative to psychodrama, and the first drama therapy courses were established (Meldrum, 1994). According to Meldrum, Stanislavski, Artaud and Growtowski are influential on the practice of drama therapy in England. The work of Stanislavski provides ideas about character building, the use of unconscious material, the re-creation of feeling and improvisation (Meldrum, 1994). The work of Artaud was inspired by symbolism and was a response to the dominance of realism which he found to be too word-bound and moralistic (Styan, 2003). Artaud argued that emotion is not verbal in itself and thus words cannot communicate the fullness of the human experience. Growtowski’s Poor Theatre was characterized by the rediscovery of the religious and mythical roots of drama (Meldrum, 1994). The Sesame Institute for drama and movement therapy cannot be excluded when discussing important influences in the field of drama therapy in England. The institute was founded by Marian Lindkvist in the 1960s as a response to the dominant drug-oriented treatments of mental illnesses (Sesame Institute, 2014). Therapies are based on the key concepts of drama, movement, ritual, play, psyche and touch.

Today, drama therapy is practiced around the world and there are presently academic training programs in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Croatia, Israel and the United States.