Drama Therapy Can Help You Heal

By: Dr. Mary Kate Roohan

The ultimate goal of drama therapy is to aid the client in the healing process. Healing can manifest in many ways and will look different for every client. As a drama therapist, I have witnessed healing in various forms. For example, my clients may experience an emotional release, take on a more flexible perspective, develop insight into the function of their actions, or adopt a more adaptive behavior.

Drama therapy sessions create a frame that allows a client to perform in a role and through performance. The magic happens when the client is enrolled. Though the various theories and practices of drama therapy have their unique approaches to healing, most forms of drama therapy are united in that they utilize the concept of role to facilitate the therapeutic process.

Many drama therapists believe that an individual separates from reality by taking on a role, and the distance that the role creates between the individual’s ego and the imagination is what ultimately facilitates healing.

Before diving into what it looks like to incorporate "role" into therapy, I would like to clarify a few terms. First, the term performance can be described as performance embodying a role in the presence of a witness, which can include an audience, group member, or therapist. In other words, performance is not necessarily on a stage; it can look like participating in a class exercise, telling a story to a group, or exploring a role during an individual therapy session.

Role: Stepping into Different Perspectives

Role method, developed from role theory, is an approach to drama therapy that uses the concept of role to facilitate a distance between that individual’s personal reality and their fictional role, creating a safe space for that person to explore, answer questions, and ultimately change (Landy, 2009). In separating from oneself through role, the individual can paradoxically experience themselves differently because the distance opens up a deeper level of the unconscious. A drama therapist works under the premise that accessing information relegated to the unconscious, made possible through the distance generated by the creative act, helps an individual to think differently and, ultimately, modify thoughts and behaviors.

The moments of insight and potential for change occur when the client has reached a therapeutic ideal that we call aesthetic distance. Aesthetic distance is best understood as “one’s ability to express feeling without the fear of becoming overwhelmed, and to reflect upon an experience without fear of shutting down emotionally” (Landy, 2009, p. 73). I know a client has reached aesthetic distance if they can cry without being overwhelmed by their tears. When I am guiding a client to aesthetic distance, I am creating an avenue for the client to access painful experiences within their internal world that they can explore without shutting down. The beauty of aesthetic distance is that this balance of emotion and cognition creates a space for the individual to access unconscious information that may otherwise be inaccessible.

Many forms of therapy, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), emphasize the importance of developing the ability to live with feelings of ambivalence and to accept contradictions. When clients take on a role, they must frequently sit with the discomfort associated with holding the dialectic. For example, if a client takes on the role of "The Sick One," they may be adopting parts of that role that they may not like or agree with, which may result in wrestling with unwanted parts of themselves.  As drama therapists, we support clients in understanding that seemingly contradictory aspects of themselves and their social world can exist simultaneously.  We are guiding clients to gain an embodied understanding that seemingly contradictory parts of themselves can co-exist in harmony.

A Drama Therapist in Pasadena Explores Paradoxes: Navigating Autonomy and Dependency

As a drama therapist working with young adults in Pasadena, I find that clients frequently struggle with the paradox of wanting to be autonomous and simultaneously be taken care of. Oftentimes, clients feel a great deal of shame around wanting to be taken care of.

In a drama therapy session, the client may choose to embody the role of the Sick One, The Adult, The Child, The Dreamer, The Achiever, or The Worrier. While enrolled, the client navigates competing thoughts and feelings - those of themselves and those of the "role." They may also experience a significant emotional release while embodying the role. After de-rolling and coming back to themselves, a client frequently has realizations that occurred during the performance. The aesthetic distance creates room for reflection and processing - we initially discuss the "role" before discussing the client's personal experience. The distance can decrease feelings of shame and anxiety, which may allow the client to actually name some of the thoughts and behaviors that are keeping them stuck.

While enrolled, the client FEELS the paradox. For example, they may come to sessions talking about wanting independence and then perform in the role of The Child and recognize their desire to be nurtured and cared for.  Many of these realizations are painful, as they go against how the client may seem themselves. As a result, defenses frequently come up when we try to address these unconscious desires during verbal processing. The roles, however, function as conduits for developing insight into these paradoxical desires.

Conversations of stuck roles frequently lead to processing around desired roles and can facilitate performance or conversation about hoped-for roles such as The Dreamer, Adult, Friend, or Lover. 

Drama Therapy Pasadena - How To Get Unstuck

As a drama therapist, I utilize aesthetic distance to help clients learn something new about themselves. Landy’s Role Method encourages clients to embody various roles that the individual has played out or hopes to embody. When exploring their role system, clients face contradictions and identify unconscious desires. This exploratory process ultimately leads to magical moments of insight and perspective changes that can propel a client to feel stuck forward in their healing journey.

References

Landy, R. J. (1994). Drama Therapy: Concepts, theories, and practices (Eds.). Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.

Landy, R. J. (2009). Role theory and the role method of drama therapy. In D.R. Johnson & R. Emunah (Eds.), Current Approaches in Drama Therapy (pp. 65-88). Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.