What is dramatherapy? Here’s everything you need to know

With so many different kinds of therapy out there, it can be difficult to know where to get started. We explain more about dramatherapy, how it works, and what it can help you with.

When you hear the word therapy, what comes to mind? A lot of us picture what we see on television and in the movies: A person or couple talking to a professional while sitting on a couch. But talking therapies are just one of the many different kinds available, each designed to help different people with their unique problems, situations, and needs.

Dramatherapy (also called drama therapy) is a creative therapy used to help people express themselves and their emotions, and explore those inner feelings in a therapeutic way. Creative therapies (also sometimes called expressive therapies) focus on different artistic mediums like art, movement, music, play, and drama.

But what does dramatherapy involve, what does a dramatherapist do, and what can dramatherapy help with?

What is dramatherapy?

Dramatherapy is a kind of psychotherapy that helps you through the medium of drama. This can mean helping you with a specific problem or issue, learning new ways to express yourself, helping you gain confidence, or even setting goals to help you get unstuck and feel able to move forward. Dramatherapy can act as a way of having a safe space to try out new things, learn and practice new ways of relating and reacting to others, and find ways to express how you feel.

Depending on what you want to get out of therapy, dramatherapy can use a broad variety of different techniques to help you achieve your goals. These can range from dramatic exercises to improv, roleplay to puppetry, storytelling to games. Over time, dramatherapy can help you to solve problems, achieve a sense of catharsis, feel like you have a better understanding of yourself, improve social skills, as well as recognise and overcome unhealthy, unhelpful behaviours that may be negatively affecting you or holding you back. 

What does a drama therapist do?

A drama therapist (also known as a dramatherapist) uses different techniques and activities during dramatherapy sessions to help you use creativity to solve problems, increase confidence, and express yourself in a safe, no-pressure setting. 

A drama therapist might work with you one-to-one or as part of a group. Some drama therapists work with other professionals, such as teachers in a school setting. 

Drama therapists often tailor their sessions to help meet the needs of their clients. This means that sessions may involve different activities. A group dramatherapy session often involves:

• A check in where your therapist checks to see how you are feeling before the session gets started.
• A warm-up to help you loosen your muscles, engage your imagination, and feel more relaxed and ready to participate.
• A main activity such as roleplay, improvisation, mime, focusing on speech or movement, using puppets, props or masks.
• A debrief where your drama therapist goes through what the group has achieved, and asks how you think the session went. 

Drama therapists can help people to learn more about how they behave and react to others around them, helping them to better understand social situations and find new, more assertive ways of dealing with them. They work with people of all ages from children to the elderly, helping with issues, in different settings like schools, through the NHS, and private practice.

Dramatherapists can use dramatherapy to not only help with emotional, behavioural and mental health problems, but also use it to help those with learning or physical disabilities, life-limiting conditions, neurological conditions, and physical illnesses. 

Is dramatherapy for me?

Finding the right kind of therapy that works for you is important. Different kinds of therapies can be more or less helpful for different people; there’s no right or wrong type of therapy to try – it’s about finding what you’re most comfortable trying, and what works for your unique needs and situation.

Dramatherapy can be particularly helpful if you are feeling isolated, have difficulty expressing yourself, how you are feeling, or want to relate to people more easily. Working with a dramatherapist can help you to learn problem-solving skills, set goals, and improve your self-worth and self-esteem. Dramatherapy can help you to better understand yourself through using creativity and imagination, helping you to address problems quickly, while interacting with others in a safe, comfortable environment. 

Dramatherapy can also help with a broad range of mental health problems including anxiety, depression, addiction, and trauma. It can also be helpful in tackling relationship problems, as it can help focus on improving trust, communication, and teamwork. 

Discover more about what dramatherapy can help with and how to find a dramatherapist.