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Dramatherapy (often written drama therapy in the United States) is the use of theatre techniques to facilitate personal growth and promote health. Drama therapy is an expressive therapy modality used in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, mental health centers, prisons, and businesses. Drama therapy exists in many forms and can be applicable to individuals, couples, families, and various groups.

The use of dramatic process and theater as a therapeutic intervention began with Psychodrama. The field has expanded to allow many forms of theatrical interventions as therapy including role-play, theater game, group-dynamic games, mime, puppetry, and other improvisational techniques. Often, drama therapy is utilized to help a client:

• Solve a problem
• Achieve a catharsis
• Delve into truths about self
• Understand the meaning of personally resonant images
• Explore and transcend unhealthy patterns of interaction

The application of drama therapy is extremely varied, based on the practitioner, the setting and the client. From fully-fledged performances among a troupe of actors to individual empty chair role-play, sessions may involve many variables.

See also

• Art therapy
• Theraplay
• Psychology
• Psychodrama
• Theater of the oppressed
• Playback theatre

External links

• Sesame Institute for Drama and Movement Therapy
• British Association of Dramatherapists (UK)
• National Association for Drama Therapy (USA)
• Insight Improvisation
• Creative Alternatives (Canada)
• Creative Alternatives of New York (USA)
• Institute for the Arts in Psychotherapy -- Developmental Transformations (USA)

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 25 August 2008, at 14:36.

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