A Story to Tell: Use of Story and Drama in Work with Substitute Families

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of a dramatic narrative approach with adoptive and foster families, involving the parents in enactment of their child's life history for the purpose of changing unhelpful patterns in working towards enhanced mutuality. Research on outcomes finds adoption to be mainly successful, however the likelihood of disruption increases with age from approx 20% at age 7 to 50% at age 11, identifying therapeutic support as of critical importance (Dance 2005). The families (mainly White English) referred for this Dramatherapeutic intervention, characteristically struggle with some form of cultural divide, the parents (often in professional employment) having different life experience and expectations to those of the children, many of whom expect their placement to be temporary, being already accustomed to many changes and associated losses experienced as rejection. For black children, being of different race and appearance adds yet another dimension. The article will evaluate the use of ‘water games’, clay and doll's house play and a candle ceremony as part metaphor/part physical life drama structures for exploration.

Dramatic play therapy.

“…Drama therapy has been shown to be particularly helpful for increasing social and emotional development (Amatruda, 2006;N. Feldman, 2008), building conflict resolution skills (Karatas, 2011), community interventions after traumatic events (Landy, 2010), building resilience (Folostina et al, 2015), clarifying narratives of foster and adoptive children (Moore, 2010), and children with histories of child abuse (James et al, 2005). Drama therapy has proven consistently most effective with adolescents and has been researched most with this population.…”

The Stories of Looked-After and Adopted Children and Young People: Where Are Dramatherapy and Psychodrama in Assisting Young People who Are Looked-After Or Adopted?

“…Stories, metaphor, and dramatic action also feature in dramatherapy texts by Jennings (2011), Bird (2010) and Moore (2010). Jennings includes a chapter about the importance of Neuro-Dramatic Play (NDP) in fostering and adoption in her book on healthy attachment and NDP.…”