Inclusive theatre as drama therapy

Therapeutic Puppetry as a Drama-Therapy Intervention for People Living with Dementia

“…Drama therapy is a discipline of creative arts therapies that employs different drama and theater tools to achieve psychological growth and change (Emunah & Johnson, 2021;Feniger-Schaal & Orkibi, 2019). Drama therapy integrates various creative methods, such as imagination-based techniques, role-playing, improvisation, and dramatic projection using objects, metaphors, text, and puppets (Bailey, 2007). A central concept in drama therapy is esthetic distance (Landy, 1996), describing the preferred state that allows a therapeutic effect to occur.…”

Effectiveness of drama-based therapies on mental health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled studies.

“…Drama-based therapies can be situated along two different continua (Bailey, 2007). The first continuum ranges from interventions that are more reality-based to those that are fictional.…”

“…The second continuum ranges from process-oriented to presentational forms. Psychodrama is primarily about process and does not typically move into performance, whereas drama therapy, depending on the needs of the clients, may move from process to presentation, which essentially involves an agreement to move from spontaneous improvisation in the therapy room to rehearsing and then performing a chosen or co-created script for a selected audience to facilitate therapeutic aims (Bailey, 2007;Landy, 2017;Sajnani, 2017).…”

“…In addition, five intervention characteristics were coded, since a previous review showed their relevance for the creative arts therapies (de Witte, . We coded whether the study examined the effect of psychodrama interventions or drama therapy, given the previously mentioned similarities and differences between the two approaches (Bailey, 2007;Landy, 2017). We also coded whether the therapist delivering the therapy was specifically trained in psychodrama or drama therapy, or whether this was not clearly reported in the study, because therapists' competence can be consequential to clinical outcomes (Haug et al, 2016).…”