Drama plays a crucial role in healthy human development and dramatherapy can be particularly effective in helping troubled children or adolescents. In this book, twelve contributors, writing from a range of international and theoretical perspectives, show how the dramatic element in people's lives plays its part in patterns of healthy and unhealthy development. They describe practical ways of using dramatherapy with both groups and individuals and demonstrate that dramatherapy is a strategy that works, helping to bring about change and creativity.
Dramatherapy with Children...

Sue Jennings and her three children spent two years on a fieldwork expedition to the Senoi Temiar people of Malaysia: Theatre, Ritual and Transformation is a fascinating account of that experience. She describes how the Temiar regularly perform seances which are enacted through dreams, dance, music and drama, and explains that they see the seance as playing a valuable preventative role in people's lives, as well as being a medium of healing and cure. Her account brings together the insights of drama, therapy and theatre with those of social anthropology to provide an invaluable...

The third volume of Dramatherapy: Theory and Practice brings the reader up-to-date with the latest developments in the profession of dramatherapy and tackles key issues in contemporary social relationships. It shows how dramatherapy is evolving its own theory and methodology as well as specific models for supervision and assessment. Dramatherapy is now being used in a broad continuum of care and contributors give many examples of its practice in contexts of prevention, maintenance and cure.
This new volume has twenty-nine international contributors and covers major new themes of...

This work brings readers up to date with the latest developments in the profession of dramatherapy. It shows how dramatherapy is evolving its own theory and methodology as well as specific models for supervision and assessment. Dramatherapy is now being used in a broad continuum of care, and contributors give many examples of its practice in contexts of prevention, maintenance and cure. The text's 29 international contributors cover themes of gender, race and politics as well as incorporating the latest methods, theoretical concepts and research.

Dramatherapy is now well-established and widely used in a variety of settings with diverse groups of people. In this book, Sue Jennings presents a 'healing theatre' approach to dramatherapy, showing how it is part of our total cultural experience of theatre art, and how it can be used to find a bearable means of facing the beast at the heart of the labyrinth. Challenging received views from psychology and psychotherapy on the theoretical base of dramatherapy, she argues that the dramatic development of the individual is a primary developmental process, which is influential from conception and...

Developing the basic principles of her model of playtherapy, Sue Jennings has written a stimulating book that will provide inspiration for those new to the discipline, whilst providing a fresh and exciting approach for established practitioners. In Introduction to Developmental Playtherapy, Jennings argues that creative play is essential for children's health. Drawing on examples from her own professional experience, she discusses how play can help resolve issues by allowing possible solutions to be explored safely, thus encouraging flexibility of response. She explores the cultural...

This book - by one of the leaders in this exciting and relatively new field - is the first to present a working framework for dramatherapists, social workers, family and marital therapists, and others conducting groups. This framework primarily deals with dramatherapy in the non-clinical setting such as family centres, residential children's homes, social services resources and intermediate treatment centres. Separate chapters cover current theory, methodology and application in specific client areas including child abuse. The author addresses work with children and adults, both individually...

Ancient peoples articulated and made sense of their lives through the powerful world of symbol, and Christianity absorbed such symbols as blood, corn, fire and water, adding new dimensions of meaning to each one. By medieval times, these symbols provided access to a many-levelled world in which pagan and Christian truths shed light upon each other. During the Age of Reason, the language of symbol was spoken less, and now that symbols are valued once again, Christians often fear to reconnect religious symbols with their ancient roots. As a result the symbol world of modern Christians is often...

Based on more than ten years of research and practice of art therapy and dramatherapy in training, clinical practice and theory, this book is the first to explore the relationship and differences between these two disciplines. The first part of the book explores the theoretical background and the history and practice of art therapy and dramatherapy, including accounts of the authors' personal experiences and the creative and imaginative processes they make use of in their work. The second part describes five major themes that have been practically and collaboratively developed by the authors,...

Dramatherapy is being increasingly practised in a range of therapeutic settings and is of growing interest to theatre practitioners and teachers. The Handbook of Dramatherapy brings together five authors who have considerable experience of clinical, artistic and educational work to provide an easy-to-read introduction to the major models of dramatherapy. The authors explain the differences between dramatherapy and psychodrama, discuss its relationship with theatre art, look at assessment and evaluation techniques, and argue the need for more appropriate methods of research for this...