Dramatherapy and victim empathy: a workshop approach in a forensic setting

This chapter concerns an aspect of our practice as dramatherapists in a high secure NHS in-patient psychiatric hospital in the United Kingdom,1 where we work with male patients who have offended and been sectioned under the Mental Health Act (1983 – with amendments 2007). The Act ‘permits the transfer or diversion of mentally disordered offenders from the criminal justice system to hospital at each stage of the legal process’ (Davison 2004: S19). In this chapter we focus on the use of a series of dramatherapy workshops as an intervention within this population exploring the concept of ‘victim empathy’. We describe the working context and its process, provide reflections from patients and colleagues from other professions and comment on implications for future practice. Our colleagues’ reflections derive from a focus group, which was facilitated with Phil Jones. The focus group setting enables a group of people to discuss and explore a theme or topic together, often within a defined open questions structure (Bryman 2001).