ABSTRACT
The challenge . . . is to keep the discourse open and allow the richness of voices to be heard.
Landy, New Essays in Drama Therapy
Why should change happen in dramatherapy?
This chapter defines how dramatherapy is effective. It does so by identifying a number of different elements which combine in dramatherapy work. These elements, or core processes, describe the ways in which drama and theatre forms and processes can be therapeutic. The factors or elements do not consist of specific techniques or methods. They concern fundamental processes within all dramatherapy. The processes will be defined and then clinical vignettes drawing on research into the experience of dramatherapists will be included. These examples from clinical work will analyse the ways in which dramatherapists have responded and contributed to the idea of the core processes originally proposed in the first edition of this book (Jones 1996). The core processes are:
• dramatic projection • dramatherapeutic empathy and distancing • role playing and personification • interactive audience and witnessing • embodiment: dramatising the body • playing • life-drama connection • transformation.
