About Drama & Movement Therapy
"If we can stay with the tension of opposites long enough —sustain it,
be true to it—we can sometimes become vessels within which the divine opposites come together and
give birth to a new reality.”
― Marie-Louise von Franz
Creativity is at the core of what it means to be human. We create sounds, stories, images, movements, so many things every day and mostly without noticing. Drama and movement therapy is a helpful tool that encourages us to notice what our creations are and what they may reveal about our internal worlds.
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By using creative techniques, drama and movement therapy offers a safe way in which to access parts of yourself you may be unaware are there. As Bessel van der Kolk suggests in his book, The Body Holds the Score, our bodies hold a wealth of insight and wisdom that may not be accessible to our conscious minds. By using the arts to give these truths a form, they reveal themselves to us, enabling an autonomous relationship to be built with these previously hidden parts of ourselves. It can be a powerful and transformative process capable of effecting deep and long-lasting change.
“It’s in the nature of dance that there is a necessity to the relationship of being alive, to humanity”
- Rudolf Laban
Drama and movement therapy is a from of psychological therapy that focuses on the intentional use of the creative arts to support personal insight, growth and connection.
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Based on Jungian psychology, drama and movement therapy values the exploration of the unconscious mind, acknowledging the potential of what it may reveal to us. Combining psychological and movement theory and analysis, alongside dramaturgy and play, drama and movement therapy creates a safe, non-stigmatising or judgemental space in which to explore emotion and experience.
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Drama and movement therapy lends itself to a wide variety of uses, from therapeutic community projects to small group interventions and individual psycho-creative explorations. The medium can be adapted to suit your needs and there is no need for experience in any art form.
"Dramatherapy is a form of Psychotherapy. Dramatherapists are both clinicians and artists that draw on their knowledge of theatre and therapy to use as a medium for psychological therapy that may include drama, story-making, music, movement, and art; to work with any issue that has presented itself."
- British Association of Dramatherapists