This professional handbook evaluates the considerable benefits of dramatherapy in educational settings. A variety of highly experienced dramatherapists, educational psychologists and childhood experts comment on its merits in relation to the involvement of school staff, children, adolescents and families.

Using extensive examples from practice with a range of client groups, Dramatherapy and Autism confronts the assumption that people with autism are not able to function within the metaphorical realms of the imagination and creativity. It demonstrates that not only are people who function along the spectrum capable of engaging in creative exploration, but that through encountering these processes in the clinical context of dramatherapy, changes can be made that are life enhancing. Bringing in cutting-edge research and practice on dramatherapy, Dramatherapy and Autism aims to contribute to developing the theory and practice of creative arts therapies interventions with clients with autism. The book is part of the Dramatherapy: approaches, relationships, critical ideas series, in which leading practitioners and researchers in the field develop the knowledge base of this unique discipline, whilst contextualising and acknowledging its relationship with other arts and therapeutic practices. Dramatherapy and Autism will be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers, such as dramatherapists in practice and training, arts practitioners and academic researchers engaged in multidisciplinary enquiry.

Child Agency and Voice in Therapy offers innovatory ways of thinking about, and working with, children in therapy. The book: considers different practices such as respecting the rights of the child in therapy and recognising and listening to children as ‘active agents’ and ‘experts’; features approaches that: access children’s views of their therapy; engage with them as researchers or co-researchers; and that use play and arts-based methods; draws on arts therapies research in ways that enable insight and learning for all those engaged with children’s therapy and wellbeing; considers how the contexts of the therapy, such as a school or counselling centre, relate to the ways children experience themselves and their therapy in relation to rights, agency and voice. Child Agency and Voice in Therapy will be beneficial for all child therapists and is a good resource for courses concerning childhood welfare, therapy, education, wellbeing and mental health.

In this insightful book, Oldfield and Carr draw together persuasive arguments for combining aspects of music therapy and dramatherapy, whilst retaining their unique facets. Building on the many links between music and drama and the compatibility between the two disciplines, the authors explore how artistic aspects of each therapy can be drawn on to create fresh ways of working. This approach enriches the practice of professionals working to support people with special needs, people recovering from trauma and social deprivation and a wide range of other service users. Despite the significant overlap in music therapy and dramatherapy techniques, this is the first book to directly explore the vast potential of elements of the two disciplines being brought together. Covering a range of different perspectives and practice contexts, this book demonstrates just how much the professions can offer each other both from a clinical perspective and from the point of view of training therapists.

This volume presents cutting-edge research and practice on Creative Arts Therapies or Arts Therapies for individuals on the autism spectrum of all ages, outlining the development of effective and accessible approaches to support the diverse needs of this client group. Consisting of 14 research-based chapters with contributions from over 30 authors from across the world, the book brings together research from art, music, drama, dance, movement and other forms of art therapies. The book demonstrates how arts therapies have evolved over the years to address the health and social care needs of people on the autism spectrum and their caregivers. Chapters explore the implications of arts therapies across a spectrum of needs in various settings and offer a comprehensive picture including a variety of research outcomes and therapeutic processes, and critiques both of existing practice and research methodologies. The book will be key reading for researchers, scholars and clinicians from dance movement therapy, music therapy, art therapy, dramatherapy and expressive arts therapies. It will also be of interest to post-graduate students and mental health professionals working with children, adults and families of individuals on the autism spectrum.

Dramatherapy is increasingly being used in schools and educational establishments as a way of supporting young people’s emotional needs. This book examines the space between drama education and Dramatherapy exploring the questions: Does a therapist teach? When does the role of the drama teacher border on that of therapist? How do these two professions see and understand each other and the roles they play? In Drama Education and Dramatherapy, Clive Holmwood draws on his experience as a Dramatherapist and examines the history of drama education and Dramatherapy, exploring the social, political, therapeutic and artistic influences that have impacted these two professions over the last century. He also discusses how these fields are intrinsically linked and examines the liminal qualities betwixt and between them. The book considers two specific case studies, from the therapist's and teacher's perspectives discussing what happens in the drama class and therapy space including how the dramatic form is understood, explored and expressed both educationally and therapeutically. The ‘them and us’ mentality, which often exists in two different professions that share a common origin is also explored. The book contemplates how teachers and Dramatherapists can work collaboratively in the future, bringing down barriers that exist between them and beginning a working dialogue that will ultimately and holistically support the children and young people they all work with. This book will be of interest to those involved in using drama in an educational or therapeutic context, including: drama teachers, arts therapists, teachers of arts therapy and researchers within wider arts, applied arts and educational faculties within colleges and universities.

Using the drama classroom to shape an active, student-centred space and foster a new perspective for understanding the dramatherapeutic change-process, this book explores the processes that underpin the ways young people negotiate and perform their identities as ethical people. Arguing for the retention of process-based exploratory drama on the curriculum, chapters critique the impact of neoliberalism and managerialism on the development of young people’s ethics and values. Using concepts such as aesthetic distance, encoding, the role of audience and witness, and the contrast between individual, multi, and group roles, to enable students to develop as thinking, reflecting people, the book argues that dramatherapy should not be limited to clinical settings, disconnected from classrooms and the pedagogical contributions that it can make. By absorbing dramatherapy into the broader field of education, an expanded understanding of the concept of the managed classroom space can be gained, based on an understanding of the multiple embodied psychosocial relational processes at play in the drama classroom. This innately multidisciplinary book will be of use to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students studying drama education, dramatherapy, and curriculum studies more broadly. Drama teachers and educators will also find this volume of use.

Dramatherapy and Learning Disabilities demonstrates the power of dramatherapy to help clients with learning disabilities, addressing current research, evidencebased work, and methods in the dramatherapy and learning disabilities fields. Featuring contribution from 19 dramatherapists with a range of clients of all ages who have moderate to severe learning disabilities, this book presents ways in which dramatherapists are innovating new approaches to their work in the field. The authors demonstrate their expertise but also acknowledge their limitations. They explore what it is like to work in multidisciplinary teams and with parents and carers of children and adults with learning disabilities. Each chapter provides detailed vignettes of client/therapist experience and enables the reader to gain insight into therapists’ thinking and the process that guides their clinical judgement. Structured accounts of sessions and outcomes, tracking clients’ progress and the use of evaluation tools evidence the effectivity of dramatherapy and creative therapies’ practice. This book will be a significant resource for trainee dramatherapists, arts therapists and professionals interested in incorporating creative methods into their practice. It also provides examples of burgeoning arts therapies research within the field and lays the foundations for future projects.

Showing how dramatherapy is used in practice in work with different client groups, Dramatherapy: Clinical Studies is intended for both students and practising dramatherapists. It includes both case studies of dramatherapy as it actually works and descriptions of group work. Illustrating the challenge of putting a particular methodology into practice when working with specific client groups, the book demonstrates particular frameworks around which to base an approach, without prescribing pre-set work formats. Each contributor places his or her working method within a particular theoretical orientation and provides valuable insights into how this philosophy works in action. All the contributors are trained dramatherapists currently active in the clinical field about which they are writing.