Creative Psychotherapy and Dramatherapy
I am a trained Drama psychotherapist and have chosen to also use the title Creative Psychotherapist, in recognition of the fact that I work creatively with clients in numerous ways, including just the way we might think and talk about their issues. There are many aspects of Dramatherapy and here are some of the ways I work.
Time to Talk and Reflect
Our lives can often feel overwhelming and time for our mental health is rarely prioritised. Expectations from others and ourselves, our real and perceived responsibilities, everyday worries to concerns over the environment, emails, social media and pressures to digitally interact can leave us feeling worn down with anxieties that have no outlet. Past and recent experiences can stay with us and be difficult to move away from. Give yourself the time and space just to stop - connect with your feelings, explore and reflect on your experiences, alongside a therapist who will guide and support you with compassion and empathy. You may wish to talk and be heard, share conversation and listen or just simply to quietly be yourself with no judgement from others. Therapy guides us into deeper connection with ourselves and encourages us to develop the self understanding and compassion needed to heal. A safe and confidential space to be heard and to tune in and listen to your own inner voices.
Tell your Story
The narrative or story that we tell ourselves about our lives is key to how we feel about ourselves. Sometimes finding a way to take a new perspective on our personal stories can be a way to begin feeling better about ourselves. But before we can move forward, we sometimes need our experiences to be heard and to feel them deeply understood by another. Only then can we really think about the possibility of changing our life narrative. In Dramatherapy, stories and myths are sometimes used to reflect upon, identify with and to explore and connect with the 'Archetypes' (Jung), in our own lives. Sometimes clients wish to create and work with their own stories. These metaphors can bring new ways of understanding and different perspectives to the issues they are working on.
Working with the Body
The connection between mind and body has long been accepted and practised in eastern philosophy. In western medicine, this way of understanding ourselves as holistic beings is now starting to be much more accepted, researched and developed. The mind and the body hold each other in balance, each affecting the other. The body is continually sending signals to the mind, alerting it to emotions felt through bodily sensations, think of the term 'gut feeling', or through tensions, often in the shoulders and back. But much of the time I meet clients who are cut of from these signals of the body and who feel uncomfortable even being too aware of it. In Dramatherapy, we sometimes see peoples history, experiences and trauma as being held in the body. Trauma, stress and negative experience can manifest through bodily issues such as IBS, self harm, chronic pain or eating disorders. Through embodied work in Dramatherapy, we can start tuning in and learning to really 'be in' our bodies, acknowledging what they have to say to us. We can learn to become comfortable and happy in our own bodies. By learning to accept and love our bodies we start to foster a more secure sense of being in and interacting with the world. By feeling more comfortable and open to being 'Seen' by others, we bring a renewed confidence joy to our lives.
Working with the voice and breath
I sometimes like to see breath as 'Soul' – when we stop breathing we stop living. But often, people have lost connection with their breath and how to breathe in the way that their body needs. Many people feel held back and self concious of their own voices. Allowing ourselves to connect with our breath and to find freedom and confidence in using our voices in any way we wish, can be truly transformational in terms of happiness and confidence. In Dramatherapy, we can work with releasing breath, voice and sound to further enable the connection of body and 'Soul'.
Increasing Creativity in Work and Life
By learning to improvise through drama, to accept ours and others ideas, and not to block them, we can move through blocks in our lives and also in our creative work. We start to become more aware of our own internal impulses and not to block of judge them. We stop overthinking and become more spontaneous, more original, more ourselves, more fun and more successful in our endeavours.
Ritual
Ritual is something that helps us find meaning in and hold our experiences, in terms of marking important moments in our lives. But for most of us, weddings, funerals and birthdays are the only rituals we now participate in. Some clients find it helpful, when working through a transition in their life, or perhaps when trying to move away from a difficult experience, to create their own ritual in therapy, to mark its importance, meaning and to allow themselves to move on to the next phase of life.