Drama Therapy for Children

Play acting is a technique used in drama therapy to help patients explore their emotions in a secure setting. Participants in drama therapy may employ narrative, improvisation, and performance to address issues, express emotions, or move toward emotional objectives. Drama therapy can be effective when other types of therapy fall short because, for one thing, it’s entertaining. Second, because it’s all pretend and nothing actual, drama therapy allows participants to try out various actions and reactions to situations without any risk.

Another reason drama therapy is so effective is that it is multimodal, which engages more senses than merely talking to a therapist as you sit and talk. Speaking about what you did and what you may have done instead is less realistic than getting up and doing it. The objectives of theatrical therapy are also modest. You’re not searching for a remarkable discovery. You merely want the party to feel at ease with their emotions.

Children can use drama therapy to express emotions they have been too shy to express or to work through problems. Unaware of it, children already practise drama therapy on a daily basis. They role-act and explore their feelings about parenting and family dynamics when they play “home” or play with their dolls.

A young child might not know how to inform an adult that she was abused. She might be able to play act the entire affair with dolls, though, in drama therapy. When a youngster encounters terror and develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the child may need to release suppressed fear in order to face the feelings and move on. It might feel safer for her to share her experience through drama therapy as if it had happened to someone else rather than simply discussing what transpired.

Children occasionally struggle to make friends. They could feel uncomfortable speaking to their peers and be unsure of how to start a conversation. Other times, a youngster may become a loner by default because they are so terrified of rejection

The most popular technique utilised in theatre therapy is role acting. Making masks is another typical theatre therapy tool. A child uses paint and paper to communicate emotion when he makes a mask. A child who struggles to express his thoughts verbally may find comfort in creating a mask. A mask is similar to putting on a different attitude or identity. Masks can be a secure approach for a youngster whose abuser has banned him from talking about the abuse to express what happened and how he feels about it.

Drama therapy Method 

Acting is only one aspect of drama therapy. Here are some typical techniques and resources applied in theatre therapy sessions:

Writing and producing scripts

Most of us, whether through spoken word, written word, music, or art, have an innate desire to share our narrative with others. Using this strategy, we can create new narratives and practise communicating with people while capitalising on our desire to tell a good story.

Role-playing

Through role-playing, a person can change their perspective, act out new scenarios, and relate their experiences to those of another person—whether that “other” is a real person or an imagined one, a nearly exact replica of the participant or someone entirely different. A participant may take on one of two different roles

Projective play

Projective play is typically utilised with children, but it can also be used with individuals with developmental impairments and other adults. Children can express and project their sentiments with the toys and dolls they have access to using this technique. Play is a vehicle for healthy development, and the inability to project oneself into the outside world might reveal important clues about the child’s difficulties.

Games \improvisation

Participants in an improvised role, in contrast to those performing a written role, receive no direction on the character and are free to develop their personality naturally. Whether the actor is conscious of every aspect of his or her self that comes through or not, the actor in an improvisational role will definitely draw on his or her own experiences, memories, and assumptions to build a personality, making it an exercise in self-expression.

Ritual creation and performance

Because theatre therapy doesn’t have the same stigma as traditional therapy, it has grown in popularity recently. If friends found out that a youngster or teen were seeing a “shrink,” they would feel ashamed. However, receiving theatre therapy does not carry the same sort of stigma. It doesn’t sound like a method of connecting with feelings or resolving emotional issues; rather, it sounds like an extracurricular activity, something to do for fun.

Drama therapy uses 

• Children’s drama therapy can help with the following and other conditions: 
• PTSD
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Substance abuse
• Behavioural problems related to Autism
• Peer and Family Relationship issues
• Substance abuse
• Eating disorders
• Grief
• Learning disorders

Drama therapy goals 

Drama therapy aims to, among other things:

• Encourage a behaviour change for the better.
• enhancing social skills
• Boosting one’s sense of self, sense of worth, and personal development
• better living quality

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