Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Role Method As A Means Of Emotional Regulation: A Development Of A Method With Dysregulated Adults In A Php Setting, Meghan Owen

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Emotional dysregulation is comorbid with a wide spectrum of mental health diagnoses. However, in a partial hospital program (PHP) setting, the roots of emotional dysregulation cannot be thoroughly treated due to the temporary nature of such programs, despite its impact on the wellness of clients. Yet, it has the potential to be explored more in-depth through drama therapy techniques due to the distanced and playful methods of the practice. This thesis method explores the effect of a strengths-based, drama therapy intervention in a PHP setting. The method took place over four sessions, with a fluctuating group ranging from five to …

Playing The Roles Of The Eating Disorder: Suggestions For The Use Of Drama Therapy In Adolescent Residential Eating Disorder Treatment, Olivia Cosby

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Adolescents with eating disorders are faced with a variety of medical and psychological complications. This literature review examines these complications and the treatments available to adolescents with eating disorders, as well as factors influencing treatment resistance and dropout, specifically at the residential level of care. Additionally, the use of drama therapy as a treatment option for adolescents with eating disorders is explored. The use of role theory and role based work is proposed as a way of tackling treatment resistance in adolescents. Through role-based work, a client is given the opportunity to explore the functional aspects they attribute to their …

The Use Of Drama Therapeutic Play And Unconditional Positive Regard In Fostering Self-Actualization In Unhoused Individuals, Amanda Ludeking

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Childhood instability and the associated trauma are risk factors for homelessness, a circumstance which is perilous and traumatizing in itself. In order to survive such dangerous situations, unhoused individuals can develop protective behaviors to keep others away, which makes building and maintaining interpersonal relationships difficult. Beyond this, aspects of childhood instability can negatively affect socialization and interpersonal skills; for example, attachment theory suggests that attachment-based trauma (resulting from an insecure relationship with a caregiver) can negatively impact self-regulation and social skills into adulthood. This literature review seeks to better understand how two specific approaches to treatment, person-centered therapy and drama …

Drama Therapy Interventions That Support Students With Asd During Covid-19, Olivia Reyes

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that began in December 2019, many people experienced traumatic losses, environmental stressors, and overall daily challenges. One of the populations most at risk during this time were those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Those with mental health illness and developmental differences are experiencing the pandemic in different ways. Individuals with ASD tend to have both developmental differences and mental health challenges that motivate individuals to seek medicinal and therapeutic help, along with other services to support their daily needs. This literature review addresses the negative and positive impacts COVID-19 has had on the …

Forming And Performing Online Playback Theatre For Drama Therapy Students And Faculty, Frances Dumar

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

As a growing number of university students complete school online, either by choice, or due to the unpredictability and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, new issues have arisen regarding the structures in place to assist students in developing peer support. Within the drama therapy graduate field, students studying online may lack creative ways to express and connect with others in the virtual classroom. Thus, this community engagement project was designed to offer drama therapy students studying at Lesley University opportunities to learn, perform, and watch playback theatre, with the goal of increasing peer engagement, community connection, and clinical insight. Based …

Advancing A Mixed Methods Approach To An Evidence Based Practice In Drama Therapy: A Literature Review, Travis Ciempa

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The present literature review investigates the history, roles, strengths, and limitations of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches within the research process. The goal of this review is to conclude whether a mixed methods approach can be utilized to support drama therapy in becoming an evidence-based practice. Current trends in drama therapy research demonstrate a need for more empirical investigations within the field. This is accompanied by the added competitive nature and standards of professions within healthcare. As such, this literature review explores future recommendations for research practices within drama therapy, including utilizing a mixed methods approach, manualization in drama …

Preparing For An Unpredictable Future: A Community Engagement Project, Rebecca Coates-Finke

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The COVID-19 Pandemic has upended lives across the world for the past two years, and it is hard for anyone to say if or when life will return to what we may have called “normal.” Communities must learn how to support and protect one another in rapidly changing circumstances, while holding space for the collective trauma and grief of this pandemic. In this thesis, there is a review of literature regarding trauma, collective healing within communities and families, and COVID’s impact on Jewish communities, with a particular focus on drama therapy. This is followed by a description of a workshop …

Using Animal As Metaphor In Drama Therapy With Psychiatric Patients In An Intensive Outpatient Program Group Therapy Session: An Intervention, Juliana Fort

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

Drama therapy may be uniquely suited to help people with mental illness who have negative beliefs about what it means to be mentally ill. It focuses on helping the individual expand their sense of what a person with mental illness can be, as well as their awareness of the other roles they may play in their lives. In the current study, the author developed a drama therapy intervention for psychiatric patients in an intensive outpatient program (IOP). The intervention uses pre-made cards that depict images of various animals. During the intervention, the participants were asked to discuss how they …

Creative And Expressive Arts Therapy In Motivational Interviewing, Mary Hunt

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The practices of Creative Arts Therapies (CATs), Expressive Arts Therapy (EATs), and Motivational Interviewing (MI) are regarded as profoundly impactful for use in mental health professions. While there is extensive literature supporting the benefits of the practices individually, research to date on combining CATs or EATs with MI is limited. This Capstone investigates the combination of the fields, including research linking MI to the fields under the CATs umbrella of art, dance/movement, drama, and music therapies. The key elements of each practice are defined, and their overlapping similarities are identified, examples of complementary CATs interventions to the practice of MI …

Group Scriptwriting For Male Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Community Engagement Project, Anna Coleman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The objective of this community engagement project was to explore the experiences of a group of male survivors of childhood sexual abuse via a writing process through a drama therapy-based lens, which included the use of scaffolding sessions with projective writing techniques, the use of aesthetic distance, verbally sharing written works to the witnessing audience, and embodied feedback and response by the witnessing audience to the performer. The participants were part of a grant-funded male sexual abuse survivor support group at an American outpatient, in-office mental health counseling group practice. All sessions were held in audio-video telehealth sessions. There were …

Patient-Drama: A Literature Review Of Simulated Patient Experiences In Medical Education And Training, Shelby Davis

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Simulated patient experiences are commonly used in medical education and training. These experiences have the benefit of training students in real-world environments without risks to real patients. However, these forms of training can be expensive to implement. Additionally, there may be room to improve their effectiveness for training medical providers in humanistic skills like empathy and relationship building. These experiences can be considered dramatic encounters with the incorporation of dramatic elements like role, story, and improvisation. Given the intentional use of drama in these simulated patient experiences, it can be argued that the definition of drama therapy broadly applies to …

“Hey! Whoa.”: Enhancing Dialectical Behavior Therapy With Drama Therapy For Patients On A Short-Term Inpatient Unit And Trauma/Dissociative Inpatient Unit: Development Of A Method, Sarah Moore

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a widely used treatment approach for many different populations across an array of clinical settings. There is ample supporting evidence on its effectiveness, however there is also emerging literature on the barriers and challenges when engaging with this treatment modality. Drama therapy is an embodied treatment approach that uses theatre processes and techniques to achieve therapeutic goals. The aim of this thesis was to combine drama therapy and DBT into a proposed method to explore the impact of this infusion with clients on two inpatient units: a short-term unit and a trauma/dissociative unit. This method …

Using Animal As Metaphor In Drama Therapy With Psychiatric Patients In An Intensive Outpatient Program Group Therapy Session: An Intervention, Juliana Fort

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Drama therapy may be uniquely suited to help people with mental illness who have negative beliefs about what it means to be mentally ill. It focuses on helping the individual expand their sense of what a person with mental illness can be, as well as their awareness of the other roles they may play in their lives. In the current study, the author developed a drama therapy intervention for psychiatric patients in an intensive outpatient program (IOP). The intervention uses pre-made cards that depict images of various animals. During the intervention, the participants were asked to discuss how they handle …

Becoming The Monster: The Use Of Monstrous Role With Queer Adults In A Partial Hospitalization Program, Zaira Boylan

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

There is an established history of horror genres being used as an allegory for otherness, especially in regard to queer identity. For much of western media history, these monstrous roles were one of the few ways queer individuals could see themselves in stories. While these depictions were primarily negative, queer people nevertheless found a way to positively identify with the experience of the monster. This positive identification with traditionally negative depictions inspired the creation of a role method-based intervention for use with queer adults in a partial hospitalization program. Two back-to-back 45-minute groups were conducted on two separate occasions to …

Streamlining The Performance/Talkback Model Using Media And Alternative Action (Maact): An Intervention, Daniel Brown

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This capstone project ventures to develop a drama therapy method that may increase empathy, social skills, and communication skills in populations with substance use disorders. Particular attention has been paid to the efficacy of performance/talkback methods in increasing these factors. An attempt has been made to streamline the performance/talkback method for greater accessibility to such methods in clinical spaces. The literature shows a particular need in populations with substance use disorders for social skills, communication skills, and empathy training. There have been published drama therapy studies that aim to intervene in these areas, though few with this particular population. This …

An Embodied Drama Therapy Approach To Restorative School Practices: A Method, Sarah Harmer

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Restorative School Practices offer schools a circle structure to shift the punitive mindset and power dynamics commonly found in America’s schools, to a model that focuses on relationship, connection, and mutual respect. Drama therapy interventions utilize embodied or active work that engage the entire person. The purpose of this thesis was to create a method to explore the addition of embodied drama therapy techniques to deepen the experience of the restorative school circle process. Three community-building and social emotional learning focused circles, in a second, fourth, and sixth grade class, were compared using the traditional scripts and then the same …