A second edition of this practical guide for therapeutic decision-making, substantially revised and expanded.
Drama therapy is a dynamic creative arts therapy which brings participants into the here and now and supports them in using their strengths to work through problems in an embodied manner. Rather than using a standardized protocol that makes all the decisions for the therapist, the Drama Therapy Decision Tree provides drama therapists with questions they can ask themselves to think through client needs and decide on appropriate interventions. While drama therapists value intuition and thinking on their feet, conscious planning beforehand prepares them to make good therapeutic decisions in the moment during the session.
The Drama Therapy Decision Tree shows how drama therapy interventions align with diagnostic information, phase of treatment and psychological distance, in order to achieve global outcomes. The authors provide a common language for communicating what drama therapists do and how they do it in order to demystify drama therapy for other mental health and medical professionals. Using the decision tree as a guide, early career drama therapists can move forward confidently and ground their work with participants in an integrated system.
Paige Dickinson is associate professor in the Creative Arts Collegium at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.
Sally Bailey is professor of theater and director of the Drama Therapy Program at Kansas State University, USA.
