How drama, creativity, embodiment, and play can support emotional healing.

By Radish Loos, MA, CCC, Drama Therapist & Counsellor

What Is Drama Therapy?

Drama Therapy is one of the lesser-known Creative Arts Therapies modalities. It integrates theatre, improvisation, movement, storytelling, role-play, and other dramatic techniques with psychotherapy and counselling. Compared to traditional talk therapy, Drama Therapy often offers a more embodied approach, inviting clients to explore their experiences through their bodies, senses, imagination, and relationships, not just through words.

Drama Therapists receive specialized graduate training in Drama Therapy, learning to integrate psychotherapy with the dramatic arts in a way that supports each client’s unique needs and therapeutic goals.

Who Can Benefit from Drama Therapy?

Drama Therapy can support people experiencing a wide variety of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, relational and communication challenges, identity exploration, self-esteem, and life transitions.

Contrary to the common misconception that Drama Therapy is primarily for children, it can be supportive for people of all ages.

And you don’t need to be an actor.

You don’t need any theatre experience, performance skills, or even an interest in drama to benefit from Drama Therapy. In fact, many people who initially feel hesitant about the idea of “performing” in therapy are surprised by how gentle and accessible the approach can be.

In a world where we can become increasingly disconnected from our physical bodies, Drama Therapy offers an opportunity to slow down and notice what is happening beyond words. It is an embodied and holistic approach that can help us reconnect with our bodies, emotions, imagination, and the ways we move through the world.

What Happens in a Drama Therapy Session?

One of the things that can make Drama Therapy feel different from other forms of therapy is its collaborative nature. The Drama Therapist may actively participate in therapeutic interventions alongside their client(s).

This might look like a therapist using their own body to create a sculpture representing an image or metaphor. They might mirror a client’s gesture or movement, participate in role-play, or engage in therapeutic improvisation with a client or group.

These interventions are always shaped around the client’s needs and comfort level. Drama Therapy isn’t about putting someone on stage or asking them to perform. Instead, dramatic techniques become tools for exploring experiences in ways that words alone may not always capture.

It’s More Than Role-Play

When people hear “Drama Therapy,” they may imagine theatrical enactments, elaborate role-plays, or dramatic performances. These can absolutely be meaningful Drama Therapy interventions, but they are only a small part of the possibilities.

Drama Therapy encompasses a wide range of techniques and interventions. Some may be highly active and expressive, while others can be quiet, subtle, or reflective.

At the heart of the approach are several core processes that help explain what makes Drama Therapy unique. The following core processes are rooted in Phil Jones’ 1991 framework, first outlined in his article “Dramatherapy: Five Core Processes,” and have since been further developed within the field of Drama Therapy.

Embodiment

Embodiment involves using the physical body and senses to explore and express feelings, physical states, relationships, and life experiences. Rather than relying solely on speech, clients might explore an experience through movement, mime, gesture, posture, rhythm, or sensation.

Dramatic Projection

Dramatic projection involves placing internal experiences, feelings, conflicts, or aspects of the self onto something outside of ourselves. This might involve a puppet, mask, object, character, story, image, or role.

Sometimes it can feel easier to talk about what a character is experiencing before we are ready to talk directly about ourselves.

Play

Play creates space for spontaneous, creative, and imaginative exploration. Through play, clients can experiment with different possibilities, practice new ways of responding, and develop greater psychological flexibility.

Play doesn’t necessarily mean games or activities designed specifically for children. For adults, play can involve imagination, improvisation, humour, metaphor, movement, storytelling, or simply approaching an experience with curiosity rather than certainty.

Dramatherapeutic Empathy & Distancing

Dramatherapeutic Empathy & Distancing involves using aesthetic distance to create emotional containment. This can include metaphor, fiction, role, storytelling, or other creative forms to create a manageable psychological distance from difficult experiences.

This distance can make it possible to approach painful or overwhelming material without having to confront it completely head-on. At the same time, the Drama Therapist uses empathy and attunement to help the client feel supported and connected throughout the process.

For example, a client might explore a difficult relationship through two fictional characters, creating enough space to see the situation from a different perspective. By stepping into the story rather than speaking directly about themselves, they may be able to explore emotions, patterns, and possibilities that feel harder to access through conversation alone.

Active Witnessing

Active witnessing is the experience of being seen, heard, and acknowledged by another person during the therapeutic process.

In Drama Therapy, the therapist may witness a client’s enactment, movement, story, or exploration while offering attentive and engaged presence. This process can support relational trust and help clients experience what it feels like to have their experiences genuinely recognized.

The Life–Drama Connection

Drama Therapy doesn’t stop when the dramatic exploration ends. The Life–Drama Connection involves linking what happens through dramatic work back to the client’s everyday life.

A character, metaphor, movement, or story explored in session may reveal something about a real-life relationship, belief, pattern, or challenge. The therapist and client can then explore what the creative experience might have to say about the client’s life outside of therapy.

Transformation

Transformation is an essential part of the Drama Therapy process. Through creative exploration, clients can encounter new perspectives, possibilities, and ways of understanding themselves and their experiences.

Sometimes transformation happens through a major insight. Other times, it can be much quieter: trying something different, experiencing yourself differently in relationship with another person, or discovering that you have more choices than you initially thought.

You Don’t Have to Be “Dramatic”

Drama Therapy doesn’t have to be scary.

You don’t have to be wildly creative, outgoing, confident, or comfortable performing in front of other people. You don’t even have to know what you’re doing when you begin.

In fact, people struggling with self-esteem, confidence, communication, or relational challenges may find Drama Therapy particularly supportive because therapy can become a space to gently experiment with new ways of being.

Communication is a skill. Confidence is something we can practice. Through Drama Therapy, clients can experiment with taking up space, expressing themselves, setting boundaries, trying out different perspectives, and connecting with others, all within the safety of the therapeutic relationship.

You don’t have to perform a different version of yourself!

Instead, Drama Therapy can offer a space to explore the many different parts of who you already are.

Curious About Drama Therapy?

If you’re curious about Drama Therapy, Montreal Therapy Centre has several Drama Therapists on staff who can tailor sessions to your unique needs, experiences, and therapeutic goals.

Drama Therapy can be as playful, subtle, reflective, embodied, or expressive as you need it to be. You don’t have to arrive knowing how to be creative. You simply have to arrive as yourself.

References

Jones, P. (1991). Dramatherapy: Five core processes. Dramatherapy, 14(1), 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02630672.1991.9689804

Radish Loos, MA, CCC

Drama Therapist & Counsellor 

Radish Loos (They/Them) is a Creative Arts Therapist and Canadian Certified Counsellor who holds a graduate degree in Drama Therapy and a graduate certificate in Play Therapy from Concordia University. They completed their internship and began their Drama Therapy career here at Montreal Therapy Centre, and have since moved to the maritimes. If you are curious about their work or future offerings you can follow them on social media @therapywithRadish.