EXPRESSIVE THERAPIES AT CASTLEWOOD TREATMENT

CENTER

Laura Wood, MA, RDT, PLPC, CCLS

“The body remembers what the mind forgets’”-

Moreno

WHAT ARE EXPRESSIVE/CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES?

Drama Therapy

Dance/Movement Therapy

Art Therapy

Music Therapy

Poetry Therapy

WHAT IS DRAMA THERAPY?

Drama therapy is active and experiential. This

approach can provide the context for participants to

tell their stories, set goals and solve problems,

express feelings, or achieve catharsis. Through

drama, the depth and breadth of inner experience

can be actively explored and interpersonal

relationship skills can be enhanced. Participants can

expand their repertoire of dramatic roles to find that

their own life roles have been strengthened.

(www.nadt.org)

“Reparative ritual activity has a magical, non-

rational quality as, for example, a child plays out

his fears through decapitating a doll, and a Vogul

woman plays out her sadness over losing her

husband by embracing a doll. Their actions do not

affect the empirical world of cause and effect but

rather the subjective world of feeling…The magic

of the drama is realized at the subjective level of

feeling. The players achieve a certain satisfaction

by controlling a reality which is literally beyond

their control.”

-Landy, 1994

IMPROVISATION

“The spontaneous individual, is the most liberated.

He chooses to behave as he does. He is aware of the

social context before him, but he is able to risk the

possible disapproval of others in presenting an

authentic role of him self” –Landy, 1994

IMPROV AT CASTLEWOOD

Principals of Improv: 1) Yes and…2) No apologizing

3) No red lights 4) everyone participates

Mental flexibility, social anxiety, spontaneity, fear of

judgment, control, playfulness, pleasure, laughter therapy.

Warm-up, Action, Closing game, Process

What happens in the microcosm of improv becomes the

trailhead for the macrocosm in life.

ATTACHMENT/EXPRESSIVE

Expressive becomes a way to look at complex attachment

concepts and understand them in an embodied way

Becomes a bridge to creating cohesive narrative

Creates a container to explore the complex feelings that

arise from relationship

Provides an opportunity of mastery and moving towards

earned secure attachment embodied

INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSIVE WORK

Masks and embodiment

Creating a self revelatory performance

Playing different parts of ones self, opportunity for

protective parts to get airtime

Sand tray

Empty chair

“Catharsis in drama therapy does not need to be a

large outburst of feeling, a gushing forth of tears or

a paroxysm of laughter. It is often a modest reaction,

a gentle moment of recognition. Catharsis implies

the ability to recognize contradictions, to see how

conflicting aspects of ones psychic or social life, of

ones thinking, speaking, or feeling can exist

simultaneously.” -Landy, 1994

GROUP EXPRESSIVE

Empty chair work

Play your eating disorder

Play a part of you, group as compassion curiosity panel

Family Sculpt

Parts at the….(dinner table, family gathering, etc)

Re-visit a scene from the past

Family Week Expressive Work

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AT CASTLEWOOD ON EXPRESSIVE

FORMATS

“ I think emotions are more sometimes more free flowing during expressive

because I think it lets people guards down a little bit and I don’t think they feel as

protective of their emotions and umm, I don’t know there is just something about

seeing things and hearing exact phrases that maybe abusers would say or

perpetrator would say or just things that have made impacts on people’s lives that

makes it so much more real rather than talking about it from a third person

stance, it really just puts you in the scene and you’re able to feel what the other

person felt or was feeling and it’s like being there with them so that can be kind

of …can be…just really eye opening and sometimes that is what they have

experienced is a lot and to do that is more than to just talk about it in third

person.”

“and I think what makes the best expressives are clarity and

like, pin point focus, blow up something like into where they can

examine it deeper.”

“ if a person’s experience is like a tapestry, doing an expressive

is like putting a spotlight on a piece of tapestry that you couldn’t

see before and that the pieces come together and that is like an

unfolding and illuminating is the same, I would use that same

metaphor, like thru expressive umm it’s possible to see things

that were not visible before.”

“I got information out of that expressive that I

couldn’t have gotten just out of group or individual

therapy. And it really allowed me to get closure from

an incident that happened a while ago but that

played a big role not only in my eating disorder but

in my life and I was able to glean out of it things that

I hadn’t even thought of.”

REFERENCES

Landy, R.J. (1994). Drama therapy: concepts, theories and practices.

Springfield: Charles C. Thomas Publishers.

May, R. (1975). The courage to create. New York: Norton & Company.

Moreno, J.L. (1980). The theater of spontaneity. New York: Beacon.

Van Der Kolk, B.A. (1996). Traumatic Stress: The effects of overwhelming

experience on mind, body and society. New York: Guilford Press.

Wiener, D. (1999). Beyond talk therapy: using movement and expressive

techniques in clinical practice. Washington, DC. American Psychological

Associates.