This professional handbook evaluates the considerable benefits of dramatherapy in educational settings. A variety of highly experienced dramatherapists, educational psychologists and childhood experts comment on its merits in relation to the involvement of school staff, children, adolescents and families.

Dramatherapy with Children, Young People and Schools is the first book to specifically evaluate the unique value of dramatherapy in the educational environment. A variety of highly experienced dramatherapists, educational psychologists and childhood experts discuss the benefits to the children and young people, and also in relation to the involvement of teachers, the multi-disciplinary team and families. This professional book offers a panoramic view to explain how through dramatherapy children and young people develop their communication skills, sociability and their actual desire to learn. Detailed case studies demonstrate individual successes in youngsters experiencing a range of emotional difficulties and psychological needs. These studies include: conquering a fear of maths; violent behaviour transformed into educational achievement; safe expression of feelings for a sexually abused child; and where children are diagnosed with mental health disorders such as ADHD and ODD, where the benefits of dramatherapy with children and families are carefully described and evaluated, suggesting that this therapeutic discipline can achieve positive outcomes. The practical advice and inspirational results included here promote a future direction of integration and collaboration of school staff, multi-disciplinary teams and families. Education and equality are high on the agenda, and the function of dramatherapy is not just as a treatment, but as an economically viable and valuable preventive therapy.

Using extensive examples from practice with a range of client groups, Dramatherapy and Autism confronts the assumption that people with autism are not able to function within the metaphorical realms of the imagination and creativity. It demonstrates that not only are people who function along the spectrum capable of engaging in creative exploration, but that through encountering these processes in the clinical context of dramatherapy, changes can be made that are life enhancing. Bringing in cutting-edge research and practice on dramatherapy, Dramatherapy and Autism aims to contribute to developing the theory and practice of creative arts therapies interventions with clients with autism. The book is part of the Dramatherapy: approaches, relationships, critical ideas series, in which leading practitioners and researchers in the field develop the knowledge base of this unique discipline, whilst contextualising and acknowledging its relationship with other arts and therapeutic practices. Dramatherapy and Autism will be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers, such as dramatherapists in practice and training, arts practitioners and academic researchers engaged in multidisciplinary enquiry.

This second volume expands and develops the discussion on arts therapies begun in volume one on the field’s relationship with children and young people’s mental health, demonstrating further contemporary research within international contexts. The book responds to a resounding call to address children and young people’s mental health. It explores a unique mix of diverse arts modalities including art, music, dance, expressive arts, and drama, creating opportunities for discourse and discussion of how the different arts therapies cohere and relate to each other. Chapters are truly global in approach, ranging from schools in India to children’s hospices in the United Kingdom, refugee transit camps in Greece, and residential care programmes for LGBTQ+ youth in the United States. Discussions from Greece and Taiwan, and innovative research from Israel, Norway, and Scotland are also featured with reference to diverse social, political, and cultural contexts. Ultimately, chapters prioritise the links between research, theory, and practice, providing accessible and implication-led dialogue on contemporary issues. This book provides new insights into the expanding field of the arts therapies and will be of great interest to arts therapists as well as academics and students in the fields of arts therapies, social work, psychotherapy, health psychology, and education.

Routledge International Handbook of Dramatherapy is the first book of its kind to bring together leading professionals and academics from around the world to discuss their practice from a truly international perspective. Dramatherapy has developed as a profession during the latter half of the twentieth century. Now, we are beginning to see its universal reach across the globe in a range of different and diverse approaches. From Australia, to Korea to the Middle East and Africa through Europe and into North & South America dramatherapists are developing a range of working practices using the curative power of drama within a therapeutic context to work with diverse and wide ranging populations. Using traditional texts in the Indian sub-continent, healing performances in the Cameroon, supporting conflict in Israel and Palestine, through traditional Comedic theatre in Italy, to adolescents in schools and adults with mental ill health, this handbook covers a range of topics that shows the breadth, depth and strength of dramatherapy as a developing and maturing profession. It is divided into four main sections that look at the current international: Developments in dramatherapy Theoretical approaches Specific practice New and innovative approaches Offering insights on embodiment, shamanism, anthropology and cognitive approaches coupled with a range of creative, theatrical and therapeutic methods, this ground breaking book is the first congruent analysis of the profession. It will appeal to a wide and diverse international community of educators, academics, practitioners, students, training schools and professionals within the arts, arts education and arts therapies communities. Additionally it will be of benefit to teachers and departments in charge of pastoral and social care within schools and colleges.

Child Agency and Voice in Therapy offers innovatory ways of thinking about, and working with, children in therapy. The book: considers different practices such as respecting the rights of the child in therapy and recognising and listening to children as ‘active agents’ and ‘experts’; features approaches that: access children’s views of their therapy; engage with them as researchers or co-researchers; and that use play and arts-based methods; draws on arts therapies research in ways that enable insight and learning for all those engaged with children’s therapy and wellbeing; considers how the contexts of the therapy, such as a school or counselling centre, relate to the ways children experience themselves and their therapy in relation to rights, agency and voice. Child Agency and Voice in Therapy will be beneficial for all child therapists and is a good resource for courses concerning childhood welfare, therapy, education, wellbeing and mental health.

This volume presents cutting-edge research and practice on Creative Arts Therapies or Arts Therapies for individuals on the autism spectrum of all ages, outlining the development of effective and accessible approaches to support the diverse needs of this client group. Consisting of 14 research-based chapters with contributions from over 30 authors from across the world, the book brings together research from art, music, drama, dance, movement and other forms of art therapies. The book demonstrates how arts therapies have evolved over the years to address the health and social care needs of people on the autism spectrum and their caregivers. Chapters explore the implications of arts therapies across a spectrum of needs in various settings and offer a comprehensive picture including a variety of research outcomes and therapeutic processes, and critiques both of existing practice and research methodologies. The book will be key reading for researchers, scholars and clinicians from dance movement therapy, music therapy, art therapy, dramatherapy and expressive arts therapies. It will also be of interest to post-graduate students and mental health professionals working with children, adults and families of individuals on the autism spectrum.