DRAMATHERAPY IN SRI LANKA RAVINDRA RANASINHA Teacher in

DRAMATHERAPY IN SRI LANKA RAVINDRA RANASINHA Teacher in Drama, Counselor and Consultant Drama Therapist, SRI LANKA.

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS DRAMA ? “DRAMA IS IMITATION OF ACTION. ” - Aristotle “DRAMA IS THE REPRESENTATION OF CONDITIONS. ” - Bharatamuni

300 B. C. ARISTOTLE • Catharsis • ‘Pity and Fear’ “Drama is not primarily for education or entertainment, but to release harmful emotions which will eventually lead to harmony and healing in the community. ” - Augusto Boal

(1863 -1938) CONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKY “Drama is creating and conveying an inner life, a sense of being, fresh each time. It is nothing but making the imaginary world real on stage. ”

Stanislavski’s tool for actors: ‘Emotional Memory’. • This did not provide a therapeutic language for Stanislavski but a technique to build a make-believe world on stage.

(1839 - 1916) • Stanislavsky’s psychological understanding was purely based on Theodule Ribot’s writings. • He extracted theories of sense memory and emotional recall from Ribot.

• EMOTIONAL MEMORY PSYCHOANALYSIS conjured up with Freud. • Freud’s technique of free association involves asking patients to report on any thoughts or memories that sprung to their minds. Similarly, Stanislavski’s asks actors to recall memories and feel the emotions linked to them.

Catharsis as a tool for a greater social CHANGE. • Brecht (Epic Theatre) • Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed)

Stanislavski’s MAGIC ‘IF’ • a strong empathic tool to support the drama therapist.

HAVE YOU EVER CRIED OR FELT SORRY FOR A CHARACTER?

The premotor cortex is an area of motor cortex lying within the frontal lobe of the brain just anterior to the primary motor cortex. • When a person smiles, MIRROR NEURONS are activated in the premotor cortex of whoever sees the smile; just as when a person cries, mirror neurons are activated in whoever sees or hears the crying. - Goleman, (2006).

• Vittorio Gallese, explaining on empathic connection we make with others, states that it is a direct form of experiential understanding of others. The Magic IF of Stanislavski is used by Gallese to explain the ‘as IF’ experience that mirror neurons provide.

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio as if world evokes both emotional and bodily responses.

MIRROR!

• DRAMA – watched or participated in – is embodied, three dimensional, sensory experience which encompasses listening, speaking, seeing, moving, thinking, feeling, inventing, and replaying in turns or simultaneously.

DRAMATIC STRUCTURES HEALING HEART, MIND AND BODY.

AIMS OF DRAMATHERAPY • exploring • healing or alleviating/removing • improving/increasing Shifting re-positioning

SCULPT

CONDUCTING DRAMATHERAPY SESSIONS • CHECK-IN • WARM-UP • DE-ROLE - Sally Bailey

COMMON TECHNIQUES IN DRAMATHERAPY • • • METAPHOR THEMATIC ACTING DISTANCING MAGIC ‘IF’ ROLE PLAY

DISTANCING OVER-DISTANCING AND UNDER-DISTANCING The key for a successful dramatherapy approach is the distance that is measured through the gravity of the emotional level of the client, which tells therapist of the mode of practice.

DISTANCING TOOLS • storytelling, puppets, objects, masks, sculpting, art, cartooning, fabrics, life -size dolls, objects, video, ritual, life scripts, phototherapy, narradrama, and many other projective tools are utilized including the techniques of psychodrama, especially, role-reversal.

A SCULPT MADE USING OBJECTS.

• Overdistancing technique is for a metaphoric elaboration of what the client could visualize of himself right ‘here’ and ‘now’. This way the client would not relate overtly to their own lives. It is a process to bring the issue to the open.

• The overdistancing would gradually be passed and the client would take an In under-distanced underdistanced position forms of drama to make the shift in his therapy, clients current position as the object view themselves of the story. more directly and personally in the drama. This is an effective process of reliving, re-experiencing a past event.

CULTURE AS THERAPY “The merger between art and healing dates back at least 20, 000 years to “the dramatic healing rituals of shamanistic cultures. ” - Renée Emunah (Director -Dramatherapy Programme, California Institute of Integral Studies)

BUDDHISTIC RELIGIOSITY • PIRITH • BO TREE

FOLK BELIEFS • EVIL EYE AND EVIL MOUTH • DREAMS • ANIMALS, SNAKES AND BIRDS

MYTHIC PERFORMANCE • GODS • DEMONS • SPIRITS • SYMBOLS

• Purification with the help of water, blood, fire, change of clothes and sacrifice.

• Crying, weeping, drumming, or ecstatic dance become Cathartic. • “re-living emotional trauma to relieve emotional suffering”. - Josef Breuer

• “Thought is the basis of all emotions and purging of all desires, lust, ideas, beliefs, views and concepts from the heart and mind of the contemplator is the basis of being relieved of the temptations in this phenomenal world. ” – Gotama Buddha

Healing RITUALS Gam Madu, Devol Madu, bali, thovil

CULTURAL DEFENCE Psychological defence mechanism, genetically determined and unconsciously operative, which allays anxiety and enables partial gratification and where the mechanism is provided in the form of institutions, custom, traditions, rituals, sanctions, prohibitions, folkways and symbolisms; and is available for the use of all members of the society in appropriate situations.

Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology underpinning dramatherapy: • psyche is a self-regulating system (like the body), it strives to maintain a balance between opposing qualities whilst also seeking its own development/wholeness. Dramatherapy works with this concept. It speaks well to the person within each individual rather than focusing only on pathology.

• Jung believed that Self comprises the whole of the psyche, including all its potential. It is the organizing genius behind the personality and it seeks wholeness, this Jung called individuation. Self accesses an infinitely wide range of experience, indeed to the very depths of which all human beings are capable. A Dramatherapy session is a conversation with the Self.

• Jung, believed on archetypes. There archetypal figures, such as mother, father, child, and archetypal events such as birth and death. These find their expression within the psyche. The dramatherapy works with the archetypes, especially when myths are used.

• According to Jung, to become more conscious one had to be able to bear conflict, for life is full of opposites both externally and within the psyche. Then out of this something new and creative can grow – a symbol which honours both sides of the conflict.

• Jung believed that the symbol is not something that can be fully explained or rationalised, but it contains the qualities of both; the unconscious and the conscious worlds. They are the agents of change and transformation which bring about psychological development and leads to wholeness.

• Jung also believed that the whole of an individual’s experience should be respected and included, and this included the ‘shadow’ aspects as well as spiritual longings and experiences. Dramatherapy also honours the whole of the individual, inviting people to do as much or as little as they feel able, and value all input from the individual.

BENEFITS OF DRAMATHERAPY • Clients experience stratification and fulfillment of the use of their body in dramatic action and play.

• Within settings such as therapeutic theatre, clients may be liberated of emotional stressors, anxiety, fear, pain, and so on.

• Clients gradually improve their ability to experience holistically through imagination, play, and expression.

• Dramatic play in therapy promotes processing themes, such as trust, openness, loneliness, assertiveness, control, dependency and rejection.

• Drama therapy creates and promotes relationships through the exploration of clients’ inner-world and hidden areas of their personality.

MY CURRENT PRACTICE I have been using Dramatherapy with a variety of populations & addressed issues arising from: • • Psychiatric disorders Developmental disorders Cognitive disabilities Issues including: trauma, grief, anxiety, & depression

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER PTSD This is sever anxiety (a state of constantly being alarmed and fearful) develops after experiencing a traumatic event (such as rape, natural disaster, war), learning about a violent or unexpected death of a family member, or even being a witness or bystander to violent incidents.

ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

• Anxiety cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worrying. They can manifest real physical symptoms. Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, while severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic disorder characterized by excessive, long-lasting anxiety and worry about nonspecific life events, objects, and situations. GAD sufferers often feel afraid and worry about health, money, family, work, or school, but they have trouble both identifying the specific fear and controlling the worries.

AUTISM Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior.

This part of the brain is believed to be the area of impulse control. OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a type of anxiety disorder, is a potentially disabling illness that traps people in endless cycles of repetitive thoughts and behaviors. • People with OCD are plagued by recurring and distressing thoughts, fears, or images (obsessions) they cannot control.

• The anxiety (nervousness) produced by these thoughts leads to an urgent need to perform certain rituals or routines (compulsions). The compulsive rituals are performed in an attempt to prevent the obsessive thoughts or make them go away.

In many cases, people with histrionic personality disorder have good social skills; however, they tend to use these skills to manipulate others so that they can be the center of attention. HISTRIONIC DISORDER

A person with this disorder might also: • Be uncomfortable unless he or she is the center of attention • Shift emotions rapidly • Act very dramatically, as though performing before an audience, with exaggerated emotions and expressions, yet appears to lack sincerity • Be overly concerned with physical appearance • Constantly seek reassurance or approval • Be gullible and easily influenced by others • Be excessively sensitive to criticism or disapproval

• Have a low tolerance for frustration and be easily bored by routine, often beginning projects without finishing them or skipping from one event to another • Not think before acting • Make rash decisions • Be self-centered and rarely show concern for others • Have difficulty maintaining relationships, often seeming fake or shallow in their dealings with others

DEVELOPMENT DISABILITY DOWN’S

• Cognitive development is often delayed, and all individuals with Down syndrome have mild to severe learning difficulties.

LEARNING DISABILITIES • ATTENTION DEFICIT • READING DISORDER • MEMORY PROBLEMS • LANGUAGE DISORDER • SOCIAL SKILLS PROBLEMS • MOTOR SKILLS PROBLEMS

• Causes: • biological factors • brain injury, • errors in brain development, • neuro-chemical imbalances, and • heredity • environment

ADD OR ADHD • Minds keep “tuning in” and “tuning out”. • “mind trips”. • Mind exhaustion • “express minds” • Hyperactive – ‘move too much’. • Impulsive • Need for new games, new toys, new excitement

Greek word dys , meaning poor or inadequate, and the word lexis meaning words or language READING DISORDERS dyslexia • Decoding issues • Inability in comprehending • Hates reading • Drills with flash cards • Reading word families • Reading games • Stories with pictures • Subjects of interest

• Requires coordination of the eye muscles to follow a line of print, spatial Brain must orientation to interpret letters integrate visual cues with memory and words, visual memory to and associate them retain the meaning of letters with specific and sight words, sequencing sounds. The sounds ability, a grasp of sentence must then be structure and grammar, and associated with the ability to categorize and specific meanings. analyze.

MEMORY PROBLEMS • CAN’T REMEMBER NEW SKILLS/FACTS • WRITING DIFFICULTY • ATTENTION AND MEMORY ISSUES • WORKS TOO SLOWLY • TROUBLE STORING AND FIND THINGS IN MEMORY DRAWERS.

Causes • Vitamin B 12 or thiamine deficiency • Seizures • Malingering - A wilful feigning of the symptoms of illness or injury to attain a consciously desired end. • Hypothyroidism - thyroid gland is underactive and does not produce enough thyroid hormone. • Child abuse • Brain infection

LANGUAGE DISORDERS • PROBLEMS WITH WORDS AND SENTENCES • TROUBLE IN UNDERSTANDING AND USING LANGUAGE • TROUBLE IN TALKING AND EXPRESSING • PROBLEMS WITH ATTENTION

• A KID WITH A LANGUAGE DISORDER MIGHT BE VERY SMART AT • FIXING THINGS, • BUILDING THINGS, • ENJOYING MUSIC, • DOING ART/ACTING, • SOLVING MATH PROBLEMS, • HELPING PEOPLE, OR • MAKING FRIENDS.

SOCIAL SKILLS PROBLEMS • Hard to make and keep friends • Difficulty in getting along with others • How to talk right • Brag/argue • Weird acts/tough acts • Too selfish • Often picked on/bullied/ made fun of • Lonely life

MOTOR SKILLS PROBLEMS

Ability to utilize GROSS MOTOR PROBLEMS Causes large muscles • slow development, Many children health issues, diseases with gross motor such as cerebral palsy dysfunction show learning problems, and down syndrome, speech problems, and even complications and poor selfexperienced by the esteem problems. mother during pregnancy and delivery.

• high muscle tone FINE MOTOR PROBLEMS may make mistakes due to over • lack or over abundance in activation of muscles, resulting in muscle mass. sloppy or even • genetic and environmental clumsy activities. factors can lead to fine motor skill problems • a child with low muscle tone may • mother exposed to alcohol struggle to maintain and drugs can affect the neurons of baby’s brain even the smallest control of a pencil or even scissors.

• Activities : drawing, coloring and paper cutting art, cutting out paper chains and making paper snowflakes. Drawing lines and shapes, improving the overall appearance of letters and shapes. This helps the eyes determine where to stop by staying within the lines in shapes and forms. Tracking movement is one of the key factors in fine motor skills.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

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