The course teaches a specific approach to dramatherapy – the Sesame approach – and is delivered in association with the Sesame Institute. This approach incorporates the philosophies and theories of certain key psychologists and practitioners, including Jung, Laban, Slade and Lindkvist. The Sesame approach draws on the opportunities drama and movement offer to explore meaningful connections with the Self and others.
The Sesame approach introduces drama and movement as a means of accessing and expressing unconscious processes and hidden qualities, so that these can be explored, expressed and reflected upon. Movement is introduced as a central feature within the dramatic medium, as well as specific attention to Laban and approaches to movement with touch and sound. Movement is a basis from which drama can be developed. The Sesame approach engages the body in a dramatic context through play, improvisation, character work and story and myth enactment.
Drama has proved an especially effective tool in therapeutic contexts. Rather than focusing on people’s immediate problems it can offer a creative and metaphorical context to a problem. Not only can dramatic work help to catalyse individual creativity; it also offers a means to explore culturally specific experience through the symbolic images contained in mythology.
In Term One you will study two course units.
Unit One (Drama and Movement Therapy Practice) includes the strands Drama, Myth, Laban, Movement with Touch & Sound and Preparation for Clinical Practice. Unit Two (Therapy and Psychology) introduces you to the work of Jung in Analytical Psychology and, in a separate strand, covers human development theory.
During Terms Two and Three you will take units in facilitation practice, apprenticeship placement practices and supervision. Facilitation practice includes individual and pair work in the subject strands of Myth, Laban, Drama and Movement with Touch and Sound. Your study will include a research unit common to all courses across the postgraduate school. You will undertake clinical work on a number of placements outside the School, with on-site supervision. The first two placements (during Terms Two and Three) are undertaken in a variety of educational, health, or social services contexts and based on an apprenticeship model. You will be part of a group of three students and will facilitate sessions with clients alongside a supervising dramatherapist.
In Term Four you will undertake a fourth and final independent placement to complete 100 sessions of required client contact. The final piece of work is a portfolio including a critical review, a report of clinical practices and a viva voce. As with many therapy trainings, you are required to attend and pay for individual and group therapy sessions during the course. (In Spring 2011 the average cost for therapy per person was £3,000, including group and individual sessions.)
Successful qualification leads to graduates being eligible to apply for registration with the Health Professions Council (HPC) as an Arts Therapist (Drama). Graduates wishing to practice must register with the HPC.
All students attending placements will be required to complete a Criminal Records Bureau check. This is a mandatory government safeguarding scheme for all those seeking to work in any capacity with minors or vulnerable adults.
Key Features
An intensive practice-based training in association with the Sesame Institute, particularly exploring the creative imagination. Predominant focus on Jungian psychology. Learning applied in extensive placement engagements.
