For Students & Researchers
Drama Therapy 101
A scholarly introduction to the history, theory, major figures, and intellectual foundations of drama therapy as a discipline.
A scholarly introduction to the history, theory, major figures, and intellectual foundations of drama therapy as a discipline.
An academic introduction to drama therapy: history, theory, and key figures. Covers the field's roots in Aristotle's catharsis and ancient ritual, Jacob Moreno's psychodrama (1920s), Peter Slade's Child Drama (1950s), Sue Jennings and the British clinical tradition (1960s-70s), Marian Lindkvist's Sesame Approach (1964), and the North American figures who shaped the modern field (Robert Landy, Renée Emunah, David Read Johnson). Useful for students and practitioners orienting themselves to where drama therapy came from and how its major schools differ.
The North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) defines drama therapy as "the intentional use of drama and/or theater processes to achieve therapeutic goals." It is a form of psychotherapy that is active and experiential, drawing on theatrical traditions (roleplay, storytelling, movement, improvisation, puppetry, mask work, and ritual) as the primary means of therapeutic intervention.
Drama therapy is one of the five Creative Arts Therapies, alongside art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, and poetry therapy. It is practiced by registered therapists in clinical, educational, and community settings worldwide.
The connection between theatre and healing is ancient. Aristotle wrote of catharsis (the purging of emotion through witnessing tragedy) as one of theatre's core functions. Ancient Greek theatre was performed in the precincts of healing temples. Healing rituals involving dramatic enactment, story, and transformation appear in cultures worldwide.
The modern discipline of drama therapy, however, emerged in the 20th century through several convergent streams.
Drama therapy's most direct ancestor is psychodrama, developed by Jacob Levy Moreno (1889 to 1974). A Romanian-born psychiatrist and philosopher, Moreno developed psychodrama in Vienna in the 1920s as a theatrical method for psychological exploration and healing. His Theatre of Spontaneity pioneered the use of improvised drama as therapy.
Moreno emigrated to the United States, established Beacon Hill Hospital and the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP), and spent the rest of his career developing and teaching psychodrama. His wife, Zerka Moreno, continued and expanded his work well into the 21st century.
Key Moreno concepts that continue to inform drama therapy include spontaneity, role reversal, sociometry, and surplus reality.
In Britain, educational dramatist Peter Slade pioneered the concept of Child Drama, the idea that children's natural dramatic play has inherent developmental and therapeutic value. Slade argued that drama should not be performance for an audience but an organic, process-oriented activity for the child's own development. His 1954 book Child Drama was foundational to British drama therapy.
Sue Jennings is widely considered the founder of drama therapy as a formal clinical discipline in the UK. Jennings, trained in both anthropology and theatre, began developing drama therapy methods in the 1960s while working in psychiatric hospitals. She was instrumental in establishing the first drama therapy training programs, professional associations, and publications in Britain.
Jennings founded the British Association of Dramatherapists (BADTh) in 1977 and developed the influential Embodiment-Projection-Role (EPR) model of drama therapy. Her prolific writing and teaching shaped a generation of British and international drama therapists.
The other major UK lineage runs through Marian "Billy" Lindkvist, who founded the Sesame Institute in 1964. Lindkvist developed a somatic, body-led method that worked through movement, myth, and metaphor rather than verbal processing. Where Jennings's EPR is developmental and Anglo-anthropological in roots, Sesame is closer to Jung and Laban: clients embody figures from a story rather than play themselves, and the therapist holds and amplifies the symbolic material instead of interpreting it back.
Lindkvist's signature contribution was Movement with Touch and Sound (MTS), a non-verbal intensive interaction developed for clients with severe learning disabilities, autism, and dementia, populations conventional drama therapy could not reach. Sesame training has been housed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London since 1989 and is the UK's only full-time drama therapy course built around a single named approach. See Drama Therapy Techniques for a detailed account of the method.
Drama therapy developed somewhat independently in North America, influenced by both the British tradition and the American psychodrama tradition. Key figures include:
Drama therapy draws on multiple theoretical traditions in psychology and performance. The major frameworks informing the field include:
The British Object Relations tradition (Winnicott, Bowlby, Bion) informs much drama therapy practice, particularly around concepts of the holding environment, transitional space, and play. Winnicott's concept of the transitional object and the potential space of play is foundational to understanding how drama therapy works.
Many drama therapy approaches draw on psychodynamic concepts: the unconscious, projection, transference, and the therapeutic relationship. Drama provides a medium through which unconscious material can emerge and be worked with in the safe distance of fiction.
The humanistic tradition (Rogers, Maslow, Perls) emphasizes the intrinsic capacity for growth, self-actualization, and authentic expression. Drama therapy's emphasis on creativity, spontaneity, and the therapeutic relationship reflects strong humanistic influences.
Narrative approaches (particularly White and Epston's Narrative Therapy) have significantly influenced drama therapy, particularly in the development of Narradrama and narrative approaches to drama therapy. The core idea: that people live by stories, and that therapy involves re-authoring limiting narratives.
Contemporary neuroscience and somatic psychology (van der Kolk, Levine, Ogden) have provided dramatic therapy with a scientific basis for its embodied approach. Research on trauma demonstrates that traumatic experience is encoded in the body and nervous system, not just in narrative memory, which explains why embodied approaches like drama therapy can reach experiences that talking alone cannot.
| The disciplineDrama therapy | Compared withThe neighbour | |
|---|---|---|
| Psychodrama | Broader tradition with many approaches. May draw on Moreno but isn't bound to him. | Moreno's specific method, structured re-enactment of real scenes in groups. TEP credential. |
| Theatre in Education (TIE) | Drama for therapeutic goals, psychological healing, emotional development. | Drama for educational goals, curriculum content, social skills. Different training and ethics. |
| "Drama as therapy" | Intentional, trained, clinical use of drama by a credentialed practitioner. | The general healing effects of participating in drama. Anyone can do it. |
| Other creative arts therapies | Theatrical methods, character, roleplay, story, dramatic action, as primary medium. | Art, music, dance/movement, poetry therapies. Same family, different primary modality. |
Drama therapy's evidence base has grown substantially in recent decades. Research has demonstrated effectiveness for:
The primary academic journal is Drama Therapy Review (NADTA) and The Arts in Psychotherapy (Elsevier). See our research and journals page for key studies and resources.
Drama therapy has roots in ancient therapeutic uses of theatre, but as a formal clinical discipline it developed in the 20th century. Jacob Moreno developed psychodrama in the 1920s-30s; Peter Slade articulated child drama's therapeutic value in the 1950s; Sue Jennings in the UK and Renée Emunah, David Read Johnson, and Robert Landy in North America formalized drama therapy as a distinct profession from the 1970s onward. NADTA was founded in 1979.
Drama therapy has multiple founders across different traditions. Jacob Moreno is considered the father of psychodrama (a related precursor). In the UK, Sue Jennings is the pioneer of drama therapy as a clinical profession; Marian 'Billy' Lindkvist founded the Sesame Institute in 1964 and developed the Sesame Approach to drama and movement therapy. In North America, Renée Emunah, David Read Johnson, and Robert Landy are the founding figures who established the field's theoretical foundations and the NADTA credentialing system.
Drama therapy draws on multiple theoretical frameworks: psychodynamic theory (object relations, attachment, unconscious), humanistic psychology (Maslow, Rogers, person-centered approaches), developmental psychology (Piaget, Winnicott, Erikson), narrative therapy (White and Epston), embodied cognition and neuroscience, and theatre theory (Stanislavski, Boal, Grotowski). Different drama therapy approaches weight these frameworks differently.
Psychodrama is a specific therapeutic method developed by Jacob Moreno using structured dramatic re-enactment of past events and relationships in a group setting. Drama therapy is a broader clinical profession that encompasses psychodrama as one approach among many others (Integrative Five Phase, Role Theory, Narradrama, DvT, etc.). Drama therapists are credentialed by NADTA (RDT credential); psychodramatists by the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama (TEP credential).
Expressive arts therapy (EXA) is an intermodal approach that integrates all art forms, visual arts, music, movement, drama, and poetry, rather than specializing in one. Drama therapy is a modality-specific practice focused on dramatic and theatrical methods. The fields overlap significantly; some practitioners hold both credentials. Both are recognized creative arts therapies, but drama therapy has its own distinct theoretical tradition, credentialing body (NADTA), and specialized training programs.