Only recently has the therapeutic potential of the arts within medical practice been recognized in the West. Dramatherapy as an art form has emerged during the past 30 years as a clinical and educational practice for individual and group therapeutic intervention by dramatherapists and other arts therapists. A wide range of professional people integrate a dramatherapeutic approach into their professional frame of reference, including nurses, doctors, social workers, probation officers, psychologists and artists of all kinds. This book, by one of the leaders in this exciting and relatively new field is the first to present a working framework for dramatherapists, social workers, family and marital therapists and others running groups. This framework primarily deals with dramatherapy in the non-clinical setting such as family centres, residential children's homes, social services resources and intermediate treatment centres. Separate chapters cover current theory, methodology and application in specific client areas including child abuse. The author addresses work with children and adults, both individually and in groups, illustrated by case history examples.
