DRAMATHERAPY - in my experience it can be useful to clarify what Dramatherapy isn't! It isn't about acting, or even having an interest in, or experience of, performance or the theatre.
Many people dread role-play or audience participation and the word 'drama' conjures up ideas of being asked to perform or enact. Dramatherapy doesn't ask this of you (unless it is what you want), but instead uses your innate creativity to tap into a different way of thinking about and reflecting on whatever is troubling you - thereby enabling you to tell your story.
And yes - you do have innate creativity!
So - Dramatherapy is a way of using a variety of creative techniques, adapted to what works for you and what is comfortable, through which I will help you to explore your feelings and thoughts in a way that may use words, but doesn't rely on them. We might use objects, art materials, stories, pictures, our own bodies and voices in a variety of ways that will free us from relying solely on linear thinking and offer us a different view of things.
SYSTEMIC PRACTICE - imagine a mobile hanging over a baby's cot .... if you move one of the arms of the mobile the whole thing will move - in fact it's pretty near impossible to isolate just one element of the mobile and move it without affecting the entirety. This is the thinking behind systemic practice - that we are all parts of a whole (often a family and significant others) and behaviours here will affect perceptions there, his way of saying this will affect her feelings about that ... and so on. Systemic practice invites us to be curious together about your system and how you function within it - and how you might want to challenge or change it.
I have considerable experience, working within both a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and private practice, with young people - from age 5 to teenagers and young adults. Approximately half of my current work is under the Adoption Support Fund, working with complex trauma and dissociation. Some other issues I work with include:
Attachment School refusal Anxiety Sibling rivalry Trauma - both as a result of a specific event and following abuse/maltreatment Post-adoption
I work with students who are in training as creative therapists and who are required to be in therapy as part of their training. I understand from my own experience the pressures this can bring - and the boundary between therapy and supervision.
I also enjoy working with adults - whether individually or as couples and in families - and have experience of supporting parents in reflecting on their interactions with their children and what that might give rise to, as well as working in a more 'traditional' one to one way with adults wanting to think about their own difficulties and ways forward.