MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Drama Therapy

Foster change through movement, story, and role play.

Successful therapy of any kind requires a strong working relationship between client and therapist, based in trust and emotional honesty. In drama therapy — through the client and therapist’s creation of movements, pretend images, stories, and scenes — the therapeutic relationship develops at an accelerated rate. By mutual agreement, client and therapist enter a shared imaginal realm and experience pretend consequences of choices they make within the fictional contexts they create together.

This degree is offered by Antioch University’s Seattle Campus.

Program Overview

Drama therapy is one of several creative arts therapies used by clinicians and practitioners to help their clients achieve emotional and physical integration, personal growth, and symptom relief. Like art therapy, it is the application of a creative modality to psychotherapy. Drama therapy allows you to develop your own way of working with clients using embodiment and theater processes. Antioch’s MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Drama Therapy is broad-based, providing students with experience with Improvisation, Psychodrama, Playback Theater, Narradrama, Developmental Transformations, Healing the Wounds of History, Masks, Puppets, Sociodrama, Theater of the Oppressed, Storytelling, and The Story Within. Students are also exposed to other creative arts therapies incorporating art, movement/dance, music, poetry, film, and geek therapies. Drama therapists work in numerous settings, including, but not limited to, hospitals, residential treatment programs, schools, shelters, community centers, prisons, and private practice. Antioch drama therapy students are highly sought after for internships and often receive offers to continue working after internship. The master’s degree can be completed in three years. The Antioch program is unique in that it offers students training in drama therapy together with training in either Clinical Mental Health Counseling or Couple and Family Therapy. Students choose from Couple and Family Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling coursework, integrating drama therapy as part of additional concentration-specific training, which includes internship. This allows students to seek licensing in Washington or other locations after graduation. Students also can use their drama therapy education to become registered drama therapists with the North American Drama Therapy Association.

Licensure Information

This program is designed to lead to state licensure.

Additional Licensure Information

DT/CMHC Degree Requirements

For the MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Drama Therapy, it is recommended that you consult with your adviser to create your own sequence of courses before the middle of the second quarter. The Drama Therapy program is 90 quarter credits. Many students in the program find that the program is flexible enough to accommodate working adults. You may begin the program in the fall or spring quarters.

DT/CMHC Degree Requirements

DT/CFT Degree Requirements

Antioch’s Drama Therapy specialization is combined with the MA in Couples and Family Therapy (CFT) concentration. You should consult with your adviser to create your own sequence of courses before the middle of the second quarter.

Visit the DT/CFT Program Page

Career Outlook

Drama therapists work in private practice and/or in clinical, educational, and rehabilitative settings such as:

•    hospitals and clinics
•    residential treatment centers
•    long-term care facilities
•    community centers
•    prisons
•    shelters
•    schools
•    mental health and social service agencies