MA in CFT with Drama Therapy

Masters Project Presentation 10 September/2 pm/AUS/On the Roof Division of work during three-quarters  First Quarter: Brainstorming and collaboration. Lit review due at the end of the quarter. Second Quarter: Continued collaboration and self-reflection, gathering stories. Outline of performance due by end of the quarter. Third Quarter: Rehearsal and practice of final performance. Final self-revelatory performance and final paper (Lit Review and reflection of performance) due at end of the quarter. “I started by thinking deeply about all of my classes, colleagues, instructors, and conversions over the past four years and reflected on what was “buzzy” for me. Family, self-discovery, authenticity, community, and making meaning are at the center of why I began the unique process of becoming a Couple and Family Therapist and Drama Therapist. Renne Emunah describes the “riveting authenticity and immediacy” at the core of the drama therapy intervention known as Self-Revelatory performance. I felt called to use the embodiment of my clients, mentors, and friends, as well as storytelling, to create a final performance exploring the magical combination of two life events happening at once: becoming a mother and becoming a Child and Family Therapist in community mental health. The final piece will consist of three themes, and each of these themes will be represented by an embodiment, a story, and a drama therapy activity that involves the audience. Through collaboration with Bobbi Kidder, I have nurtured my curiosity and deepened my understanding of myself and how I present as a clinician. Remember to lean into playfulness, but also relax into what you already know.”

“I conducted an 8-week case study using the Role Theory Card Sort instrument, Psychodrama, and SoulCollage elements to help the client expand their understanding of their identity and analyze the effectiveness of such instruments and additional assessments in support of the client’s greater therapeutic goals. I used the Internalized Oppression Framework in analyzing the client’s intersectional identity and role selection and offered multiple role decks to select from in the instrument (Standard, Disability, and LGBTQIA+) to achieve the greatest amount of information possible. I then wrote and constructed my case study for presentation and submission to the NADTA journal and beyond! The process was all consuming, but exciting and rewarding. The people behind the research and textbooks we have been reading for 3+ years were once students like ourselves, and we are capable of becoming those people with a dose of curiosity and dedication to contributing to our communities collective knowledge. Start early if you can if you choose to pursue research and don’t forget that this project/thesis/study is just a bit bigger than your previous culminating assignments with the added benefit of being designed to your interests!”

“For my MA Project for the completion of my credits for my Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with Drama Therapy at Antioch University: Seattle, I chose to write a MA Thesis and Proposal for an addition of the (dis)ability community within the original Role Taxonomy (1991) created by drama therapist Dr. Robert Landy, PhD, RDT-BCT, LCAT. I was inspired by not only my original interest in this specific modality of the therapeutic use of Role Theory but by Role Paradox in Existential Psychological theory and by the expansion of specific populations (ex. LGBTQ+ community and people of color) within the Role Taxonomy being created by drama therapists such as Adam D-F. Stevens, MA, RDT. It is through my extensive work within the specific population of (dis)ability that I saw a need to expand roles that are often ascribed and punitive in nature. I conducted a phenomenological study with 53 participants and created a (Dis)ability Role Taxonomy comprising 35 new roles based on questions regarding role(s) specific to that of the (dis)ability community. It is my hope that this addition to current research and literature will help not only the clients whom I serve but also highlight the need for discussion of inclusion of various specific populations that are served in the clinical mental health field! In giving advice to future students who will be completing the project, I would suggest that you begin to think of what theory or modality of drama therapy that you find most interesting and begin to build up resources, take notes, write down questions, and let them percolate early in your graduate level journey. A helpful hint is to look at what research is “missing.” What do you want to know that has been researched but could be updated or modified? Better yet, what don’t you/we know as drama therapists? Come back to this as you are in your Pre-Internship Practicum (PIP) and as you take your Drama Therapy Research class and make it applicable, experiment, and make mistakes! During the three quarters of working on your project, I suggest that you make your due dates ahead of when you need them to be completed to give yourself space while also navigating the internship. If overwhelmed, take a break, and come back to it later with fresh eyes; it never made anything worse for me. It is also important to remember to have fun; one of the best parts of this project was that even though it was time-consuming and it was a topic that I am invested in, I came away with something which I can actually use as a drama therapist and which I can always expand upon later.”

“Madeline Schmitt and I had been running a Harry Potter-based role-playing game called Muggles & Magic (M&M) for about a year when we decided we wanted to base our MA project on it. We created an experiment to investigate the impact if any, M&M had on youth and building social skills. We ran our experiment at Aspiring Youth, where we worked, and discovered that, according to parent/guardian reports, M&M had statistical significance in increasing their child’s social skills. Interestingly, according to the youth, their social skills declined but not in a statistically significant way. I’d like to share a few nuggets of wisdom that may help you on your master’s project journey: If you want to run an experiment and need IRB approval, give yourself plenty of time. Print out the IRB packet as soon as possible and start filling in everything you know. Then figure out what parts are going to require more research and what parts are going to require approval from other parties, such as the site where you’re doing the experiment. This process took, from start to finish, a couple of months for us. There was a lot of back-and-forth that needed to be done, and each back-and-forth sometimes took a week’s worth of emailing. I cannot stress this enough: Give yourself a lot of time if you’re going to do the IRB process. That being said, not every master’s project needs to be an elaborate experimental design with outstanding results. Sometimes even the hypotheses that seem most simple are, in fact, the most interesting and can also require a lot of work. Hopefully, there will be plenty of time in your future to get into the weeds about different topics that you’re interested in. If you’re getting bogged down and your able to, take some time away and book an Airbnb somewhere to give yourself a new environment and space all to yourself. When my perfectionism reared its head, I had to remind myself that my work and effort was not just good, it was good enough.”