What Is Drama Therapy? When Talking Isn’t Enough

By Rotem Metfield, MA, Drama & Movement Therapist and creator of the RAWR Method

You can understand yourself really well and still feel stuck.

You know why you react the way you do.

You know where the pattern came from.

You might even know exactly what you *should* be doing differently.

So why does knowing all of that not always change anything?

This is something I come across again and again. People who have done the thinking. Had the conversations. Analysed the patterns. They understand themselves incredibly well.

And yet something still feels stuck.

Because understanding an experience and actually experiencing something differently are not the same thing.

Sometimes talking gets us somewhere. And sometimes we need another way in.

We need to move. Play. Imagine. Try something out. Get out of our heads for a moment and see what happens when we stop trying to find the right words.

This is where drama therapy gets interesting.

So, what actually is drama therapy?

First, it isn’t about being good at acting.

There is no audience. No performance. No lines to learn. And absolutely no requirement to be “creative”.

Drama therapy is an active, experiential form of therapy. It uses tools from drama and theatre, including movement, role, story, imagination, play, objects, metaphor and improvisation, alongside talking and reflection.

Sometimes we talk.

Sometimes we move.

Sometimes we create a character, tell a story, choose an object, draw something, play with an idea or physically explore what it feels like to take up more or less space.

And sometimes we laugh.

That matters too.

Drama therapy gives us an opportunity not only to talk about something, but to experience it from somewhere new.

Because not everything begins with words

Imagine I ask:

“How do you feel about taking up space?”

You might think about it and give me an answer.

But what happens if I ask you to stand up and actually take up as much space as you can?

What happens in your body?

Do you immediately make yourself smaller?

Do you laugh?

Does it feel ridiculous?

Do you love it?

Do you suddenly become aware that you have spent years trying not to be too much?

There isn’t a “correct” response hiding inside your movement.

I’m not watching you thinking, Ah, her left shoulder moved, therefore she has an issue with boundaries.

That’s not how I work.

I’m interested in what you notice.

Because sometimes doing something gives us information that thinking about it doesn’t.

What does drama therapy look like in real life?

It can look surprisingly ordinary.

You might use two chairs to explore two different sides of a decision.

You might tell a completely fictional story and realise afterwards that something in it feels strangely familiar.

You might experiment with saying “no” in ten ridiculous ways before discovering the one that actually feels like yours.

You might move to music.

Draw.

Write.

Play.

Try on a role.

Change the ending of a scene.

Or notice that you absolutely do not want to do the exercise I’ve suggested, and explore that instead.

There is no prize for being the most expressive person in the room.

The creativity is the doorway, not the destination.

Why use creativity and movement in therapy?

Because we are more than the part of ourselves that can explain things.

We have instincts. Reactions. Imagination. Playfulness. Movement. Contradictions. Different roles we step into with different people.

We also have parts of ourselves that become quieter over time.

Maybe you learnt to be easy.

Responsible.

Successful.

Calm.

The one who keeps everyone else going.

Those roles may have helped you enormously. But sometimes we become so good at playing the roles life requires from us that we lose touch with what else is there.

This is one of the things that has fascinated me throughout my work in theatre, Human Behaviour and Drama & Movement Therapy.

We don’t only need to understand ourselves.

Sometimes we need opportunities to meet ourselves differently.

You don’t have to be creative

This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about creative therapy.

People tell me:

“But I’m not creative.”

Good.

You don’t need to be.

We’re not making art for anyone to judge. We’re not putting on a show. You don’t need rhythm, acting ability or an imagination worthy of an Oscar.

In fact, sometimes the moment when someone says, “This is stupid, I don’t know what I’m doing,” is much more interesting to me than something polished.

What happens when you don’t know?

What happens when there isn’t a right answer?

What happens when you can’t be good at it?

Now we have something to explore.

And where does RAWR fit in?

Drama and movement therapy is one of the foundations of the way I work, but it isn’t the whole story.

Over the years, my background in theatre, movement and Human Behaviour gradually came together into something of its own: the RAWR Method.

I’ll go much deeper into what RAWR is and how it works in an upcoming post. For now, it’s enough to know it’s built around one simple idea: helping people reconnect with the parts of themselves that have gone quiet.

What if talking has helped, but something still hasn’t shifted?

Then maybe you don’t need another explanation.

Maybe you need an experience.

Something that lets you play instead of perform.

Move instead of analyse.

Try instead of know.

Something that gives another part of you a chance to enter the conversation.

That’s what excites me about this work.

Not fixing people.

Not turning you into a calmer, better, more productive version of yourself.

Helping you find your way back to the parts of you that are already there.

The parts that feel curious.

Messy. Creative. Playful. Alive.

You don’t need to know exactly what you’re looking for before you begin.

Sometimes finding that out is the beginning.

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Curious about RAWR or working with me? Explore the RAWR Method or get in touch to arrange a conversation.