The Yoga of Drama and Therapeutic Arts

by Dr. Nefertete Rasheed

Dr. Rasheed joins the faculty in Interdisciplinary Arts & Psychology.  She has taught in colleges throughout the US, was Associate Director of the Joseph Papp Public Theatre for many years, and is co-author of McGraw Hill’s “Theatre in Action” drama textbook.  Read more about her.

I often think about a homeless, anguished woman I worked with in the hospital who was dying of AIDS. She wanted nothing more than to be a mother before she died. This was in the early days of the epidemic when treatment was almost non-existent and a diagnosis was almost synonymous with a death sentence. We used drama as her therapeutic modality and she was able to experience and satisfy her maternal instincts in the roles she played out in our group and was able to take some of those nurturing qualities into her life as she learned to care for others on the unit whereas she previously isolated herself. This woman was not expected to live much longer but a few years after she left the hospital, I was watching television one evening and there she was! She had had not only one child but was expecting another. The children had a 50% chance of contracting the disease (I believe the first one was healthy) and they had been given a newly renovated apartment on the west side of New York. There are so many stories. One man, internally preoccupied and incoherent, had moments of clarity and coherence when we played certain music. A teen paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident played a gang leader and the lead dancer - dancing from the waist up and pirouetting on the wheels of his chair to the applause and cheers of onlookers. Many stories, less dramatic are yet, still powerful. I remember the child who was able to stand up, say his name in a loud clear voice, and read a story for the first time in front of his classmates. A room full of stressed out stockbrokers one day and a group of intimidated teachers on another day who both were moving, role-playing, and acting like a bunch of happy kids on the playground. This process of engagement, creating, enactment, moving and relating is what I most enjoy about the arts. It is just plain unbridled joy and fun. It is both an internal and external process that can open your heart and take you to higher and higher developmental and interpersonal levels.

I came to understand the business and production side of theater but I was engaged more so by the process. I grew up doing Repertory Theater in Washington, D.C. It turns out that drama comes from the Greek work dran that literally means ‘to do.’ We spent endless days and hours ‘doing’ - creating, developing, and mastering improvisational techniques and, essentially, working on ourselves. We had many performance and preparation rituals, practices, and disciplines. I always say that this was my first monastic experience. I learned early on how transformative and dynamic this process could be. It could be used not only to improve the quality of life but also as a tool for personal development and healing. I am thrilled that now most of the core arts - art, music, dance, poetry, and drama are embraced by the clinical community as relevant and useful treatment interventions and that Arts in Education became a virtual movement in the schools across the country.

Educators and clinicians now embrace and understand what we knew decades ago from working with the visually impaired, the physically challenged, and at-risk youth - the arts are incredibly healing, humanizing, and transcendent. Time, space, and as we say ‘disbelief’ can be suspended and these phenomenological quirks can be used to therapeutic advantage. There are a number of distancing steps that provide participants with an interesting vantage that can alter or change limiting self perspectives: (1) Individuals are able to leave themselves behind and step into new roles and relationships; (2) They are able to be something or someone that everyday life has never given them the chance to be, become, or encounter; (3) They are able to see their behaviors enacted by someone else and get a better understanding about how they present themselves in the world and their impact on others; and (4) They are able to manipulate reality and create unique and singular experiences for themselves. This happens in situ - in what we call the surplus reality of the psychodramatic stage – the individual is able to have certain ‘act hungers’ satisfied so that he/she can finally move on (sound familiar?). They are able in the therapeutic environment using a dramatic process to have these latent desires identified and fulfilled in a safe and non-threatening manner. They do not need to participate directly in an activity or enactment – the group can do the work for them - but by observing and the process of identification, they may be able to have a catharsis or emotional release.

I certainly hope to bring some of that same luminous energy to my work teaching here at Ananda College of Living Wisdom. If I can be used to infuse joy, laughter, and vibrancy through the arts at the college and contribute to what is already so unique and special about this spiritual academy, I know we will continue to create a vibrant and rich learning and living environment for all of the students we serve.


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