Older People
“Depression is the most common mental illness found in old people and the second commonest single underlying cause for all GP consultations for people over 70 years of age.”
Dr Alan Thomas, lecturer and honorary specialist registrar in psychiatry
(http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/depression/depressionintheelderly_000602.htm)
Dramatherapy works alongside person centred care. The main aims are to work towards feelings of:
Comfort - Identity - Inclusion - Attachment - Occupation
Sessions include activities that encourage these aims while also offering creative material that symbolically makes reference to difficulties individuals may present (for a session outline please see below). This allows individuals to engage and process difficulties in an environment that feels safe, supportive and creative.
All behaviour within dramatherapy is valued as an attempt at communication and each individual is given the opportunity to contribute as much or as little as they would like at their own pace. Our goal is not to change behaviour directly, but to support each individual in carrying their communication through to its conclusion. This is so even if it is difficult to understand or feel comfortable with. The focus is on allowing choice and individual input in order to facilitate a creative space where individuals can form relationships, process emotions and digest experience. In a group situation the process can also function as a support group between individuals.
‘How to Reduce Dementia Risk: What is the Bigger Picture?’ (BUPA)
"The implications of this work are that we need to encourage older people to engage with, or maintain, their participation in leisure activities, hobbies and interests throughout later life."
Alisoun Milne, researcher and consultant in the field of gerontology
(http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/300603dance.html)
Dementia
Sesame dramatherapy not only works alongside the principles of person centred care outlined above, but also allows time and opportunity to acknowledge transition, loss, meaning and emptiness.
Activities include embodied work, music and visual stimuli aimed at helping individuals to access embodied memory. This encourages familiarity and a feeling of safety with the work that may be more difficult with activities that require a purely cognitive form of recall. In our experience over a period of working individuals become less anxious and angry, more able to be in relationship with others, and for those who are able we find they begin to voice their memories, present experience and feelings in a supported environment.
Members of dramatherapy groups we have worked with have described the sessions as "calming", with "just us", having "friends here", "it breaks up the week", "something different to do", "I enjoy it".
The Session
Dramatherapy sessions are planned and facilitated based on individual need and can include verbal and non-verbal activities. The work can span a wide range of creative input, from the very auditory and tactile to improvisation and verbal processing. All levels of ability are valued.
The session has a similar structure each week, helping to create familiarity and containment. The beginning of the session is about arrival, choice, acknowledgment, awareness of self and others. This leads on to activities that are aimed at group formation and engaging the imagination. This is often the part of the session that works with bodily awareness, particuarly with dementia, working with mobility and internal and external spaces.
The main part of the session explores themes that are arising within the group, as well as working towards the aims outlined at the top of the page. Activities can include:
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storytelling and storymaking
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engaging with symbols/images
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shared artwork
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object work
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music and movement
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appropriate therapeutic touch
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reminiscence
Towards the end of the session there is a time for reflection and an opportunity for experience to shift and settle. The session concludes with a closure that is aimed at preparing individuals for the transition from imaginative and creative work to the routine of daily life, containing and releasing emotions.