Things That Just Make Sense in a Drama Therapist’s Office Pt. 1: Props
POV: You’re in a therapy session and your therapist pulls out a trunk of scarves, dolls, masks, and other colorful odds and says, “Show me which of these objects represents your resilience…”
Maybe you’ve worked with a drama or creative arts therapist before and the above example feels nostalgic. Heck, maybe you have your own chest of props that you have grown to love. As a drama therapist, a chest (or any vessel for that matter!) of props can open up a world of possibilities for the client and the therapeutic work. Drama therapy often utilizes costuming and other props to invite creativity, expand imagination, and enhance aesthetic distance (e.g., the negotiation of emotional and cognitive processing) (Emunah, 2020). Props provide a concretized metaphorical representation of aspects of the self, concepts, people, places or things. We can project our emotions, desires, fears, and more onto a prop in order to explore our relationship with them. I’m willing to bet you have a few objects around your home that hold a specific meaning for you. An example of this may be a magnet on a refrigerator that incites memories of travels, perhaps bringing you back to the feeling of sand between your toes on a tropical beach and soreness in your cheeks from laughing with a loved one who is no longer in your life. This is an everyday example of how objects can be a container for complex experiences.
Metaphor residue is a term developed by Diana Chu for the way an object can remind you of a past feeling or experience (Diana Chu, 2020). Using a prop in drama therapy can create new meaning for the particular object used, so the next time you see it, you may be prompted to remember or reexperience whatever was assigned to that object. For this reason, Chu suggests that props should be chosen carefully. This is especially the case when facilitating therapy virtually on telehealth, because the client doesn't have the option of leaving the objects at the office until the next session and may be prompted to revisit painful memories at first glance of the object.
However, metaphor residue can be used in such a way that gently encourages forging a new relationship, rooted in strengths and compassion, with the material projected onto the item. Perhaps a Raggedy-Anne doll represents a past partner with whom you never got to process conflict with due to their tragic death, and having a conversation with that person through the doll provides the opportunity to say what was left unsaid and receive the care you need(ed). In this way, the Raggedy-Ann doll provides an opportunity to find your voice, embody compassion, and resolve conflict after loss.
Props are an excellent way to increase what many drama therapists refer to as aesthetic distance. Aesthetic distance refers to a psychological gap between what a person perceives as artwork and what they take to be reality. It can be used therapeutically to increase a person’s capacity to experience emotion or their ability to contain big, overwhelming emotions. A greater aesthetic distance can provide more space, or distance, between a person and their emotional experience. Alternatively, less aesthetic distance intensifies the emotional experience. Often, we seek to find a balance between the expression of emotions and emotional “mastery” (i.e., the practice of identification and regulation).
To exemplify the use of props as a tool for the therapeutic use of aesthetic distance, we might consider someone who’s often so overwhelmed by rage or anger that they aren’t able to safely and compassionately engage in relationships. This person is underdistanced from their emotional experience of rage. They might benefit from externalizing (projecting) their anger into a prop in order to explore their relationship to it. They might feel quite overwhelmed with anger if they are holding the prop in their hands, and may experience a cooling of their anger with the prop on the other side of the room with their back turned toward it. Depending on the prop they use to explore their anger or their physical relationship to the prop, they are able to explore their unique tolerance of anger and experiment with new ways to engage (or disengage) with anger.
Magical, huh?
Props are more obviously expected in child therapist’s offices; however, when given the permission to play, adults thrive with playful, creative tools in therapy. Props are an excellent tool to make therapy more experiential, more memorable, and dare I say… more fun!
If using props or other creative arts in therapy sounds like something you would benefit from, contact me at Prismatic Arts Counseling PLLC to discuss the possibility of working together!
References
Emunah, R. (2020). Acting for real: Drama therapy process, technique, and performance, (2nd Ed.). Routledge.
Diana Chu. (2020, May 26). Online Drama Therapy Interventions — #2 Use of Props, What’s my number?, Three changes, Simon Says. https://dianachu.medium.com/online-drama-therapy-interventions-2-use-of-props-whats-my-number-three-changes-simon-says-95a7032b49cb
