Drama Therapy, Recovery & Body Liberation
Dani Bryant, MHC
A powerful tool in helping individuals in eating disorder recovery is embodiment & drama therapy interventions for body liberation. In my work as a mental health counselor and a drama therapist, I embrace and lead with the word liberation as opposed to “body love” or “body positivity,” because liberation and freedom is central to eating disorder recovery as well as drama therapy. We are always working towards freedom--from rigidity, perfectionism, and shame. Body liberation means letting go of all outside expectations set upon us by others and ourselves. Drama therapy supports individuals by challenging unrealistic expectations and helps to begin to experience joyful movement, playfulness and spontaneity in the body--which inturn moves forward the eating disorder recovery and body liberation journey.
The goals of my drama therapy expand outward from traditional eating disorder recovery into helping individuals process weight stigma, fatphobia and body image distress through Body Trust and Health at Every Size frameworks. Through this intersectional lens, embodied interventions support individuals in processing any fear of being judged by others or judging oneself and helps build more reliance and resistance to diet culture, fatphobia and unrealistic societal norms. Additionally, the routine exposure to “being in and connecting to” one’s body helps individuals in eating disorder recovery begin to honor the expertise and wisdom of their bodies--building trust, intuition and safety in the body in a new way. Drama therapy helps turn up the volume on curiosity! What is pleasurable? What is satisfying? What is joyful? What is scary? Often eating disorders develop as a way to numb the intensity of feeling in the body. The drama therapy playspace offers a chance to return to body curiosity. What is your body telling you? Can you allow yourself to feel joy? Can you allow yourself to feel angry at the drama therapist who threw you an invisible ball? What sensations are you feeling and where?
To engage in meaningful change, the drama therapy and recovery work is rooted in play & humor, creative projective techniques, story, metaphor and the power of witnessing. The work is also rooted firmly in “taking up space.” In a world that isn’t accepting you as you are or is constantly telling you to take up less space and be as small as possible, the drama therapy playspace is THE PLACE to practice acceptance of the body, as it is, in any moment. Body acceptance is not “I will accept my body if and when it arrives at a place I find acceptable,” but rather being accepting of it now, in the moment-- in the drama therapy session. The playspace is where we practice taking up as much space as we want and work through the emotional and physical response through reclaiming play, spontaneity, fun and laughter.
Drama therapy work often creates discomfort and is where many eating disorder recovery challenges can be confronted in a new way. These challenges might include the social anxiety of “being seen,” fears of failure, ridgid expectations, perfectionism and a lack of control. These named challenges and discomforts can be experienced as a parallel process to the eating disorder recovery work and body liberation.
In the drama therapy work, we explore and get curious with the discomfort instead of going right into problem solving--which for some might be an instinct to flee, fight back, freeze up or people please their way through each session. Overtime (sometimes even in the span of one session), I am often struck by the transformation of engagement, mood and energy. One message I close drama therapy sessions with is to reinforce the importance of practicing playfulness, spontaneity and flexibility together. I name that if we can do it together, we can do it on our own--and even if we cannot know the exact impact of how the embodied work will echo out into our lives, the magic is in the trying.
Drama therapy creates a unique space to join in with individual in taking back the space that was taken from them, watch them learn to speak to be heard, cheer them on as they allow themselves to be seen and work to become the storytellers of their own lives.
If you’d like to learn more about Drama Therapy, Recovery and Body Liberation connect with me or learn more from the organizations below.
https://www.recoverythroughperformance.org/
https://www.nadta.org/index.html