The use of distancing in drama therapy

Aesthetic presence: The role of the arts in the education of creative arts therapists in the classroom and online

“…A primary contribution of creative arts therapists, as compared to verbal psychotherapists, is that we create an aesthetic framework, embedded in a socio-cultural context, from which to explore and examine experience as it arises between the client as artist, art-making, and a witness, in reference to the client's capacities to witness themselves, a group's capacity to witness each other, and the therapist's capacity to bear witness to what unfolds. We seek to facilitate aesthetic distance, an encounter within a representational realm that enables both emotional arousal and cognitive reflection (Landy, 1983). It follows, then, that the arts should play a formative role in training.…”

The experience of acting: A synthesis of concepts and a clinical vignette

“…The author suggested a distinction between being-in-drama and being-for-drama as two contradictory modes of dramatic presence where the former is non-reflective (under-distanced) and the latter is reflective (over-distanced). Drawing on Landy (1983), Moreno (1953), Boal (1995), and Bolton (1984), the author argued that these two modes of dramatic presence coexist simultaneously in a transitional state termed being-via-drama. The article's conceptual segment was followed by a clinical vignette providing further insight into the conceptualization of the experience of acting.…”

“…According to Landy (1983), in the state of aesthetic distance 'the individual plays both roles of participant and observer simultaneously; or he is able to move fluidly from one role to another, as appropriate' (Landy 1983: 178, emphases added). The therapist's challenge is, therefore, to facilitate an aesthetic-dramatic distance, for it is only when clients are simultaneously participants and observers that unbearable pain can be borne and they can undergo a cathartic experience (Landy 1996).…”

“…Thus, by applying Sartre to drama-based therapy, I suggest conceptualizing clients' change as a sequential dynamic movement between two modes of dramatic presence: from being-in-drama (non-reflective) to being-for-drama (reflective). Landy (1983Landy ( , 1996 has imported and expanded Scheff's (1981) model of distancing emotions, claiming that 'distancing is relevant to drama therapy in that the therapist bases much of his [sic] work in examining the dialectics of actor and observer, self and role, one role and another role' (Landy 1983: 175). Distancing as a psychotherapeutic concept and device is a spectrum between two poles.…”

“…A distinction between two contrasting modes of dramatic presence, being-in-drama and being-for-drama, is provided. Drawing on Moreno (1953), Landy (1983), Boal (1995), and Bolton (1984, the author argues that these two opposing modes of dramatic presence coexist simultaneously in the experience of aesthetic-dramatic distance, conceptualized here as being-via-drama. Finally, a clinical vignette is provided to illustrate the experience of acting in drama-based psychotherapy.…”