Description

"Every person is their own story. We exist through our narratives: personal, genealogical, national, multicultural, and global. Stories of pain, stories of joy, stories of initiation and transition, stories of growth, hopeful stories, hidden stories, mysterious stories, indescribable stories, heartbreaking stories, desperate stories, unhistorical stories. We are creations of History, and throughout our lives, we experience History and create History ourselves.

All therapies work on our personal stories, with the immediate goal of restoring, correcting, reframing, and healing them, while the ultimate aim is to live a better life. The drama therapist must seek different ways to highlight, reconstruct, and reflect on life stories, imbued with deep knowledge and love for myths and their themes, as well as fairy tales, and must be able to utilize them and make references, comparisons, and analogies depending on each case.

Drama therapy is applied to a variety of populations and has proven over the years to be a therapy of choice for an increasing number of people spanning a wide range of cases. Particularly when working with populations with disabilities, drama therapy techniques seem to be effective and fruitful. This specific book by Paula Crimmens appears to be an excellent resource, a helpful guide on how we can work responsibly and effectively in special education.

It guides us among many others on how to work with traditional stories, how to pursue collaborations aimed at mutual aid, how to achieve changes, how to deal with unpleasant heroes, and how to build the trust necessary for teamwork. The book itself is a colorful and bustling aesthetic and sensory journey through enchanting myths, tough fairy tales, sympathetic yet annoying heroes, in contexts of everyday choices and major decisions."

Stelios Krastanakis MD

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Foreword to the Greek Edition
• Introduction
• Definition of Drama Therapy
• Drama Therapy as a Suitable Intervention
• The Use of Drama Therapy in People with Learning Difficulties
• How the Book is Organized
• Getting Started
• Assessing the Group's Level
• Working in the Classroom
• Training Staff to Support Sessions
• Creating a Culture for Sessions
• Physical Safety
• The Use of Traditional Stories
• Why Use Traditional Stories?
• Guidelines for Selecting Traditional Stories
• Where to Find Suitable Stories
• The Use of Props for Understanding, Participation, and Enjoyment
• Identifying Roles within the Story
• The Use of Songs
• Structuring Sessions
• Helping Others
• The Children and the God of Thunder
• The Bell of Hamana
• Rata, the Traveler
• The Umbrella Tree
• Facing Change
• The Raven and the Giant Sitting in the Tide
• Maui and the Sun
• The Wind Weaver
• Working in Groups
• The Thunder of Four Colors
• The Marsh People
• Hemi and the Whale
• The Healing Waters
• Tricks and Theft
• The Gold of King Arthur
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Maui and the Quest for Fire
• The Raven and the Light
• Stories of a Special Child
• The Birth of Maui
• Momotaro
• Star of Dawn, Star of Dusk
• Unusual Heroes
• The Spider Grandmother
• Yukos and the Monster
• Solomon and the Bee
• The First Sail
• Competitiveness
• The Tarantula and the Hyena
• The Golden Apples of Atalanta
• Paikaea
• Trust
• Eros and Psyche
• The Princess and the Crooked-Legged Baba Yaga
• Kahakūra
• Inventing Stories: A Guide to Using Stories in Exploring Everyday Life
• Teenage Students with Learning Difficulties
• Teenage Students with Attention Deficit or Behavioral Problems
• Students with Asperger Syndrome
• Using Illustrated Scripts with Autistic Students
• The Illustrated Script
• Drama Therapy and Attention Engagement with Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Research Study
• Intellectual Disability and the Importance of Engagement
• Engagement in Drama Therapy
• Alignment with Special Education Literature
• Summary of Literature
• Structural Elements of a Drama Therapy Session
• Measurements
• Educational Process
• Program Support
• Results: The Therapist's Records
• The Records of Changes in the Four Focused Students
• Summary
• Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Useful Websites
• Index of Terms
• Index of Authors