Output details

A Practice-based enquiry into therapeutic presence

• PaR (DVD and portfolio) “A Practice-based enquiry into therapeutic presence”

An open and extended exploration of practice-based work with four experienced dramatherapists, involving studio work drawing upon actor training exercises which aimed to explore the embodied nature of presence and how this is perceived, sensed and felt.

300 word statement - Information about the research process and/ or content

This PaR investigation arose from speculation about a concept of ’therapeutic presence’. To investigate how such a concept might begin to be formed and articulated, a number of dramatherapist practitioner-researchers were interested to explore possible resonances between the discourses of ‘presence’ in theatre and psychotherapy. A guiding hypothesis was that the many layers of communication in human relationships might be relevant to the conception of presence. It was anticipated that the kinaesthetic and the unconscious, as central principles in psychotherapy, might complicate notions of propositional knowledge in interesting ways (in that what is sensed is not readily articulated in words). A practice with critical reflections was required.

The research design involved an open exploration over ten weeks of practice-based work with four experienced dramatherapists (3 hours per week). The main method involved studio work drawing upon actor training exercises which aim to explore the embodied nature of presence and how this is perceived, sensed and felt. The practice included: relational movement improvisation; Michael Chekhov’s psychological gestures; working with repetition of a distinct movement sequence with an observing partner; group improvisation of the ten ox herding pictures from Zen Buddhism. The workshops were documented, mainly on video. In addition, four leading practitioners in the field of theatre and dramatherapy were interviewed about their associations with theatrical presence, psychotherapeutic presence and dramatherapeutic presence. Participants in the workshop were also subsequently interviewed on their experiences and their emergent thinking on ‘therapeutic presence’.

The conversations instigated in the protracted process of collaborative editing formed a very significant part of the critical reflection in the research process. A first screening of the findings in the form of the five chapters of the edited footage (available in the accompanying DVD) was held at a Sesame Institute research evening in May 2013.