Tag: Alternative Training

 

Sally Bailey, MFA, MSW, RDT/BCT

I earned my BFA in directing, summa cum laude, at the University of Texas at Austin in 1976 and my MFA in directing and playwriting at Trinity University at the Dallas Theater Center in 1981. I worked in professional theatre for thirteen years as a technician and administrator at such places as Houston Stage Equipment, NORCOSTCO Texas Costume, Theatre Virginia, and The Shakespeare Theater at the Folger before discovering drama therapy.

After training in drama therapy in the Washington, DC area, I created the Arts Access Program (now the AccessAbility Program) at the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts (now Imagination Stage) and served as the Arts Access Director from 1988 to 19http://www.imaginationstage.org/accessability.htm98. While there I had the opportunity to work with a wide array of children through adults who had various physical and cognitive disabilities. They taught me how to make theatre accessible to everyone.

I also worked as a drama therapist at Second Genesis, a long-term residential drug rehabilitation program in the Washington, DC area, from 1988 to 1999. For the first six years I was the “itinerant drama therapist,” traveling to all six facilities to run drama therapy groups with residents. Then after massive state funding cuts for drug treatment programs in 1994, I was able to work part- time only at Second Genesis’ Melwood House for Women and Their Children until 1998 when I took a full-time position there as an Addictions Therapist.

Other educational credentials: In 1992 I received a certificate in Gestalt therapy from the Washington Gestalt Training Institute under the training of Rudy Bauer, Ph.D., and in 1998 I received a Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

I became a Registered Drama Therapist with the North American Drama Therapy Association in 1990 and a Board Certified Trainer in 1997. I served on the board of the NADTA: 4 years as Membership Chair (1995-1999), 2 years as President-Elect (1999-2001), 2 years as President (2001-2003), and 2 years as Education Chair (2007-2009). I also served on the Registry Committee for three years, 2 of those years as the Registry Chair (2005-2007).

Currently, I am a professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas (yes, we are known as The Little Apple) where I am the director of the drama therapy program. I teach drama therapy courses, creative drama, and playwriting as well as direct the Barrier-Free Theatre, an integrated acting company of adults with and without disabilities, co-sponsored by City of Manhattan Parks and Recreation Department and the K-State Theatre Department.

Intensive drama therapy courses are offered at K-State every June (Current Offerings) through the Division of Continuing Education. These courses are a great way to “get your feet wet” and discover if drama therapy is the career for you. They are also a way of getting Alternative Training in Drama Therapy. In addition, K-State offers an MA in Theatre with a concentration in Drama Therapy.

I serve as the Office Manager of the Drama Therapy Fund, a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization founded to support the field of drama therapy in education and research through grants, awards, and scholarships.

Books: Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students with Special Needs (1993), Rockville, MD: Woodbine House, currently out of print.

Dreams to Sign (2002) co-written with Lisa Agogliati, published through the U.S. Department of Education. It is available from Lisa at lagogliati@aol.com.

Barrier-Free Theatre (2010) published by Idyll Arbor, winner of the American Alliance for Theatre in Education’s 2010 Distinguished Book Award.

Drama therapists are trained in four general areas: drama/theatre, developmental and abnormal psychology, drama therapy, and ethics.  Each of these categories involves required classes. Students learn experientially through classes and internships by doing, practicing, getting supervisory feedback, and refining skills. In the end, the drama therapist is able to facilitate the client’s experience in a way that keeps the client emotionally and physically safe while the client benefits from the dramatic process.

Most drama therapists come from the world of theatre.  They are individuals who realize the healing power of drama through therapeutic experiences they’ve had in their education or career and want to facilitate change and growth in others. Many recall that in college they were torn between majoring in psychology or theatre and decided to follow the theatre path. They want to use drama to help others in a direct way or to use theatre as a social change agent, rather than only as entertainment or education.

A smaller percentage of drama therapists come from the field of therapy. They have a Masters or Ph.D. degree in social work, psychology, or counseling and realize that talk therapy isn’t enough; they want to use hands‑on, creative ways of exploring problems and practicing behavior changes with clients. Most have been involved in educational or community theatre for many years.

In North America, there are six graduate programs in drama therapy that have been approved by the North American Drama Therapy Association: New York University (NYU) in New York City, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, California, Lesley University (Cambridge, MA), Antioch University (Seattle, WA), Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS), and Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Students in these programs study for two to three years full-time, taking courses in drama therapy, psychology, psychotherapy, ethics, and research. They also complete 800 hours of internship using drama therapy with at least two different populations of clients.  

People who already have or are working on Master’s or Ph.D. degrees in theatre or mental health, such as counseling, social work, speech pathology, or special education can pursue Alternative Training in drama therapy. Alternative Training is equivalent to the MA-approved programs and allows students to create individualized programs around a specialty. This program was put in place in the late 1990s by NADTA. It is not an easier way of becoming a drama therapist; however, it can be a more flexible way for people who have jobs and families and can’t move to the cities the currently approved programs are in or for individuals who have already earned advanced degrees.

Alternative Training must be overseen by a Board Certified Trainer (BCT). This is a Registered Drama Therapist who has been approved to mentor, guide, and train drama therapy students. The BCT helps the student plan out a yearly learning contract and serves as an academic advisor.

Registry: The Professional Credential

RDT (Registered Drama Therapist) is the credential that is nationally recognized in the United States and Canada as the professional designation for drama therapists. Registry consists of a peer review of education, training, and experience qualifications.

The clearest way to explain registry as a credentialing system is to compare it with the medieval guild system. If a young boy in 12th century France wanted to be a weaver, first, he would train as an Apprentice to a Master Weaver. When his training was completed, and he passed his basic proficiency tests, he became a Journeyman. As a Journeyman, he worked in the field at a higher level of responsibility, pay, and respect. After a certain number of years, during which the Journeyman had gained practice and expertise, he could apply to join the Guild as a Master Weaver. The Guild members would review the Journeyman’s qualifications and either vote him into the guild as a peer or not (in which case, he would remain a Journeyman until he achieved the appropriate level of skills).

In terms of drama therapy, a student (apprentice) completes the education and training necessary to understand how to practice drama therapy responsibly and ethically, earning either an MA in drama therapy or completing the Alternative Training Program. Then the journeyman-level practitioner works for a minimum of 1,500 hours as a professional drama therapist (for the purposes of comparison, social workers typically work 2,000-3,000 hours before they can apply for licensure). In addition, all potential applicants for registry must at some point have completed a minimum of 500 hours of theatre experience. The theatre experience can be educational, professional, or via community theatre. A BA or MA degree in theatre alone constitutes much more than 500 hours of theatre, so most drama therapy practitioners have already completed this requirement before they enter the field as trainees. When all of these basic, educational, and professional requirements have been met, registry can be applied for.

Peer review or registry is different from certification or licensure, the professional credentials in certain other fields. Public school teachers, for example, must be certified and/or licensed within the state in which they teach. Certification guarantees school employers that the teacher applying for the job has the education and training to teach whatever subject/age the certification covers. In many states, teachers must pass a test to be certified. Teacher certification is controlled separately by each state’s Board of Education or Board of Regents. Some standards are set by the state legislature and others are set by the Board. Teacher certification is important because it protects students, employers, and, ultimately, the public.

Social workers or counselors must be licensed within the state in which they practice. Licensure guarantees potential employers and clients that the therapist has the minimum required education, training, and experience in order to adequately do his/her job. Teachers pay for their certification and must renew it every few years. Licensed social workers and counselors must do the same. Licensure for therapists is set up separately by each state through legislation passed by the state legislature and then regulated and administered by a mental health board.

Currently, registry is the only recognized professional credential for drama therapists in the United States and Canada; there is no licensure for the title “Drama Therapist.” New York State, Wisconsin, and New Jersey have passed licensure laws that include creative arts therapists, among them drama therapists. The law in New York took a coalition of creative arts therapists and counselors twenty years of organizing and lobbying to get passed.