Journey to drama therapy

Theatre has always been an essential part of my life. From a young age, I was singing, dancing, and performing. After leaving the small pond and jumping into a BFA Acting program, I realized that theatre would be a part of my life, but maybe not as I had imagined. The thing that I had always imagined would be it, had begun to break my heart. College provided me, like most, with many challenges, new questions, and some fears about the future.

Returning home and beginning to teach, life still felt very much in the in between. I decided to pivot and go to culinary school. This was going to be it. This was going to be the thing. Once attaining my associates degree in Culinary Arts, I began working in the restaurant industry. This industry is not always kind. This industry is not always fun. A sad reality born out of this industry was my own struggle with substance use disorder. My life became just that, disordered.

Having the opportunity to take some time away is not what everyone is afforded. I was able to work on a farm for several months, while working to strengthen my recovery. Like many others, recovery allowed me to regain parts of my life that had been lost. Throughout regaining parts of myself, theatre became a big part of my life again. It seems that most drama therapists feel as though they invented drama therapy, before discovering that it already existed! I applied and was admitted to a graduate drama therapy program, during the process of watching my father die. The day of his funeral, I enrolled in my graduate program, truly a way to honor his memory. The world knows how therapeutic theatre can be, how moving watching and participating in art making can be, drama therapy opens up a different side of traditional talk therapy, allowing the participant to be more embodied in the process. Drama therapy was the thing. Drama therapy was it.