The aesthetics of language, body and distancing in dramatherapeutic trauma work

Abstract

This theoretical article identifies the intentional aesthetic use of embodied language as one of the unique contributions of dramatherapy to trauma treatment. Despite the centrality of narrative, fictional and dramatic language to dramatherapy practice, there has been little written about the aesthetics of language and their application in trauma work, nor about the relationship between embodiment and language use in dramatherapy. The article proceeds from the assumption that aesthetics are at the core of dramatherapy process, and therefore, that it is crucial to the understanding of therapeutic change in dramatherapy to explore the aesthetic aspects of practice. Reviewing the literature on language in trauma work and aesthetics in dramatherapy, the article provides a preliminary typology of the aesthetic elements of language as used in dramatherapy, with illustrative examples from the literature and from the author’s arts-based research. The core process of aesthetic distancing is applied as the dramatherapist’s primary tool for moment-to-moment assessment and decision-making regarding interventions, particularly with regard to titrating exposure to traumatic content; this is necessary to sustain a robust dramatic reality capable of containing the potentially affectively and physiologically intense work of trauma resolution. The article concludes with recommendations for future research into language use in dramatherapy trauma work.