Apr26
Online with Ishan McCarthy
Drama Therapy
Engage your love of theatre arts to help people heal and foster social change
For 40 years, CIIS’ Drama Therapy program has been exploring how therapeutically-adapted dramatic processes work over time to heal wounds, facilitate lasting change, and help people reach their highest potential. The training is academically rigorous, creative, and multilayered with an eye to leveraging the discipline in ethical, respectful, and skillful ways.
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A Closer Look at Drama Therapy
Program Director Renée Emunah describes Drama Therapy, clears up some common misconceptions, and explains how Drama Therapy leads to “liberation from confinement.”
The Master’s in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy is a Board of Behavioral Sciences-approved program taught in person. As one of the first two approved Drama Therapy graduate programs in the US, we have long been investigating the dynamic and multifaceted integration of theatre and therapy. The program integrates experiential, theoretical, and clinical courses in a curriculum designed to train students to become skillful, ethical, and culturally attuned drama therapists.
Our Counseling Psychology M.A. programs
Which one of our five unique specializations is right for you?
Expressive Arts Therapy
Integrate creative expression with clinical and community practice
Integral Counseling Psychology
Incorporate the mind, body, and spirit into therapeutic practice
Faculty Research and Scholarship
Our faculty have wide-ranging research interests, including drama in social justice work, heart rate variability biofeedback, and meditation and action techniques.
Gaming Your Anxiety
In this article, Drama Therapy faculty member Doug Ronning contributes his expertise on managing stress through play.
On Accepting Oneself Fully
Professor Sylvia Israel is a drama therapist and teacher who believes healing means accepting ourselves fully. In this interview on her work with the Therapeutic Spiral Model of Psychodrama, Sylvia describes how she uses drama therapy to work with all kinds of trauma.
Recovery in Action: Playing with Eating Disorders
When she's not working at CIIS or seeing clients in private practice, adjunct administrator Aileen Cho works as a lead therapist in a residential and partial hospitalization treatment program for adults suffering from eating disorders and co-occurring disorders in Moss Beach, CA. Check out her article about the incredible outcomes of utilizing Drama Therapy in a residental treatment program.
Our Upcoming Events
May02
A Free Online Workshop with Ishan McCarthy and Kelson Pamarang
May07
A Free Online Info Session with Pella Weisman
Our Program in Action
Alumni News
An interview with Drama Therapy alumna Grace Walcott about her documentary, “River of Life LGBTQ+”
Faculty Interview
Dr. Renée Emunah, Founder and Chair of the Drama Therapy program at CIIS, reflects on the second edition of her book, Acting for Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, and Performance