Drama Therapy with Active Duty Service Members

The objective of this capstone thesis was to design a 50-minute drama therapy group session that worked within the interdisciplinary treatment model of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) and its Healing Arts Program located on the base of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. It was grounded in Frydman’s (2016) theoretical framework that partners drama therapy with neuropsychology, and considers elements of Landy’s (1996) Role Theory, J.L. Moreno’s concept of spontaneity (Howie &Bagnall,2016), Developmental Transformations (Butler, 2012) and Sociodrama (Sternberg &Garcia, 2000). It also aimed to further Frydman’s (2016) research by applying it to the use of drama therapy with active duty service members diagnosed with TBI. The results of this capstone thesis show drama therapy to be an appropriate form of therapy for active duty service members diagnosed with TBI. Several studies (for examples see, Baumgartner (1986), and Forrester & Johnson, (1996), James & Johnson (1996), Dintino & Johnson (1997)) have been conducted using drama therapy with military veterans and not active duty service members. And while the NICoE’s Healing Arts Program has conducted extensive research with active duty service members and art therapy (Walker, Kaimal, Gonzaga, Myers-Coffman, & Degraba, 2017), none of these studies provided information on the use of drama therapy with active duty service members. It is evident that drama therapy should be considered as a form of treatment for active duty service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other psychological issues