A ‘curious and non-defensive approach’ to working with intergenerational trauma in dramatherapy

This article examines the relationship between intergenerational and collective racial trauma, and the links between post-traumatic stress disorder symptomology and racial trauma. Through autoethnography, I aim to shed light on the long-lasting effects of racial trauma, which still exist in the aftermath of such tragic colonial histories. Between the personal, social and cultural experience, through the lens of trauma, I propose insight into dramatherapeutic approach and techniques that may be harmful when not handled with cultural awareness. I propose a ‘Curious-and-Non-Defensive’ approach to dramatherapeutic work, as well as providing techniques: myth, role, play and embodiment in 1:1 and group settings to aid in personal and communal healing that may counteract the imprisoning determinants of racial trauma when working with Africans and African diasporic clients. This is one of the first articles exploring this subject matter in the United Kingdom.