Widening circles of care: Exploring self-care with activists using ecodramatherapy

Research shows that activists as a population may be at high risk for developing symptoms of trauma, isolation, alienation and burnout due to a host of internal and external factors. This instrumental case study, originally undertaken in the context of a graduate research project, describes a ten-week intervention with a group of female social and environmental activists exploring the theme of self-care. The interventions were based on the integration of two frameworks: drama therapy methods and processes – including Jones’s core processes, Salas’s Playback Theatre, Emunah’s Five Phase Model of drama therapy and Silverman’s Story Within model – and an ecopsychological group process developed by Joanna Macy and her colleagues, known as the Work that Reconnects. Interventions are described and analysed in terms of the integration of methods and the development of self-care as a guiding theme. The study draws larger implications for activist self-care practice, including the role of honouring painful feelings as integral to self-care, and the potential for drama therapy to foster collective practices of self-care within activist movements. The study suggests that drama therapists may have a unique role to play in supporting activists to find tools to engage sustainably in their work. By integrating the Work that Reconnects and drama therapy methods, this research proposes an ecodramatherapy: a drama therapy practice that is rooted in the anticolonial perception of our fundamental relatedness with, and responsibility to, all peoples and forms of life. It is our hope that the lessons from this research, done over a decade ago now, may inspire therapists, facilitators and activists alike to create circles of safety and support for those engaging in the demanding work of fighting for climate justice for present and future generations.