Towards an abolitionist drama therapy as a pathway to freedom

Inspired by Christine Mayor and Britton Williams’s (2024) Arts in Psychotherapy article, ‘Dreaming of an abolitionist drama therapy’, this clinical commentary explores drama therapy as a tool for resisting carceral logics in mental health. We provide the statement first presented at the 2024 North American Drama Therapy Association Conference , explaining how being grounded in collective healing, disability justice and harm reduction abolitionist drama therapy can reclaim narratives, challenge punitive models and foster accountability beyond policing and incarceration. By leveraging neuroplasticity and performance, it can cultivate internal liberation, offering pathways to justice, resilience and radical transformation. We conclude with our steps for embodying abolitionist practices through relational praxis, narrative reclamation and systems critique.