Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Major
Expressive Therapies
First Advisor
David Mowers, MA, LCAT
Abstract
The drama therapy core processes articulate the fundamental principles underlying all methods of drama therapy. Despite serving as foundational elements for clinical practice, research, and education in the field, these processes have historically lacked operationalization, empirical study, and application to broader psychological domains. The following literature review examines potential relationships between the drama therapy core processes (dramatic embodiment, dramatic play, witnessing, reflection in dramatic reality, reflection on dramatic reality) and stages of the process model of emotion regulation (situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, response modulation). Conceptual and empirical literature are synthesized to examine how engagement with each core process may interact with multiple stages of emotion regulation within the therapeutic context. Findings suggest that drama therapy may engage regulatory processes across experiential, relational, and embodied domains, offering a preliminary framework for understanding how emotion regulation may be supported in dramatic reality. This paper contributes to ongoing efforts to define mechanisms of change in drama therapy and to integrate its processes with established psychological theory.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Lauren A., "Drama therapy core processes for emotion regulation" (2026). Expressive Therapies Theses. 122.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_therapies_theses/122
