Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Major
Clinical Mental Health Counselling
First Advisor
Dave Mowers, LCAT
Second Advisor
Lesley University Library Services
Abstract
This paper investigates the question, “can a play and awe-based Ecodramatherapy intervention help to reduce levels of perceived stress in a group of food forest volunteers?” Methods for investigation and subsequent discussion of results draw from the Biophilia Hypothesis, Stress Reduction Theory, and Trait Activation Theory to guide conceptualization. Based on a review of the literature suggesting that playfulness and awe have an effect on both perceived and physiological stress, the author created an Ecodramatherapy intervention designed to evoke playfulness and awe for a group of 4 stressed food forest volunteers. The volunteer group was of mixed ethnicities and genders and was aware of the intervention’s purpose and subject of the author’s thesis. The results of the investigation suggest that the intervention did serve to reduce perceived stress in some volunteers, but that the intervention’s ability to facilitate an awe-experience remains unclear. Future directions for this work might include a formalized study in which participants engage in a multi-week Ecodramatherapy intervention in which data is obtained to measure participants’ perceived stress, playfulness, and “small self” state throughout the process.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Maier, Corey Jennifer, "Playfulness and Awe: How Ecodramatherapy Can Facilitate the Experience of Positive Emotional States to Reduce Perceived Stress" (2026). Expressive Therapies Theses. 132.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_therapies_theses/132
