Focus Academy charter school in Tampa, Florida, was created to meet the unique needs of adolescents and young adults with developmental, cognitive, communication and social skills challenges in a unique and groundbreaking way – by incorporating Drama Therapy and a focus on mental health into our daily programming.

So what is Drama Therapy? Drama therapy is a creative form of psychotherapy that utilizes drama and theater processes in an intentional way, to promote emotional healing and personal growth. By exploring and enacting their thoughts, ideas, and experiences through role-playing, improvisation, and storytelling, our students gain a deeper understanding of their feelings and experiences, as well as the feelings and experiences of others. Drama Therapy is conducted in a group or individual setting with a trained therapist.

A primary goal of group Drama Therapy is to provide therapeutic social learning experiences that serve to enhance social interaction, social competence and relationship building skills and in the process to develop a sense of intrinsic motivation for social connection.

One of the unique benefits of group Drama Therapy is its’ ability to move us beyond the solitary and toward the shared experience that leads to social connection. Drama therapy is interactive in nature, providing our students an experience that has interpersonal and social interplay. By taking on different roles and perspectives, individuals can enhance self-awareness and gain insights into their own behaviors and motivations. Drama Therapy interventions help to build self-confidence, empathy skills, communication skills, emotional flexibility and emotional self regulation. Students engage in activities that help to build independent and collaborative problem solving skills. Working and creating together helps our students to enhance their ability to collaborate, negotiate and compromise. Group drama therapy helps students develop and strengthen their ability to empathize with others and understand their intentions.

Group Drama Therapy supports a sense of belonging and community. The performance aspect of our work, allows others to bear witness to the process and product of the work developed via collaboration, and serves to enhance the sense of a shared experience. The most effective and purposeful approach for our young people, seeks to move them beyond the solitary and toward the shared experience. Performing our stories, conceived and created by our students, for an audience, supports a sense of validation, acceptance and pride that comes from encouraging and appreciative applause.

In theatre we use the term monologue when referring to an individual speaking alone. The term dialogue on the other hand, refers to conversation between two or more people, a discussion, an exchange of ideas – requiring the act of relating, listening and responding, reciprocity, connecting or joining with others. It is the lack of capacity for dialogue, not just through language but through experience as well, that embodies the core challenge of many of our young people with developmental disabilities. And so it must be our mandate to transport our young people from an existence limited by monologue to a life rich with connection and dialogue and a life filled with purposeful and joyful interaction and heartfelt, meaningful relationships.

Drama Therapy is an integral part of our program at Focus Academy. It provides an ideal way to address the core values and goals of relationship building and social connection. We believe that social connection, paired with a strong sense of community and belonging, are the keys to our students’ social-emotional growth and academic success. At the core of Focus Academy’s social emotional learning perspective, is a focus on social connection and building that strong sense of community and belonging.

– Loretta Gallo-Lopez, MA, LMHC-S, RDT-BCT, RPT-S
Executive Director – Programming