1st Edition
Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder Empowering and Nurturing people through Creativity
Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Empowering and Nurturing People Through Creativity demonstrates how dramatherapy can empower those individuals struggling to live with borderline personality disorder, and help them embrace and control the emotional inner chaos they experience.
Based on current research into the aetiology, symptoms and co-morbid disorders associated with BPD (and emotionally unstable personality disorder), this book demonstrates the effectiveness of dramatherapy for individuals and groups on specialist personality disorder wards and in mixed diagnosis rehabilitation units. It also reveals a creative approach for making dramatherapy work in harmony with approaches such as dialectical behaviour therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy.
Aimed at those working with service users, and utilising a range of case studies and clinical vignettes, Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder provides an insight into the potential of dramatherapy, which will be welcomed by mental health professionals.
Table of Contents
Dramatherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder:
Empowering and Nurturing people through Creativity
(Author – Nicky Morris)
Dramatherapy: Approaches, Relationships, Critical ideas
(Series Editor - Anna Seymour)
- Title
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Foreword - Kate McCormack
Part One: Definitions, History, Theory and Treatment Options
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Battling Stigma
- Personal Motivation
- Summary of Chapters
- References
Chapter 2: BPD: A Complex and Emotional Mental Health Disorder
- BPD Historic Overview
- Current Statistics
- Aetiology
- Diagnosis:
BPD in the DSM V
EUPD in the ICD.10
Structured Clinical Interviews
Diagnosis in Adolescence
- Comorbidity
- Conclusion
- References
Chapter 3: Psychological Treatments for BPD
- Introduction
Treatment Pathway
Treating Comorbidity
- Therapeutic Interventions:
DBT - Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
MBT - Mentalisation Based Therapy
Therapeutic communities
Arts Therapies:
Dramatherapy
Art Therapy
Music therapy
Dance Movement Therapy
CBT - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
CAT - Cognitive Analytical Therapy
ST - Schema Therapy
TFP - Transference Focused Therapy
IGP – Interpersonal Group Psychotherapy
OT - Occupational Therapy:
OT for BPD, by Georgia Ntzimani
- Multidisciplinary Communication
- Final Reflections
- References
Chapter 4: Embrace and Contain the Chaos: Dramatherapy for BPD
- Dramatherapy: History and Definition
Ancient Roots
Theatre meets Therapy
Dramatherapy in the Twentieth Century
Defining Dramatherapy in the Twenty First Century
- Dramatherapy for BPD
Thirteen Dramatherapists share their experience
Dramatherapy for Insecure Attachment and Trauma
Reclaiming Femininity through Ritual and Myth
Dramatherapy for Men with BPD
Evaluation and Evidence
- An Overview
Part Two: Dramatherapy Clinical Case Studies and Vignettes
Chapter 5
Breaking Inner Chains:
Dramatherapy on a Secure Ward for Women with BPD
- Dramatherapy for Women with BPD
- Five Recurring Themes:
Freedom
Hope
To be seen and heard as a human being, rather than a diagnosis
Bringing all parts of oneself – including the shadow – into the light
A new way to look at familiar emotions or issues
- Six Key Interventions:
Releasing tension and repressed emotion via simple, effective methods
Symbolic Tools and Projective Methods
Ritual, Story and Myth
Sensory work
Play
Poetry, Song and Creative Writing
- A Detailed Case Study illustrating the Six Interventions:
Initial steps into Dramatherapy
1:1 Trauma-Focused Dramatherapy
Jean’s Dramatherapy journey in relation to Schema Therapy
- Perspectives from the Multi-Disciplinary Team on Dramatherapy
- The Client’s Voice
- References
Chapter 6
A Cry for Freedom:
Dramatherapy with Women in a Secure Step-Down Unit
- A Mixed Diagnosis Dramatherapy Group
Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder and Bipolar Disorder
A Mother’s Heartache
A Service User with BPD
- Dramatherapy Group Interventions
An Imaginary Train Journey
A Model Animal Community
- Therapeutic Performance
Singing Swans
Self-Revelatory Performance
- Colleagues Reflect on Dramatherapy
- References
Chapter 7: Dancing Between Life and Death
- Dramatherapy and Grief
Losing a Brother
A Father’s Suicide
- Self-harm, Suicide and Lost Souls
Kit
Lorna
Chloe
Jane
- Emotional Impact on Staff
Suicide and Self-Harm
Emotional Projections and Ambivalence
Dr Preeti Gour reflects on Suicide
The Role of Clinical Supervision
- Conclusion
- References
Chapter 8: Hope, Courage and Creativity
- Belief and Hope
- Courage and Meaning
- Survivors
- References
- Abbreviations
- Index
Biography
Nicky Morris is an HCPC registered dramatherapist and BADth member, who has worked in NHS and private mental health services for thirteen years, predominantly with women diagnosed with BPD.
This enriching practice based book focuses on a complex client group, who often struggle to obtain adequate treatment. The descriptions of the work are detailed, humane and knowledgeable, drawing on a range of dramatherapist experiences, whilst including the wider multidisciplinary team of professionals through feedback. Client stories are illustrated with poems, images, as well as directly elicited feedback. The diagnosis and treatment chapters offer nuanced information and changes over time about how clients are perceived, whilst recognizing the continuous effect of stigma. The dramatherapy sessions are described in clear detail in a variety of settings, so that the individuality of the clients shines through. It will be useful to see this book complemented by other arts therapies’ volumes. The current inclusion of music, art and movement within dramatherapy elicits questions about collaborative or medium specific interventions across the arts therapies; enabling further development of theory and research around the role of creativity in the treatment of BPD.
Ditty Dokter PhD, UKCP registered groupanalytic psychotherapist and ADMPUK registered dance movement psychotherapist.
This book brings alive the joys and pain of living and working with individuals suffering the impact of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder on their lives. Nicky Morris, through her skilled use of the techniques of Dramatherapy, is seen to be present, alongside patients and staff, in an emotionally available way to facilitate helpful changes to the lives of this ‘difficult to work with’ client group. She brings warmth, humanity, compassion and caring to all her working relationships, and to her writing. This book will be of significant help to both patients and professionals striving to work together towards ‘a life worth living’.
Kevin Healy, Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Director Cygnet Healthcare Ealing and Kenton
This is a hopeful and refreshing book. It is honest and does not shy away from the complexity of client material, illustrating effectively how dramatherapy can change shape, pace and colour to enhance and develop the therapeutic process. Nicky Morris engages the reader through a skilled and compassionate lens. The book offers a solid account of the developments in BPD treatment and diagnosis and through highlighting the stigma BPD attracts goes some way to lessening it. The individual voice of the client jumps out of the page offering a rare insight from inside the therapy space.
Dr Alyson Coleman, Chair of British Association of Dramatherapists
