Inclusive theater as a resource in Art therapy for trauma recovery.

Facing Fears workshop

Abstract

This article presents an analytical investigation of the experience of the theatrical workshop Facing Fears created by the Vertebradas Company of Performing Arts, directed by Laura Suárez, which took place at the Aletheia Congress: Art, Art Therapy, Trauma and Emotional Memory to observe and collate the artistic theatrical activity results in relation to palliative resources to overcome trauma. The research answers the following questions: How does such an experiential theater workshop activity help to manage fear emotion? What role does inclusion play in the process? The investigation links the importance of body, emotional management, the safety of the environment, and connection with one self and the others, in recovery treatment. It reflects last neuroscience and psychiatry investigations results. Qualitative methodology and thematic analysis were used to examine topics such as the theater workshop, body, inclusion, the safety of the environment, art therapy and emotional management of fear. The main sources of information were surveys taken of 16 of the workshop partakers, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the three facilitators with functional diversity.

The results respond to the objectives of the research: It is possible to manage one's own fears in an inclusive theater workshop. The body has been used as a source of information. The dynamics of the Theater of Experience workshop have facilitated both relationship between the people of the group in a framework of inclusion and diversity, and connection with the emotion of fear in a safe environment, expressively channeling said emotion through the performing arts. The main limitation of the research is that the analysis concerns only one workshop. It is intended to provide knowledge about art therapy professionals in their experience of emotional management of fear. It does not pretend to generalize the information to a different context.