Dramatherapy with Myth and Fairytale ─ The Golden Stories of Sesame

Three drama therapists who use a story approach called Sesame created this handbook for drama therapists who want to use story seeds that have a mythic or fairy-tale feeling. The book is usable with adults or children. The authors offer several informal introductory essays on drama therapy; Mary Smail has some useful words for professionals who spend their time perfecting non-verbal, non-intellectual forms of communication, about finding the kind of language and thinking needed to prove their results are good and get funding. About two-thirds of the book is a section of stories (called myths here, but they are fairy tales, folktales, parables, etc). The stories are simply written to be an effective dramatic frame. These authors do a good job of making open-ended stories without much artificial moralizing, and give endnotes of exercises using each story. A center section of color photographs shows an ethnically diverse range of adults dramatically using one of the stories (The Snow Queen). Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jenny Pearson is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (BPC) in private practice. Jenny trained as a dramatherapist and taught on the Sesame Course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She also edited Discovering the Self through Drama and Movement: The Sesame Approach, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Mary Smail is Director of the Sesame Institute and has taught Myths and Clinical Practice on the Sesame Course. She is a dramatherapist and Re Vision trained psychotherapist (UKCP). Pat Watts was a psychotherapist and drama teacher. Pat led the Sesame Course and was its first Myth tutor.