Drama Therapists @ Home offers care providers across the world a creative venue to meet and support one another during the pandemic.
hands and hearts
Who helps the helpers? As the global pandemic has increasingly impacted providers’ wellbeing in ways both physical and mental, it’s a question that has only grown in importance. For those—like drama therapists and art therapists—who provide critical mental health services to patients, COVID-19 has generated a significant degree of stress and anxiety that they themselves experience.
Nisha Sajnani, Director of NYU Steinhardt’s Drama Therapy Program, says that given the nature of their work, “Care providers may feel a push to perform wellbeing, which can lead to a greater sense of burden.”
In an effort to strengthen meaningful connections and offer unique support to providers, the Drama Therapy program will host a “therapeutic theatre festival” called Drama Therapists @ Home between May 1-3. Sajnani calls the three-day gathering “a love letter to our community.”
Drama Therapists @ Home will feature an array of creative performances—musical excerpts, poetry, experimental movement—from various providers, and will be followed by breakout sessions in which groups gather to reflect on the themes elicited in the performances, such as the challenges of being a pregnant provider at this time, or being a provider who’s planning a major life event—like a wedding or a funeral. “We’ll use the breakout feature so people can meet each other across borders, and get a chance to see outside someone else’s window,” says Sajnani.
The event is the chance for “care providers to offer care to one another,” says Sajnani. “We wish to offer our community a little aesthetic distance amidst this urgency, a portal to both feeling and reflecting on this moment—together.”
Those who wish to attend are required to register for this Zoom session. For more information about the event, visit these performance-specific websites:
· May 1 at 8:00 p.m. EST
· May 2 at 8:00 p.m. EST
· May 3 at 3:00 p.m. EST