gms | German Medical Science

Research and publications are increasingly growing within the field of dramatherapy, following calls within the field to establish a substantial evidence base to support its practice and advocate for its broader implementation. A recent meta-analysis on drama-based therapies by Orkibi et al. (2023), for instance, demonstrated a medium effect size of drama-based therapies on mental health outcomes across clinical, school and community settings. Consequently, efforts have been made within the dramatherapy research community to shift the focus of inquiry from if dramatherapy is effective to how dramatherapy is effective. To this end, a growing momentum within dramatherapy research is evident, attempting to identify mechanisms of change. To date, however, these efforts have been limited in scope as they have failed to consider internal processes within the client but are rather more attentive to the perspective of the therapist. As such, there remains a need for a more comprehensive investigation into processes within dramatherapy that centres on the perspective of the client. Qualitative studies have had a long tradition in the field of dramatherapy and added unique contributions to the literature. Qualitative in nature, they allow clients’ voices to be actively sought out, empowered, and expressed. As such, qualitative research has been particularly beneficial in describing how the dramatherapeutic process supports clients’ health and well-being. This presentation presents the results of a qualitative meta-analysis of 21 qualitative studies reporting on client experiences of dramatherapy. By aggregating and synthesizing reports from various studies, this meta-analysis allows for a more comprehensive representation of clients’ experiences and accumulates evidence of the effectiveness of dramatherapy. The analysis is being currently conducted and it will be possible to present the final results in the form of a poster presentation at the conference.