Bar-Yitzhak PhD thesis 2010.pdf (29.64 MB)
Stillborn to reborn: a dramatherapy journey from post trauma to recovery
thesis
posted on 2023-08-30, 13:41 authored by Rachel Bar-YitzhakThis research explored the role of extra-therapeutic variables contributing to recovery
from chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Within the context of dramatherapy
treatment, those variables were identified as three crucial concepts: 'Client, Post
Traumatic' (C.PT), ‘Imaginary Existence Zone’ (IEZ) and 'Time Adjusted Encounters'
(TAE). Together they created the notion of a Curative Zone (CZ). Establishing and
understanding the significance of these new concepts helped the researcher to explain
the PTSD recuperation phenomenon.
The research was conducted within the qualitative–naturalistic paradigm, and based
on real-life dramatherapeutic occurrences. The choice of an inductive case study
approach and design was possible due to the fact that a single individual was
willing to participate in this research as an active partner by contributing her
reflections on the therapy, four years after its termination. Iris, the client and the
collaborating respondent was a childless woman aged 43, who suffered from
chronic PTSD for three years following stillbirth of her baby daughter and the
repetitive failure of fertility treatments.
The findings reveal a direct linkage between: the neurological system and its
activation, and the cardinal role of the C.PT during TAE, working through prolonged
engagements in the IEZ facilitated by dramatherapy. These processes gradually
integrated and synthesized to create the CZ, a development which explains this
instance of recovery from chronic PTSD.
The conclusions are: the chronic PTSD recovery was a holistic body-mind cure
phenomenon. It resulted from the interaction between the extra-therapeutic
variables, combined with the curative characteristics of the dramatherapeutic
nonverbal imaginative language and activities, which compounded a new synergetic
constellation. The research findings contribute to the theory and practice of
dramatherapy as a discipline; additionally, the model developed by this research
can be potentially applied as an appropriate treatment of PTSD. These conclusions
challenge valid psychotherapy knowledge regarding effective therapeutic factors
that contribute to successful outcomes. However, in this case they verified credible,
dependable and transferable attributes features this naturalistic research.
Therefore, they make a contribution to knowledge in the dramatherapy field.
History
Institution
Anglia Ruskin UniversityFile version
- Accepted version
Language
- eng
Thesis name
- PhD
Thesis type
- Doctoral
Legacy posted date
2013-03-28Legacy creation date
2019-04-17Legacy Faculty/School/Department
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