Masters | Postgraduate Course - Drama and Movement Therapy (Sesame) MA, PG Dip Course Details within Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

MA 18 months full time; PG Dip

This course is for those wanting to follow a unique vocational training in the principles and practice of the Sesame approach to drama and movement therapy. The course is approved by the Health Professions Council.

Key Features

An intensive practice-based training in association with the Sesame Institute, particularly exploring the creative imagination. Predominant focus on Jungian psychology. Learning applied in extensive placement engagements.

The course teaches a specific approach to dramatherapy – the Sesame approach – and is delivered in association with the Sesame Institute. This approach incorporates the philosophies and theories of certain key psychologists and practitioners, including Jung, Laban, Slade and Lindkvist. The Sesame approach draws on the opportunities drama and movement offer to explore meaningful connections with the Self and others.

The Sesame approach introduces drama and movement as a means of accessing and expressing unconscious processes and hidden qualities, so that these can be explored, expressed and reflected upon. Movement is introduced as a central feature within the dramatic medium, as well as specific attention to Laban and approaches to movement with touch and sound. Movement is a basis from which drama can be developed. The Sesame approach engages the body in a dramatic context through play, improvisation, character work and story and myth enactment.

Drama has proved an especially effective tool in therapeutic contexts. Rather than focusing on people’s immediate problems it can offer a creative and metaphorical context to a problem. Not only can dramatic work help to catalyse individual creativity; it also offers a means to explore culturally specific experience through the symbolic images contained in mythology.

In Term One you will study two course units.
Unit One (Drama and Movement Therapy Practice) includes the strands Drama, Myth, Laban, Movement with Touch & Sound and Preparation for Clinical Practice. Unit Two (Therapy and Psychology) introduces you to the work of Jung in Analytical Psychology and, in a separate strand, covers human development theory.

During Terms Two and Three you will take units in facilitation practice, apprenticeship placement practices and supervision. Facilitation practice includes individual and pair work in the subject strands of Myth, Laban, Drama and Movement with Touch and Sound. Your study will include a research unit common to all courses across the postgraduate school. You will undertake clinical work on a number of placements outside the School, with on-site supervision. The first two placements (during Terms Two and Three) are undertaken in a variety of educational, health, or social services contexts and based on an apprenticeship model. You will be part of a group of three students and will facilitate sessions with clients alongside a supervising dramatherapist.

In Term Four you will undertake a fourth and final independent placement to complete 100 sessions of required client contact. The final piece of work is a portfolio including a critical review, a report of clinical practices and a viva voce. As with many therapy trainings, you are required to attend and pay for individual and group therapy sessions during the course. (In Spring 2011 the average cost for therapy per person was £3,000, including group and individual sessions.)

Successful qualification leads to graduates being eligible to apply for registration with the Health Professions Council (HPC) as an Arts Therapist (Drama). Graduates wishing to practice must register with the HPC.

All students attending placements will be required to complete a Criminal Records Bureau check. This is a mandatory government safeguarding scheme for all those seeking to work in any capacity with minors or vulnerable adults.

You should normally possess an arts education or psychology degree, and a good. If you do not have a first degree (or equivalent), but have at least two years’ professional experience working with the arts in a community, educational or care setting, you will be considered for non-standard entry. An offer will normally only be made after interview.

English language

Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to prove their English language proficiency by gaining an overall score of 7.0 in an IELTS test. We do accept equivalent English language qualifications. Applicants are advised to gain this certification as early as possible.

Interviews

If you are selected for an interview for a place on the MA Drama and Movement Therapy course, we will require you to bring the following:

• written evidence of your qualifications, such as your undergraduate degree. If you do not have an undergraduate degree, you are asked to write an essay (1500 words) on your current understanding of Drama and Movement Therapy and why in particular you would like to do the Sesame Training. If required, please bring this with you on the day.

The interview process will take a whole day. The morning session will involve experiential group work. The afternoon will involve an individual interview, lasting approximately 15 minutes, with two members of the Course Team. The timetable for the individual interviews will be completed at the end of the morning session and you will be free to leave once you have had your interview. If you have any specific travel arrangements, please let us know in advance and we will try to accommodate that.

Please bring clothes to wear that are suitable for a practical voice and movement session.

The interview process will also give you an opportunity to find out more about the course and the School.

International Auditions/Interviews

Central is not able to consider applicants for this course at its international auditions.

Distance Auditions/Interviews

Central does allow applicants to undertake a distance interview for this course. If you live abroad and are unable to attend an interview in person you may, at the discretion of the Admissions Tutor, be offered the opportunity of a distance interview. If you are selected for interview in this manner you will be contacted (normally by email) in order to arrange a suitable time for an interview. This will be conducted on Skype, telephone or by ‘live’ email exchange and will normally be based upon material you will have been asked to submit in advance. The interview will be conducted by the Admissions Tutor in liaison with a colleague who will have sight of your submitted materials.

Central Postgraduate Scholarships, see http://www.cssd.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/scholarships

Recent graduates have gone on to become: Drama Therapist Camden Council. Mental Health Practitioner NHS Sussex Partnership. Full-time dramatherapy posts working with people with learning disabilities, and Arts Council-funded collaborative projects.

Recent graduates have gone on to become: Drama Therapist Camden Council. Mental Health Practitioner NHS Sussex Partnership. Full-time dramatherapy posts working with people with learning disabilities, and Arts Council-funded collaborative projects.