Gamm Theatre’s unique drama therapy program offers mental health counseling

SUSIE SCHUTT, the education director for the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre in Warwick, helped launch a pilot in-house drama therapy program that offers a different form of mental health support to schools and the surrounding communities. / COURTESY SANDRA FEINSTEIN-GAMM THEATRE
SUSIE SCHUTT, the education director for the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre in Warwick, helped launch a pilot in-house drama therapy program that offers a different form of mental health support to schools and the surrounding communities. / COURTESY SANDRA FEINSTEIN-GAMM THEATRE

WARWICK – For about a decade working at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, Susie Schutt worked with students to base their theatrical performances on personal stories and experiences they’ve had in life.

She would regularly hear from the students about personal trauma going on at home or their difficulties at school, Schutt said, which the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated over the last two years. Now, the theater is offering a unique program that Schutt, its director of education and drama therapist, developed for children and adults alike to process their emotional challenges through theatrical means.

The Gamm Theatre established for this current artistic year a pilot, in-house drama therapy program that offers a different form of mental health support to schools and the surrounding communities. The theater group said it was accelerated by an increased need for mental health services during the pandemic’s second year.

In using theater techniques to address anxiety and behavioral concerns for both children and adults alike, the Gamm Theatre says drama therapy takes a psychodynamic approach to responding to various challenges in one’s life. The Gamm believes it is the first professional theater in the U.S. to have a full-time drama therapist on staff.

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Schutt, while initially not knowing a lot about drama therapy, knew it existed and wanted to provide students a unique form of mental health treatment. She subsequently enrolled at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and earned her master’s degree in mental health counseling and drama therapy in 2021.

Before graduating, Schutt put her training to work in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic commenced, and began developing social-emotional workshops and curricula for K-12 students, as well as processing their personal experiences during the pandemic. Schutt and other Gamm teaching artists found that drama therapy was an effective way for students to process feelings of isolation, loss and grief associated with the health crisis.

Schutt said drama therapy is “much more engaged” than talking to a therapist.

“We do a lot of improv and role-playing,” Schutt said. “We do art projects, and we bring them to life. We get to do storytelling. We think about our lives with a much more narrative focus. When you talk with a therapist, there’s a lot of reporting and investigating about what’s going on. In drama therapy, you get to explore it, practice and rehearse.”

Schutt said students were sharing feelings of fear and misinformation that they’ve had during the pandemic, especially early on. Holding a space for children where they were able to name those larger emotions and getting them to talk about their situations was important, Schutt said.

The theater is also hoping to have professional development for K-12 teachers in integrating drama therapy with R.I. Department of Education-mandated social-emotional learning curriculum. Schutt said she is currently developing a trauma-informed, classroom management opportunity for teachers. Schutt said they can learn how to address behavior issues in the classroom with a “trauma-informed lens.”

She said if a child misbehaves in a classroom and a teacher orders him or her to leave the class, they don’t know what the child’s experiences have been that may have led to that outburst.

“They may have been abandoned as a child, or may have had a parent leave them,” she said. “Or they may have had a death in the family. There’s many ways that would incite a difficult feeling for them. A different approach might be, ‘I really want you to … stay in this class.’ Kids don’t necessarily hear when they’re being ‘bad.’ Being trauma-informed in our classroom management would really would go a long way for how schools are working with students right now.”

Along with seeing individual clients around the state at the theater, Schutt is doing a standalone drama therapy program at Samuel Slater Middle School in Pawtucket. It teaches anger management and social-skills improvement, where they use drama therapy to address those problems, she said.

Schutt said most of the school drama therapy programming is at Slater Middle School and within Pawtucket, but hopes to expand the initiative to other school districts, especially in districts that the Gamm Theatre Education Department has programs in, such as Providence, West Warwick, Central Falls, Warwick and Portsmouth.

“I would love to do drama therapy everywhere,” Schutt said.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

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