Integrating Narrative Therapy and Playback Theatre into a Drama Therapy Intervention for LGBT Adolescents

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adolescents remain under-researched and underserved. These youth must face identity development in hostile environments and do not have the support systems afforded to their heterosexual peers. Their status as stigmatized minorities in a heterosexist culture creates and maintains multiple psychosocial problems for these people. Depression, suicide, low self-esteem, substance abuse, social rejection, and homelessness are common problems for LGBT adolescents. Despite these issues, therapy-training programs do not sufficiently address the special considerations for working with these people. This study aims to speak to this deficit by using a qualitative and theoretical approach to inform the design of a therapeutic intervention for LGBT youth. Drama therapists, narrative therapists, and playback theatre specialists with relevant experience were interviewed and the grounded theory method was used to collect and analyze the data. Through a narrative theoretical lens, a psychosocial needs theory emerged, which includes indications of how these needs might be addressed by each of the 3 therapeutic modalities. Drawing on the research, the strengths of each modality were examined to create an intervention for the populations. The research findings, grounded theory, proposed intervention, and future directions are discussed.

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