Drama Therapy

This thesis is a reflection about laughter and clowning, and an attempt to try and understand why and how laughing and practicing clowning could represent a positive element in our lives. We shall examine a broad range pf subjects, starting from social interventions and relationships to humor theories, we shall than describe some fundamental and relevant clown characteristics to finally discover strategies used in different artistic expressive therapies on a path leading to a better and concrete understanding of Active Clown Therapy.

This chapter summarizes eight years of my experience as a dramatherapist working with violenceagainst women in different settings, countries, and cultures. Throughout this journey I have learned that, just as violence against women is a cross-cultural occurrence, dramatherapy too is a cross-cultural tool that can help to raise awareness, combat, and heal the wounds of this structural problem embedded in society.

During COVID-19, Susan Linn has drawn upon her extensive experience as a therapist and her virtuosic ventriloquism to develop a virtual, screen-based approach to supporting children and families that are sheltering-in-place. She and her puppet, Audrey Duck, provide a crucial social-emotional space for play and make believe, drawing upon the opportunities presented by the relational triangularity possible in ventriloquism between child, practitioner, and puppet. By examining her work, one can gain insights into the nature of ventriloquism, as well as best practices for supporting children experiencing trauma and adversity.

Drama therapists reflect-in-action in that we use dramatic improvisation to elicit, organize and represent lived experience and to inform care. In so doing, drama therapists are practitioner researchers. Articulating our practice as research may aid us in improving our practice and extending the influence of our field as we demonstrate that the discoveries made through embodied, relational knowledge are useful in addressing current psychological, social and environmental problems. However, this articulation is rendered both necessary and difficult by the fact that drama therapists, like other creative arts therapists, work at the margins of traditional research culture. Internal and external shame dynamics may limit the creative risks that we take. Yet, there are practitioners amongst us who provide useful examples of how we might locate aspects of our practice as primary processes or adjunctive to traditional forms of quantitative or qualitative inquiry. Their work demonstrates that drama therapy may provide a unique perspective on pressing issues, shrink the research practice divide, and encourage effective care.

Drama therapy education presents unique complexities for educators. Within the classroom, students engage with the techniques of their profession in order to learn how to utilize them with clients. However, because drama therapy is designed to work through metaphor, to subvert defenses and often to indirectly arrive at client issues, it is unavoidable that students in these classrooms will have experiences that evoke their own personal affective material. The presence of the students’ personal material can serve to deepen learning but it can also blur the line between education and therapy and detract from the intended lessons. This phenomenological study sought to answer the question: What is the lived experience of drama therapy students in these experiential learning processes that evoke and utilize their personal affective material?

Drama therapy can be used to train people with disabilities to be self-advocates and advocates for others.  They, in turn, can use drama techniques to help peers build their self-esteem and communication abilities in order to stand up for themselves

مقدمه: حدود 2 درصد از کودکان سنین مدرسه را افراد عقب‌مانده ذهنی خفیف تشکیل می‌دهند. این افراد می‌توانند از توانایی‌های خود جهت تأمین نیازهای خود و انتظارات جامعه به کفایت بهره گیرند. بنابراین برنامه‌های آموزشی باید به نحوی باشد تا بتوانند روابط مفید و مؤثر اجتماعی برقرار کنند. پژوهش حاضر با هدف، بررسی تأثیر نمایش درمانی بر رفتار سازگارانه دختران کم‌توان ذهنی با هوش‌بهر 70-55 در دامنه سنی 30-14 سال انجام شد.

مواد و روش‌ها: مطالعه توصیفی- تحلیلی حاضر بر روی کلیه معلولین دختر (14 نفر) مرکز توان‌بخشی کوثر شهرستان بیرجند، با هوش‌بهر 70-55 و در دامنه سنی 30-14 سال صورت گرفت. ابتدا ارزیابی رفتار سازگارانه توسط مقیاس Vaynlnd انجام گرفت، سپس با روش نمایش درمانی به مدت 12 جلسه، هفته‌ای 2 بار و هر جلسه 5/1 ساعت ، تحت آموزش مهارت‌های اجتماعی قرار گرفتند. نمره رفتارهای سازگارانه آنان بعد از برنامه‌های نمایش درمانی نیز ارزیابی گردید. میانگین نمرات از طریق آزمون آماریPaired t  مورد مقایسه قرار گرفت.

یافته‌ها: تحلیل داده‌ها نشان داد که نمرات رفتارهای سازگارانه قبل و بعد از مداخله اختلاف معنی‌داری داشته و تغییرات مثبت بوده‌اند(002/0 = P).

نتیجه‌گیری: نمایش درمانی در نمونه مورد مطالعه موجب بهبود رفتار سازگارانه آنان گردید.
واژه‌های کلیدی: مهارت‌های اجتماعی، مقیاس واینلند، نمایش درمانی، عقب‌مانده ذهنی خفیف، رفتار سازگارانه

Urban Play is a budding form of social activism in which groups of friends engage in improvised play with each other and with strangers in public places. This work may contribute to social justice by helping participants discover opportunities for change. If neoliberalism encourages the pursuit of narrowly defined self-interests, neoliberal institutions may be maintained by the fear that these interests are threatened. By allowing participants to define the actions that are uniquely possible among them, play appears to offer an alternative to neoliberalism. What has been learned so far from playing in public also suggests a fresh perspective on Developmental Transformations, the form of drama therapy that inspired Urban Play.

Objective: Autism spectrum disorder severely damages children’s social skills, cognitive functions, and emotional self-regulation. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of drama therapy on the social skills of children with high-functioning autism.
Methods: The research design was experimental with a pre-test, post-test and a control group. The statistical population included 120 children with high-functioning autism in special education centers in Isfahan City, Iran. For this purpose, 40 children with high-functioning autism disorder were randomly selected by purposive sampling method and using Morgan’s table. Then, they were assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a drama therapy program, and the control group was placed on a waiting list. The children’s instructors completed the Matson social skills questionnaire at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up three months later.
Results: Analysis of the results using repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the drama therapy was effective on the participants’ social skills in the experimental group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Drama therapy will improve their social skills and performance in this field. Therefore, this study’s findings might be helpful as practical strategies for practitioners in the field of autism.

KEYWORDS: containing - communication - behaviour - creativity - space - psychoanalysis - theatre - behavioural disorders - paediatric  psychiatry  - dramatherapy - theatro-therapeutic space - skin ego - the curtain

The clinical experience presented in the context of this research thesis is part of a reflection on the issue of space in drama therapy. Confronted with children with behavioural disorders and care at the a centre of paediatric psychiatry. We found the context of drama therapy and the theatrical space as a therapeutic modality.
We were interested in the containing functions of space, questioning the interest more specifically of space as a vehicle in improving behaviour, communication and creativity and containing in this population.
Over the year we have observed how children interact with the theater space, and we have focused our thinking particularly on the use of the scenograpahic element, the curtain. We advance the notion of "theatro-therapeutic space" a neologism, a marriage of the theatre and therapy spaces, and we have built our general and operational hypotheses around the functioning of space in drama therapy in the therapeutic process of children.
We provide an analysis of research on space from the fields of anthropology, psychoanalysis and philosophy.
We propose a research around the possibility that these children potentially have a weak ego-skin and that their space support has become their means of containing themselves and re-establishing their ego structure.
Through the presentation of the system put in place and the analysis of clinical data, the results obtained are then released. This exploratory study tends to validate the idea that the theatre space would be a factor favouring an improvement in behaviour, communication, countenance and creativity in children with behavioural disorders.

This article explores indigenous Hawaiian epistemology in relation to perspectives in drama therapy in order to discover intersections between these two bodies of knowledge. The author presents a review of literature pertaining to the history and impact of colonialism in Hawaii, and indigenous ways of knowing. Three major themes: place, embodiment and relationship, are discussed in relation to various concepts and approaches in drama therapy. This creates space for this narrative in our body of knowledge and contextualizes drama therapy within an indigenous and postcolo-nial understanding of well-being.

This chapter builds upon earlier writing about the need for a critical aesthetic paradigm in our field: a way of orienting our arts-based practice in relation to an understanding of power, present-day inequalities and humanity's struggle with diversity and coexistence. The full text with references appears in the International Handbook of Dramatherapy co-edited by Clive Holmwood and Sue Jennings, 2016.

Drama może kształtować i obrazować rzeczywistość oraz zdeformowaną psychikę, ale również jakby sama ją stwarzać poza obrazem świata. Dotyczy to szczególnie psychodramy, gdzie niekiedy odrealniony/urojony obraz, próbuje się przebić z otchłani zamkniętej monady psychicznej aberracji ku poznaniu samego siebie, takim, jakim
się jest – co posiada moc uzdrawiającą. W przestrzeni kultury, edukacji, terapii – drama spełnia ważkie funkcje: od poznawczej, wychowawczej, po kreacyjną i refleksyjną, terapeutyczną wreszcie. Jeśli mówimy zaś o jej funkcji terapeutycznej i znaczeniu dla aktywizacji wchodzimy nieuchronnie w procesy i problemy związane z leczeniem, terapią
mniejszych czy większych defektów psychicznych czy urazów. Generalnie jednak przestrzeń działania możemy rozszerzyć na rozmaite interakcje społeczne, formy komunikacji w „w teatrze życia codziennego” (określenie Ervinga Goffmana). Dramoterapeuta dzięki dramie, poznaniu istotnych metod parateatralnych, animuje rzeczywistość wokół, stwarzając przestrzeń wypełnioną znakami, relacjami, nie tyle wzmocnionymi potrzebami metafizycznymi, co potrzebą komunikacji,
ekspresji, pokazania podstawowego problemu psychicznego. Dramoterapia jest zatem użyciem „leczniczych” aspektów dramy8 i teatru w procesie terapeutycznym.
Oczywiście dramoterapeuta nie może nigdy wchodzić w kompetencje lekarza klinicysty o specjalności stricte psychiatrycznej. W praktyce dramoterapeutycznej mówić możemy o swoistym procesie „leczenia duszy”, który to proces ma swoją wielowiekową tradycję sięgającą nie tylko teatru antycznego, ale rozmaitych form parateatralnych obecnych
wśród ludów pierwotnych (od rytualnych tańców godowych, ofiar dziękczynnych, całopalnych itd. po obrzędy inicjacyjne, weselne, pogrzebowe itp.). Dr Klimczak omawia podstawowe techniki dramy, psychodramy, socjodramy etc., elementy aktywizujące, przydając w terapii rolę katharsis, hamartii, anagnorisis, expleksis. W dramoterapii
uczestnicy mają szansę na dowolny wybór ról do odegrania, zaimprowizowania, w psychodramie chodzi zaś o dotarcie do wnętrza (nierzadko poprzez retrospekcję), swoisty trening autogenny, wyeksponowanie podstawowego konfliktu (urazu) psychicznego.
Jeśli, generalnie, teatroterapia sprzyja integracji psychicznej, aktywizacji twórczej i społecznej, tym bardziej zasługuje na miano „duchowego lekarstwa”.

Psychotherapy, acting, and drama therapy have traditionally existed as separate knowledge silos in the research cannon, although many interrelations exist between them. This research examines those interrelations through the researcher’s
perspectives of being involved in all three as an actor/director, acting
teacher/coach/facilitator, and an aspiring psychotherapist, using an
autoethnographic stage play to tease out the general themes. The general themes
that surfaced centered on the importance of desire, and its relationship to the will
and self; how desire constructs meaning through language; psychology’s
ambivalence with sexuality; the relevance of communitas and environment to
learning; the pitfalls of therapy and drama; awareness; the self as an ultimate
defence and survival mechanism; veneers and actualization as power grabs by the
self; real caring versus professional caring; reality versus fantasy; rationality versus
emotionalism; science/knowledge/mind versus art/faith/body; drama as therapy,
and therapy as drama.The conclusion of this research examines a host of topics too:
how these domains’ nomenclature is problematic; how the researcher’s self
interacts in these three embedded environments; the potential interpersonal, social,
and cultural impacts on participating in these programmes; the significance,
strengths, and limitations of this research; the potential applications of its findings;
and,future directions that are possible for further research.

This essay is a part of a Psychotherapy Program (60 ECTS) at Umeå University, Sweden. The aim of this study is to understand more about how puppets are used among therapists nowadays, and examine if as well as how they can be a useful tool in psychotherapy in the future. It is a study based on a questionnaire in English, including both quantitative data and qualitative information. Thematic analysis has been used. 33 participants (n = 33) from 11 countries responded to the questionnaire.

Responses show that puppet selection as well as inclusion is wide among participants. Hand puppets are most commonly used and approaches are most often child-centered. Six main themes were found in the analysis; the projective, the symbolic, the relational, the empowering, the evocative and the transformative dimension. According to responses most clients can be suitable for the method, however especially children. Responses also show, that precaution should be taken with those scared of the puppets and the severe mentally ill. For shy clients, there is contradictory information. Furthermore, successful use is related to individual characteristics in the client. Examples of beneficial characteristics are curiosity, playfulness, creativity, acceptance and an ability to engage in the method. Less beneficial characteristics can be an inability to play, inhibition, rigidness, having a strong cognitive orientation or negative preconceptions of puppets.

The conclusion is that puppetry can be a useful tool in psychotherapy.

The concept of role is central to the field of drama therapy, where it is considered by many to be not only a useful construct to conceptualize an individual's personality, but also a vehicle for psychological change. This study was concerned with exploring the concept of role in drama therapy as it specifically relates to working with families. Using a theoretical methodology to examine the intersection of drama therapy and family
therapy, this study made links between Landy's application of Role Theory and Systems Theory, focusing especially on the concept of family roles. Through an integrative review, this study examined the concept of family roles as it is defined and considered in
family therapy literature from the foundational models of the mid-twentieth century to the postmodern approaches of today. Based on this review, this research proposed a new taxonomy of family roles, laying the groundwork for a future systemic application of the Role Method. Drama therapy holds much potential for families seeking to uncover, explore and work through the multiple roles that make up their role system. The author argued that despite the fact that family roles in systemic literature are couched in a
modern framework that views these roles as rigid and problematic entities, the creation of a systemic Role Method would place them in a postmodern context, integrating old and
new systemic frameworks as well as making valuable link between the fields of family therapy and drama therapy.

As the use of drama therapy is becoming common in a wide variety of mental health settings, there remain a limited number of studies pertaining to the use of drama therapy in forensic psychiatric settings. This phenomenological metasynthesis explores the intersection of the criminal justice system with the behavioral sciences that can be found on a forensic psychiatric inpatient unit (FPU), while investigating the use of embodied, dramatic forms to treat complex trauma, vicarious trauma, and the impacts of systemic violence. The author synthesizes literature
from diverse fields—including biopolitics, forensic law, performance studies, arts-based research, acting, trauma studies, critical race feminist theory, drama therapy—with her own
reflections, in order to consider three roles commonly found on an FPU: the Doctor, the Officer, and the Patient/Prisoner.

The way in which a craft or school of thought comes into being has a definite impact upon its nature: In contrast to other disciplines, dramatherapy does not have a ‘Guru figure’ that represents it, nor a single founder who can claim paternity over it. In its modern version, the field was born out of the social and political milieu, the philosophical concerns and aesthetic explorations that took place simultaneously in several geographical regions during the 60s and 70s. This search followed parallel paths, all of which were connected with the use of theatre, drama, and the arts, with therapeutic purposes. Dramatherapy thus came into being as a movement, evolving in the tradition of pluralism and dialogue, in what might be called ‘a feminist mode.’
This chapter examines some of the women-oriented bases of the field, and illustrates its claim by presenting a Model of Deconstructing Dreams and Stories created by Susana Pendzik, which is based on subjectivity, associative thinking, and pluralism.

In this discovery-oriented psychotherapy research study, hypotheses on the nature of therapeutic play in Developmental Transformations drama therapy sessions, and the possible relationship between this therapeutic play and violent behavior, are generated through the application of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's concept of deterritorialization to the analysis of three videotaped sessions from a single case. Developmental Transformations is a form of drama therapy in which client and therapist improvise scenes together incorporating movements, sounds, pretend objects, and roles. One of the hypotheses generated by the study is that interruptions in the repetition of patterns of play, whether initiated by the client or the therapist, may enhance the therapeutic relationship by approaching, but not exceeding, the client and therapist's unique threshold at the boundary of their mutual agreement to engage in play behavior together. Another hypothesis is that the resulting alternation between repetition and transformation of patterns of play during sessions may act as an essential ingredient that has the potential to deter violent behavior, which would hypothetically lack this alternation. This study may contribute hypotheses for later testing in studies of a possible deterrent effect of therapeutic play on violent behavior. -

בעבודה זו סקרתי את ז'אנר משחקי התפקידים והצבעתי על הפוטנציאל המרפא שלו. ההיבט הטיפולי נבדק בעיקר ברמת התשתית התיאורטית. זאת, על ידי התחקות אחר תופעות פסיכולוגיות מסוימות, דהיינו, תופעת המעבר של ויניקוט והפונקציה הטרנסנדנטית של יונג המתקיימות בתודעת האדם, ומאפשרות את קיומן הבריא של חוויות כגון חוסר וודאות, סתירות ואמביוולנציה, כמו גם יצירתיות, הנאה, תחושת ממשות, עצמיות וביטוי אותנטי. הבחנתי כי בעוד תופעות אלו הן עניין פנימי, אינטרא-פסיכי, העבודה על אזורים פסיכולוגיים אלו היא באמצעות פעילות חיצונית, בין אישית, אקסטרא-פסיכית, של משחק/פעילות פנטסטית, או במינוחים דרמה תרפיסטיים, באמצעות עבודה במרחב האומנויות/משחק, כלומר במציאות הדרמטית
(אותו אזור של "כאילו", של "מציאות בתוך מציאות").
הבחנה בסיסית זו הוליכה למסקנה, כי משחקי תפקידים המתקיימים בצד האקסטרא פסיכי של החוויה מייצרים ומקיימים מציאות דרמטית מעצם טבעם. בדומה לתועלת הטיפולית שהתגלתה בעבודה באמצעות משחקים ודמיון פעיל באופן כללי, הצבעתי על השימוש הטיפולי שניתן לעשות במשחקי תפקידים באופן ספציפי. העובדה שמשחקי תפקידים מקיימים בתוכם, באופן ספונטאני, הרחקה אסתטית, השתקעות, עבודה יצירתית ודרמטית, מצביעים על הפוטנציאל הטיפולי שניתן לעשות איתם במסגרת
דרמה תרפיה. הצעתי אפשרות, כי מפגשים של משחקי תפקידים לכשעצמם, בהנחיית דרמה תרפיסט, יכולים להוות טיפול דרמה תרפיסטי בפני עצמו.

""ÍNDICE

Sobre cartografías antropológicas.

De lo universal a lo particular………………………………………………..............….7

Primera operativa de conexión/desconexión: otras marcas….18

Segunda operativa de desconexión/conexión (volver)….……..29

Tercera operativa de desconexión/conexión…...........……….52


Conectores (a)......………………………………………………………………….…..61

Conectores (b)………………………………………….…………………………......................................................79

Conectores (c)………………………………………………………………………97

Final con imágenes curativas y linealizadas…................….114

Otros ensayos

Un adiós a Pierre Bourdieu...............................................127


Turismo: entre Lo Mismo y Lo Otro………………………………………...............................131

La narrativa de Paul Ricoeur………………………………………………................138

Deleuze en la frontera…………………………………………………………...146

Bibliografía………………………………………………………..149""

Topic: The application of African mourning rituals within the Drama therapy space in order to support responses to loss. PLAIGIARISM DECLARATION I hereby, declare that this essay serves as evidence of my own work. Any thoughts I have borrowed, I have properly quoted and referenced.

This paper utilizies a biblographical methodology. The intention of this paper is to connect and synthesize three fields of research: drama therapy, sexual identity/orientation, and attachment theory. There is a comprehensive literature review of child and adult attachment theory, sexual identity/orientation in regards to identity formation, attachment and sex and sexuality, and drama therapy in connection to attachment theory and to sexual identity/orientation. This paper also offers for the drama therapist that may be addressing both attachment related difficulties in adulthood and those dealing with their sexual identity/orientation in their practice. The author addresses his own experience with attachment and sexual identity/orientation. This paper addresses limitations, areas for further study, and contributions to the field of drama therapy.

Larps and drama therapy have many similarities and points of tangency. Not only can a drama therapeutic experience occur as a natural outcome of a larp experience, but larps are in fact a valid vessel for intentional drama therapeutic process.  Both revolve around a tangible and real yet subjective and symbolic reality, called the dramatic reality, play space or the magic circle, among other terms. Maintaining a good enough quality of this reality is vital for its existence – that is achieved through a certain suspension of disbelief by the participants, which is called in drama therapy aesthetic distancing. Both larps and drama therapy have a set of parameters to reference to, yet the motivation behind each system is different. The Mixing Desk of Larp is designed for larp design; the Six-Key method is conceived mainly for assessment and intervention in drama therapeutic process, even though it is also utilized for designing a safe therapeutic setting. Nonetheless, the Six-Key model could be looked upon as a kind of Mixing Desk of Drama Therapists. It could also be regarded as a possible expansion to the Mixing Desk of Larp. It was noted that even though the larps (as experienced by the author during the LWSS) have a setting structure that is very much conducive for drama therapeutic process, it still requires a trained therapist in order to give the larp an intentional and responsible therapeutic edge. Notwithstanding, it would seem that drama therapy and larps are a two-way street in which larps make a valid vessel for drama therapeutic process and drama therapy may be a potential outcome of a larp experience, intentional or otherwise.

Dramatic reality is a core concept in drama therapy, and perhaps also the most genuine feature of the field. All drama therapists draw on dramatic reality in some form, both in their clinical practice and in their theoretical thinking. This paper explores the concept of dramatic reality in drama therapy from a philosophical angle, in a way that is unattached to a particular model or a specific approach: first, the article defines the concept's scope and boundaries, with reference to its modes as informed by Schechner's notion of performance activities; then it describes the main features and properties of dramatic reality, while looking at their implications in a therapeutic setting. Finally, it points out the four main tasks that drama therapists are called on to perform in connection with dramatic reality.

Everyone has a history that they carry with them, whether they are consciously aware of it or not, and these historical narratives can affect the way we view and approach the world around us. Individuals with a historical narrative of colonialism often perform throughout their lives in ways that are diagnosed as pathological, and can often end up within the Western mental health system, a system that perpetuates these performances. This thesis will define the phenomenon of colonialism, identify the ways in which colonialism performs, explain why this exploration is important for drama therapists, and explore ways in which we are and can continue to examine colonialism in the therapeutic encounter. This thesis draws on auto-ethnography as a way of illuminating and exploring the writer’s own personal narrative of colonialism, explores relevant literature, and will provide ideas for how this phenomenon can be applied both to the therapeutic encounter and to the field of drama therapy.

Background: Research evidence on unprofessional relationships across the caring professionsc onsiders a range of activities and definitions (Halter, Brown & Stone, 2007). The evidence on sexual boundary violations (SBVs) in psychological therapy is sparse, but suggests that SBVs are under-reported; there is also a small but significant component of complaints. Conversely an increasing literature exploring client experience of SBV suggests that the effects are profound (Ben-Ari & Somer, 2004; Somer & Nachmanil, 2005). The prevalence literature is primarily quantitative, often using survey methodology. Conclusions have limited accuracy; there are issues raised, for example, when considering recruitment and sample characteristics, response rates, and questionsand definitions used. Some studies identified general characteristics associated with SBVs, including middle age, being male, working alone and outside the public sector; more recent literature, however, has been critical of the notion of the 'bad apple'. Halter, Brown and Stone (2007) conclude that provision of information is insufficient; evidence for the effect of recent innovations in training is promising, but evaluation of these is necessarily limited. It is unlikely, however, that UK accredited practitioners are ignorant of the code of ethics to which they have signed up; other reasons are more likely to play a part in sexual boundary violations.

Research Aims and Questions: The aims of the current research were to (1) Identify the indicators that signal potential or actual sexual boundaryviolations by healthcare providers who are relevant to the remit of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy; (2) Explore how practitioners manage these in their therapy work and the effects of such management strategies; (3) Make detailed recommendations to minimise risk of sexual boundaryviolations by such healthcare providers.

Methodology: Thirteen practitioners were interviewed about their experiences of managing the risk of sexual boundary violations. Inclusion criteria were: accreditation as a counsellor or psychotherapist within specified counselling or psychotherapy organisations; a preparedness to confirm that he or she had not committed, or been subject to an investigation concerning, a sexual boundary violation; extensive experience of clinical work since qualifying, some of this being outside the NHS. To maximise the potential variety in participants and accounts, participation was invited through advertising and electronic distribution lists. The sample was completed through purposive sampling; to ensure that the sample varied sufficiently in terms of sex, disclosed hetero or homo-sexual orientation, age, cultural background, experience and time since qualified, working environments, therapy models, registering body and geographical location, four participants were identified through personal and professional contacts. The sample therefore included individuals from both higher and lower risk categories. Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit therapist experiences. The focus was on gaining detailed accounts of boundary breaches and potential SBVs, on reactions,choices and strategies adopted by practitioners, and opinions and judgements. Data were analysed thematically (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Braun & Clarke, 2000), each interview analysed initially by pairs consisting of an academic and a clinician. Principles of Free Association Narrative (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000) were employed when extending the analysis beyond the participan's opinions and explicit themes, using the interviewer's experience to understand the complexities of the constructed account.

Findings: Participants described SBV as one extreme on a continuum of boundary breaches; many accounts focussed on recognition and management of small breaches. Experiences of sexual attraction originating from client and therapist were seen as ubiquitous and unavoidable, and occurred without reference to sex of therapist and client, or sexual orientation; the management of the experience was seen as critical in determining whether a serious breach had taken place. Definitions of breaches and boundary violations varied, especially in views on touch. The key factor identified in definitions of boundary breaches concerned motive, i.e. whether the practitioner was acting in their own interests rather than for the client's benefit. For some, boundaries and their management, including sexual boundaries, were integral to therapeutic work. Elements of the steps involved in the therapeutic management of boundaries were developed into a process model created through analysis of what seemed to work positively for therapists and clients. The model articulates the following process: (1) noting; (2) facing up to it personally; (3) reflecting; (4) processing; (5) formulating; (6) working for therapeutic benefit. This model represents an ideal; therapists viewed the process as an ongoing struggle. Practitioners described a tension between engagement and sense making; we came to view this as a participant/observerstance, with similarities to Celenza's (1995) definition of empathy. Some accounts of managing boundaries were deemed problematic, even though they were not descriptions of sexual boundary violations, by participant or research team; for example, the strategies adopted for managing pressure on therapeutic boundaries sometimes resulted in distress to clients and difficulties with therapeutic work. These were grouped into a typology of four categories: self-protective/defensive; moralising/omnipotent; neediness/over-identification, and over-protective anxiety. A feature of all examples was a difficulty in maintaining a constructive balance between participation and observation. Supervision was seen as the primary source of support for successfully managing boundaries; we focussed on experiences of supervision and views of its functions. Supervisors were expected to focus on client benefit, manage the supervisory relationship, facilitate understanding, and an ethical and therapeutic stance. These mirror the practitioner's roles, so that supervisors might support therapist work at any point. One of the major aims of supervision seemed to be the development of an internal supervisor (Casement, 1985). Additionally, supervisors were expected toprovide quality checks, monitoring the therapist's account and their own experience, speaking of difficulties, so that threats of boundary breaches could be discussed. This extended for some to a responsibility to report serious unprofessional misconduct.

Conclusions and Recommendations: These findings are not inconsistent with the literature and research on sexual boundary violation, victims and transgressors, even though participants had avoided sexual boundary violations and had experience of successfully managing boundary threats. The sample tended to favour more conservative stances towards boundary limits such as touch; this may have been a protective factor. Recommendations for practice have been framed as issues for reflection for practitioners, supervisors, employing organisations, accrediting bodies, and training organisations. These include: increasing clarity over reporting; support during investigation; training in boundary management; supervisor contracting; formulation of practitioner learning needs; for practitioners to develop and own a rationale for therapeutic boundaries and prohibitions. There are finally suggestions for future research.