Dr Sue

On 21 June 2002, Sue Jennings retired! More precisely she retired from her work in hospitals, clinics and private practice and her involvement with universities and colleges. Although a pioneer and innovator of both dramatherapy and playtherapy since the 1960s, she has decided that life in her 60s needs to be re-focussed or to use her language, re-staged! In her own words she says:

‘People say to me, “have you stopped doing dramatherapy?” or “are you retiring to do something else?” or “what are you doing now that you did not do before?” or simply “why have you changed?”

My involvement with dramatherapy has had many strands, all related to the process of creativity: to the essence of creation within the artistic process that is healthy and healing for all of us. The artistic process that integrates all creation is theatre. The god, the goddess, the panoply of deities, the higher power or intelligence – whomsoever they may be - are very good stage managers!

I first became involved in the therapeutic applications of drama and theatre at the age of 17 years when I was invited to be a nursing auxiliary in a large psychiatric hospital near Warwick. Since then I have worked with group of people with an age span of nine months to ninety years or more; people in psychiatric hospital, therapeutic communities, day centres and fertility clinics, nurseries and foster homes, special schools and special hospitals, prisons and secure units………….

The practical work led towards training programmes for every profession whether community or education or clinic based. This education gradually led to the term ‘dramatherapy’ being used more and more, and eventually the term ‘dramatherapist’. I called the title of my first book ‘Remedial Drama’ (1973) and in many ways it is a term that I prefer. I have played with lots of terms – ‘healing theatre’, ‘drama for development’, ‘theatre for life’, ‘drama and personal growth’; and like any definition of theatre and drama, it cannot quite encapsulate what we do. I come back to the term theatre, which as I say above, is the artistic process that integrates all others.

I do wonder whether we have gone down a cul-de-sac by trying to establish the profession of dramatherapy:so much time and energy is being spent in creating rules of exclusion and inclusion, in insisting on definition and greater and greater uniformity of training. My dearest friend Gordon Wiseman who died in January this year always said that his greatest reservation was the institutionalisation of dramatherapy: that the very medium that was supposes to be freeing was closing in on itself. I think there is a conflict which harks back to the days when theatre people were treated as vagabonds and aroused suspicion and prejudice. Theatre is a revolutionary medium, it subverts the status quo and offers new choices. It does not just reflect society or ‘hold a mirror up to nature’, rather it challenges society and the individual and enables us to re-evaluate our core assumptions.

This is why theatre is so dangerous! With new rules and regulations about dramatherapists there is always talk of ‘protecting the client’ and ‘ensuring good practice’ and ‘maintaining standards’; maybe the real reason is the dumbing down of artistic process, of removing creative freedom, and disempowering the medium of theatre in therapeutic practice. Otherwise, why has there been a call for more clinical theory in the training of arts therapists? Why is nobody insisting on more theatre training and experience? And placements in a theatre setting? Stage management is the best way about learning time boundaries!

Perhaps we need to think about dramatherapy as a practice rather than a profession: a practice in social or applied theatre. Then people who wish to make use of drama techniques in psychotherapy can call themselves drama-psychotherapists!

As a starting point, let us keep some doors open and not institutionalise dramatherapy and the other arts therapies into non-creative corners. Otherwise people will continue to leave the field and call their work something else. I rarely refer to my dramatherapy work – I am more comfortable with: ’applied theatre’, ‘social theatre’, ‘creative groupwork’ – or just simply ‘theatre work’ – yes, that’s what I am – a theatre worker and writer!

Sue Jennings pioneered the dramatherapy training courses at University of Hertfordshire, University College of Ripon and York, The Institute of Dramatherapy London. University of Surrey Roehampton, Tel Hai College Israel, Herma Centre and the Centre for Theatre and Therapy Athens, the Dramatherapy Centre Thessalonika.

She now conducts intensive short courses in many countries on an occasional basis. She spends much of her time in Romania where she can trek predators and develop her passion for the environment. She is especially interested in ideas of ‘green theatre’ and ‘green therapy’.

SUE EMMY JENNINGS: Brief CV

Author, Traveller and Creative Group Worker Supervisor, Play Therapist and Dramatherapist Dr Sue Emmy Jennings LRAM (drama); LGSM (speech and drama); PG Dip.Social Anthropology (LSE Univ of London); PG Cert. Tourism and Sustainability (UWE); PhD (SOAS, University of London); Hon.Dip.Dramatherapy Cum Laude ( Univ Hertfordshire); Hon. Dramatherapy Diploma (Tel Hai College); Gold Medallist of The Poetry Society and winner of the Shakespeare Plaque, and Gertrud Schattner Award for Excellence 2002

My time is divided between Transylvania and Somerset where I write, research and lead workshops on ritual and theatre. I am currently performing a one-woman play about women and mental ill health, 'Silver Apples of the Moon' which I researched and wrote. I am a professional actress and occasional broadcaster. Equity Member.

I work for the NHS in Somerset in a Psychotherapy Day Programme with adults.

I practice as a Playtherapist with referred children and young people. I co-facilitate an accredited training course for Supervisors in London and Glastonbury. It is important that I maintain the eco-link in all my work, and the importance of the environment.

I have pioneered Dramatherapy and Playtherapy in UK and Europe and established it as a postgraduate practice. I am a full/founder member of the British Association of Dramatherapists, State Registered with the Health Professions Council, full member of the British Association of Play Therapists and Play Therapy UK. I am also a full member of the National Association of Drama Therapy (USA).

Founder and director of Rowan Studio, and Rowan Romania, in partnership with the Muzika Charitable Trust (UK), I work with Gypsy groups and people with special needs in Glastonbury and Zarnesti. I am establishing links between these 2 towns.

Currently I have 15 books and many chapters in published on Dramatherapy, Playtherapy, Groupwork, Fertility, Ritual, Folklore and Theatre with: Routledge, Jessica Kingsley, Speechmark (Winslow Press), Crysalis (Vega) and OUP. Several books are translated into: Hebrew, Greek, Italian, Danish. Korean and Russian. I have also made videos of travel in Transylvania, Play and Dramatherapy theory and practice.

My work takes me to many countries on a regular basis: Greece, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and more recently, Kosovo, Slovenia, and Macedonia where I run workshops with trafficked women and training for staff.

Current affiliations: consultant to Department of Child Health, Univ of Exeter, honorary consultant Broadmoor Hospital, visiting professor Tel Hai College; patron of The Prison Arts Foundation NI, and Birmingham Centre for Arts Therapies, consultant to Margarita Project, Greece. I am a member of Editorial Committee for the following Journals: Dramatherapy, Play Therapy and The Arts in Psychotherapy.

Member Play Therapy UK and IBECPT Certified Professor of Play Therapy

I lived with my three children in the rainforest of Malaysia for two years, where I researched the ritual, drama and play of the Temiar peoples for my doctoral studies.

Previous academic appointments include: Senior Lecturer Univ of Hertfordshire, and Univ College of Ripon and York; Senior Research Fellow London Hospital Medical College, Visiting Professor Univ of Ulster, Reseach Associate SOAS, Univ London.