Drama Therapy (MA)
Program Description
The Master of Arts program in Drama Therapy provides advanced clinical training in counseling and course work in drama therapy. The program prepares graduates to promote health and wellbeing in a range of wellness contexts. Drama therapy uses theatre techniques to facilitate personal growth and promote health and to treat individuals with a range of mental health, and cognitive and developmental disorders. The program attracts theatre professionals and educators, therapists, and those working in the fields of medicine, healthcare, and special education. Students come from diverse cultural and academic backgrounds to study and do fieldwork and internships with leading professionals in the creative arts therapies. Classes are small and instruction individualized. The New York metropolitan area offers rich opportunities for clinical internships in hospitals and shelters, drug rehabilitation centers, prisons, and special facilities for the elderly, those with developmental disabilities, and the terminally ill, among others.
The program hosts an internationally recognized therapeutic theater series “As Performance.” This series investigates the nexus of therapeutic theater and arts-based research. Clinical drama therapists participate as artists, and artists explore a therapeutic process. Therapeutic theater is presented as a primary process where need transforms into action. Productions are made possible by an ongoing grant from the Billy Rose Foundation. As Performance seeks to explore the aesthetic, therapeutic, and ethical issues embedded in the process of making theatre.
Career Opportunities
Graduates are employed in a variety of therapeutic settings throughout the world, including public and private hospitals and mental health clinics, centers for adults with developmental disabilities, nursing homes, and drug rehabilitation centers. Drama therapists work in medical facilities as well as artistic ones, in social services as well as private practice. Although drama therapy is a relatively new profession, it is practiced widely with a number of special populations: war veterans and those afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abusers, mentally ill individuals, the elderly, and children who have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. Drama therapists also treat dysfunctional families and, more generally, healthy individuals in need of exploring significant life problems.
Licensure and Accreditation
The program is approved by the New York State Department of Education and qualifies students for licensure in Creative Arts Therapy (LCAT) after graduation and 1,500 hours of postgraduate supervised practice.
The 50-credit track (DRMT) meets all requirements for licensure in New York State as a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT) This includes required coursework in drama therapy and applied psychology with no electives. Those who intend to practice in New York only, and international students who will not require a license to practice, might prefer the 50-credit program.
The 60-credit track (DRRL) allows students to do advanced training in Role Theory and Method, Psychodrama, Arts-Based Research, or pursue other electives in Applied Theater (e.g., Theater of Oppressed) or in Applied Psychology (e.g., Marriage and Family Counseling). This track meets the degree credit requirements for licensure in most states outside of New York. Those who intend to practice in states other than New York should consider the 60-credit option.
Additionally, all students are required to complete fieldwork and 800 hours of internship with two different populations in selected clinical facilities.
Each graduate of the Drama Therapy master's program meets the educational requirements for licensure as a creative arts therapist (LCAT) in New York State and for credentialing as a drama therapist with the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA), which accredits this master's degree program.
Admissions
Admission to graduate programs in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development requires the following minimum components:
- Résumé/CV
- Statement of Purpose
- Letters of Recommendation
- Transcripts
- Proficiency in English
See NYU Steinhardt's Graduate Admissions website for additional information on school-wide admission. Some programs may require additional components for admissions.
See How to Apply for admission requirements and instructions specific to this program.