The Therapeutic Space

Space is a central and essential player in all arts therapies.

The workspaces created by a drama therapist, movement, music, and art are adapted to non-verbal languages.

The music room will have musical instruments, and the bibliotherapist will have books, cards, papers, and writing instruments. In the drama space, there will be a chair on the stage costumes and a place for the audience, and in the art studio, creative materials will be offered. These are expressive languages that support individual or group mental processes. Therefore, the organization, the lighting, and the sorting of objects are meaningful and assist the therapeutic understanding.

Moreover, the studio space is also what you decide it is: it can be as tiny as a notebook, a corner in the garden where you come for a meeting, playing under a tree, or a meeting in the kitchen of an elderly patient in a hospital. This chapter will dedicate texts to dealing with different healing spaces.