The process of practice: Using drama to improve student mental health

‘May you live in interesting times.’ A phrase I'm sure we could all happily live without for the foreseeable future. It is important though that we as practitioners take on board the potential effects of these times on our students; they are growing up in a world which by all accounts might be an uninhabitable wasteland before the end of their lifetimes, ravaged by drought, rising sea levels and temperatures, skies choked with pollution and wildlands full of plastic.

Every day of their lives so far, they will likely have heard some form of doomsaying about climate change, reinforcing this inevitable truth. Now they have spent great swathes of the last 18 months isolated and alone, absorbing ever more anxiety about the future possibilities. The looming spectre of Covid casts a shadow over all aspects of their existence. It is impossible that these factors will not have left some imprint upon their developing psyches, which we must recognise, understand, and handle.