When the Child Proof Cap has Been Left off the Medicine Bottle – Dramatherapy with Young People Affected by Parental Drug and Alcohol Problems

Abstract

Young people affected by drug and alcohol use in their family face profound challenges. This paper looks at how young people are affected by their parents’ drug and alcohol problems and how dramatherapy can offer a space for them to engage with problems such as conflicted loyalties, neglect, abandonment, rage, isolation and premature responsibility. It draws on four years of experience offering individual and group dramatherapy to young people, and current approaches to the problem from psychology, social work, psychotherapy and the arts therapies. Each help to understand and illustrate the uses of a psychological and dramatic space to engage with the diverse problems parental drug and alcohol use create for a child.