New York ...

The theme of the conference, 'Finding Home: Pathways to belonging' kept manifesting in my experience for the rest of my stay in New York.


After the conference, I visited with my friend, Mohan Kulasingam, who used to be my dance partner during dance performances, a very long time ago. He is my first male dance partner and is a wonderful dancer and yoga teacher. It was great to see him after such a long time. Although many years went by, reconnecting with him felt so natural and in a way, I felt 'at home'.



He took me to watch Ms Mary Anthony's dance class. It was one of the many highlights of my trip. Ms. Mary Anthony is one of the pioneers of modern dance and is now 93 years old.




















She was conducting the dance class and even did the the class warm ups with her students. I felt honoured, by just being in her presence and watching her in action! T

he dancer in me was in complete admiration and awe with her! She exuded radiance and had a quiet, gentle and yet, powerful command over the class. I could see and feel the high level of respect the dancers has of Ms Mary Anthony. She has a brilliant radiance about her. It was the most inpiring moments of my trip!

New York : Drama Therapy Conference

National Association for Drama Therapy (NADT) Conference in New York

A few weeks ago, I attended the Drama Therapy conference held in White Plains, New York. As the previous Drama therapy conferences which I had attended both in the USA and UK, it was an amazing experience. It exceeded my expectations. As there are only two drama therapist in Malaysia, it is always wonderful to be surrounded by other colleagues in the same field and share ideas and insights about our work.

I felt that I had gained a lot in from this conference, not only in expanding the skills and knowledge which I had acquired in the various wonderful workshops which I had attended but also connecting with people both working in the USA and in the other parts of the world.

The title of the conference is ‘Finding Home: Pathways to Belonging’…

I have to say, that my whole trip to New York was an amazingly, wonderful experience. When I first arrived at the immigration, the immigration officer started by asking what I was doing in the USA… the usual question.. Then when I said that I was going to attend and present for a drama therapy conference, he began to share that he does acting part-time, and how he enjoys the process. He also shared that he has a degree in psychology and that he used to be a police officer previously and had to sometime deal with law offenders who had mental health challenges. I then realized that our conversation was taking up time and keeping the others in line waiting and said goodbye. I felt at home at that time… It is quite unexpected, because I suppose, whenever I am in immigration, the thought which is dominant is ‘Have all your documents, answer all their questions and do not irritate them because they have the say whether you get to stay or leave in the next flight’.

The next time I felt at home was when I met the two people whom I was sharing my hotel room with. We have been in touch via email for several months. It was lovely to finally meet them in person.

It was easy from then on to feel very much at home amongst other drama therapists and artists, throughout the conference. One of the evenings, I presented a performance titled ‘The Home Within’ which was a combination of dance and monologue about my journey as a pioneer of Drama therapy in Malaysia. It was about the triumphs and the challenges of working as a drama therapist in Malaysia and realizing at the end, that I may never find a place which I can call home, especially as a drama therapist, but at the end if I feel that I am home within myself, as who I am as a person, and in my work, I will always be home, wherever I am, both in my career and in my Self.

I felt honored with the audience I had for my performance. As a performer, I felt such encouragement and closeness to the audience during my performance. After which many of them had graciously stayed back to speak to me and congratulate me on my performance.

I also presented among other drama therapists who work internationally in a panel discussion about Drama Therapy abroad, where we shared with our audience, our experience working in the field of drama therapy in different parts of the world where it may be still a new field.
I found all of the workshops very helpful and enlightening. With the permission of the participants and the facilitator, I have included a few pictures of a workshop on Playback Theatre, which was one of my favourite workshops during the conference.


To be continued…(more pictures will be added in the next few days)

Newspaper Article on Dramatherapy

A few months ago, there was an article about Dramatherapy on the local newspapers , The Star, which featured my work. I was approached by a journalist to sit in for one of my lecture demonstration about Dramatherapy as she found the idea interesting and she wanted to write it for the newspapers.
Please read with descretion as the journalist did dramatize the article to appeal to the readers. It did however, create some awareness to the Malaysian readers, of the existence of the field of Dramatherapy and that is a positive thing.

This is the link if you would like to check it out:
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/7/4/lifefocus/4197244&sec=lifefocus

Dramatherapy Workshop for Adults & Creative Arts Workshop for Children

I will be facilitating a Dramatherapy Workshop for Adults and also Creative Arts Workshop for Children.

The details:

Workshop 1:
Introductory Dramatherapy Workshop (for Adults)

Aim: Self Exploration/Self Awareness

In this introductory session, participants will experience various methods used in the practice of dramatherapy such as drama games,movements,story making and object work to explore various aspects of their lives.

Using these tools in the context of dramatherapy allows the participants to explore their lives in a safe space and at a safe distance. Many individuals find it difficult to speak about difficult issues in their lives. Sometimes the individual may be so involved in their issues that they feel unable to step back and look at their issues with clarity.

Dramatherapy uses projective techniques. It acts like a mirror to the participant’s feelings, thoughts and unresolved issues. Both of which the participant may be conscious of and some which the participants may be unaware of. These methods allow space for the individual to be both the witness and the participant of his/her life.
It is important to explore unresolved emotions from the past and the present as ignoring them or repressing them may cause many ‘blocks’ or stagnation to the smooth progress of the individual’s life.

Once the client is able to have clarity of their issues, the next step in the cause of dramatherapy sessions is to facilitate participants to create their own solutions for certain issues, using dramatherapy tools and then guide the progress of the individual in carrying out their goals for therapy.

Date: 23 August (Sunday)
Time: 2pm – 5pm
Max number of participants : 8
Fees: RM 80
Venue : The Violet Flame, 67-2, Jalan Bangkung, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
Please check out http://www.thevioletflame.com.my/ for more details
If you would like to attend, please call 03-20959868 to book a space.


Workshop 2:

"Exploring The Magic Box" : 11am, 25 Aug (Tues) :Creative Arts Workshop for Children

The aim of this workshop is three folds:
1. To help explore the creative potential of each child
2. To create self awareness
3. Most importantly… to have FUN!

What will it involve?
This workshop will combine various elements of creative arts including
• movements
• drama
• art work
• creative games

Expected outcome:
• Fun
• Being open to trying new things
• Being in touch with the creative self
• Have more confidence

Date : 25th August (Tuesday)
Time: 11am – 5pm
Ages : 7 to 12 years old
Number of participants : limited to 10
Fees : RM 120 (inclusive of meals)

Please check out www.thevioletflame.com.my for more details
Please call 03-20959868 to book a space.

Free Talk/Demo on Dramatherapy

I am presenting a talk/demo about Dramtherapy next week. The details are as follows:

Date: 13th August 2009 (Thursday)

Time : 7:30pm - 10pm

Venue : The Violet Flame
67-2, Jalan Bangkung,
Bukit Bandaraya,
59100 Bangsar,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Admission : Free

If you are interested in attending, please call 03-20959868 to book a space as we are limiting the number of participants to 16.

More dramatherapy workshops and services are listed on this website:
www. thevioletflame.com.my

Questions about Dramatherapy...

Recently I gave a presentation on Dramatherapy to a large group of third year college students majoring in Psychology. These are some of the questions which were asked...


Q1. Why Dramatherapy and other forms of Creative Arts Therapies work?

A: One of the reasons is that because it uses projective method. In dramatherapy what comes up through the creative tools such as the object work, story making, acting, art work are the thoughts and feelings of the client/s. Some of which the client/s may not be aware of.
Therefore it works very well, especially when words alone fail to describe the depth of one’s thoughts and feelings. Especially when language is a barrier in communication for certain individuals. Some people also use words to create a wall between them and the therapist. They sometimes hide their emotions and thoughts behind their words.
The other reason why it works well is that most of the time it uses fiction to create a distance between the client and his/her problems. In this way the client is able to look at their problems more objectively , (be a witness to their problems) and able to find solutions without being overly caught up in being in the problem which sometimes paralyses a person into taking steps to improve their situation.
Some of the feedback I get from my clients are also that they actually look forward to the sessions because every session we do different activities which they find interesting and the other comment I usually get is that they feel relaxed after the first few minutes of being in the dramatherapy session. These factors motivate the clients’ regular attendance in the sessions (resulting in faster progress in resolving their problems) rather than trying to avoid the sessions. Especially when therapy can be difficult since its purpose is to work on difficult issues which is not usually a ‘walk in the park’ for most people.

To be continued on my next blog entry... till then, enjoy the dance of life :-)

Odissi Dance Performance on 4th of July 2009

Dance Performance on 4th of April 2009

I will be performing in an Odissi dance recital at 8pm on the 4th of April 2009 at MATIC (Malaysian Tourist Information Centre) auditorium located at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. It is a production of Madhura Dance Academy. Please contact the telephone numbers on the above poster or email vanitha_dramatherapist@yahoo.com for more details.

Corporate Training : Creative Relaxation (Stress Management)

Continuous research both in the field of medicine as well as in the field of psychology have proven time and again that stress causes many adverse effects in both the body and the mind of a person, if it is not managed well. In the current economic situation, stress levels may be high as employees may wonder if they will still have a job in the next few months. There is lot of worries about how to manage if they lose their jobs. A lot of 'what ifs' in the air... Some organisations may have been forced to downsize and in many situations one person may end up having to do two or three other people's jobs.

When employees fall ill because of stress or are less able to focus on their work, organisations tend to lose monetarily because of the lack of productivity either due to illness or employees inability to focus on their work.

In this Creative Relaxation training sessions, the participants will learn how to use various creative and practical relaxation techniques which they may practice in their work environment as well as in their own time. The techniques which are used is unique as it will be utilising many of the creative arts tools in its applications. Although the main aim is to be able to manage stress well, the usual unintentional outcome also includes taping further into a person's creative self. That creative self has the tendency of expanding itself to the individuals work environment, which in many cases translate to a higher levels of work productivity.

Due to the current economic situation and many budget cuts in employee enhancement programs, this training can be catered to the organisation's budget.


If your organisation is interested to know more about this training, please contact :

Vanitha Chandrasegaram
Email: creative.movements@gmail.com or vanitha_dramatherapist@yahoo.com

P.S The trainer is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

'The Audacity of Hope'

Barack Obama is about to officially become the president of the United States of America in a couple of hours. Here is to HOPE and positive change, to the United States and to the rest of the world!