Malaysian Medics International : Mental Health Conference - Dramatherapy Workshop

On the 9^th of June 2018 I had the pleasure of facilitating a workshop for the Malaysian Medics International (MMI) organization. There were about 24 participants, mostly comprised of medical students, a few mental health professionals and academicians.

It was wonderful to witness so much creativity from the participants and the fun and joy which they had expressed during the workshop. I was also very encouraged by the level of curiosity of how Dramatherapy can be used in their practice with patients. 

We obviously needed more than one hour and 15 minutes to get to that much of depth in the workshop.  (Although it did get extended to two hours, with the permission of the persons organizing the conference as well as the participants, due to the level of engagement and the number of questions from the participants which I felt was important to address)

However, the level of the participants curiosity has led me to be even more encouraged in wanting to teach Dramatherapy as an elective in local universities… which I have been contemplating for about a couple of years now.. After all, I have been practicing and conducting workshops and training in the field for 14 years now… And especially since we have a change in government recently (after 60 whole years!) , there is a renewed hope in wanting to seriously pursue that possibility. I now dare to belief that offering to teach Dramatherapy as an elective in Universities in Malaysia may be seriously considered and implemented by the local universities on the basis of merit, without  other political agendas.

 My intention is that the next time(perhaps in 2  years) someone asks me how they can be trained to be a Dramatherapist, to confidently  give  a of name of a local university , and not to tell them  that they need to go to the US, UK or Europe to be trained to become a fully qualified Dramatherapist.

So I am putting it out there… if any Universities in Malaysia is interested in that possibility of offering Dramatherapy as an elective to begin with, (perhaps later, to offer the full MA in Dramatherapy)  please send me a message on creative.movements@gmail.com

Meanwhile, look out on this space for my next Dramatherapy Skills Training workshop.

These are some of the feedback from the participants of the workshop:

“I had so much fun and really like this workshop”

“It is good to see that the arts can be used to help people facing mental health challenges”

“How can I learn more?”

“It is very interesting to see how Dramatherapy can take difficult issues and deal with it while having a lot of fun in the process!”

General Elections - Malaysia

Dear fellow Malaysians,
Please exercise your right and responsibility to vote tomorrow!
May the Force be with us! 💗💗💗

Dramatherapy Workshop -The Hero's Journey, CMTAI Conference Bangalore, India

On the 25th and 26th of Novemeber 2017, I was privileged to have been invited to facilitate a Dramatherapy Workshop for the CMTAI (Creative Movement Therapy Association of India) 4th International Conference, held  at the Christ University, Bangalore, India

It was wonderful to connect with fellow dramatherapists a few of them whom I have met years ago in other international conferences, and also new colleagues in the fields  Dance and Movement Therapy,  Dramatherapy, Art therapy and .Music Therapy.

I have to admit that I LOVE working with creative arts therapists and artists!  They always take the workshops which I facilitate to different heights. Mainly because most of them  are already familiar with the format, process and mostly, are very comfortable in expressing themselves in a creative manner, without much resistance in going with the flow of where creativity takes them.. Not to mention, my own accelerated  learning in in facilitating the workshop for  such creative and enthusiastic participant!

My workshop was titled "The Hero's Journey".

These are some of the pictures from the workshop which I had facilitated.

These are some of the feedback from the participants:

"The takeaways from this workshop are a boon"

"It was a great session overall"

"The breakdown of the journey was great and we can relate to it"

"I enjoyed the flow and the variety of activities"

"I liked finding the hero within"

"I loved the experiential activities"

"The facilitator was very approachable and friendly"

"I enjoyed the facilitator's presence and holding of space"


I would like to thank Tripura Kashyap, who had invited me to present the workshop for the CMTAI conference and those who have assisted me during the workshop.

Dramatherapy Workshops in Hassan, Karnataka

During the month of November, I had the privilege to have facilitated several Dramatherapy workshop in Hassan, Karnataka.

Two of the workshops were with dance students of Unnath Rathnaraju, of Natyakala Nivas,

The first workshop consisted of 50 participant of mainly dance students and also their family members. The participants varied from ages 4 onwards.
The students and their family members who had joined it, were very energetic, and was very participative.

These are some of the pictures taken from the first workshop:

The second workshop in Hassan was at a primary school, called The Scholars.  There were 44 participants between ages 8 to 10 years. They were extremely enthusiastic and very creative.   TThese are a few of the pictures taken during the workshop:

The third workshop was on the evening of  same day as the day as the workshop which I had facilitated at The Scholars at the dance studio of Natyakala Nivas with the students of Unnath Ratnaraju.

 It wasn't planned... I was all ready to play my flute in the beautiful ambiance of the water feature ornamented with beautiful statues from Orissa on the ground floor of the studio, while celebrating the fact that it was a joyful day of doing what I love.. and  wanting to chill out, playing my flute, knowing that I will be leaving for Bangalore the next day, to present another workshop for a Dance and Movement Therapy conference.And just  at the moment I was about to play my second note... a few of the dance students comes running from the studio upstairs and excitedly plead with me to have another dramatherapy workshop for them at that time... To which I asked "Don't you have dance class now?" To which they answered that their teacher said to them that if I agreed to do the workshop, he is willing to forego the class for the workshop. I simply couldn't say no to such excitement and enthusiasm.. And I'm glad I didn't!

There were about 35 students in this group raging from ages 6 to 18.

These are some of the feedback from the participants of all the  above three  Dramatherapy workshops in Hassan. The first two workshops was on Story making and Story Telling and the last one was on The Hero's Journey.

"I really enjoyed the Dramatherapy workshop and I hope that when  'teacher' Vanitha visits the next time we will have more of it!"

"I loved the acting part of it! It made me realize that I can act!"

"I learned a lot of new things today! Thank you!"

" I loved all the games and activities we did today!"

It was amazing how all of these workshops were unplanned... 

My trip to India this time was just to present a workshop at the CMTAI conference, which I had committed to at the beginning of the year, and I thought I would just visit my friend Unnath Rathnaraju and his family in Hassan (which I consider to be my family in India) for a few days and chill out, since I was going to be in Bangalore anyway. Then magic happened! Love the synchronicity of it all!

I would like to thank Unnath Rathnaraju for organizing all of these workshops and for helping me facilitate the workshop  in the school. I would also like to thank Mr. Chandran and his wife from The Scholars school for inviting me to facilitate a Dramatherapy workshop for the students. All in all, it was s delightful experience! Thank you! :)