SHINE Rehearsal for Real-life (Social Skills) Programs

SHINE School’s ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ Programs are free intensive social and well-being support programs facilitated by Shine’s Dramatherapist Dr Amanda Musicka Williams who has twenty years’ experience delivering creative arts therapies programs in school settings. The ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ program covers a wide variety of topics broadly aimed at developing social, emotional and life skills that support student’s self-awareness, resilience, and overall well-being.

The ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ program:

The ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ Dramatherapy Programs at SHINE aim to support young people identified as needing additional support or intervention when it comes to their social/emotional well-being. Selected children in each group program (of 6-10 students) will have access to the group dramatherapy program which runs on a school term basis for a minimum of 10 sessions with the possibility of extending some groups to two terms or multiple sessions across one term to provide additional repetition that may maximise learning outcomes and skill development.

Specific goals of the program address the following topics:

Emotional Intelligence & Self-Regulation
Social Skill Development & Social Problem Solving
Personal Boundaries and Consent
Exploring Personal strengths and positive self-talk
Life skills: Resilience, Adaptability & Self-Reflection
Teamwork

And the general overview for a ten-week program is briefly summarised as:

Week 1: Starting out Session:

Getting to know one another, building the working alliance & recognizing commonalities, exploring team-work skills.

Week 2: Getting along with others:

Exploring social fundamentals -listening, personal boundaries, respectful engagement with others and negotiating consent.

Week 3: Understanding our feelings:

Exploring scales of feeling, reading and responding to body cues, managing tricky feelings, understanding triggers and practicing self-regulation strategies.

Week 4: Who am I and who can I be:

Exploring personal potential. Using Mask and projective device to represent one’s self and one’s perfect world.

Week 5: Group dynamics and peer problem solving.

Using imaginative role-play to explore group/community experience and think about how we interact with others. Rehearsal of prosocial behaviours.

Week 6: Tribes: creating and reflecting on community.

Community role-play creations and thinking about expected versus unexpected social behaviours within different social contexts/relationships.

Week 7: Forum Theatre: Responding to bullying/social challenges.

Using role-play related to real-life as a tool for peer problem solving. Exploration of ‘What do I do when?’ scenarios related to real-life challenges as identified by group members.

Week 8: Putting life skills in focus:

Dramatic exploration and reflection on the need to be able to focus, adapt & demonstrate resilience as key life skills through individual and group-work team challenges.

Week 9: What’s in my toolbox?:

Identifying and rehearsing self-care strategies. Creation of a take-away toolbox for ongoing reference to key learning/self-help strategies.

Week 10: My future self:

Review of key learning, final goal setting and role-play presentation of one’s hoped for future self.

The program aims to be flexible and adjustments are made in collaboration with school staff to best address identified student needs.

Thanks to the philanthropic support of SHINE/Andrew Dean Fildes foundation, who have been supporting children in need for nearly three decades, the program is now offered to schools FREE of any charge.

Why Dramatherapy?

Dramatherapy is an alternative to traditional talk therapies that utilises play, drama and other creative techniques to address specific goals related to achieving psychological, emotional and/or social changes for individuals/groups who engage with the process.

Dramatherapists employ a wide variety of dramatic and creative tools including role-play related to real life experiences, dramatic tableaux, story-making, group games, social problem-solving tasks. movement and artmaking to create a therapeutic process that is fun, accessible and engaging.

Dramatherapists are master’s level trained, registered and regulated by ANZACATA the Australian, New Zealand and Asia Creative Arts Therapies Association. They work in a wide variety of settings and are often employed in schools as a mental health support practitioners for students.

Who and What is SHINE Andrew Dean Fildes Foundation

The SHINE Foundation was started 27 years ago in response to the gaps facing children with language and learning difficulties and has been dedicated to improving the lives of children with language/learning disabilities, offering programs to assist them to reach their full potential. The foundation was founded by Andrew Dean Fildes and has been overseen and run by Dr Carl Parsons and Dr Jessica Matov.

SHINE and our staff recognise that sometimes our community is challenged to provide the specific supports children need to thrive and develop to their full capacity in learning and life endeavours. The SHINE School Programs therefore provide opportunities for unique intensive programs in school for learning and/or social/emotional development. https://www.shine.org.au/

SHINE, with support from the Department of Education and universities around Australia has traditionally mobilised allied health professionals and final year allied health university students to deliver comprehensive learning programs focused on functional life skills. These programs have expanded to include the unique approach of dramatherapy through the ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ Programs.

How are schools selected?

Whilst SHINE has previously been supporting children struggling with learning difficulties in Victorian schools for 27 years, we are now extending our services to include a targeted focus on supporting the social, emotional development of students in Victoria. Invitations for an expression of interest in engaging with the program are forwarded to potential schools a term in advance. Team members will then liaise with interested schools to plan implementation and adjust the scope of practice to best support individual student needs.

Summary of Key Program Principles:

1. Free access

2. Program goals tailored to address the specific social/emotional needs of participants.

3. Data driven – children’s outcomes are tracked throughout the program using child-centred assessment/research principles. These outcomes are summarised and reported back to the school following the program’s conclusion.

4. Fun and accessible psycho-social learning – dramatherapy is delivered through creative activities that are fun and accessible so that participants enjoy attending the sessions.

We are currently conducting four school programs across two schools in Newport in Term 4, 2023. We hope to expand the ‘Rehearsal for Real-life’ program into other school locations in 2024. If you have interest to know more about the program, scope of practice and intended aims please contact the Program Coordinators for more information and to secure your school’s place in the program:

Dr Amanda-Musicka-Williams chrysalisdramatherapy@gmail.com Ph: 0405514136

Dr Jessica Matov Jessica.matov@shine.org.au Ph: 0421643496