ENACT Method
In 1987, Drama Therapist Diana Feldman and two other teaching artists were working as volunteers with a group of autistic young people. Noticing how these youths responded to movement and music activities, Diana realized that, through role-play, her team could tap into their feelings of isolation by creating characters that metaphorically shared those feelings.
Based on psychological, pedagogical, and artistic principles and insights from a wide range of distinguished specialists in arts, education, and counseling, the ENACT method teaches a new emotional vocabulary of positive life skills and behavior patterns. Our work addresses key social and emotional skills, such as:
- Social Awareness
- Relationship Skills
- Responsible Decision-Making
The key to ENACT programs is the container. The container represents the safe work spaces created by ENACT teaching artists to provide the optimum conditions for positive change. It's not only the actual physical space, but also the processes, relationships, and activities that go into the program.
Through distancing, where the students' emotions or concerns are transposed to a different place and involving different people, two highly trained ENACT teaching artists use role-play scenes to explore the students' concerns without leaving them feeling exposed or vulnerable and to offer concrete tools to carry into everyday life.
In addition to the teaching artists, all ENACT programs are supervised by a social worker and a drama therapist, and even veteran teaching artists receive regular training as well as the tools to assess their effectiveness and the progress of their students.
