I've spent about forty years digging into how drama is used for learning. Until Summer 2024, I was a 'pracademic' - that is, a practical academic - at Goldsmiths University. This blog shares how my last practice-based research at Goldsmiths is now the basis for current freelance work, addressing the urgent and thorny issue of the mental health pandemic affecting our young people.
I undertook a small research project, From Surviving to Thriving, tucked away in a corner of Goldsmiths. It explored how drama and aligned creative strategies, can be informed by Positive Psychology coaching - an approach that I believe could make a profound difference to the mental health and wellbeing of young people.
Mental Health Challenges Facing Young People
The Covid-19 pandemic made an already serious mental health crisis among young people even worse, particularly for those in what psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett first identified as the 'emerging adulthood' phase. This period, from the late teens through to the twenties, is a critical time of identity-formation; full of both threats and opportunities.
Today’s emerging adults face many pressures that make this time of life more difficult than ever. The climate crisis, pandemic isolation, unstable jobs, housing issues, social media pressures, and rising living costs have left many feeling overwhelmed. Recent research found that 1 in 3 young people in the UK report experiencing anxiety or depression - up significantly since 2000. Many also feel hopeless about their future, whether it's finding a secure place to live, getting a job they care about, forging relationships or just making ends meet.
Combining Creative Learning and Positive Psychology
Faced with this crisis, I considered how we could tackle these challenges by combining Positive Psychology with creative, hands-on learning through drama.
Positive Psychology, first popularised by Martin Seligman in the late 1990s, focuses on what can go right for people instead of what's wrong. For example, techniques such as practising gratitude or identifying personal strengths can help individuals build a more optimistic outlook. Courses based on Positive Psychology have shown great results: students at Yale and Bristol University saw up to 17% improvements in their wellbeing. And these results came from traditional lecture/seminar formats. Imagine what can be achieved with more interactive, creative methods!
The Power of Drama: Tackling the Inner Critic
Drama has always been at the heart of my work because of its power to help us see ourselves in new ways. The late great theatre practitioner Augusto Boal, echoing Plato, called this idea metaxis - the ability to be both ourselves and someone else at the same time. Through metaxis, Drama lets us explore different perspectives, which can help us better understand our own.
One exercise I used with my Goldsmiths' students involved addressing their 'Inner Critic' directly.
First, they drew collective pictures of their negative Inner Critic voices.
Then, they walked through a 'human corridor' made up of their peers whispering these critical thoughts. It was uncomfortable, but also eye-opening. We then flipped the exercise. This time, the corridor whispered words of encouragement, as if they were the students' Inner Best Friend.
This kind of creative reflection allowed students to safely face their barriers to thriving and practise reframing them. It’s this harnessing of the imagination and use of different means of expression that makes Drama such a powerful tool for change.
From Surviving to Thriving: The Pilot Project
The From Surviving to Thriving pilot project aimed to meet the three core psychological needs of young people, as described by Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. I ran the programme with first-year performing arts students for ten weeks, meeting weekly, with invitations for asynchronous follow-up learning through an interactive workbook. My goal was to help students move away from extrinsic motivations (like grades, parental approval and social pressure) and towards intrinsic ones (like curiosity, purpose, and pride).
We used creative exercises to help meet the key needs for self-determination:
Autonomy: Helping students feel more in control of their learning and lives, even when the world feels unpredictable.
Relatedness: Combating isolation by building social connections, especially important after the loneliness many experienced during the pandemic.
Competence: Boosting confidence by rehearsing real-life scenarios in a supportive environment, and introducing practical time management hacks to gain clarity over priorities.
The results were very encouraging. By the end of the programme, no students reported feeling as disconnected as before, and those with a sense of autonomy had increased significantly. More than half felt more competent in reaching their goals, and 63% felt more motivated overall.
Notably, six students who had considered dropping out decided to stay because of the programme. As these students were just beginning their studies, this modest intervention has a potential financial benefit of over £480k to the university.
It's clear that many more colleges and universities would benefit from interventions like this to address their recruitment challenges. In fact, it's bewildering that these strategies have almost entirely been unacknowledged.
What's Next?
This pilot showed that creative coaching can improve mental health and keep students engaged. Retaining even a small number of students makes a big financial difference for universities and colleges, but more importantly, it’s about helping young people thrive during this critical phase of life.
In addition to working with students in formal education, I’m now focusing on offering creative coaching to other groups in transition: care leavers, apprentices, young people in the criminal justice system, those experiencing homelessness, and young disabled adults moving towards independent living.
I also see potential beyond emerging adulthood. Anyone navigating transitions - balancing family and career, coping with job loss, or moving into retirement - could benefit from this blend of creativity and Positive Psychology.
If you’re interested in working together, or if you want to explore how creative learning could benefit your organisation, I'd love to hear from you.
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