Alcohol and art: Therapeutics interventions and artistic escapes
KRASANAKIS ST.

This abstract consists of two therapeutics interventions, in the area of treatment for drug abusers, which constitute techniques of drama-therapy.

Drama-therapy is a therapeutic process which uses art as a therapeutic mean. More specifically, drama-therapy exploits dramatic metaphor and the paradox of the theatre. It seems that the running through of the person's life, his/her relationships and his/her body play very important role in the treatment for alcohol abusers.

First of all, "life-line" is a therapeutic technique which helps drug abusers to face again the main stations of their life, the passages and the persons who played a strong role in every phase of their life. The clients 'see' their life as a journey with emotional ups and downs and unfinished stories.

In this way, it has given to the client the opportunity to "see" his/her life as a journey with two phases, the phase before abuse and the phase after treatment.

Every person draws his/her "life-line" and shares his/her experience with the team. He/she is asked to organize his/her "life-line" in the space and the others participants who consist the team represent the significant others of his/her life. The "life-line" member gives information to the others about his/her significant others and collaborates with them for the embodiment of the role. In the next phase, the member passes in front of each significant person with the proper emotional situation, body posture and says one or two phrases and the other gives an answer. It is a way, a second chance to understand, comprehend and reframe his/her relations up to now. Moreover, it is given a second chance to the member to speak not only with persons but also with situations, even with the alcohol which may be personalized.

If this process happens in a therapeutic group, the dynamic of the group progresses because of the members' embodiment to their personal story.

The second therapeutic technique is the "body image". The alcoholic's body has his own language. Most of the times, his body has been sexually or psychologically abused and neglected. The process of the "body image" has three phases. In the first phase, the members of the group are divided in couples. One of them lies on a paper and gets the posture he likes. The other one is trying to depict his shape on the paper by drawing it concisely, around his body. Then they change their role. What follows is working on these shapes, completing or recreating them into other forms or drawings. Finally, the participants give a title to their creations and write a story about it. In the second phase, the creator presents and speaks about his body image in the group. Then, the group makes comments and observations about it. Then the group discusses the whole experience working through it and having a feedback from it. These two phases constitute techniques that belong to drama therapy and to art therapy.

In the third phase, which belongs only to drama therapy, the members of the group write down a story based on the "hero-roles" of the body-image and then they represent it. In the end, after the representation, they leave their roles, functional role; action-passiveness (deroling), come to the circle of the group and have feedback from the whole procedure. More specifically, they deal with their problems, the relationships which have been created, and the fears which come to the surface or the projections which have been done.

Some examples of pictures, which illustrate body images, will be present in order to help to a better comprehension of the above mentioned text.

The above techniques which have been described have the below important results:

1. To deal with the paradox of the abuse.
2. To involve the body, the aesthetic factor and to illustrate the confusion between the distress and the somatic pain.
3. To promote the dynamic of the group.
4. To be recognized the projection identifications.
5. To be created an aesthetic distance from the events of their life, to leave the resistances, to make clear evaluations.
6. Finally, it will be created a transitional space between the abuser and his/her actions. Encephalos 2009, 46(2):100-104.

Key words: Dramatherapy, alcohol, art therapy.