Teenagers Don’t Play! The Importance of Play in Dramatherapy

If I had a penny for every time a young person has told me that play is for “babies”, I’d be a very rich woman.

But in my experience, the moment we step into our therapy space, whether it's a classroom, dinner hall, sensory room, or a dedicated therapy space, the stage is set, and the play begins.

We are BetterTogether

From the moment they walk in, stand with their arms crossed, or drape themselves over a chair, I can see it. Their posture alone tells a story: they’re ready to step into character, bringing with them everything that’s on their mind. As they settle in, their story unfolds. I step into that story, capturing their words and feelings with sounds, gestures, pictures and scribbles, reflecting their thoughts back to them. It’s a delicate dance of mirroring, as they test the waters of their truth. And they’re quick to tell me if I’ve missed something, whether it's a shift in pitch, pace, or tone. The more they speak, the more animated they become.

Before I know it, they’re fully immersed in their narrative. Through this process of attunement and connection, a shift happens, a release, a breath, and, sometimes, tears. And we’re only 15 minutes into the session.

From there, we begin again. We ground ourselves with warm-up activities, revisit parts of the story, if they wish, that were brought into the room, and explore the roles through play and imagination. We make sense of what’s been said, often finding new perspectives along the way. We close with a gentle process of derolling, reflection, and an intentional close.

We are BetterTogether

Of course, the structure is a guide, not a rule. Sometimes, we can’t follow the outline to the letter, and that’s okay. What matters is what happens in between, the moments of connection, of expression, and of understanding that may not always have a clear resolution, but are no less important.

And through it all, I’m reminded: Teenagers don’t play… or do they?

Research to support the story above:

According to dramatherapist and play therapist Sue Jennings, play is the foundation of dramatic activity and central to dramatherapy: “In it, one willingly enters a state of make-believe... creating a tension between make-believe and truth” (An Introduction to Dramatherapy: Theory into Practice). While teenagers may outwardly reject play as childish, their body language, storytelling, and emotional projection reveal just how instinctive and natural it remains, even in adolescence.

Donald Winnicott famously asserted, “Playing is itself a therapy.” For him, play was the means by which children accessed their true self—the authentic, creative core of their being. Through play, children (and indeed, adolescents) can explore difficult emotions, experiment with roles, and develop coping mechanisms in a non-threatening space. In this way, dramatherapy becomes not just a container for emotional expression but a catalyst for personal growth and integration (Winnicott, 1971).

As Peter Brook said, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” That’s what happens in the therapy room—an empty space becomes a stage, and through the simple act of presence and play, transformation occurs.

Below are the references for the cited work above and additional reading.

• Jennings, S. (1998). An Introduction to Dramatherapy: Theory into Practice. Routledge.

• Slade, P. (1995). Child Play: Its Importance for Human Development. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

• Winnicott, D.W. (1971). Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock Publications.

• Psychology Today. (2017). Play: A Different Perspective. Link

• Peter Brook. (1968). The Empty Space. Penguin Books.

• International Journal of Psychology (2017). Developmental Play Therapy and the Importance of Play. Link