NYU Steinhardt Drama Therapy Program

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NYU Steinhardt Drama Therapy Program

The NYU Program in Drama Therapy trains students to translate their love of theatre into skilled care to support clinical and community health.

Graduates are eligible to become Licensed Creative Arts Therapists in the state of New York. Students receive culturally responsible, clinical training to use improvisation and theatre techniques to address a range of mental health, rehabilitation, and social concerns.

03/23/2026

Congratulations to Akhila Khanna, our NYU Drama Therapy Alumni of the Year!

This award recognizes Akhila’s meaningful contributions to the field of drama therapy, including her work as a researcher, her advocacy efforts, and her ongoing mentorship of international students and early-career drama therapists. Her dedication continues to support and strengthen the community in impactful ways.

Congratulations again, Akhila! We are proud to celebrate your achievements!

03/19/2026

Congratulations to NYU Drama Therapy alumni Alessia Hughes for being named NYC Health and Hospitals’ Employee Resource Center’s Employee of the Year!

Here is an excerpt from the award announcement:
“Since the onboarding of Alessia in August 2024, she has taken wellness at North Central Bronx (NCB) to new heights. Alessia has implemented structured department specific interventions and reoccurring support as well as creative ways to meet the needs of all staff. Alessia is one of the top Receivers of stars through the All-Stars platform and has received recognition from many departments and staff members. “Alessia continues to hold wonderful wellness events: music to listen to as well as join-in, massage, yoga, talk story, think-about-what-you-want (need), crafting in the lobby. When she comes around to our office with that big smile, I know she is going to be tell us about something terrific. Such a positive outlook - it’s definitely contagious.” “Alessia thank you for everything you do. You are truly a ray of sunshine. I appreciate your hugs, your sincerity, your bright ideas and your amazing attitude. Keep up the great work!” “I just wanted to express the OPD’s appreciation for the thoughtful wellness offering that Alessia provided to output psychiatry yesterday! It was a much-needed break for us and she made the event into something that matched staff’s interests + working around our schedule. Alessia is warm, open, and engaged+ we all benefited from what she provided!” We are fortunate to have an employee of Alessia’s caliber as she continues to enhance the employee experience and work culture at North Central Bronx.”

Congratulations Alessia!

03/09/2026

A few weeks ago, wehad the pleasure of welcoming guest speaker Shahem Mclaurin, LCSW to our Cross Cultural Awareness Class. Shahem’s presentation was on “Authenticity in Clinical Practice,” and focused on Patricia Hill Collins’ work including the Matrix of Domination and how it informs how we as clinicians show up as our full authentic self with our clients. Thank you for a rich and inspiring conversation.

03/05/2026

The Drama Therapy Program at NYU is pleased to announce six thesis performances this spring, March 13-15, 2026. Each performance is once piece of a culminating thesis project, investigating a correlating research question.
Please see the links in bio for ticket information to select performances.

THE SPACE BETWEEN explores the experience of splitting and isolation that can attend invisible illness, while attempting to find some sort of peace among the chaos.

Object Lesson (written and performed by Brea Glosson and directed by Kristin Long & Rachel Sabo-Hedges) is an autoethnographic theatre piece that examines the author’s experience of being born and raised in a homeschooling evangelical Christian group in rural North Carolina, and delves deep into what it means to question everything you thought you knew as absolute truth using music, humor, and visual aids.

“The Fascist Me” by Camila Klas and directed by Adam Stevens, is an auto ethnographic therapeutic performance that explores the roles of fascism that live within. The performance follows the life of a naturalized citizen in the current political climate.

LA PUERTA EN LA SELVA (The Door in the Jungle) is an autobiographical therapeutic performance that explores the transformative healing of looking behind the door of the inner self and reclaiming what was once lost and erased within the complexities of the adoption experience.

Between Us – A Performance by Jingxin Shi is an autobiographical therapeutic performance exploring loss, culture, and silence through embodied storytelling, integrating drama therapy with her developing Body Architect practice to reveal how the body carries memory, relationship, and what remains unspoken between us.

Survivor, the Game, or Something Else: The Mandarin musical developed from a women empowerment board game(WEB) and created by an all–Asian women team, exploring how a high-functioning neurodiverse Asian woman moves from survival to flourishing. (with Chinese and English subtitles; content note: references to themes such as blood vengeance, sexual violence, cannibalism, infanticide, and flashing disco lights, please take care).

02/12/2026

⏳Waiting for Pangea⏳
February 26 through March 1 at the NYU Pless Hall Black Box Theater.

Click the link in bio to reserve your ticket!

What happens when we live between worlds and dare to tell the truth from that place? This devised therapeutic verbatim performance explores displacement in all its forms: migration and exile; living between cultures, identities, homes, relationships, and parts of the self. Drawing from real stories and lived experience, the piece weaves together literal, remembered, and imagined journeys. Bridging verbatim theater with a therapeutic framework, the project invites the audience to witness where stories are held in the in-between, carried together, and allowed to unfold.

We will host a special reception for the company and NYU Drama Therapy Program Alumni following the Sunday, March 1st matinee. We hope to see you there! 💜

02/06/2026

🏆 FIRST PLACE. FIRST YEAR. FULL POWER. 🏆

Drama Therapy did not come to play.

At the 21st Annual MLK Spoken Word Contest, our very own Makaela Reed, first-year student in NYU’s Program in Drama Therapy, recieved first place and set the room on fire.

With a poem woven from stars, dreams, and ancestral hope, Makaela honored Dr. King’s legacy with language that shimmered and landed. Fully embodied. Deeply vulnerable. Fiercely unapologetic. Every word spoken from the gut and the galaxy at once. ✨

Surrounded by classmates and faculty, Drama Therapy showed up loud, proud, and radiant. This was artistry. This was courage. This was what it looks like when voice, body, and justice align.

We see you, Makaela. We celebrate you. We are so proud we could burst.
The future is bright because you are in it. 🌟

NYU BlackExcellence SpeakYourDreams StarsAndLegacy

12/12/2025

Please register and join us Sunday for a Disability Justice event via Zoom!

See the link in bio to register!

12/04/2025

Apply to the NYU Drama Therapy program today!
Applications are due January 15, 2026.
Check the link in bio for details.

12/02/2025

Today is Giving Tuesday! On this global day of giving we kindly ask you to consider making a donation to in support of The Drama Therapy Program at NYU.

Link in bio.

11/26/2025

Hello Drama Therapy Community,

It is with a heavy heart that we share that Danny Haywood passed away on November 21st after a series of heart attacks. Danny was a true light, a beloved mentor, and a remarkable clinician in the drama therapy community. He touched so many lives and he will be deeply missed.
His family has shared the following information regarding memorial services:

Service on 12/4/25, 6:30-8:00

Wellspring Church
10-15 46th Road
Long Island City, NY 11101

Please also consider making a donation to the gofundme set up in order to help his family members throughout this challenging time. Link in bio.

Sending comfort,
The NYU Drama Therapy Program

11/01/2025

NYU Drama Therapy partnered with Breaking Ground which provides supportive housing throughout New York.

Drama therapists Anamarija Vuić and Andrea Córdova McCadney joined NYU program director Dr Nisha Sajnani, and Breaking Ground leaders Tabitha Gronock, Assistant Vice President of Permanent Housing; and Kanyun Rokicki, Assistant Vice President of Property Management in Manhattan, at the ACLAIMH Conference, the largest gathering of healthcare professionals across New York.

Their session demonstrated how drama therapy helps people find voice, agency, and community in supportive housing and social service settings. They also shared findings from forthcoming research on the impact of drama therapy in supportive housing which will be published in the next issue of Drama Therapy Review, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the .dramatherapy .

10/20/2025

Congratulations to the recipients of NADTA awards 2025!! Your generous contributions to the field have made drama therapy richer.
We celebrate every award winner, and would like to highlight the NYU affiliated recipients, including:
Student Service Awards: Daisy Cai and Anamarija Vuic
Performance Award: Daniel McRath
Teaching Excellence Award: Heidi Landis
Research Award: Britton Williams and Christine Mayor
Professional Mentorship Award: Adam Reynolds
Gertrude Schattner Award: Carlos Rodriguez Perez

Congratulations all!

Address

35 W 4th Street, 11th Floor
New York, NY
10012

Telephone

+12129985402

Website

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/dramatherapy

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