It is timely to think about articulations and languages of the Sesame approach to drama and movement therapy and how it sustains its integrity and vitality within a fast changing healthcare and educational landscape. With this in mind, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama is hosting a research seminar /symposium which will address questions of Sesame’s philosophical and therapeutic orientation as it moves into its 51st year. What are the stories Sesame tells itself? What are the stories it tells to others? What are the stories that need to be told?

This symposium is developmental in the process of the forthcoming publication ‘Contemporary reflections on the Sesame Approach to Drama and Movement Therapy’. The panel will consist of contributors to this publication, who will open up discussions on a diversity of subjects which are currently at play within the Sesame methodology. These may include questions of silence; the commodification of wellbeing; the phenomenology of the poetic image; articulations of movement with touch and sound. The hope is to dig down into the unexpected and offer fresh articulations of how the art forms of drama and movement can inspire and support the practice and education of psychotherapy. Through connecting the arts with psychology in this way, the event aims to contribute to a growing movement which acknowledges the importance of the body and the imagination in mental health.