NADT DRAMA THERAPY REGISTRATION Frequently Asked Questions
	About the Check List (Cover Page) Registration Procedural Brief Section 1: Education Requirements Section 1: Drama Therapy Internship Examples of Different Populations Definitions of Direct Contact Hours Who Can Supervise an Internship? Section 2: Basic Eligibility Requirements: Drama/Theatre Experience Section 2: Basic Eligibility Requirements: Professional Experience as a Drama Therapist Section 3: Additional Training/Work Experience Section 3: Additional Drama Therapy Internship (first page) Section 3: Additional Clinical Training (second page) Section 3: Additional Work Experience (third page) Section 4: Letter of Recommendation Letter of Reference Etiquette Worksheet Disclaimer Registry Licensure Code of Ethical Principles NADT Membership $75 Non-Refundable Application Fee
	Check List (cover sheet) This page is meant to help the applicant organize all the separate pieces that are going into the envelope to make sure that everything is there. ALL MATERIALS SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ONE PACKET. That is the only way to avoid losing items! Registration Procedural Brief The top of this page has basic contact information of the applicant.   The middle of this page lists the breakdown of registry requirements that will follow in the application. In essence, it is the table of contents.   Applicants are asked to select if they have graduated from an NADT approved graduate program or completed their education requirements through the alternative training program under the supervision of a BCT Trainer/Mentor.* APPLICANTS MUST BE IN ONE CATEGORY OR THE OTHER! If the applicant has not completed one or the other, they need to contact the National Office to find a BCT who can help them put together an alternative training contract. The bottom of the page has the applicant’s signature affirming that all the information is accurate. Section 1: Education Requirements This page details the education categories. There are currently three (3)  NADT approved graduate programs: New York University, New York City, NY California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA Concordia University, Montreal, Canada In the Alternative Training Program box applicants must list information about the school where they received their BCT approved MA degree and the name of their BCT Trainer/Mentor.   A copy of the student’s completed Alternative Training Contract should be included behind this page as part of the application.   All students will need to send for official transcripts from the school(s) at which they did their graduate work. These transcripts must come in sealed envelopes from the school to the student and the unopened letter included in the application packet. The NADT office will open these transcripts upon receipt and make copies for all the registry members. *Alternative training covers the education and internship hours of a drama therapy student in the same way that an approved NADT program covers coursework, thesis, and internship. When an alternative training student completes his/her learning contract, he/she must then fulfill the identical Basic Eligibility Requirements just as graduates from approved NADT programs do. The BCT Trainer/Mentor does not have to oversee the Basic Eligibility Requirements. The student could contract with the BCT to stay on as an advisor/supervisor, but that is not required or necessary.   Section 1: Drama Therapy Internship This page details the student’s 800 hours of internship while in their MA program or while in alternative training. If the student was at more than one site, this page should be copied and information on the other site(s) be put on additional pages (one site to a page). The important ratio on this/these page(s) is: A minimum of 300 direct client contact service hours (it could be more)           - These are hours with clients doing drama therapy A minimum of 30 hours of supervision (it could be more) - These are hours spent one-on-one with a supervisor or in   a supervision group discussing the intern’s work with the   clients and in the agency. - The ratio of direct client contact hours to supervision    hours should be a minimum of 10 to 1. A maximum of 470 hours of indirect service (it could be less) - These are hours spent in meetings, preparation,    documentation, in-service training, etc., where the intern    is not working directly with the clients. If a person has more than 800 hours of internship, the additional hours can be applied to the Additional Hours (Section 3).   An important requirement is that the intern has worked with a minimum of two different populations. This is so student drama therapists understand that different populations have similarities and differences.  Examples of different populations: Based on age/developmental issues: infant, child, adolescent, adult, older adult.   Based on diagnosis: schizophrenic, depressed, substance abusers, eating disordered, mentally retarded, learning disabled, emotionally disabled, Alzheimer’s, PTSD, HIV/AIDS, etc.   Based on adjudication: At-risk, in juvenile detention, in prison   Based on social issues: Conflict resolution, for wellness/self growth, to heal community/racial divisions, with immigrants or refugees, with homeless, etc. There may be only one internship site because the student has worked with more than one population in that one site. If not, the student must seek out a second site with a different population to work with. Definitions of Direct Contact Hours: Group therapy – Therapy in a group setting with three or more unrelated individuals. Couples/Family Psychotherapy – Therapy with a married or committed couple; therapy with a family (parents and children or some combination thereof). Individual Psychotherapy – Therapy with one individual. Only 150 hours (50% of the 300 direct hours) are allowed to be counted under the 800 required hours of internship. This is because drama therapy is primarily a group therapy and drama therapists need to understand how to work with groups!   The following also count as direct client contact and may be included within the Group, Couples/Family, or Individual Psychotherapy categories. The following also count as direct client contact  and may be included within the Group, Couples/Family, or Individual Psychotherapy categories:  Direct Assessment – Working with and/or interviewing and/or testing the client to assess diagnosis and/or develop a treatment plan. Programming/Outreach – Presentations and workshops done about the agency/program outside of the site. Formal Consultation – Consulting, evaluating programs, setting up programs at a site outside the agency or on an independent contractual basis. In this case the clients might be other professionals or other professionals and their clients, or it might be work within a corporate setting. Milieu Therapy – Activities done with clients via trips, rehearsals for plays, special events which are therapeutic in nature and intent. Add up all the direct service hours and put the total in the top “HOURS” box. The indirect hours and supervision hours are not itemized like the direct service hours.   Why are direct service hours itemized? So the intern understands exactly what direct service hours entail and does not erroneously count direct hours under the indirect category! Who can supervise an internship? If the student was in an NADT approved MA program, the registry committee accepts that the faculty of the school has set up appropriate supervision on the site and at school. If the student was an alternative training student, the student should have had their internship approved by their BCT mentor. They need to have been supervised by an RDT OR an MA level credentialed creative arts therapist OR any MA level (or above) licensed mental health/special education practitioner. This option of having a supervisor who is not a creative arts therapist exists (and has always existed) because in many places of the country or the world there may not be an RDT to supervise. Section 2: Basic Eligibility Requirements: Drama/Theatre Experience This page documents enough theatre experience to add up to a minimum of 500 hours. Most registry applicants have done many more than 500 hours! The application only asks you to list three different experiences. Theatre/drama experience can be: Educational a degree in theatre, such as a BA, MA, MFA, or Ph.D. - Any one of these is more than 500 hours!   teaching theatre in a school, church, camp, after school arts program, nonprofit arts center   If performing arts courses have been taken through university course credit (semester system), the formula to use to translate academic credits into clock hours is: - 1 academic credit hour = 15 clock hours in class x 3    hours spent outside of class = 45 clock hours - 3 academic credit hours = 45 clock hours in class x 3   hours spent outside of class = 135 hours Professional Community Theatre Theatre/drama experience can be: Acting Directing Stage Managing Technical/Design Administrative - HOWEVER, it can not be ALL administrative or technical/design. There must be some involvement in rehearsal and performance. In the fourth box include the name of one individual who could attest to the applicant’s theatre experience. This person does not have to write a letter of recommendation. However, the registry committee likes to have a name of a real person in case they feel they need to verify information which appears to be confusing. A short (no longer than 1 page) typed essay about what type of work the applicant has done in theatre/drama. This is asked for because just listing the setting and address doesn’t permit full expression of the kind of work and why it was meaningful. Often our theatre/drama experiences inform our orientation as a drama therapist or start us on our drama therapy paths. This essay should be included immediately after this page. A theatre resume is not required, but if it will make the theatre experience clearer, it may be attached after the essay. Think of the resume as being supportive to the essay.   Section 2: Basic Eligibility Requirements: Professional Experience as a Drama Therapist If part of the 1,000 hours were done in one place and part in another, make a copy or copies of this page so that a separate page can be used for each site. When can the 1,000 hours start? For a student from an NADT approved drama therapy program: Completion of all MA course work AND Completion of 800 hours of internship A student need not have completed their thesis before starting their 1,000 hours. This is because often students in approved programs carry a heavy course load and do not have time to write a thesis while taking classes and doing their internship. They end up writing their theses in the year after they leave school. For an alternative training student: Completion of MA AND Completion of all core alternative training courses: Introduction to Drama Therapy, Creative Drama, Drama Therapy with Special Populations, Creative Arts Therapies, and Sociodrama or Psychodrama Completion of all psychology hours (if MA was not a mental health degree) Completion of 800 hours of internship A student need not have completed all of their advanced electives before starting their 1,000 hours. Can the 1,000 hours be at more than one site? YES! Can the 1,000 hours be volunteer (i.e., not paid)? YES! Sometimes people have finished their 800 hours of internship, but can not find a paying job. Being paid or not being paid is not so much the issue as having attained a certain level of training and experience. For a position which is NOT paid, include a letter from the supervisor stating why the agency was not paying the applicant (usually the reason is the applicant volunteered, they wanted his/her services, but they had no money!) Could your 800 internship hours have been paid? YES! Paid internships are few and far between, but they do exist and it is great when people can find them! BUT a paid internship cannot count as paid hours until the 800 internship hours have been completed! The 800 hour internship comes first, the 1,000 professional experience hours comes second. Do the 1,000 hours of experience need to be supervised? YES. Just as with internships, the supervision to direct client contact ratio should be 1 hour for every 10 hours of direct client service in order to enhance continued growth of the young professional as a clinician. Supervision may be given at the job site. The supervisor could be any Masters level (or above) licensed/registered mental health professional. OR supervision could be arranged from an RDT separately. OR both. On this page itemize direct client service, supervision, and indirect client hours just as did on the internship page, HOWEVER, it is not necessary to break the direct client service hours down into smaller categories as on the internship page. The signature of the work supervisor is required at the bottom of the page. Required Essay: ONLY ONE ESSAY IN THIS CATEGORY NEED BE WRITTEN, not one for each job!! A short (no longer than 1 page) typed essay about the applicant’s particular drama therapy orientation and how it has impacted/informed the work they have done for their 1,000 hours. The orientation should be written in terms of the NADT definition of drama therapy (which is quoted in italics).   This essay should be included immediately after this page of the application.   Section 3: Additional Training/Work Experience 500 additional clock hours need to be documented. This can be in a variety of forms: Additional work hours Additional internship hours Additional psychotherapy / clinical training in drama therapy or another psychotherapeutic method. A maximum of 100 hours of personal psychotherapy These hours can be ALL in one category or they can be in any combination. No one category is required to be included if the 500 hours can be fulfilled with one or two other categories. If additional hours have been taken through university course credit (semester system), the formula to use to translate academic credits into clock hours is: 1 academic credit hour = 15 clock hours in class x 3 hours spent outside of class = 45 clock hours A three credit course would be worth 3 x 15 = 45 x 3 = 135 clock hours The first page of Section 3: Additional Drama Therapy Internship can be used to document additional drama therapy internship hours. This page is set up EXACTLY like the page for the 800 hours of drama therapy internship. Please note: Double counting any hours in either the initial internship category or in the 1,000 Work Hours category is not allowed. The second page of Section 3: Additional Clinical Training can be used to document additional clinical training done at an institute, in post-graduate work, a second related graduate degree, through workshops, conferences, practica, or other training. Programs in this category might be drama therapy training programs or they might deal with another aspect of psychotherapy. In some situations applicants may have worked hands-on with clients. In other situations they may have been in a classroom or workshop situation. If there is a certificate or transcript for this work, copy and include it after this page. The third page of Section 3: Additional Work Experience can be used to document additional hours of paid/volunteer drama therapy work beyond the 1,000 hours. This page is set up EXACTLY like the page on the 1,000 work hours and requires the signature of the supervisor to verify hours. Please note: These hours are to be above and beyond the 800 internship hours AND the 1,000 work hours – no double counting of hours at any place on this application. If the applicant wants to count anywhere from 1-100 hours of personal psychotherapy, all that needs to be included as documentation is a letter from the therapist stating: “ (Client’s name) did x number of hours of personal psychotherapy with me between the dates of ___________ and ___________.” The letter must be signed by the therapist with his/her credential and license number. No information needs to be given about the diagnosis or reason for seeing the therapist.   Section 4: Letter of Recommendation Three blank letters of recommendation are included in the application. Each letter consists of two pages: Part One and Part Two. The first letter is to be filled out by the head of the applicant’s approved MA drama therapy program OR by the applicant’s BCT trainer/mentor, if a student in the alternative training program. This letter will obviously talk about the training process the applicant went through. The second letter is to be filled out by the applicant’s work supervisor (or one of them) during the 1,000 Professional Work Hours. The third letter is to be filled out by a colleague or supervisor who is familiar with the applicant’s work. It is helpful if this individual is a drama therapist or creative arts therapist or a licensed mental health professional so that they are capable of evaluating the applicant’s clinical judgment. This could also be a letter from the applicant’s internship supervisor or another work supervisor. Letter of reference etiquette: Before sending the form to the reference, the applicant should fill in his/her contact information on the first page of the letter.   It is always a good idea to call a reference beforehand to ask if they can write the letter and to make sure it is being sent to the right place.   It is also a good idea to send a self addressed stamped envelope along with the reference letter form so the reference does not have to pay for postage. Please ask the letter writer to type the letter of reference if possible. If not possible, they should write or print legibly. ALL LETTERS must be sealed and the writer needs to sign his/her name over the seal of the envelope. The letters should be sent back to the applicant who will include them in the application packet. The NADT office will open the sealed Letters of Reference envelopes and make the required 5 copies to send to the registry committee. This means the reference only has to write one letter.   Worksheet This page is a check sheet where the applicant (and registry committee members) can double check the math on all the pages which require the listing of hours. This was included to help avert incorrect math! It was not intended to make busy work for applicants. Disclaimer The disclaimer at the bottom of the worksheet refers to the difference between Registry and Licensure. Registry is a peer review process which indicates that the professionals in the field have reviewed the applicant’s past education, training, and experience and agree that they have achieved an appropriate degree of expertise to be acknowledged as a professional in the field. Licensure is a legislated process which differs from state to state. Its purpose is protection of clients from people who present themselves as a professional, but do not have the requisite training and expertise. It also deals with scope of practice, regulating who may call themselves a “drama therapist,” “licensed psychologist,” “registered nurse,” “licensed clinical social worker,” etc. and exactly what those individuals may do as part of their practice. For instance, giving certain psychological tests is within the scope of the practice of a licensed psychologist, but not currently within the scope of other mental health professionals. Currently there are two states which have created licensure for Creative Arts Therapists (inclusive of drama therapists): Wisconsin and New York. Several other states (Pennsylvania among them) are in the process of developing licensure.   Code of Ethical Principles Because ethics is vitally important to the safe practice of our field, applicants are required to read and sign a copy of the NADT Code of Ethical Principles to include along with the application. The registry committee has requested this signed copy so they can be sure that the applicant is aware of their ethical obligations as registered drama therapists. It is true that all NADT members must sign a copy of the Code of Ethical Principles each year when they renew their NADT membership; however, if the applicant signs the code once again to be included in the application packet, the office doesn’t need to take the time and money to go back through the files to find (or not find -- if the member neglected to send it in) the signed copy of the code from the last membership year. In short, the Code is being included in the packet to save everyone’s time. NADT Membership Applicant is to supply proof of NADT membership for a minimum of a year before application. This proof could be a copy of the membership card or a copy of the cancelled membership check or some other proof (i.e., letter from the Office Manager). $75 Nonrefundable Application Fee The application fee is separate from the NADT membership fee and also from the registry fee. This fee underwrites the copying of sealed documents, office manager time for collating and copying, postage for mailing applications to the registry committee, cost of any conference calls committee needs to have to discuss applications, postage and office time for sending out acceptance/rejection letters, and making of RDT forms.