Abstract

The following paper describes and summarizes my qualitative research study. The purpose of the research study was to observe and record the effectiveness of a personally developed drama therapy research method for two purposes: firstly, to discover whether the term "self-esteem" is a personally subjective phenomenon; secondly, to use the research process itself as a therapeutic tool to improve adolescent girls' self-esteem. The drama therapy approach used in my study was adapted from an art therapy research method created by Mala Betensky. My approach involves a therapeutic application of guiding the participants to define, assess, explore and improve their own self-esteem. The research paper includes a description of how the drama therapy method was adapted from the phenomenological art therapy research approach. It also contains a literature review that discusses current theories and approaches of improving self-esteem. In addition, the paper describes a newly developed drama therapy method of application and two case studies that demonstrate the process. Two adolescent girls voluntarily participated in the research study, by providing their artwork and voice recordings transcribed in the text. Finally, the paper concludes with the results of the study and a personal commentary