Since it was first identified in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged countries globally. To prevent the rapid spread of the virus, governments around the world have implemented policies such as closing cities and prohibiting gatherings, making direct communication and contact between people difficult. This has not only caused major changes in human life patterns but has also affected the beliefs and assumptions of drama therapists. Compared with that of online psychological counseling, which has been thoroughly researched, the implementation of online drama therapy is still in an exploratory stage.

Research has demonstrated that online drama therapy can achieve the same benefits as in-person therapy. Online drama therapy effectively integrates various resources, experiences, and techniques and has the potential to reach out to cross cultural, environmental, and individual borders. Using three-dimensional game technology, therapy can be provided on virtual visual platforms to communicate in a dynamic and visual manner. In addition, online media can be used to overcome geographical limitations, reduce time and economic costs, and enables more clients to receive drama therapy courses. Through the camera, more can be learned about the life of the client, such as their living space and relationships with family members, which helps the therapist to adjust the treatment process. The client’s lens is also a window for the therapist to understand their personal life and space. The close-up nature of the screen makes it easier for the therapist to observe the client’s facial expressions and potential body language cues, which can be regarded as a form of close communication.

This new type of drama therapy uses online platforms as a medium and provides clients with assistance using dynamic images and visual media; however, a lack of analysis and research regarding how online drama therapy should be performed in practice persists. Therefore, this study explored the practical experience of practitioners in drama therapy online groups to

accelerate the promotion of online drama therapy. This study had three main research questions: (1) What is the difference between online drama therapy and physical drama work? (2) What are the working methods and strategies of online drama therapy? (3) What are the challenges of online drama therapy?

To explore the practical experiences of drama therapists in online groups, this study adopted semistructured in-depth interviews with three drama therapists. The study participants had 5 years of experience in drama therapy and had provided online drama therapy for more than 1 year. The practitioners were all licensed drama therapists: two from the U.K. and one from North America. Their clients included teenagers, children, voluntary clients, college students, youth groups, and adult community groups. After contacting the three research respondents using online messaging, explaining the purpose of the

research, and confirming the respondents’ wishes, the interview outline was sent by email. The researcher, who was a senior drama therapy and psychological counseling practitioner served as the interviewer, and each semistructured in-depth interview was conducted using an online platform according to the convenience of the interviewee in accordance with epidemic

prevention measures. Each interview was approximately 60 minutes long and provided insight into the experience shared in response to the research questions. After data collection, we used thematic analysis to analyze the interview transcripts and used triangulation to compare unified data among coresearchers to improve reliability and validity.

The results were as follows: First, the differences between traditional and online drama therapy included that the therapeutic relationship shifted from “presence in a relationship” to “one-way relationship”; participants shifted from closed groups to more open groups; the therapy strategy shifted from interventional to supportive work; group leadership shifted from improvisational to highly structured; and the space for the entirety of the therapy shifted from a physical conversation space to a highly anonymous online space. Second, the working methods and strategies used in online drama therapy included: Using imagination and rituals to create a virtual space, using digital media to enhance the self-expression of participants, using real-life materials to strengthen the transformation of virtuality into reality, using images to catalyze role-playing, and promoting self-talk through virtual mirroring. Third, the challenges of online drama therapy included that the online platform limited the possibilities of interaction in theater, the dilemma of instrument theatre creation by verbal or metaphorical supplementation, the mental labor of familiarity at a high concentration and high uniformity, and the challenge of environmental privacy in therapy.

The results of this research revealed that: (1) The objective perception experience in the digital work environment reduces the possibility of exploration and transformation of the client’s emotional experience. Therefore, online drama therapy is not only a simple transfer of physical drama therapy technique to the computer but influences the essence of the experience. (2) Online drama therapy encourages the client to engage in role-playing and emotional release from a first-person performer position. The client simultaneously occupies a third-person audience position because of the mirroring that occurs on the screen. This process causes the simultaneous mental states of clients as both performers and audience members. (3) Online drama therapy practitioners must enhance clients’ understanding of each other’s behavior using the guidance of highly structured activities and language, and at the same time, they must consider the client’s ability to create spontaneously. Therefore, practitioners must direct and exhibit rich imagination. However, thinking about the themselves as shown through the screen to create an aesthetic experience and having to consider the relationship between the image and the psychology of the client using logical reasoning causes a high degree of psychological labor for practitioners.

Three recommendations are proposed by the researcher, based on the findings of the study. First, how practitioners should balance trauma intervention and emotional support in a digital environment is an ethical matter that requires further investigation. Second, training model should be designed that promotes a new type of online drama therapy that enhances drama therapists’ ability to use digital technology and new media, improving the editing and directing ability of practitioners in image analogy and logical derivation and deepening the exploration and integration of clients’ perceptual and rational experiences. Third, attention should be paid to the high degree of psychological labor that online drama therapy causes practitioners. Being aware of the sense of isolation and limitation caused by screen work, reducing performance anxiety related to work effectiveness, and undertaking self-adjustment and relaxation are necessary. Finally, through the interpretation of practitioners’ practical experiences in this study, practical reference material for the application of online drama therapy can be expanded. We also hope that online drama therapy can be a “virtual vaccine,” offering the possibility of rehabilitating the body and mind among individuals suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic.