Alida Gersie is a London-based dramatherapist and organizational consultant. Her work with deprived individuals and communities inspired her to develop a story-based method that facilitates productive change in seemingly hopeless situations. For several decades she was Principal Lecturer in the Postgraduate Arts Therapies Department of the University of Hertfordshire. She has taught the story-based approach to planned change in many countries, and has authored and edited several books.

...an excellent introduction to dramatherapy. It also provides stimulation for more experienced therapists. There is a rich diet of therapeutic insights, particularly related to the release of creative potential in patients. It is important that the power of these therapeutic methods is known about widely and as such I recommend it to a general readership.

• Introduction. Section 1: Principles of Brief Dramatherapy. 1. Five Progressive Phases in Dramatherapy and their Implications for Brief Dramatherapy, Renee Emunah, CIIS, USA. 2. Time and Dramatherapy, Phil Jones, University of Hertfordshire. 3. A Short-Term Model of Dramatherapy Through the Role Method, Robert Landy, New York University. 4. Brief Dramatherapy in a Changing Health Service, Dorothy M. Langley, South Devon College. 5. Drama as Accelerator, David Powley, Dramatherapy Trainer and Consultant. 6.Brief Dramatherapy: The Need for Professional Diagnosis, Herman Smitskamp, Hogeschool Midden Nederland, the Netherlands. Section 2: Brief Dramatherapy in Groups 7. Group Narrative Function in Brief Dramatherapy, Judy Donovan, University of Ripon and York. 8. The Role of Dramatherapy on an Extremely Short Term Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, Alice M. Forrester, Danbury Hospital and David Read Johnson, Yale University School of Medicine. 9. Masking the Gas Mask, Brief Intervention Using Metaphor, Imagery, Movement and Enactment, Mooli Lahad, Tel Hai College, Israel. 10. Is it Therapy or What?: Boundary Issues in the Context of Single Session Therapy, Eva Leveton, CIIS, USA. 11. Brief Dramatherpay and the Collective Creation, Barbara Mackay, Concordia University, Canada. Section 3: Brief Dramatherapy with Individuals. 12. The Use of Dramatherapy and Playtherapy to Help De-brief Children after the Trauma of Sexual Abuse, Ann Cattanach, Institute of Dramatherapy, and Roehampton Institute. 13. Being Together Briefly. One on One Brief Dramatherapy with Clients Hospitalized for Chronic or Reactive Depression, Ditty Dokter, University of Hertfordshire, and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. 14. Brief Dramatherapy and Preventative Models of Practice, Sue Jennings, Consultant Dramatherapist and Teaching Fellow. 15. Focusing on Mythic Imagery in Brief Dramatherapy with Psychotic Individuals, Stephen Snow, Concordia University, Montreal. 16. Time and Timing: Attending to Kairos in Brief Dramatherapy, Ted Wharam, College of Ripon and York St John, York. 17. Brief Dramatherapy with Adolescents, Jan-Berend van der Wijk Christlijke Hogeschool Noord Nederland, the Netherlands.