i 
 

 

A transpersonal approach to drama therapy techniques for embodied 

grief work with women who experience loss and distress from an 

abortion. 

___________________________________________________________ 

 

Gillian Susan Brollo 

Student number: 8603969W 

 

A research report submitted to the Wits School of the Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University 

of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 

in drama therapy by combination of coursework and research. 

 

Supervised by Margie Pankhurst 

 

Johannesburg 

 

2024 

 

 

 

 

 



ii 
 

Plagiarism declaration 
 
I know that plagiarism is wrong. I declare that this research report is my own unaided work. 

It is being submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in drama therapy at the University of 

the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree or 

examination at any other University.   

 

 

 

Gillian Susan Brollo 

20 May 2024 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 



iii 
 

Abstract 
 

Abortion as a lived experience is not often explored in research or therapy, particularly when 

women are distressed as a result of an abortion. This research addresses the scarcity of such 

explorations through developing and testing a workshop model based on transpersonal drama 

therapy in order to examine how women who are distressed after an abortion express and 

manage their experience, and also how women can integrate an abortion into their life story 

in order to find healing. The two key questions are concerned with firstly, how embodied 

activities can bring unconscious feelings to the surface, and secondly how narrative can work 

to integrate a distressing experience into a life story so that  its emotional impact is managed 

and the individual finds ways to move forward from the traumatic event.  

Chapter One is an introduction to the context, one in which women who experience a sense 

of loss or grief after an abortion find few places for support, healing and most importantly, 

for expressions of distress. The introduction touches briefly on the hyper-politicised nature of 

abortion as a phenomenon and how difficult it is to communicate nuance within such a 

polarised context. Chapter Two is a description of the theoretical framework of the 

transpersonal approach which also serves a literature review. The literature drawn on includes 

models of drama therapy, griefwork, embodied grief activities such as rituals, transpersonal 

philosophies which present a world where the material and the immaterial are connected and 

draws these theories together within an Afrocentric paradigm. Chapter Three describes the 

methodology and explains how the workshop was designed and its aims. Chapters Four and 

Five are concerned with how data was obtained and a data analysis and discussion flowing 

from that analysis.  

The final chapter looks at findings including a deep sense of relief and healing in being 

offered a space to explore their personal experiences of abortion, and in the affirmation 



iv 
 

provided by witnessing other women’s stories and telling of their own; and recommendations 

for future research such as trying the model with a rural cohort, and extending the process in 

combining individual and group work in order to dive deeper into individual stories. 

KEYWORDS: 

Abortion, transpersonal drama therapy, embodiment, ritual, narrative, healing. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 



v 
 

 

Acknowledgements 
 

I would like to thank my supervisor Margie, through whom I am discovering drama therapy, 

and who has consistently, quietly and with humour gotten me to the finish line. Margie, you 

are my pacer. I could not have done this work without the amazing women who have allowed 

me to bear witness to their stories – it is your courage that has allowed this conversation to 

emerge. Finally, thanks to my children who graciously put up with me as I ventured back to 

university after a 30-year hiatus. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



vi 
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION II 

ABSTRACT III 

KEYWORDS IV 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V 

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 8 

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AS THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 14 

The transpersonal Afrocentric paradigm 16 

Transpersonal drama therapy 16 

Griefwork therapies 17 

Ritual and griefwork 19 

Group work, community and witnessing. 19 

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 

Inclusion of researchers subjectivity 21 

Healing in sharing of common experiences 22 

Safety and protection of participants 23 

The workshop 24 

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 36 

Different forms of data collected. 36 

Data analysis methods 36 

CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 38 

Expressing and managing experience 38 

Integrating an experience into a narrative 40 

The novel experience of drama therapy 43 



vii 
 

CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS 45 

What recommendations for future research? 50 

CONCLUSION 50 

REFERENCE LIST 52 

APPENDICES 58 

APPENDIX A: Distress protocol 58 

APPENDIX B: Participant information form 58 

APPENDIX C: Consent form 58 

APPENDIX D: Tree visualisation 58 

APPENDIX E: Cave visualisation 58 

APPENDIX F: Meadow visualisation 58 

APPENDIX G: Ethics clearance certificate 58 



 

8 
 

Chapter 1: Introduction 

 
Abortion has become a politicised phenomenon, with very little room for conversation between the 

“pro-life” and “pro-choice” lobbies. Against this backdrop, the question of whether women require 

support after an abortion is divisive, with the pro-choice advocates claiming that post-abortion distress 

is overplayed by the pro-lifers for political purposes (Csordas, 1996; Post-Abortion Syndrome: Is It 

Real?, 2020). It is indeed true that not every woman who has an abortion suffers afterwards 

(McCulloch, 1996; Botha, 2011). However, previous studies have shown that approximately 30% of 

women experience depression, anxiety or PTSD after terminating their pregnancies (Curley, 2014; 

Reardon, 2018). Largescale literature reviews conducted in North America support these findings, 

where the researchers found that a significant number of women experienced post-abortion distress 

(Turell, Armsworth and Gaa, 1990; Reardon, 2018). The South African body of research on abortion 

focuses largely on issues around access to abortion, with several explorations into the dichotomy 

between the legality of abortion as enshrined in our constitution and the attitudes of family, medical 

staff and patients to abortion “on the ground”.  

 

Very little South African research however, explores women’s lived experience after an abortion, 

even though these women can potentially be affected for decades, or even for the rest of their lives, 

across a range of functions (Angelo, 1992; Molobela, 2017; Molefe, 2020). In South Africa, for 

example, a 2021 qualitative survey study of 11 women who had terminated a pregnancy in 

adolescence found three main themes in their narratives, namely “delayed post-traumatic growth, low 

body esteem and an alteration of the development of a maternal identity”(Sebola, 2021, p.4). The 

exact nature of the distress is complex, but previous studies point to the following as possible causes: 

coercion to abort (Reardon, 2018), a lack of social support (Sebola, 2021), stigma and a perceived 

need for secrecy (Curley, 2014), and the loss of a desired pregnancy (Reardon, 2018).   In South 

Africa, even though abortion has been legal since 1996, it is still not widely accepted (McCulloch, 

1996; Botha, 2011; Turyomumazima, 2022).  Anecdotal information and some rare studies on 

women’s perceptions of abortion in South Africa support the notion that cultural factors, stigma and 

fear produce a silencing effect so that women struggle to find anyone or any place to explore, process 

and express their negative feelings after an elective abortion (Botha, 2011; Molobela, 2017; Sebola, 

2021; Turyomumazima, 2022) often because “questions of whom or what is deemed ‘grievable” in 

any society is both discursively framed and inherently political” (Maddrell, 2016, p. 171).  The 

deliberate nature of the act can potentially cause emotional paralysis (stuckness) due to a complicated 

grief process in women who make this choice, with the ambivalence of their feelings, namely a 

mixture of relief and regret, causing psychic distress (Angelo, 1992; Grauerholz et al., 2021). What 

causes a “stuckness”, that is, an inability to heal and integrate, after an abortion for some women is 



 

9 
 

that they perceive the aborted foetus as a separate person whom they have lost. Reardon calls the 

inability to heal the result of “…termination of a wanted or meaningful pregnancy…” (Reardon, 2018, 

p. 5) and Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks calls the aborted foetuses “the children you 

got but you did not get” (The mother by Gwendolyn Brooks | Poetry Foundation, 1963). In Botha’s 

(2011) study, one woman describes the feelings as “very very hard. It was a very sad, very, very sad 

thing. The thought of not having had this child, there was a lot of sadness around that … there’s this 

sadness that won’t go away, it will always be there ... because there was a huge loss with that” (Botha, 

2011, p. 85). As many  women who have abortions still experience a sense of shame and stigma, they 

are unable to talk to those closest to them about the abortion experience (McCulloch, 1996; Botha, 

2011; Sebola, 2021) . For such women, abortion is a lonely, silent experience, which could have a 

detrimental effect on their mental health. 

 

The latter situation is compounded by the fact that the COVID 19 lockdown led to the closure of 

many doctor’s rooms and thus limited access to clinical spaces. Consequently, at-home abortions have 

risen significantly, in some countries as high as by 139% (Aiken et al., 2021). This trend has been 

further advanced by the rise in the availability of at-home abortion pills. The increase in at-home 

abortion pill sales implies that a growing number of women are performing abortions on their own, 

without medical support and, all too often, without social support or any form of counselling. I have 

personally heard graphic descriptions from women who have used the at-home abortion pill and went 

through the process alone. The women I heard from all could see identifiable features in the expulsion 

of tissue, causing further distress. What is most disturbing then is that all these women had to decide 

what to do with the foetal tissue which in many cases had the beginnings of limbs and other human 

features. Flushing the toilet was the option most used with intense feelings of guilt and terror 

accompanying this act. In a clinic, the woman doesn’t see or deal with the expulsion from a 

termination process. At home, alone, she has no choice but to see, touch and dispose of the tissue 

while dealing with intense physical pain from cramping in addition to the emotional distress. All the 

women I spoke to about this process did not share this experience with anyone else, until they found a 

group of women who had similar experiences. 

 

Judging by the dearth of counselling and support programmes available in South Africa, specifically 

for post-abortive women, and by the expressions of emotional pain and guilt as seen on websites 

where women gather to share their stories (My post-abortion trauma, 2015; When post-abortion 

emotions need unpacking, 2018; Are You Grieving After an Abortion?, 2021; 27 Abortion Poems | 

Healing Poetry About Abortion, 2022), this growing number of women are in dire need of support. 

However, while there are support groups for people who have lost children, spouses, loved ones and 

babies through miscarriage or stillbirth, there appear to be few programmes that work specifically 

with women in distress because of abortion. This is likely due to the fact that the deliberate intention 



 

10 
 

to abort makes abortion different to other forms of unexpected loss (Angelo, 1992; Grauerholz et al., 

2021). A woman who has chosen to abort may feel unworthy of support because of the intentionality 

of the act. The political nature of abortion may also prevent individuals and organisations from 

advertising support groups for fear of interpretation of abortion support as an “anti-choice” measure. 

A woman in distress after an abortion therefore has very few avenues of relief (Angelo, 1992; 

Molobela, 2017; Sebola, 2021). In South Africa, the few publicly-available healing services offered to 

women who have had abortions are provided predominantly by Christian organisations (‘Living in 

Colour, South Africa | Post Abortion Help and Healing’, no date; Rachel’s Vineyard, no date), which 

might alienate women who are not Christian. I therefore identified a gap for designing and exploring a 

model of griefwork that facilitates transformative growth and healing following the termination of a 

pregnancy that caters for women of all religions.  

 

In South Africa, women find few opportunities to talk about their abortion experiences (McCulloch, 

1996; Botha, 2011; Sebola, 2021) and there are currently no socially sanctioned rituals of healing after 

an  abortion, as there is a stigma surrounding the phenomenon (Mokwena and Van Wyk, 2013; 

Molobela, 2017; Throughout South Africa, there is very little support for abortion among health 

workers, no date). In my own experience, it seemed impossible to discuss my abortion with friends 

who had not ever aborted; and the awkwardness of people’s reactions to the topic made me feel 

humiliated. Pity and an over-eagerness to reassure me that I did nothing wrong was even worse, as 

deep down I felt strongly that something WAS wrong. Something had to be unearthed, explored and 

forgiven. At the time, I was studying psychology as mature student in my fifties, and I encountered 

something termed “transpersonal psychology”.  In the journal of Black Psychology, Professor Linda  

Myers, in her search for what she called “optimal psychology” describes Transpersonal Psychology as 

a method that “…seeks to expand the field of psychological inquiry to include the study of optimal 

psychological health and well-being” (Myers, 1985, p. 31). Working as an Afrocentric academic,  

Myers goes on to state something unusual, and exciting, in the study of psychology: ‘The potential for 

exploring a broad range of states of consciousness is recognized, allowing identity to extend beyond 

the usual limits of ego and personality” (Myers, 1985, p. 31). She goes on to explain how this 

approach holds that an individual’s belief system, whether conscious or unconscious, acts as an 

“organiser of experience” in an almost self-fulfilling way. I could immediately see how Transpersonal 

psychology naturally sits with narrative therapy, where people are seen as  narrators of their lives, 

organising their experiences into stories, in which they variously play a range of roles (Gonçalves, 

Matos and Santos, 2009). Distress or dysfunction can occur when the range of roles shrinks, and a 

client finds themselves only playing out a single story. In his drama therapy work in role therapy, 

Robert Landy explains how psychological well-being is linked to the number and diversity of roles a 

person has internalised and enacts (P. R. J. Landy, 1992; R. J. Landy, 1992). The reasons people 



 

11 
 

abandon previously held roles are many, but trauma is a key factor in role diminishing (R. J. Landy, 

1992; Dayton, 1997).  

 

I began to be inspired by the notion that a transpersonal approach to drama therapy, could assist 

people in distress by attending to the effects of a traumatic experience, in the case of this study, an 

abortion. 

 

Saphira Linden, mother of Omega Transpersonal drama therapy, talks of  people possessing a “higher 

wisdom of self” (Linden, 2009, p. 211). This “mountaintop perspective” of self and the world 

becomes obscured through the events we experience during a lifetime. She determined that 

“developing methods of accessing and identifying the parts of ones being that have the answers, that 

know what is best, and that can offer specific advice to the part of me that is in emotional turmoil” 

(Linden, 2009, pp. 211–212) is immensely therapeutic. Drama therapy processes that expand 

consciousness to include a multi-dimensional viewpoint, can allow clients to access this higher sense 

of self, and in doing so, allow for a stronger sense of self, agency and role expansion.  

 

The unresolved trauma we accumulate over our lives can block our access to the truth of who we 

really are (Linden, 2009). I wanted to design a therapeutic space in which women can explore and 

express complicated feelings about their abortion that is group oriented, non-judgemental, multi-

cultural and not aligned to any specific religion. Because drama therapy is essentially an embodied 

practice which allows for flow between the group and individual, adapting to multi-cultural contexts, I 

felt confident it was an appropriate choice to work with this specific population. My next step was to 

look at existing literature and research on the topic to try and find a theoretical framework that works 

with drama therapy principles within which I could start work. 

 

Working through grief is an area of focus among practitioners of the healing expressive arts, (Gonick 

and Gold, 1991; Nwoye and Nwoye, 2012) of which drama therapy is one . Studies into the effects of 

arts therapies on bereavement show that the creative embodied expression of emotion and experiences 

after a loss can be healing (Weiskittle and Gramling, 2018; Brinkmann et al., 2019). Drama therapy is 

premised on theories from psychology, education, the expressive arts and theatre practices, which 

have been blended into models to facilitate healing using what drama therapist Saphira Linden calls 

“multi-dimensional expression” (Linden, 2009, p. 205). Of particular interest to the proposed study is 

the transpersonal drama therapy approach developed by Pam Lewis and Saphira Linden (Linden, 

2009). Transpersonal psychology is a relatively new approach that arose out of a need for a more 

diverse, multi-cultural attitude to clients (Myers, 1985) and has been defined as seeking to “expand 

the field of psychological inquiry to include the study of optimal psychological health and well-being. 

The potential for experiencing a broad range of states of consciousness is recognised, allowing 



 

12 
 

identity to extend beyond the usual limits of ego and personality” (Myers, 1985, p. 31). The idea of 

identity seemed important to me, as my abortion had impacted my sense of self in a way I could not 

articulate. My hope is that my research can be used by drama therapists to assist women to overcome 

their grief and related psychological distress following termination of pregnancy. This will help to fill 

a practical gap in light of the fact that no such programme is currently offered in South Africa.  

My aim was to explore whether drama therapy-informed embodied rituals can provide an opportunity 

for self-growth, leading to peace and healing (integration) in women who are suffering following an 

abortion. As a way to frame the therapeutic process, and bearing in mind my interests in sense of self 

and identity I hinged the structure of the workshop on two main questions:  

• How do women who perceive their abortions as a cause of distress express and manage this 

experience? 

• How can embodied drama therapy techniques help integrate a negative experience of an 

abortion into a life story? 

My findings were firstly, that creating a space for, and explicitly talking about abortion provided a 

sense of relief for women who felt that they had no right to talk about their abortions. The very idea 

that such a process existed, restored a sense of dignity to people who had internalised a sense of 

shame, and for some, lived with a growing sense of anger and resentment at the system 

(circumstances and people) that had silenced them. Participants were excited and amazed that the 

tertiary institution had allowed me to approach people to engage around abortion. I found this 

corresponded to my own research journey process, where both staff and fellow students were either 

amazed, shocked or in some way thought me brave to address this issue. This reaction from educated, 

urban, predominantly female colleagues and friends, reinforced my determination to continue with 

this research. Again and again, I was struck by how abortion is only discussed as a political issue and 

how people’s lived experience of abortion is somehow unacceptable. I was emboldened to continue 

this research by some key reactions, initially from an external examiner who spontaneously reacted to 

my proposal idea with anecdotes of people she knew who in their sixties and had suffered for decades 

because of the silencing of their abortion experience; and the swiftness with which the ethics 

committee approved my application. This combination of the stories women carry within them based 

around their abortion experience and the acknowledgement that researching this phenomenon was 

academically acceptable and needed, was most welcome. Linked to this finding was the isolation 

many participants felt when a sister, friend or women on social media expressed a different 

experience of their abortion, somewhat invalidating their own experiences. 

 

My second finding was that the choice to abort has no bearing on how distressed a woman may feel 

afterwards. All the participants said that they did not regret the choice at all, but all of them felt that 

the action had somehow damaged them. In most cases, it was some other dysfunction or damaging 



 

13 
 

relationship that had led to the choice to abort. It made sense then that each woman expressed her 

distress from an abortion differently: one participant could not get past anger at her former partner, 

one participant felt that God was punishing her through a series of miscarriages subsequent to her 

abortion, one participant was depressed and unable to establish meaningful romantic relationships and 

one was numb and detached from herself. A further finding was that sharing one’s own experience 

and listening to someone else’s was powerfully therapeutic and a final finding was that creative forms 

of therapy are highly effective, and even preferable to talk therapy to women suffering distress or 

grief from an abortion. And finally, there is a strong sense of metaphysical uncertainty resulting in a 

pervasive sense of confusion. None of the participants felt clear about what they believed about the 

nature and purpose of human life or what happens after death. Living in a society which tries to hold 

both African Traditional cultural practices alongside Western science and with access to global 

religions means that participants had a vast knowledge of belief systems and traditions (from 

cleansing ceremonies to tarot cards) but had no firm idea of what each of them believed in. Linked to 

this finding was that cultural embodied rituals which were enacted by half the participants, had no 

therapeutic effect at all whereas drama therapy embodied rituals were perceived as beneficial. 

Creative, symbolic and imaginative processes were found to be useful. The overall result was that an 

embodied workshop model that aims to address feelings of distress after an abortion, that uses drama 

therapy informed techniques and works within a transpersonal framework, is brief, effective and 

acceptable. The theoretical framework will show how these findings fit into transpersonal work with 

grief using a drama therapy infirmed approach. For the purposes of this research, I am equating the 

kind of grief or distress experienced by women after an abortion as complicated grief resulting from 

trauma.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 



 

14 
 

Chapter 2: Literature review as theoretical framework 
 

In the transpersonal paradigm, the world is viewed as consisting of interconnected sentient beings, 

where life and death are dual (not opposing) concepts and where the essential core self of every living 

person can communicate with the dead (Myers, 1985; Lewis, 2005). As Linden describes it, the 

transpersonal approach thus facilitates an exploration of a person’s inner reality within “a 

consciousness of a larger reality beyond our immediate selves” (Linden, 2009, p. 212). Another 

assumption that underpins this approach is that everyone has a core, or essential “self”, that is 

unaffected by life’s traumatic events, and which can be accessed through embodied healing processes 

such as breathwork, sound, performance, roleplay and role reversal. The therapeutic aim is to enable 

the sense of self to be transformed from what Linden calls the “history-bound” identity, shackled by 

the complex feelings of any lived trauma, to a broader, larger and more connected “essential self” 

which is untouched by traumatic effects, and can bring about peace and healing within an individual 

(Linden, 2009, p. 212). 

Linden describes her transpersonal drama therapy approach as a process using several techniques to 

facilitate embodied work in a safe contained space in which a person can be released from their 

“limited history-based sense of self to an experience of their essential soul self” (Linden, 2009, p. 

228). The word “experience” is key to this form of therapy. Experiencing something implies that one 

is immersed in it, body, mind and spirit. If trauma is located in the body, as Bessel van der Kolk 

explains in his seminal work “The Body Keeps The Score” (Van der Kolk, 2015), drama therapy 

techniques such as breathwork and sound work, body mapping, and embodying archetypes from 

ancient drama can access and potentially transform the embodied trauma to embodied healing. The 

traumatic memories replayed in the mind can be externalised, explored, and ultimately managed and 

integrated through narrative work (Carr, 1998; Ncube, 2010), roleplay and role reversal techniques 

(Moreno, 1987; R. J. Landy, 1992; Kellermann, 1994). And the spirit, the core essence of self in the 

transpersonal paradigm is nurtured and given expression through symbolism, ritual and connecting to 

others and the greater universe in a group setting (Garrick, 1994; Sas and Coman, 2016; ‘“Mizuko”: 

Visual Exploration of the Grief & Search for Healing in Mizuko Kuyo, a Ritual for Unborn Children’, 

2020).  

 

In this way, the disrupted relationships between the agent of disruption and the rest of existence  

brought about by trauma or violence can be restored (Lewis, 2005; Hartelius, Caplan and Rardin, 

2007). As Linden explains, the experiential process is facilitated by the therapist acting variously as 

“healer, artist, educator and shaman, or spirit guide” (Linden, 2009, p. 214) and allows a person to 

find their own healing, using their own understanding of themselves and the world. 

 



 

15 
 

The reason for which the transpersonal approach might be appropriate for post-abortion drama 

therapy is that, medically, an abortion disrupts a process of life formation and, psychologically, it can 

be said that abortion brings “a sense of disruption to women’s lives in terms of their bodies, their 

emotional states, their images of who they were and how they function in a relationship” (Botha, 

2011, p. 142). Botha notes that “this sense of disruption appears to be present irrespective of whether 

the emotional outcome is perceived as positive or negative” (Botha, 2011, p. 142). The aim of 

transpersonal drama therapy is to heal such disrupted relationships. Embodied drama therapy 

approaches of healing, with the potential of bringing a woman back into a healthy relationship with 

others, self and the universe as a whole, might be salient when there is acknowledgment of the fact 

that abortion is an embodied act.  

The transpersonal approach might be appropriate for the South African context in particular as it is 

consonant with the traditional African worldview. African cosmology places humans within a 

hierarchy of connected beings (Myers, 1985; Kanu, 2013; Karangi, 2019) from a Supreme Being to 

higher order spirits, ancestors, living humans and then spirits located in nature – animals and plants 

“everything interrelated in an undivided universe”(Edwards, 2014, p. 1). In this worldview, all life has 

sentience, and this includes a foetus. Myers talks of this concept of the “extended self … (which) 

includes all of the ancestors, the yet unborn, all of nature and the entire community”(Myers, 1985, p. 

35). If this “yet unborn” person is part of the “extended self” and is therefore meaningful to a woman, 

it is understandable that an abortion could cause her distress and problems moving on in life.  

Of particular interest is the use of ritual in transpersonal drama therapy. Aborted foetuses in South 

Africa are not buried according to traditional burial rituals (Martin et al., 2013; M.D, 2022). In fact, at 

present, the only culture that utilises socially-sanctioned healing rituals after abortion is the Japanese 

(Mizuko Kuyo: Grieving for the Stillborn, 2016; ‘“Mizuko”: Visual Exploration of the Grief & Search 

for Healing in Mizuko Kuyo, a Ritual for Unborn Children’, 2020). The Mizuko Kuyo is a series of 

rituals involving prayers, offerings, decorating a symbol of the aborted child and, finally, installing 

the doll in one of many public memorial gardens, to be visited by the whole family (LaFleur, 1994). 

Transpersonal embodied rituals, much like those used in the Mizuko Kuyo, which evoke personhood 

such as those of naming, externalising and memorialising a person (LaFleur, 1994) could provide 

integration of the abortion experience because it leads the client through the steps of acknowledging 

and expressing sorrow to the missing child (LaFleur, 1994) in a tangible way. 

 

This study was located in the transpersonal paradigm, for the reasons provided above. Moreover, 

because this study was be conducted in South Africa, where the majority of women are African, it is 

necessary to view the abortion experience from an African perspective (Kanu, 2013; Ekore and Lanre-

Abass, 2016; Karangi, 2019). Thus, Afrocentric worldview as expressed in transpersonal theory  

serves as the framework for my research. African cosmology can be considered compatible with the 



 

16 
 

transpersonal worldview, in which the whole is seen to be greater than the sum of its separate parts 

and the inter-connectedness of all sentient things is acknowledged and valued. “The sacredness of 

life”, says Linden, “is about  realizing our essential connection to all of life’s creation”(Linden, 2009, 

p. 208). The aim of adopting a transpersonal approach to drama therapy is to release a person from 

“history-bound” trauma (Linden, 2009, p. 232) to release the essential core self, which is healthy, 

creative and generative, and to enable the woman re-story her personal narrative “into new stories that 

offer perspectives for healing” (Linden, 2009, p. 210). The detailed underpinnings of this theoretical 

framework are enumerated in the following sections.  

The transpersonal Afrocentric paradigm 
 

In her work on transpersonal theory in the late 20th century, Myers noted the close alignment of 

African cosmology and the transpersonal paradigm. She asserted that “the unity and integration of 

knowledge that we seek in the transpersonal paradigm has a framework (that is) already existent in the 

African worldview” (Myers, 1985, pp. 33–34). Reality, in transpersonal theory, is “shaped by an 

underlying system of beliefs … that serve as … self-prophetic organisers of experience” (Myers, 

1985, p. 31). This implies that the lived experiences of abortion can differ hugely across cultures. In 

African cosmology, a person is a person through other people (Kanu, 2013; Mucina, 2013; Karangi, 

2019), implying that a person is “not just an individual person, but one born into a community whose 

survival and purpose is linked with that of others” (Kanu, 2013, p. 551). There is a more extensive 

body of work exploring African Cosmology which is out of the scope of this study. 

For the perceived disruption of abortion to be integrated into a life story, the foetus can be 

acknowledged as a potential person in the narrative (Nwoye and Nwoye, 2012; Molefe, 2020). 

Through invoking and restoring this relationship in an embodied, symbolic and dramatic form, 

women can potentially find healing, self-forgiveness and integration. This is exactly how the Japanese 

developed the Mizuko Kuyo rituals, considering the Buddhist principles of protecting all forms of life. 

The resulting rituals, prayers and invoking of the aborted child represent an example of how a culture 

can incorporate new phenomena into ancient worldviews (LaFleur, 1994). Forgiveness is a central 

concept of the transpersonal approach (Lewis, 2005) and healing is found when there can be a 

moment of reconciliation and communication between the “guilty” and the “injured’ parties. 

According to transpersonal theory, this is done by establishing the personhood of the other as a 

separate entity to oneself and then communicating forgiveness both ways (Lewis, 2005).  

Transpersonal drama therapy 
 

Narrative re-storying and role expansion are both core principles of drama therapy (R. J. Landy, 1992; 

Jones, 2007) that are used in the transpersonal drama therapy approach developed by Saphira Linden 



 

17 
 

and Pam Lewis. Designed and nurtured over three decades through their Omega Theatre work, 

transpersonal drama therapy is premised on the assumption that each individual has a core of health, 

wellness, peace and connectedness within, and that life events such as abuse or trauma can block the 

person from their own inner healthy self (Linden, 2009). Using techniques such as symbolic 

archetypes defined by Jung, psychodrama conversations between the living and deceased that require 

roleplay and role reversal, storytelling, breathwork and sound healing, the transpersonal approach 

helps people to move from the problems defining their identities, through transformation, to new 

narratives that describe new possibilities for being (Linden, 2009). Embodied work such as 

breathwork, sound baths and body mapping help the participants to locate the distressing events in 

their lives in the body, thereby providing a way to control and transform them. Narrative therapy 

techniques of externalising problems, personifying, and talking to problematic beliefs and making 

them works of art, are used in transpersonal drama therapy to provide new life stories. Linden’s 

approach calls for the therapist to move between the roles of “healer, artist, educator and shaman” 

(Linden, 2009, p. 214). In considering the drama therapist as a shaman, Dr Susana Pendzik offers a 

definition of drama therapy that constitutes a useful approach to the proposed research. She calls it 

“the intentional use of the dramatic medium for the purposes of healing, integration and growth” 

(Pendzik, 1988, p. 82). Pendzik posits that shamanism is a pre-historic practice out of which theatre 

itself was born and is therefore an intrinsic part of drama. The power of shamanistic ritual is that it 

opens up a space for a person to experience reality and unreality, “not me” and “not not me”. This 

disassociation – or distance - can facilitate transformation, or re-story a distressing narrative (Pendzik, 

1988; Sajnani and Johnson, 2014; Jones, 2015). The potential for dramatic expression to explore these 

metaphysical conditions becomes evident. 

Griefwork therapies 
 

Just as women experience abortion in varying ways, so grief is also not a “one size fits all” process 

(Maddrell, 2016). Grief theory is extensively researched in other studies, and has essentially 

developed over the decades from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ linear arrangement of the stages of grief, to 

dual simultaneous process models (where grief is described as a process moving between two nodes) 

through concepts focusing on emotional coping mechanisms (loss orientation) or solution-oriented 

models which focus on problem solving (Hamilton, 2016). Grief theory further developed to look at 

post grief resilience theories which explore post traumatic growth (Hall, 2014). For the purposes of 

this study I have located grief around an abortion within the concept of “complicated grief” which 

brings together the psychological state of the client at the time of a traumatic event or loss, number 

and intensity of earlier adverse life experiences, current support systems and previous experiences of 

bereavement and the coping thereof (Hamilton, 2016; Nakajima, 2018) and continuing bonds theory, 



 

18 
 

which further extends grief therapy into the exploration of connections between the bereaved and 

source of the bereavement (Klass, Silverman and Nickman, 1996).  

Grief should thus be approached as a non-linear, context-based experience, rather than as a linear set 

of steps to be processed until acceptance occurs (Klass, Silverman and Nickman, 1996; Maddrell, 

2016). Avril Maddrell (2016) highlights the spatial dimensions of grief. She asserts that any 

individual’s grief can be mapped in the physical spaces of everyday life, “embodied-psychological 

spaces” (Maddrell, 2016, p. 166) and digital and other communal spaces. This mapping reflects 

processes of “bereavement, mourning and remembrance” (Maddrell, 2016, p. 166). This physical 

notion of grief is the basis of using embodied work to express it through ritual and performance. In his 

chapter  “A healing ritual in grief using drama therapy” Vincent Dopulos describes how embodied 

work can resolve forms of grief by addressing ‘ what could never have happened” (Dupolos, 2015, p. 

323). It is in the exploration of what didn’t happen that drama therapy and grief work co-incide. 

Drama therapy allows for stepping into the unlived; playing out the un-experienced parts of grief. 

Enacting the ‘what didn’t happen’.  In creating a ritual of grief that contains elements of reality, the 

client can exercise some kind of emotional catharsis or control over the events surrounding a loss. By 

ritualizing what was denied a grieving person, they can express the fullness of the loss. This chapter 

defines the spark that ignites the creative spirit in dealing with grief through drama by exploring 

alternative scenarios (Dupolos, 2015). Essential to these rituals are elements found in drama therapy 

such as symbols, created objects and imagined scenarios which are enacted towards a conclusion or 

integration. 

 The narrative approach to griefwork 

A narrative approach to griefwork enables the client to integrate the disruptive experience into a life 

story in a way that opens up new ways of being in the future. Nwoye calls this “re-anchoring” 

(Nwoye, 2005; Nwoye and Nwoye, 2012), which begins with memory healing. “Memory healing (is 

the) part of the solution to the grief work … (that) involve(s) some attempt to bring healing to bear on 

the principal components of the autobiographical memory of the client, which is often grossly 

unsettled in circumstances of traumatic bereavement” (Nwoye and Nwoye, 2012, p. 140).  

An element of a sense of culpability in an abortion tends to complicate the grieving experience 

(Angelo, 1992; Curley, 2014). Psychologist Robert Neimeyer (2011) posits that “sense-making and 

benefit-finding” are vital processes in order for someone to recover from pathological grief (Robert A. 

Neimeyer, 2011, p. 332). Meaning making, he suggests, is how humans recover from tragedy or loss. 

This process occurs naturally as we live our lives by the way we continually construct our personal 

narrative (Robert A. Neimeyer, 2011, p. 333). “Stuckness” occurs when that narrative no longer 

makes sense to the individual and intervention is needed (Grauerholz et al., 2021). Using concepts 



 

19 
 

familiar to drama therapy, Nwoye works with narrative to help the bereaved (Nwoye and Nwoye, 

2012) through re-framing personal stories. 

Ritual and griefwork 
 

A key embodied practice linking loss and drama therapy is ritual. Ritual is a strong means of 

expressing grief, as well as incorporating the individual’s grief into a broader, communal system of 

belief (Garrick, 1994; Sas and Coman, 2016, 2016; Wojtkowiak, Lind and Smid, 2021). Ritual is 

expressed in one of two ways: as a ceremonial, socially embodied practice or as a performative 

process (Garrick, 1994).  In the African context, ritual relating to death is important. The African 

indigenous perception of an unnatural death includes the failure to bury a deceased person 

appropriately, potentially resulting in a “wandering spirit” (Ekore and Lanre-Abass, 2016, p. 3) or 

“misfortune” (Sebola, 2021, p. 1), which is similar to the Taiwanese concept of “the haunting foetus” 

(Moskowitz, 2001). Airoboman and Ukaga (2018) note the central focus of causality in African 

traditional medicine is when a sufferer asks, “Why me and not someone else?” This sense of personal 

responsibility for one’s situation indicates the patient’s need to perform rituals which “appease or 

appeal to the benevolent forces … or seek their help” (Airoboman and Ukaga, 2018, p. 108). 

Ceremonial funerary rituals used to prepare the body, commemorate the person and then dispose of 

the body, although varying across cultures in their form, are widely accepted to be necessary 

processes for integrating the death of a loved one into the present and future narratives of those who 

remain behind (Garrick, 1994; Martin et al., 2013; Van der Geest, 2013; Wojtkowiak, Lind and Smid, 

2021). Thus, as Garrick argues, using such a ritual in drama therapy is similarly “intended or is 

expected to have, transformative consequences that extend beyond the time, place and frame of the 

performance” (Garrick, 1994, p. 89). These rituals change the relationship between the living and the 

deceased. The transpersonal drama therapist, when facilitating rituals, can be understood to be taking 

on the role of shaman, or spiritual guide (Pendzik, 1988; Linden, 2009). 

Group work, community and witnessing. 
 

The therapeutic power of witnessing as part of groupwork is one of the core principles of drama 

therapy (Jones, 2015), confirming that, as human beings, we seek a sense of belonging and acceptance 

by other human beings. Drama therapy explores the many ways we interact with one another. The 

conflicts, the loves, the indifferences, the judgments, the mischievousness, the joy of human 

interactions are all part of the stories we use to make meaning of our lives (Pendzik, 2006). We make 

meaning of ourselves through the responses and relationships of other people. Addicts, the anxious 

and depressed, and family members of people with various disorders, have long known the power of 

peer groups (Abuhegazy, 2017; McLea and Mayers, 2017). Healing is therefore found not only 



 

20 
 

through the individual’s work, but through the witness and acceptance of the group (Garrick, 1994). 

An African funeral for example, is a community event, not a private one, underscoring the importance 

of a wider, collective shared experience of ritual (Van der Geest, 2013). At a funeral, the community 

(whatever it looks like) in an expression of transpersonal belief, bears witness to the loss, consoles the 

bereaved, honours the dead and, through power of sheer physical presence, commits to holding the 

bereaved until grieving is over (Nwoye, 2005; McLea and Mayers, 2017; Wojtkowiak, Lind and 

Smid, 2021). 

The study aimed to explore how, within a transpersonal framework, drama therapy-informed 

embodied activities can provide an opportunity for self-growth, leading to peace and healing 

(integration) for women who are suffering following an abortion. In light of this aim, the following 

objectives were formulated; firstly. to ascertain whether women who perceive their abortions as a 

cause of distress can express and manage this experience through a transpersonal drama therapy 

process, and secondly to determine whether and how embodied drama therapy techniques can help 

integrate a negative post-abortion experience into an integrated life story. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

21 
 

Chapter 3: Methodology 
 

This study explored a transpersonal approach to drama therapy techniques for embodied grief work 

with women who experience loss and distress from an abortion, with a focus on how women who 

perceive their abortions as a cause of distress express and manage this experience, and an aim of 

trying to identify how embodied drama therapy techniques help integrate a negative experience of an 

abortion into a life story. The assumptions I began with when developing the methodology were that 

a) embodied activities would allow for a more spontaneous, perhaps revelatory expression of the 

distress experienced by participants, and b) by sharing their personal stories with, and listening to the 

stories of other women in a group setting, participants would be able to make negative emotions after 

an abortion more manageable.  

Inclusion of researchers subjectivity 
 

I chose a qualitative approach based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Qualitative 

research works well with drama therapy because it allows for researchers to apply and test their own 

“interpersonal and subjectivity skills to their research exploratory process” (Alase, 2017). Having 

experienced an abortion as a student in my twenties, I lived through almost three decades of post-

traumatic stress which profoundly, and also unconsciously, shaped my interpersonal relationships and 

sense of self negatively. I only know this because after I participated in a weekend long embodied 

healing workshop for post abortive women, I deeply felt and intellectually KNEW the profound sense 

of relief and peace that has since allowed me to re-discover my true self, acknowledged my true worth 

and claim my space in the world. I never felt safe enough to discuss my abortion in talk therapy, I 

never disclosed it to anyone, and I understood that talking about it was not an effective way to express 

the experience. It was only when I began studying psychology in my late forties and then drama 

therapy in my Fifties, that I realised the deeply freeing effects of non-verbal therapies. Rituals, 

processes, creative expression, all serve a purpose in allowing someone to communicate something 

uncommunicable; to grieve the “ungrieveable” and to re-connect deeply with a higher, bright and 

healing sense of self that has been buried under payers of shame, self-loathing, fear of rejection, 

isolation or defences. I knew that as a researcher, I was also emotionally bound to the issue and that I 

would need to apply a process that allowed for researcher input and  interpretation. Alase describes 

IPA as potentially advantageous  “because of the bonding relationship that the approach allows for the 

researchers to develop with their research participants”  (Alase, 2017, p. 9). I was not sure how many 

participants I would be able to find who were ready and willing to commit to sharing their abortion 

experience in a drama therapy process, and so I knew I would need a methodology that was 

participant-focused and that mined a single phenomenon with deep, rich data from a few participants, 

as opposed to a method requiring a large and wide-ranging diverse sample. Phenomenological 



 

22 
 

research, according to Alase, is also seen as being, at its centre, concerned about the psychological 

wellbeing of participants. While drama therapy, a relatively new discipline, has not yet been fully 

accepted within the health sciences as a valid psychological approach, it is steadily growing in 

reputation. I can only hope that this small effort of mine will contribute to the evidence base of its 

psychological validity. IPA explores the meanings people make of the phenomenon under research, 

and this approach fits well with drama therapy techniques, as these are drawn from theatre concepts of 

role and story making. Story and role have long been accepted as the units’ human beings use to make 

meaning out of their lived experiences through narratives. We have stories because we describe our 

lives in stories. And the therapeutic power of stories is that most stories are built around moments of 

transformation. A character changes during the course of a story. When designing my method, I knew 

I wanted a process that allowed participants to change something about their personal life stories.  

Healing in sharing of common experiences 
 

Finally, I wanted a method that promoted the healing power of witnessing. There is evidence that 

sharing previously uncommunicated, traumatic aspects of one’s life as a narrative provides relief in 

that the organising of the experience into a story makes the emotional effects of that trauma 

manageable (Gonçalves, Matos and Santos, 2009; Ncube, 2010; Nwoye and Nwoye, 2012). In an 

article about the importance of understanding patient’s narrative for mental health nurses, Joanne Hall 

and Jill Powell state “Asking “what is your story?” will provide more knowledge about a person than 

asking “How are you”? (Hall and Powell, 2011). In discussing how transformation can occur through 

the creation of “new narratives’” within psychotherapy, Gonsalves et al talk of the danger of the 

“single voice story”, a condition where a person cannot see beyond a state of depression or stuckness 

(Gonçalves, Matos and Santos, 2009, p. 3). In a similar way, hearing, or bearing witness to, other 

people’s stories within a group setting can transform perceptions of a lived experience through 

validation (Garrick, 1994). Sexual trauma, substance use, and other “shameful” events can be released 

by the power of hearing that you are not the only person to go through this. And so, I chose a group 

setting for my study. Group work is appropriate for this research because of the therapeutic effect of 

witnessing and connectedness. A group of women who all understand what the others are dealing with 

is a powerful way to address shame and the secrecy that keeps women silent (Botha, 2011).  Peer 

support groups have proved highly successful in removing stigma, allowing open expression and 

strengthening a sense of self-worth in people who have been hiding behaviours or events in their lives 

as evidenced by the 12-step programme developed for Alcoholics Anonymous (Frakt and Carroll, 

2020). The power of the group lies in the shared lived experience, and so everyone in the research 

process would be a woman who had experienced an abortion. I know some healing events include 

men whose partners aborted, or parents of women who aborted, but for my purposes I wanted women 



 

23 
 

with a shared experience to sit together in a room and feel connected, supported and ultimately, 

changed.  

Safety and protection of participants 
 

For ethics clearance to be provided I developed a distress protocol (Appendix A) which described the 

steps that would be taken should anyone become overwhelmed or feel unsafe. A clinical psychologist 

made her services available for a limited number of free sessions should anyone require more support 

post workshop.  

I chose purposive sampling to identify participants. The aim of this research was very specific and 

limited to a particular population, namely women who have had abortions, and who perceive their 

abortion as a source of some distress. The call for participants deliberately used the umbrella term 

distress, as opposed to loss or grief, in order to appeal to women who could not quite identify the 

feelings of unease or sadness or anger that have accumulated after an abortion and do not seem to 

pass. Purposive sampling is crucial to the therapeutic effect of witnessing, as well as the most ethical 

choice for this study. By bringing together individuals (participants and researcher) who have all 

experienced a similar experience and all claim to be suffering as a result of that experience, the group 

already provides a strong sense of safety and non-judgementalism.   

I created a Gmail address healingworkshopwits@gmail.com and set up forms to be sent and received 

from that email address. After obtaining ethical clearance and developing the requisite participant 

information sheet and consent forms, I sent out an email call for participants through the University of 

the Witwatersrand’s database. Because of the vulnerability of many first-year students at University, I 

limited the email recipients to second year and above students and staff. I received 25 responses of 

which 18 seemed genuine. Using the email addresses by which the participants had responded, I sent 

a googleform link with columns to be filled in to check selection criteria: these were:  

• Are you interested in attending a workshop on post-abortion healing? 

• How should I get hold of you to chat further? 

• Please provide your preferred contact number or email address 

• Have you had an abortion? 

• If yes, how long ago was your abortion? (added later) 

• How old are you? (added later) 

• Do you feel that your abortion has caused you distress? 

• The workshop will be a Saturday and Sunday in Johannesburg. Would you be able to attend 

both days? (food will be provided) 

• Would you prefer the workshop be in August or September? 

• Is there anything you are concerned about, or would like the facilitator to know about? 

mailto:healingworkshopwits@gmail.com


 

24 
 

 

I contacted all 18 who fulfilled the criteria and after that follow up message 9 responded positively 

and seemed very keen. One potential participant later stopped communicating, and after I sent her one 

gentle reminder, I left her out. Eight people continued discussions online with me and seemed 

committed to attending, and I therefore planned and catered for 10 people (including myself and an 

assistant for logistics). As stated in the Participant Information Sheet (Appendix B), I offered each 

participant R150 ewallet cash for transport for the two days, 4 of whom accepted the offer. The age 

range was between 19 and 38.  

The final number of participants was four because on day one the following occurred:  

1) One participant overslept and wanted to join late which was not possible due to the ritual 

group bonding I had designed 

2) One had lost her phone and forgotten where the venue was 

3) One didn’t have transport money and didn’t see that I had offered R150 for each participant to 

get there 

4) And one came down with flu.  All demonstrated interest in a follow-up workshop. 

 

All four participants were black, female, post graduate students at the University of the 

Witwatersrand. They were aged between 21 and 35. They had had their abortions between 10 months 

and 15 years prior to the workshop. All signed consent forms (Appendix C) prior to the start of the 

workshop.  

 
The workshop 
 

My research method was a two day in-person workshop, arranged over a Saturday and Sunday at a 

neutral and central location in Johannesburg. The structure of the workshop was such that the 

participants would be “inducted” into the group and “released” from the group through ritual, to frame 

the process with a start and an end. This was to make explicit the group-ness of the workshop. The 

workshop design was drawn from several sources; the existing Rachel’s Vineyard workshop structure, 

drama therapy activities presented to me during my two years part-time master’s course that I had 

found useful for trauma release and griefwork, and untested ideas (discussed with my supervisor) 

drawn from Saphira Lindens Omega Transpersonal drama therapy Approach. 

The activities of the two days were split into two main formats: embodied drama therapy informed 

activities; and recorded group discussion conducted separately. The workshop was presented as both 

an opportunity for healing and a research study. No one was pressured into speaking at any time. I 

wanted participants to be free to share reflections during the drama therapy activities without 



 

25 
 

censoring themselves for the research process, and so in order to avoid anyone being inadvertently 

recorded, I used two separate spaces within the one large workshop room – one for each type of 

activity. When in one part of the space, the participants were surrounded by colourful beanbags, arts 

materials, and various artefacts. In the research space, there were chairs around a small table on which 

was my phone recording the conversations. Each space therefore reflecting the type of mode we 

would be working in – either creative or academic. Once each activity had run its course, we grouped 

around the table to share the experience of the activity and allow people to continue talking about any 

insights that may have arisen during the process. The final step of data gathering was in the form of a 

google survey sent out two weeks after the workshop, asking participants to reflect on the workshop 

after they had experienced some distance from it, and to comment on the efficacy of various activities. 

This survey was also designed to capture a start and end point of each participant’s story so that I 

could capture any transformation. 

To respond to my two research questions the workshop aimed to make manifest the expression and 

style of management of each participants abortion experience through the embodied activities and the 

shared discussions (both speaking and witnessing) to facilitate each participants personal narrative as 

it unfolded over the two days.   

I chose the embodied exercises based on the theoretical underpinnings of the Omega Transpersonal 

drama therapy model, and my own personal experience both in healing and grief workshops and in 

class as a master’s level drama therapy student.  

The structure of the workshops each day is shown in the session plans below. I include this level of 

detail because it illustrates the design and aim of each activity in a concise manner. Session plans also 

allow the reader to follow the activities and understand the way each day was structured so that the 

later transcribed interviews can be understood in context. 

  



 

26 
 

Session plan day 1 

Time 
allocation 

Activity Details Motivation Materials 

08h30 – 09h00 Orientation 
 
Group contracting 
 
Consent forms 
signed 

Orientation: Toilets, layout of house, our room 
Group contracting: 

a) Explain the structure of workshop. 
b) Hand out packs for writing personal notes. 
c) Get consent forms signed. 
d) Confidentiality  
e) No photos, videos or social media 
f) No cross talk or advice 
g) No pressure to perform or talk or share, only share what 

you feel safe with 
h) If you feel overwhelmed, there is a breakaway room  

Group gathers 
 
Get familiar with 
space – toilets, 
kitchen, etc. 
 
Enhanced safety 
through rules of 
group work with 
emphasis on 
confidentiality 

Labels and pens 
 
Tea/biscuits/coff
ee/ sugar/milk 
 
 
Plastic 
document 
folders with 
journals and 
pens, PIS 

09h00 - 12h00 
 

Group Bonding 
ritual 15 mins 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tree Visualisation 
15 MINS 
 
 

Move to studio. There is gentle music playing. Space is separated 
into two clear sections: 1) a “stage” area and 2) floor cushions, low 
seating around a low table for sharing and reflecting. On the table 
are recording devices.  
Against one wall in the stage space is a kind of low table with a 
cloth on it, a tray with a jug and small glasses, unlit candles and 
rocks. Music is playing. 
 
GROUP bonding 15 mins: There is a jug and small glasses - one 
for each of us. Each person is invited to speak out loud “what I am 
hoping for in this workshop is….”and then pours dry lemon juice 
from our glass into the jug, naming the aim and hope. We then pour 
out glasses from the mutual jug of everyone’s hopes and we all 
drink to the aims and hopes of the weekend.  
 
VISUALISATION 15 mins: Getting comfortable in the space: Lie 
or sit comfortably, then into guided imagery - the tree (Appendix D) 
- this is the place you can revert to if feeling overwhelmed. AIM - to 
speak and visualise internal strengths and the deep place of safety, 
the untouchable inner self, within each participant. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shared drink ritual 
offers a symbolic 
way of identifying 
individual aims 
whole still showing 
commitment to the 
group experience. 
 
The act of shared 
drinking is somewhat 
unusual. There is a 
level of risk required 

MUSIC: The 
sound of inner 
peace/ Tibetan 
healing flute 
meditation 
 
Jug, small 
glasses, bitter 
lemon. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

27 
 

 
 
The Rock 5 Mins 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My story 20 mins 
writing with prep 
questions in journal 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My story 1,5 hours: 
narrative 

 
THE ROCK 5 mins: Explanation: Each of us is carrying around 
with us a weight. It could be the weight of guilt, of sadness, of 
brokenness, of broken relationships. You feel this weight with you 
always. It’s possibly a weight which says “I am not worthy; I am 
not good enough “. Pick up one of the rocks. This is your personal 
weight. You must carry it with you over the weekend. Toilet, 
shower, bed etc. At any point in the weekend, when you feel ready 
to let it go, you can come and place it at the “altarpiece” and share 
what you are feeling (what made you feel ready to give up the 
rock?) 
Introduce the journal. Here is a place where you can make notes, 
write anything. We will also use it for various activities over the 
weekend. If you want to share anything from your journal, please 
feel free to do so when we do sharing sessions. 
 
 
 
20 mins: Lead into the narrative: This is the hardest part so let’s 
tackle it first. For many of you this may be the only time you have 
ever told your story. Know that everyone here sits in non-judgement 
and solidarity with you. In your journal you have some guide 
questions about what to consider when telling your story. We will 
now spend twenty minutes thinking and making notes about the 
abortion we had. After which we will return to this space and share. 
20-minute break to write story 
 
2 hrs: NARRATIVE: My story - one by one, each person tells 
their abortion story. There are short guidelines to help keep it on 
track i.e., Briefly describe your family situation. Family beliefs and 
values, the relationship that led to pregnancy, the abortion - details 
of what you recall - colours, smells, attitudes, - feelings - if any. The 
days or years after the abortion.  
 

which opens the 
participant to 
innovation. The 
element of surprise 
and challenge hints 
to participants of the 
type of work to come 
– which is tactile, 
sensory, symbolic 
and always supported 
in a safe group space. 
 
 
 
 
 
The reason for being 
here is this story. For 
many people this is 
the first time it has 
been told. The telling 
and the hearing of 
the others bonds the 
group and creates a 
great sense of safety. 

MUSIC: 
Peaceful Yoga 
Music 
 
 
 
 
4 Rocks 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Guidelines for 
writing your 
story, journals 
and pens 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

28 
 

12h00 – 12h30 RESEARCH 
SPACE: 30 mins: 
Reflection and 
sharing. 
 

Recorded discussion at table  Table, chairs, 
water, phone to 
record 

  LUNCH   
13h30 – 
14h30 
 

Warm up – 10 mins 
 
 
 
 
 
Body Mapping 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Reflection on body 
mapping 
 
 
 

10 MINS WARM UP: Walk around space – consider body parts 
you lead with, now exaggerate them, now shrink them, now try 
leading with a different body part, now exaggerate it, now shrink it. 
How do different parts the body affect how you walk? Or behave in 
the space? 
 
40 MINS: BODY MAPPING - getting in touch with body/getting 
out of head: where does the pain lie now? In pairs, lie on a giant 
piece of paper and one partners outlines the others one’s body very 
broadly.  
Using paint, kokis and coloured pencils, wrapping paper, glue, each 
participant now draws on the image of the body outline, responses 
to the prompt questions.  
 
10 MINS: walk around and look at each body map, what do you 
notice/SEE (not interpret) about each one. Share if you want to. 
Owner of image can respond  and also write in journal what they 
felt or realised as others were talking about their images. 

Embodied activity to 
bring awareness to 
the body. 
 
 
 
Makes manifest 
internal processes 
and emotions. 
 
The creative process 
allows for unformed 
thoughts and feelings 
to emerge. 
 
Makes conscious the 
unconscious 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Large pieces of 
paper, marker 
pens, paints, tins 
of water, 
brushes, fabric, 
scissors, glue, 
wrapping paper, 
cotton wool, 
various 
 

14h30 – 
15h00 

RESEARCH 
SPACE: 30 Mins 
reflection and 
sharing 

RESEARCH SPACE: 30 MINS: Each person will then share with 
group one by one what the body mapping exercise brought to the 
surface, what came up during the exercise? Any insights that arose 
when looking at their final product? 
 
 

 Table, chairs, 
phone for 
recording,  

15h00 – 
16h00 

Broken 
relationships 
 
 

30 MINS: BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS - SOCIOMETRY:  
Think about the other people involved in your abortion – it could be 
parents, the father, friends, the medical staff, anyone. Do you have 
unfinished business with any of them? Unspoken resentments or 

Sociometry is a 
visual way to 
identify common 
patterns or themes, 

Pieces of paper 
with words 
written on them, 



 

29 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sociometry 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Letter writing 
 

pain that you want to communicate with someone else? What do 
you wish you had said? We often feel that we shouldn’t have 
negative feelings about others, that shows a weakness of character 
in us, that’s it’s not charitable. Yet we do experience negative 
feelings. Now is an opportunity to express those feelings. If you 
want to. 
 
On the floor are pieces of paper with the following feelings: 
Shame, guilt, anger, resentment, jealousy, rage, fear, numbness.  
Stand next to the feeling that best describes how you are feeling 
about other people in your abortion story. If you have two feelings, 
move papers around and stand with one foot on each. Brief sharing 
of who it is and what the main feeling is.  
 
Pick the one person who you feel strongest about. 
 
30 MINS: In your journal, write a letter to that person explaining 
your feelings. Keep them in your pack. 
 

and outliers, within a 
group. 
 
 
 
 
 
Embodied action is a 
distanced method 
that allows safe entry 
into talking about 
difficult emotions. 
By offering a limited 
choice of emotions 
the psychic energy 
required to unpack 
difficult relationships 
is reduced and the 
participant is freer to 
start exploring.  

notebook paper 
and pens 

16h00- 16h30 Final reflection 30 MINS: open time to share anything that has come up, any 
rocks abandoned etc. 
 
10 MINS: Instructions for home: 

• You may feel isolated and out of synch with people you live 
with, that’s normal. Tell them if you need some space.  

• Try not to socialise or be around lots of people tonight.  
• Keep rock with you at all times (Unless you have given it 

up) 
• Don’t feel pressured to tell people about the day’s 

workshop - unless you want to. Take a journal and write 
your impressions and any feelings that arise 

 
 
 
 

Table, chairs, 
phone for 
recording 

 

 



 

30 
 

Session plan Day 2 

 

Time 
allocation 

Activity Details Motivation Materials 

08h30 – 09h30 Meet, coffee 
Research space: 
discussion about 
the night before and 
how people are 
feeling 

Once everyone has arrived and had a cup of tea, we move to the 
research space for a recorded session where people can share how 
the night went, any strong feelings, any insights. If anyone wants to, 
they can also abandon their rock if they feel it is time 

Bring the group 
together, debrief from 
the night apart, allow 
for individual 
experiences to be 
shared 

Table, chars, 
phone to record, 
tea, coffee and 
biscuits 

09h30 - 12h00 
Doll making. 
 

Warm up 
 
 
Doll making 
 
 
Naming and 
memorializing 
 
 
 
Letter writing 
 
 
 
 
 
Performance 

10 MINS warm -up: VISUALISATION – into the cave (Appendix 
E).  
 
50 MINS: doll making. THE CHILD: Each person gets a doll 
frame - sticks and a cloth head. There are scraps of material and 
fabric to decorate and build up a doll representing the child. 
 
20 MINS: NAMING: You may know the gender of your child, or 
you may not, it doesn’t matter.  Give the child a name, which can be 
symbolic such as “my love”, or “angel”. Write it on label and stick 
it on doll, place doll on table and light a candle for your child.  
 
30 MINS: Write a letter to the child. Sit somewhere comfortable 
and write a letter. It can be short or long. Write it in your journal. 
Say anything you feel you want to say. Focus on speaking to the 
child.  
 
30 MINS: Each person comes up one by one and reads their letter 
to their child (if they want to), then places doll in the basket with all 
the others. Sits down. Leave the candles burning. 
 
(I will keep the dolls and bring them to the meeting in a months’ 
time) 
 

Passive listening 
allows the participant 
to relax and not have 
to think 
 
The content of the 
story introduces the 
core concept of day 2 
– the relationship with 
their children 
 
Naming and 
memorializing are 
grief rituals aimed at 
acknowledging the 
loss and achieving 
closure 
Letters are embodied 
ways to tell someone 
about your relationship 
with them, including 
how you would like 
the relationship to be 
in the future 

MUSIC: Buddha 
Flute/the sound 
of inner peace 
 
Sticks, masking 
tape, fabric, 
scissors, glue, 
wool, ribbon, 
stuffing, plastic 
bags 
 
 
Paper and pens 
Candles, matches. 
 



 

31 
 

 
12h00 – 
12h30 

 
Breathwork 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Visualisation 

15 MINS: VISUALISATION: The children in the meadow – 
Now that you have seen and named your child, we can say 
farewell.. Get comfortable in the space, close your eyes or soften 
your gaze and become aware of your breathing. Don’t force your 
breath, just notice how the air enters your nose, circulates into your 
body and is breathed out gently through nose or mouth. With each 
breath in, imagine a golden light entering into your head and 
swirling there. With each exhale the light stays in your skull. With 
the next inhale the golden light moves further into your body, into 
your chest, down your arms, into your fingers, into your pelvis, 
your legs, your feet, with each exhale, only air comes out, the 
golden lights is swirling inside you.  
 
The children in the meadow: guided imagery (Appendix F). 
When you are ready, slowly become aware of your breath. Bring 
your mind back into the space. And slowly open your eyes.  
 

Breathwork regulates 
the parasympathetic 
nervous system and 
brings any 
overwhelming 
emotions under control 
 
The story content 
manifests the idea of 
existence beyond the 
curtain, thereby 
allowing the 
participants to 
continue a relationship 
with the child after the 
workshop, or if they so 
wish, to trust that the 
child is at peace and 
the participant can 
move on with their 
lives 

MUSIC: Ultra 
relaxing music to 
calm the 
mood/Tibetan 
healing flute 
meditation 
 

12h30 – 13h00 RESEARCH 
SPACE: 30 Mins 
reflection and 
sharing 

Reflection on the entire process looking at the relationship between 
each participant and her child/children 

Allows for sharing of 
new insights, listening 
to others allows for 
diversity of 
experiences within the 
safety of the group 

 

13h00 – 14h00  LUNCH   
14h00 – 15h30 Check in 

 
Letter burning 
 

15 MINS: Check-in are there any rocks still being held?  
 
 
30 MINS: FAREWELL, BURIAL AND CLOSURE: We place 
the letters of unfinished business and the child’s letters in a large 
brass bowl with incense granules and burn them outside. As the 

The rock ritual must 
be concluded. 
 
Burning notes, letters, 
allows for letting go. 
The power is given to 
participants to decide 

Rocks 
 
 
Pottery bowl 
 
Matches 
 



 

32 
 

smoke rises, we say goodbye for now. If anyone wants to keep their 
letters, they are welcome to burn something else.  
 
 
 
 
15 MINS: GROUP CLOSURE: Group share drink of freedom - 
each person describes a positive feeling and pours it from their glass 
into the jug, then I pour into all glasses, and we all drink to our 
shared healing. 
 

what to do with the 
written artefacts of the 
workshop 
 
 
Echoing the opening 
ritual – gives a strong 
sense of closure and 
ending. Securing the 
workshop experience 
within a frame, in this 
space.  

 
 
 
 
 
Jug, grape juice, 
glasses, tray 

15h30 – 16h30 RESEARCH 
SPACE: Reflection 
and sharing 

1 HOUR: Final reflection and sharing. Does anyone have 
anything pressing to raise. What stays with you? What most 
resonated with you? What was hard? What did you enjoy? Not 
enjoy? 
 

  

 Closing of event Final instructions before departing: 
• Thank participants for their bravery and explain how their 

willingness to participate will be helping other women. 
• Discuss date and place to meet in about a month. 
• Invite anyone to contact me about obtaining their artworks 

or dolls.  
• Remind people about clinical psychologist who is available 

if they feel this process has brought up issues which need 
attending. They can contact me to set up sessions with the 
psychologist.  

• Discuss WhatsApp group where people can stay in touch.  
• Invite anyone to send me voice notes of anything that 

arises, or anything they think of that I may need to be aware 
of  

• Invite and answer any questions about the research process 
from here on  

 

Reminder that this is a 
research process and 
there are avenues for 
support after the 
workshop. 

 

 



 

33 
 

In designing the workshop structure, I looked to Saphira Linden’s Omega Transpersonal Darma 

therapy model for a framework. What follows is an outline of the key elements of Transpersonal 

drama therapy that I explored in this workshop, with varying levels of success: 

a) the age of  multi-dimensional expression (is) born”(Linden, 2009, p. 205)  

The Transpersonal paradigm encourages us to approach the human being as a multi-dimensional 

entity – material, spiritual, mental, psychological, emotional; existing and engaging in relationship 

with others both in time and space (the present life) and outside time and space (the spiritual world/the 

afterlife). My overarching frame was therefore a dance between material and spiritual realities. Body 

mapping was the main activity focusing on material reality and expression of lived experience, and 

the doll making was the main activity focusing on connecting to a spiritual dimension. The 

visualisation exercises, placed before key activities, were a combination of breathwork to ground the 

body, bring the mental focus into the here and now, and the narration of story worked to free the 

imagination and enter into an imaginative, spiritual space.  

b)  “creating a special engaging environment” (Linden, 2009, p. 206) 

I spent a lot of time imagining and then trying to create an environment with a particular sensibility. I 

wanted to engage all the senses. Using PINTEREST, I collected images of rooms which I felt 

reflected the kind of space I want the participants to enter into. I wanted something that was first and 

foremost comfortable, private, spacious and also curated – separate spaces for the “research” parts of 

the workshop and the drama therapy activities. I selected various pieces of music which I played at a 

very soft, but audible level during the embodied exercises to create a mood, or musical frame for the 

exercise.  

At one end of the drama therapy space, I placed a low shelf, covered with a cloth. It was under a 

window and as we were on the second story of an old restored early Johannesburg house, the 

windows all looked out onto the landscape around us – a curious mix of sloping hillside, scattered 

with sleeping people, scholars resting on the steep walk uphill, and drifts of bits and pieces of litter 

from the densely packed flats around us. There was a low buzz of people going about their daily 

business in the streets below us, mixed with birds from the trees surrounding the building.  

In front of the shelf I placed rocks. All around the space I had boxes of materials: fabric, paints, tins of 

water, boxes of tissues, pens and pencils, scraps of coloured paper, rolls of white paper, and slouchy, 

coloured beanbags. The space combined both the daily reality of the external environment (inner city 

Hillbrow) and the magical potential of drama (the fabrics, music, colours and textures of the arts 

materials). Accessed only by a steep wooden staircase, the room was ‘set apart” from the rest of the 

building, while still feeling connected to the environment. 



 

34 
 

c) A combination of “…psychological and spiritual disciplines in a healing experience…” 

(Linden, 2009, p. 207) 

In her early spiritually based therapy, Linden used Sufi Healing breathwork “….. based on the healing 

energies of earth, water, fire, and air, as an underlying framework for change” (Linden, 2009, p. 207). 

Breathwork is an activity that is focused on the intake and exhalation of the breath. It is used to 

regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, particularly when people are anxious or overwhelmed. 

In trauma situations, focusing on counting the seconds between inhaling and exhaling can divert the 

brain from panic mode into rational mode through the activity of counting. Breathwork is used in 

therapy to bring awareness into the body. By imagining the flow of air from the nose into the lungs 

and around the body, and then out again, the client is forced to let go of excessive thoughts of other 

things. Breathwork can be a good way to introduce people who have never done embodied work into 

a body-ready state. I built the other elements into the workshop in the following ways: the water was 

the shared drink we drank at the start and close of the entire session, all drinking from the same jug 

into which we had each poured our individual desires. The tree and the cave meditation were based in 

the earth. The tree visualisation aimed to allow the participants to ground themselves internally as 

strong rooted trees in the earth. This was a safe internal symbol they could return to if they ever felt 

overwhelmed. The cave visualisation served a different purpose. Here the participant was invited to 

enter a secret, dark space inside the earth, a private hidden space where they would be meeting their 

child. The cave acting as both a womb and a protective shelter from the judgements of self and the 

outside world. Air is used in breath work – to both relax the mind and body by drawing attention to 

the breath patterns and to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system through directional breathing 

if necessary. The fire was used as the last activity, to burn up the letters and messages created during 

the workshop.  

d) Interconnectedness: “the sacredness of life is about realizing our essential connection to 

all of life’s creation”(Linden, 2009, p. 208).  

 

Two particular exercises were about relationships with others: the “unfinished business” activity, and 

the “letter writing”. Unfinished business was a space for participants to explore one relationship that 

they felt had been particularly damaged by the abortion – a partner, a parent, God, a friend, a sister 

etc. The exploration into this relationship began by identifying the strongest emotion connected to the 

broken relationship – out of a choice of : SHAME, RAGE, GUILT, FEAR, ANXIETY, HATE. There 

were two letter writing opportunities: one to a person affected by the abortion and one to the child. 

The imaginative world created by the visualisations was a frame of the natural world – the elements of 

earth, stone, water, wind, flowers, caves, trees and was a consistent grounding of the (Pendzik, 1988, 

2006; Jones, 2007). I then worked within a drama therapy informed structure to facilitate the 

workshop. According to David Read Johnson, Renee Emunah and Penny Lewis in their work 



 

35 
 

“Current Approaches In Drama Therapy”, most people who practice drama therapy do so because 

they believe that drama is closely associated with healing (Johnson and Emunah, 2009). The activities 

of a drama therapist are fluid, moving between a creative director, a facilitator and a shaman/healer. 

My focus became to shape my own role in the workshop because I was acting as both facilitator and 

researcher as well as fellow participant. As with many modalities of mental health therapies, drama 

therapy emphasises the quality, sensitivity and reactivity of the therapeutic alliance over the 

experience, knowledge or qualification of the therapist (Henson and Fitzpatrick, 2016; Stubbe, 2018). 

In drama therapy, the intensity of the therapeutic relationship is managed through distancing.  

Knowing my own professional style, I knew that too much preparation as to HOW TO run the 

workshop would result in a false sense of achievement; successes - and mistake; or failures. I knew 

that in order to pitch myself at the right level of distance to make the participants feel safe I would 

have to trust my gut once the group was gathered together and that in order to run the workshop 

effectively I had to closely monitor what was happening in the room. This approach allowed me to let 

go of the stress of worrying about the four people who did not arrive. I could instead focus completely 

on the four people who did. It meant I had to ask and listen empathetically and probingly to those four 

people in order to make sure I extracted enough data for my study. In this way the role of “researcher” 

made me a better facilitator. This sense of being constantly attuned to what’s happening in the room 

also allowed me to easily drop planned activities if I sensed they were not fitting of the mood.  

I was careful to use the word abortion and not substitute euphemism such a procedure, incident or 

event. This was a very conscious choice on my part having discovered in the months leading up to my 

research that the specific naming of a traumatic phenomenon is crucial to managing it. By naming the 

abortion it becomes objectified, no longer a part of the inner self, and as an object can be manipulated 

and transformed through new narratives (Carr, 1998; Ncube, 2010). In my personal experience, I 

suppressed any traumatic effects of my abortion by refusing to ever speak of it, even to myself. If I 

never named it, then I could go on living as though it never happened. No name, no reality.   

I approached the workshop as brief (i.e. of short duration), semi-directive trauma work, assuming only 

to address the abortion as source of distress while being aware of any other contextual factors that 

may emerge as contributing to trauma. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

36 
 

Chapter 4: Data Analysis 
 

Different forms of data collected. 
 

Because we are touching on physical and spiritual realities, cultural and creative expression, I needed 

to obtain various types and forms of data, including my own personal observations and perceptions of 

the workshop experience. Reflecting the multi-dimensional aspect of the transpersonal, and true to 

phenomenological research, the data collected was collected in four different forms: The first was the 

recorded discussions. These were in the form of unstructured interviews to avoid any guiding 

questions. These were recorded on my phone. The second form was notes from my own observations 

during workshops and in between activities. These were in the form of jotted thoughts and reflections 

written in my personal notebook or typed into a document on my laptop during the setting up process 

and after each day of the workshop. The third form of data collection was visual data from body maps 

and doll making. These items were referred to by participants in the recorded discussions and I also 

used them for my own observational notes. Body maps were made on large sheets of paper, and the 

dolls were made from sticks, tape and fabric. The final form of data was collected from a structured 

digital survey sent as a link two weeks after the workshop via WhatsApp to each participant to obtain 

specific responses to the various elements of the workshop after distanced consideration. 

Data analysis methods 
 

The audio recordings were copied onto my laptop and transcribed using software called Transcribear. 

After adjusting the transcriptions for errors as a result of accents, the texts were completely 

anonymised. The textual data was then analysed using WORD to find patterns and themes pertaining 

to sharing their experience (witnessing), embodying the experience in ritual, and integrating their 

abortion into their personal narrative. This is a form of Thematic Analysis which finds patterns 

between participants experiences that can be extrapolated as “universal” within this sample, but also 

points to the uniquely personal aspects of each participants abortion experience. 

Once I had the themes, I then used narrative analysis to try and describe how the abortion experience 

was integrated into each of the participants life stories (Petty, Thomson and Stew, 2012) after the 

embodied experiences. This was done by piecing together a narrative for each participant over the two 

days, bringing in any details shared whether in recorded sessions or during the embodied activities 

(not recorded). For this I relied on my session notes and any text conversations conducted outside of 

the workshop.  

In terms of narrative analysis, I was interested in finding what narrative therapists call a Unique 

Outcome, which indicate “small but significant changes in the narrative text” (Gonçalves, Matos and 



 

37 
 

Santos, 2009, p. 5), allowing for a revised dominant story for each participant. Together, these forms 

of analysis elicit a rich exploration of four women’s abortion experience that is appropriate for an 

interpretative analysis to determine whether this model is effective in any way as a therapeutic 

intervention for women suffering distress after an abortion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

38 
 

Chapter 5: Analysis And Discussion  
 

I have divided my analysis and discussion in response to each of my research questions because the 

methodology and approach to each question was slightly different. The first question is concerned 

with the internal, often unconscious processes of the psyche and the second, is concerned with the 

conscious creation of a life story from lived experience.   

Expressing and managing experience 
 

In order to respond to my first research question which is concerned with how women who experience 

distress after abortion express and manage their experience, I needed to identify themes or patterns of 

recurring phenomena, emotions or concepts that emerged during the workshop activities and 

workshop reflections. On reviewing the transcriptions to find patterns or common threads, the 

following themes emerged (in no particular order of importance); regret or no regret – feelings about 

the choice to abort, the impact on other children, the impact of partner attitude and behaviour, the 

relationship to their own fathers, a sense of experiencing abortion differently to friends/sisters/other 

women, unrelenting anger, stuckness, resignation to a life of sadness, overwhelming emotions, 

attempts to manage, justify or ignore feelings, and cultural pressures and belief conflicts. These 

themes arose out of discussions with the whole group  between activities and were facilitated in a non-

directive way. I made a conscious choice not to step in as a therapist at any stage in these discussions, 

playing the role of the researcher only. This means that the content which was explicitly discussed 

was top of mind for each participant and was communicated as a direct response to an embodied 

activity beforehand or in response to something mentioned by another participant in the discussions.  

Bringing these themes into one description presents a picture of a woman who is angry but 

disempowered to act on the anger by a strong sense of resignation to a life of sadness, of unexplored 

feelings. “ OK, so when I first came in, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know exactly what we're 

going to do.  So, I was I didn't have any expectations. But then, now that we have done the morning 

session already, I feel like I'm able to uncover a lot of feelings about my abortion that I had buried 

deep. I thought I was OK. But then now I can see that it has affected me. I was just, you know, I don't 

know if I can say blind to it or I chose to suppress it. But then I have a lot of feelings and I don't know, 

I really don't know how to, how I'm going to like, you know, go about these feelings” (Day 1 Audio 

recording, 2023). Or as a second person said: “There was a time when I was really depressed and 

then over time, I did not really get over it, but I've learned to integrate it in my life”. 

This composite woman cries a lot. She has trouble sleeping. This person feels isolated from other 

people (particularly male partners or former partners and female friends who have had a different 

abortion experience) “… for a very long time I wondered if there's just something wrong with me or 



 

39 
 

maybe I'm the weak link because I do have a friend who has had an abortion and what she explained 

was that it’s just some medical procedure, so she had it was done and she's fine and couldn't 

understand how I'm so emotional over it, like I can't get over it”. She feels the weight of responsibility 

for her abortion as something inescapable and incomprehensible;  “And then I'm like, I was the one 

making bad decisions and how was it my baby causing all these things? These are the consequences 

of my actions. So, it happens to everyone who makes bad choices. But then I wanted to know what the 

child is actually saying, because everyone is saying something and it's confusing. When you are not 

really settled, it gets to you” and “ … for me, yes, I'm not depressed, but I don't know how to think 

about it” (Day 1 Audio recording, 2023).  

Evidence from this particular group indicated that this woman has sought mental health support 

through traditional channels such as talk therapy/counselling and/or medication and through cultural 

rituals specific to her family or extended family’s belief system. Each of the participants had tried 

other forms of healing before responding to my request. The overall management style of their 

distress is to get on with life as a post graduate student while maintaining a status quo that is 

dissatisfactory; “Normally it's easy for me to just block it. I just work how I deal with things as a 

ignore and I just work, and I just work and I work and I keep myself busy” (Day 1 Audio recording, 

2023). The unexpressed feelings and unexplored source of distress means this composite woman 

suffers erratic and uncontrollable emotions. One day she feels fine and the next she is depressed. Her 

response to her trauma has been to suppress it, which she is managing, but she is also aware of 

growing isolation from others as a result of suppressing her true feelings: “ Umm, the sharing of the 

stories was comforting because I don't have anyone who's experienced abortion. And for me it was 

scary because my first time also. So, I don't know what I was going to go through and sharing each 

story, hearing that it was actually physically and mentally draining.  Because you'd see it on social 

media. Like, I'll just see people going for abortions, abortions, “it'll be OK” and when I went through 

it. I was like I was not OK. I couldn't move on, couldn't do anything. So, hearing each and everyone's 

story, it's like, it's OK to feel this way. It's OK to experience the pain and the hurt that you're 

feeling…(Day 1 Audio recording, 2023)” and the persistent feeling of anger which is continually 

blocked by a sense of resignation, “…I don't know what's going to happen to me because it just means 

that this thing is more like a life sentence” (Day 1 Audio recording, 2023). 

This composite woman embodies what narrative therapists call the problem saturated story 

(Gonçalves, Matos and Santos, 2009). As long as she describes herself in terms of this story, change 

or healing is not possible. My aim was to investigate whether through imaginative, embodied activity, 

this woman could find new insights into her experiences and in doing so, start to imagine a different 

future. To drop things. To let go of what isn’t helping her. I found that this happened quite quickly, 

and in most cases literally overnight; When asked how the night was on the morning of the second 

day, the responses were “Much better than I expected, honestly. Yeah. So, I went to bed because of 



 

40 
 

load shedding. I went much earlier and then I woke up that I was not emotional or anything like that. 

I think I woke up because I slept very early, not because I was so sad. So, I was fine. I expected to be 

all emotional, but I wasn't. It was good”, “Honestly I thought I was it was weird because I thought 

the same way. I was like I was actually feeling much more relieved. Like I just processed something, 

you know, and lighter in a way”, “For me, when I got back, I just wanted to distract myself for a bit, 

so I was just like let me do laundry, let me clean up and stuff like that. And as soon as I got into bed I 

was I thought I was going to start crying. But then surprisingly I was fine. I just switched off my 

phone because I didn't want any distractions from anyone, and I slept OK”(Day 2 audio recording, 

2023). 

In terms of the transpersonal approach, I hope that the new significant discoveries would also bring 

each of these women closer to her inner self, that part of her that is true to herself, and in the 

transpersonal framework is connected to the whole of creation. This essence of true self is productive 

in terms of expanding her way of being in the world as explained in drama therapy through role 

expansion ( Landy, 1992) and in developmental psychology and psychoanalysis as a healthy ego 

(Côté and Levine, 1987). Whatever the lens though which we view this transformation, it means 

gaining a healthier attitude towards her emotions and improved skills in managing emotions: “I want 

to think about it in a positive light. I don't want to be all emotional when I think about it” (Day 1 

Audio recording, 2023) and yet, “It also gives closure in the idea that the feelings you have are valid 

and normal to express, “… then I also thought about my baby daddy, me ex. And I was like, I don't 

want to be mad at him anymore. Like he's not worth it. It's not worth the energy, not worth the feeling, 

“Last night I felt…I think I was a little bit overjoyed. Somehow in me I felt like this revelation, or I 

had moments of feeling like actually they there is light coming. And what I thought, remember when 

we spoke yesterday, and you asked me what would happen if you stopped wondering? Last night it felt 

like actually I think I'm going to stop wondering because it felt good to not think, but to be content 

with my feelings, with just being. I felt like I had a lot of sweets and chocolates, and I was jolly. I was 

excited” (Day 2 audio recording, 2023).  

Integrating an experience into a narrative 
 

My second research question was how women could integrate their abortion experience into a life 

story. In order to directly answer this question, I began to shape the data into a “before” and “after”. A 

person’s narrative is generally told in chronological order, and past, present and future are key 

concepts in understanding one’s own experiences and finding healing (Carr, 1998; Gonçalves, Matos 

and Santos, 2009) . In developing her transpersonal drama therapy approach, Linden talks of how a 

person gets trapped in the historical traumas of their lived experience – literally trapped in time. She 

wanted people to find a state of being that was vaster than time, and she believed that in our 

imagination we can mine this state and from it develop many and various images of self that are 



 

41 
 

regenerative, productive, whole, and outward looking (Linden, 2009). Robert Landy developed role 

theory along a similar trajectory, with the aim being exploring roles and expanding ones role 

repertoire to be more flexible and more responsive to life events ( Landy, 1992; Haen and Lee, 2017). 

To build resilience. To be able to engage with the question “what if..” and find surprising answers. All 

these therapeutic approaches require a storyline of events out of which a participant makes sense of 

her lived experience. And the power of narratives is that they can change, even if subjective 

experience cannot.   

Using data from the before and after structured surveys, I was able to form a framework for each 

participant, identifying each woman’s start and end point. During the workshop, participants 

voluntarily shared insights into their own life journey and where the abortion sits with their journey. 

The aim of a narrative process is to make available a future possibility for the participants that allows 

for a transformed attitude, free from the weight of feelings that have been attached to their story from 

the abortion experience. For each woman, putting down the rock (as mentioned in the session plan) 

was a symbolic moment in which she acknowledged and let go of a weight she had been carrying 

since the abortion. 

One participant had become stuck wondering if her abortion had resulted in God punishing her by a 

series of subsequent miscarriages. Her inability to fall pregnant became her defining role – the woman 

who is being punished. She perceived other people’s comments about her as all pertaining to her being 

pregnant or not pregnant. Her distress was causing her to comfort eat and she had put on weight 

around her belly and was then constantly retraumatised by people touching her stomach and asking if 

she was pregnant. She was unable to move past this story where she kept describing herself as “I keep 

wondering if I am being punished for my abortion and will never have children”. During the 

workshop she experienced a unique outcome moment when she was encouraged to try to “stop 

wondering”. This simple invitation ‘what of you stopped wondering?” stayed with her overnight and 

the following day she reported a transformed narrative, and she gave up her rock: She let go o