At Dramawerkz, we understand that drama training offers far more than performance skills. The creative experiences we provide help young people develop transferable life skills that actively support their mental health and wellbeing during their formative years.
Our programs are delivered by staff with a range of mental health training and lived expertise. Our CEO holds a Graduate Diploma in Counselling, while other team members are trained in Peer Work, trauma-informed teaching practices, and Mental Health First Aid. This collective knowledge informs the way wellbeing supports are thoughtfully and seamlessly embedded into all of our programs.

Below are some of the key areas of psychosocial wellbeing and how drama at Dramawerkz helps to nurture them.

Self-Expression

Dramawerkz celebrates individuality, creativity, and authenticity. We strive to create spaces where young people feel genuinely seen, heard, and valued. Our environment reflects this: our office is decorated with artwork, quotes, and posters created by participants at programs and events.
Storytelling sits at the heart of our practice. Through drama, young people are given the tools to write the stories they want to tell, explore their own perspectives, and create entire worlds from their imaginations. This freedom of expression supports emotional release, identity exploration, and self-acceptance.

Problem Solving

Drama and creativity build problem-solving skills through hands-on practice. Each week, children and young people are encouraged to use initiative, spontaneity, and flexible thinking as they respond to creative challenges.
Participants learn to tackle practical challenges, like making magic feel believable, or transforming a space, but also learn to tackle more abstract problems: how to villains appear likeable, how do characters overcome adversity, and how do we meaningfully communicate a story to its audience. 

Self-Confidence and Self-Compassion

Drama provides opportunities for young people to recognise and build upon their strengths. Our programs are designed so that every participant has moments to shine and be celebrated, both on and off the stage.
Performing teaches young people that their voices matter and that they deserve to be heard. Our facilitators intentionally name, affirm, and encourage the strengths they see in each participant, helping young people to develop confidence alongside kindness towards themselves.

Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation

Drama classes can build a young person’s proprioceptive and interoceptive awareness: their capacity to recognise what’s happening internally for them, as well as their understanding of their body in space.
Through movement, warm-ups, and embodied play, participants learn techniques for breathing, grounding, and calming the nervous system. They also begin to recognise how physical activity and creative expression support their overall wellbeing. These tools can then be applied beyond the studio, supporting emotional regulation in everyday life.

Safety

There are lots of ways that our facilitators foster a safe and positive third space for children and young people, which of course begins with robust and intentional child safety policies and practices. At Dramawerkz, child safety is also embedded into how we run our programs, through structuring, role modelling and the prioritisation of accessibility in every aspect of our organisation. Structuring is a trauma-informed approach to creating reliability and safety within a program: through a predictable session structure, and congruence from facilitators. Our facilitators signpost sections of each class with predictable routines: preparing for class by removing shoes and packing away belongings, sitting in a circle for our check-in and discussion, and knowing what to expect in games, activities, and rehearsals.
This consistency helps young people feel secure and supported, while also modelling how positive routines can be created in their own lives. Having a dependable, welcoming space at Dramawerkz offers young people a place to return to during times of uncertainty: providing warmth, connection, and stability when they need it most.

Outlining the Need

In Hobsons Bay City Council’s 2024 report*, ‘A Fair Hobsons Bay for All’, the council identified the key concerns for priority population groups in the community. The report cited mental health and wellbeing as a key issue for children and young people in Hobsons Bay, and proposed an increase in “services and programs that support mental health and wellbeing” as a strategic goal for the coming four years. For folks from LGBTQIA+ or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities, the impacts of mental health were significantly higher.
For children and young people, mental health was considered amongst the top three health conditions they faced, and for young people, this was at a higher rate than the Greater Melbourne population. Young people, in consultation for the report, said they “want better access to affordable health services, both for mental and general health”. This was combined with a call for “drop-in centres” and engagement activities. In reflecting on almost a year of Dramawerkz offering these supports, we’ve seen children and young people thrive when given access to peer-supported spaces, and when connected to community services for mental health and wellbeing. 
Orygen calls the current status of youth mental health a “global crisis”** and their research demonstrates a 50% increase in youth mental health conditions over the past two decades; a fact only exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Orygen’s report attributes this to the “changing landscape of youth mental health and the global political, socioeconomic and structural megatrends driving psychological distress”.
In Hobsons Bay, the effects of poor mental health are not just discussed explicitly in the report, but are also implicit in the statistics relevant to children and young people. The report states: “In 2021, 8.3 per cent of young people aged 15–25 in Hobsons Bay (832 persons) were not engaged in employment or education, a higher rate than for Greater Melbourne (7.4%).” Where mental health risks are compounded by factors such as poverty, school bullying, or discrimination, disengagement becomes a clear sign that a young person is struggling.

With a focus on empowering young people through peer support, creativity, and play, Dramawerkz is uniquely positioned to support our youth cohort with these challenges. In the past two years, we have seen young people in our programs re-engage with education and employment, report improved mental health and wellbeing, and building strong friendships/peer connections. Our staff, who have a diverse array of skills and qualifications (including counselling, theatre, design, music, education and more), provide individualised mentorship and support to each and every participant, and go above and beyond to provide a safe "third space" in Melbourne's west.

*A Fair Hobsons Bay for All, HBCC, 2024 https://www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Council/Strategy-and-planning/Social-policy-planning/A-Fair-Hobsons-Bay-for-All
** Youth mental health enters ‘dangerous phase’, 2024 https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/youth-mental-health-enters-dangerous-phase
*** Dramawerkz Experience Surveys, 2024 and 2025