How I got here: Raquel Bent

1 May 2 mins read Raquel Bent Mental Health

Raquel Bent is a dramatherapist and senior specialist in therapeutic education at TCES Group

Inspired by professionals

If you had asked me in my youth, I would have said I was the typical teen. I was very creative, enjoying art and dance, with an obsession for ice skating. In reality, I wasn't so typical. I was raised in a single-parent household, the eldest of five, and a young carer to my mum and siblings due to my mum's mental health challenges. I didn't talk much, and suddenly I found myself catapulted into an unknown journey, speaking with various professionals. It was overwhelming, but I met some amazing care professionals, one of whom was a dramatherapist. She spoke my language, though no words were spoken at first. That's when I thought, I'm going to be a dramatherapist, but my life at that time made it impossible, so I returned to college to study performing arts, putting the dream on hold.

Teaching and training

As a student experience advisor at Sheffield Hallam University, I built a film and media work experience programme for students and had more than 50 students volunteer and receive sponsorship from the university. I also wrote a play based on teenagers’ lived experiences of being marginalised by society and social deprivation, which often resulted in knife and gun crime.

I probably wasn't conscious that I was already practising drama with a therapeutic input before I truly knew it. I decided to revisit dramatherapy again, but I still couldn't afford the course, so I chose post-16 teaching instead. It seemed I had a natural gift for working with children and young people, so it made sense. After completing my internship at university, I moved to London where I went into teaching for a few years.

Living the dream

Seven years ago, I enrolled in the dramatherapy course. I studied part-time for three years and qualified toward the end of the pandemic.

After qualifying, I did some freelancing, before applying for the role of dramatherapist with the TCES Group, which runs independent SEND schools and services. Since joining TCES I have played a crucial role in the growth and enhancement of therapeutic services within the organisation including dramatherapy.

I am now a dramatherapist and senior specialist in therapeutic education and I provide dramatherapy to children and young people in person and online. I helped develop training courses, to support other educators, therapists, health workers, carers, and families. By sharing my expertise, I help upskill educators and bring a trauma-informed approach and awareness of neurodivergence to the education setting.

Never giving up

The children I work with have education, health and care plans, typically with a diagnosis of social, emotional and mental health needs and/or autism and associated conditions. They have often been excluded multiple times and have disengaged from education.

Our mantra here is we never give up on a child and through dramatherapy, using expressive tools such as play, storytelling or improvisation, we help children resolve conflicts and problems without it feeling like traditional therapy. It can give children a voice without the need to speak a word which resonates with me and my childhood.

I am truly privileged to work with children and young people who are finding ways to heal every day and dramatherapy plays an important role in that healing process.