Inside Drama, Music and Animal-Assisted Therapies
By Jessica L. Knouse | Photography by Melissa Ring
In recent years, integrative and expressive therapies have gained wider recognition for their remarkable ability to reach people when traditional talk therapy falls short. Whether it’s stepping into a story, a rhythm or a room filled with animals, these approaches can help individuals access emotional truths in ways that, sometimes, words cannot. In Adams County, three local practitioners—drama therapist Jared Adams, music therapist Jenna Ploski and animal-assisted therapist Jennifer Sepic—are using creative modalities to build safety, confidence, trust and healing.
What unites these therapies is a simple truth: humans are expressive beings. We learn, heal, transform and connect through sensory experience. And for many clients—especially children or individuals navigating trauma—expressive therapies offer a uniquely accessible doorway to self-understanding and emotional regulation.
Drama Therapy: Rewriting Stories, Reclaiming Voice
Drama therapist Jared Adams, who practices at Hoffman Homes for Youth in Adams County, describes drama therapy as a creative arts therapy closely related to art, music and dance/movement therapy—but with one special distinction. “Drama therapy leverages the fact that when you frame it as theater … you are able to bridge that gap to open that door for people of all ages to engage in the healing and developmental power of play,” Adams explains.
He emphasizes that for many people, especially youth, play is an essential developmental tool that becomes socially discouraged in adolescence and adulthood. Yet, the impulse to explore identity, emotion and narrative structures of play never really disappears. Drama therapy reintroduces structured, safe forms of pretend play, role playing and storytelling to support emotional expression and trauma processing.
To illustrate, Adams offers a simple comparison: “If I go to an adult and say, ‘Hey, let’s go play cops and robbers,’ they’re going to look at me like I’ve lost a few screws. But if I say, ‘Why don’t we start an improv troupe?’—well, now that’s an idea. But we’re still just role playing. It’s just a different frame.”
That reframing matters deeply in therapy. Many trauma survivors struggle to articulate their experiences in words—particularly when, as Adams notes, trauma literally interrupts the brain’s language centers. “How are you supposed to use words to describe a thing that happened to you in a moment when the part of your brain that makes words was offline?” he asks.
Drama therapy engages the body, imagination and emotions before turning to verbal reflection, he says. The youth he works with are able to play and physically sculpt emotions, dramatize internal conflicts or embody resilience through different characters they choose to play. “We start with emotion … and work our way up to words as opposed to starting from words and working our way down,” he says.
For the youth at Hoffman Homes, drama therapy provides a non-judgmental space to explore identity and practice emotional communication through theatrical improvisation or long-form role-playing games.
Adams creates experiences where “those emotions get brought to the surface” safely and collaboratively.
Drama therapy, he adds, continues a tradition that humans have used for millennia. “People were using theater for healing long before drama therapy took it and framed it into this regulated clinical practice,” he explains. Today, the work remains just as powerful for the youth at Hoffman Homes.
Music Therapy: When Words Aren’t Enough, the Body Remembers
For Jenna Ploski, who practices as a board-certified music therapist in private and group settings at Tonality Music Therapy, music therapy works because music is something all humans are built to understand.
“Life, and particularly human anatomy, is very musical,” says Ploski. “Our heartbeat, that’s rhythmic. Our breathing, that’s rhythmic. Our talking, that’s on a pitch. Naturally, we are musical beings.”
Because of that, music therapy can bypass barriers that keep people from expressing or even recognizing their feelings. For clients who may be intimidated by traditional talk therapy, music offers an accessible route into emotional exploration.
“With music, you’re able to express those feelings without telling me what it is,” Ploski explains. “And then after you open up that vulnerable piece of yourself, you might decide to talk more about it.”
Music therapy is far more than simply listening to songs. As Ploski describes it, the field includes four core approaches: receptive experiences (listening and reflecting), recreative experiences (singing or playing known songs), improvisation and songwriting. Sessions may include drumming for grounding and emotional release, lyric analysis, instrument instruction or collaboratively composing original music.
Importantly, clients don’t need any musical background. “You can come in with zero instrumental skills … music therapy can still be for you,” she says.
Ploski’s work spans individuals, families, school-based programs and day services. She frequently supports neurodivergent clients, non-verbal individuals and people seeking accessible ways to build communication skills.
Because music predates language in human history, its therapeutic impact runs deep. “Before we had official language, we had music,” she says. “It takes you back to a time where you didn’t have to say everything through words.”
That ancient familiarity creates a sense of safety—one that encourages expression, connection and healing at a pace the client controls.
Animal-Assisted Therapy: Trust, Regulation and Unconditional Presence
Where drama therapy uses story and music therapy uses rhythm, animal-assisted therapy brings the calming, non-judgmental presence of animals into the therapeutic space.
At Hoffman Homes for Youth, Jennifer Sepic, director of creative therapies, runs an expansive animal-assisted therapy program with dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, a ferret and even a bearded dragon.
To Sepic, the value of animal-assisted therapy is profound. “Animal-assisted therapy is a structured, goal-directed intervention. It’s not just time with an animal or playing with an animal,” she stresses. “Animals help to create safety … they encourage emotional regulation and support trauma-informed care.”
Children with trauma histories often struggle to trust people. Animals, however, offer a different kind of relationship—one without judgment, pressure or conditional acceptance. “They can act within reason, any kind of way … and animals aren’t judging,” Sepic says. “They’re just here.”
Her sessions blend mental health education with hands-on animal care. Groups may discuss self-esteem, anger management, grief or resilience before choosing animals to work with. Clients groom, walk, feed or train the animals; these are all activities that build self-awareness, mastery, patience and empathy for the youth at Hoffman Homes.
She recalls a young client who recently taught her dog a new trick entirely on her own. “It teaches mastery and self-confidence and self-esteem,” Sepic says.
Those small victories become emotional turning points, it seems.
For many children, animals provide the first safe relational bond they’ve ever known. “Nine out of 10 kids will tell me … they trust animals more than people—and rightfully so, because they’ve all been hurt seriously by people in their lives,” Sepic reflects. “The most rewarding part is witnessing how animals help individuals feel safe, grounded and genuinely connected.”
And, above all, she emphasizes that “these connections show kids that they matter and that healing is absolutely possible.”
A Shared Vision: Creative Pathways to Healing
What all of these therapy modalities share is a deep respect for the human experience, as well as an understanding that healing rarely happens through words alone. These therapies offer doorways when other routes feel closed: a character to step into, a rhythm to follow or an animal’s steady presence.
Through their work, Adams, Ploski and Sepic illuminate a powerful truth: healing thrives where creativity, safety and connection meet. And in those spaces, whether on a stage, in a music room or at the side of a gentle animal, people discover new ways to feel seen, understood and whole.
Resources & Where to Learn More
Music Therapy
Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT)
National directory to locate a board-certified music therapist
cbmt.org
American Music Therapy Association (AMTA)
Information on training standards, conferences and the profession
musictherapy.org
Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy
Outlines 20 clinical NMT techniques used across populations, originally developed for stroke rehabilitation
nmtacademy.co
Local Provider:
Jenna Ploski, MT-BC, NMT
Owner, Tonality Music Therapy – Private practice offering individual, family, school and community-based music therapy
Website: gettysburgmusictherapyservices.com
Follow on Instagram, Facebook & TikTok: Tonality Music Therapy
Drama Therapy
North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA)
Learn more about drama therapy and search the national directory of Registered Drama Therapists (RDT)
nadta.org
River Crossing Playback Theatre
Regional Playback Theatre troupe based in Lancaster
rivercrossingplayback.org
The Bodhana Group
Pennsylvania nonprofit specializing in tabletop role-playing and board game-based therapeutic programs
thebodhanagroup.org
Local Provider:
Jared Adams, RDT – Drama therapist at Hoffman Homes for Youth; facilitates drama therapy and therapeutic tabletop role-playing groups
Animal-Assisted Therapy
Pet Partners
National registry and education organization for therapy-animal teams
petpartners.org
Hope Adventures, LLC (York)
Local option specializing in animal-assisted experiencesCaring Hearts Pet Therapy (South Central Pennsylvania)
Regional volunteer therapy-animal organizationEquine-Related Local Programs:
Shining Stars – Equine-assisted therapy and activitiesLeg Up Farm – Multidisciplinary therapy center with equine programs for children and youthLocal Provider:
Jennifer Sepic, MA, NCC
Director of creative therapies
Lead, Animal-Assisted Therapy Program at Hoffman Homes for Youth
Hoffman Homes for Youth
Residential treatment facility and Hoffman Academy (on-site school), offering:
Drama Therapy
Music Therapy
Animal-Assisted Therapy
Additional clinical and educational services
