Theoretical Foundations
Right-Brain and Relational Approach
Small Figures Work is a trauma-informed, experiential, and relational therapeutic approach grounded in contemporary neuroscience and attachment theory. It offers a practical way of engaging the often unspoken emotional and relational stories clients bring into therapy—particularly those shaped by early attachment experiences and developmental trauma.
Drawing on the work of Dr Allan Schore, a renowned developmental psychologist whose work has shaped contemporary understanding of attachment, emotional regulation, and trauma-informed psychotherapy, Small Figures Work recognises that core emotional and relational patterns are held in implicit, nonverbal memory, often beyond what can be accessed through words alone.
Schore’s research highlights the central role of right-brain processes, nonverbal attunement, and co-regulation in therapeutic change, as well as the importance of the therapist’s right brain in facilitating deep emotional contact (Schore, Right Brain Psychotherapy).
Through symbolic and visual work with figurines, Small Figures Work engages right-brain processing in an embodied and emotionally focused way. Internal experiences and relational dynamics are externalised and made more tangible, allowing implicit material to be accessed, reflected upon, and worked with safely and effectively.
Within an attuned and holding therapeutic relationship, heightened affective moments can emerge. These moments support corrective emotional experiences, facilitate shifts in internal narratives of self and others, strengthen affect regulation, and promote relational growth.
Psychodrama
Small Figures Work is derived from the principles of psychodrama, developed by J. L. Moreno in the 1920s. Central to psychodrama is Role Theory, which understands the self as comprising multiple roles that develop through lived experience and relationships.
From an attachment and trauma-informed perspective, roles are shaped within early relational environments and adaptive responses to relational safety, threat, and connection. In the context of developmental and relational trauma, certain roles may become overdeveloped for survival, while others remain underdeveloped or inhibited. Psychological and emotional distress can emerge when roles become rigid, conflicted, or narrowly organised around past relational demands.
Small Figures Work provides a structured and embodied platform for exploring these roles in a safe and contained way. Through symbolic enactment and role experimentation, clients can access implicit relational patterns, expand their role repertoire, and integrate new ways of relating. This process supports greater flexibility, improved boundaries, strengthened affect regulation, and an increased sense of personal agency within relationships.