Cross-cultural bereavement rituals in Sesame dramatherapy: An ethnographic study of Zulu, Hindu and Muslim traditions

This ethnographic study examines the integration of multicultural bereavement rituals – including South African Zulu mourning practices, Hindu funeral and mourning rites and Muslim burial customs – within the Sesame dramatherapy framework. Conducted in London, United Kingdom, with children and young persons permanently residing there, the study foregrounds the triadic positionality of the researcher as practitioner, scholar and bereaved client. The ethnographic inquiry examines three culturally situated bereavement cases as illustrative exemplars, including researcher reflexivity. In each case, participants faced disruptions to culturally significant mourning practices due to circumstantial constraints. Through role-play and enactment of cultural bereavement rituals in dramatherapy sessions, symbolic and embodied engagement facilitated grief processing, meaning-making and psychosocial integration. The findings highlight how culturally responsive dramatherapy can mediate the impact of interrupted mourning rituals across diverse contexts while allowing the researcher to critically reflect on personal and clinical experiences of loss.