Lėlių terapijos galimybės gydymo ir reabilitacijos įstaigose

The article presents the possibilities of puppet therapy and its use in practical activities of Lithuanian puppet companies and medical institutions. The first part of the article presents the concept of puppet theatre therapy; it also deals with the rise of puppet therapy in the context of theatre history as well as the theory of puppet theory origin. Furthermore, the use of puppet theatre therapy in Lithuanian puppeteers’ projects is being described, also there is a short presentation of co-operation of puppet theatres with medical employees and schoolteachers. The insight into the 10-year-long project ‘Smile in a ward’ carried out by Kaunas State Puppet Theatre Company is also given. Furthermore, Klaipeda Puppet Theatre’s first steps in puppet therapy through educational projects, such as ‘Silent Theatre’ (for children with aural handicaps, 2005), ‘I Don’t Want to Dream’ (juvenile drugs prevention programme, 2005), ‘Puppets Like People’ (a part of the programme for children with complex handicaps, 2006) and ‘Night Tale’(motivation of reading- programme integrating disabled children, 2007) are presented. Conclusions are drawn at the end of the article, which show the results of the research. The author emphasizes that the best results in puppet theatre therapy can be reached in case there is an expedient co-ordination of activities and cooperation among different area professionals, such as schoolteachers, social workers, psychologists, ergo therapists, medical employees, puppeteers and art therapists.