Dance movement therapy - Research Paper Example

By waiting or first asking the client to attempt an explanation of the content and meaning of the movement statement the therapist can help a further exploration and understanding through a shared dialogue and then possible interpretation by the therapist. Theoretical Orientations The field of dance/movement therapy is based on the belief that healthy functioning depends on the integration of the mind, the body, and the spirit. When there is a lack of such integration, an individual, group, or family may suffer from a variety of psychophysical disorders.

Dance/ movement therapy is a form of psychotherapy that utilizes movement as the medium of interaction and intervention promoting change. The following section summarizes the major theoretical orientations within the field of dance/movement therapy. Chace Approach A basic tool for establishing nonverbal relationships used by dance/movement therapists is called mirroring, or attunement. Marian Chace, a major pioneer in the field reflected, through her own muscular activity, the body movement of her patients.

She was able to meet her patients where they were emotionally on a nonverbal, movement level of communication. Marian Chace’s core concepts of working in groups, utilizing rhythmic body action, and communicating through dance and movement are considered fundamental. She states: Dance therapy is the specific use of rhythmic bodily action employed as a tool in the rehabilitation of patients. . . . The dance therapist combines verbal and non-verbal communication to enable a patient to express feeling, to participate in human relationships, to increase personal self-esteem, to develop a more realistic concept of his body image, and through all these to achieve some feeling of relaxation and enjoyment.

(Chace, p. 247) Judith Kestenberg calls movement empathy attunement, observing that it involves harmony between movers. Regarding “complete attunement” (p144) in the mother–infant interaction, Kestenberg (1999) notes that complete attunement consists of mutual empathy and that “there is not only a sameness of needs and responses, but also synchronization in rhythms” (p. 161). The experience of attunement requires a process of kinesthetic identification. Muscular tensions felt in one person are also felt in the other.

It is not necessary to duplicate the shape of the movement. Visual or touch attunement with a child or adult who is upset can lead to soothing. The degree of tension exhibited by the child or adult can be initially matched and then developed into less intense, more soothing patterns (Loman, 114). An integrated developmental approach draws from psychodynamic, ego psychological, Jungian, and relational models. The approach encompasses a solid movement and body-level understanding of the individual, interpersonal relationships, groups, and family systems throughout the life cycle.

The framework for understanding human development, based primarily on Erik Erikson, Anna Freud, Judith Kestenberg, Jean Baker Miller and colleagues, Margaret Mahler, and Donald Winnicott, fosters awareness of the significant life challenges encountered at each stage of the life cycle. Each stage can be approached from a body–mind–spirit perspective. Object relations theories with their body-movement foundations; provide an understanding of the phases of separation/individuation and the nature of interpersonal rel