Movement and Dance in Psychotherapeutic Relationship - Coursework Example

Why bother with movement and dance as a modality in the psychotherapeutic relationship? Movement and Dance in Psychotherapeutic Relationship Psychotherapy refers to the treatment of the problems of a person by means of communicating and conversing with another person, a practice commonly known as ‘talk therapy’. The other person may be psychologist, psychiatrist, and a counselor, a member from the clergy, a clinical social worker, a practitioner or any other convenient person. Successful psychotherapy helps transform a client in a positive manner by helping them resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and other compulsions (Levy 1995, 231). These problems are replaced by more pleasant functional alternatives. Psychotherapy involves interactive activities and processes between a person(s) and a psychotherapist or a group of psychotherapists. The purpose of this activity is to resolve the above troublesome attributes as well as achieving higher levels of functioning. Psychotherapy increases one’s sense of well being. Psychotherapists use many methods based on experimental relationships, dialogue, communication, and other behavior changes that are meant to help the patient improve their mental health or improve group relationships such as in a family (Meekums 2002, 142). The most significant thing for a good therapy is the bond and relationship that exists between the therapist and his or her client. This is a factor that the therapist should not leave to chance, but he should consciously create it by affirming and honoring their clients for who they are, not just because of their potential and maybe who they could become in the near future. In a therapy process, a client can feel appreciated by how the therapist treats them from moment to moment. Creating a safe relationship is very much crucial since it takes courage for the client to bring part of him or herself that he or she may not usually express in the normal course of his or her life. Therapy is made safe by the maintenance of a collaborative and a respectful attitude by both the parties. The psychotherapist should at all times honor the views of the clients. They should be open to receive any kind of questions and views from their clients and should also be ready to offer the right feedback (Douglas 2002, 69). Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) appreciates body movements and dance as a very crucial element of communication and expression. DMP refers to a relational process whereby a client and a therapist engage one another in an empathic and creative process by the use of body movements and dance to assist in the integration of cognitive, physical, emotional, spiritual and social aspects of a person. This aspect is practiced in form of individual and group therapy in settings such as education, health, social services and even in the private practice. Researches in this field have been conducted and it is hoped that this field will open up and be extended. For instance ADMP UK is a professional organization in the profession and field of DMP in the U.K which was founded in 1982 with the vision of advancing this very field among people. The organization sustains the development of DMP in the UK and even in other countries; helps foster communication among DMPs as well as promote the usage of DMP throughout the UK and other continents. It also serves to maintain professional ethics and standards within the profession of Dance and movement in psychotherapy and also oversees the professional codes of conduct within the profession (Kuettel 1982, 62) Dance and movement therapy is a therapeutic mode of creative therapy of arts that uses movement and dance for the purposes of healing of various conditional behaviors in perspectives such as cognitive, physical, social and emotional. This kind of therapy was created with the idea that emotion, dance and movement are related to one another. The final aim of dance movement therapy is to attain a sense of completeness as well as a healthy balance in a person (Payne 2006, 123). For a long time, dance has been used as an approach to self-expression. Nonetheless, there has been a recent development and progression in the development of movement and dance as a form of psychotherapy. The original theories of movement and dance therapy have been recognized as having been originated from the UK though there are some American influences as well. Marian Chance, who is a professional dancer, performer and a choreographer is the woman that has been considered to have founded what is currently known as the dance therapy in the United States. In the year 1942, she implemented the use of movement and dance among students in her own dance classes and she realized that it had tremendous implications on the well being of the students. In the 1970s, a group of American therapists recognized the use of psychotherapeutic movement and dance and thus they recognized it as a form of psychotherapy (Douglas 2002, 52). Dance movement psychotherapy is mostly practiced and applied in several places such as eating, medical, educational settings, disorder rehab centers, as well as in other health promotional programs. Special forms of movement and dance therapy help to aid in various forms of diseases and disabilities. Dance therapists usually work with persons of various ages and integrate their knowledge of body dance and movement as well as expression with other aspects of psychotherapy and counseling. Movement has been considered as the primary way in which dance therapists observe, examine and make use of psychotherapeutic intervention (Levy 1995, 231). For thousands of years, dance has been applied therapeutically to help in healing of various conditional behaviors in perspectives such as cognitive, physical, social and emotional. Dance has been applied for those many years as a form of ritual healing in the influence of birth, fertility, sickness and death since the earliest history of human beings. The use of dance as a form of profession and therapy took place in the 1950s and there have been a lot of advancements on the same since then (Seidler & Schreiber 2004, 379) Between the years 1840 and 1930, a very new philosophy of dance developed and existed in Europe and in the United States. This viewpoint is definition on the movement could have a very big effect on the mover. This means that dance was not just a simple form of expressive art. Even though dance has been applied as a form of expression for decades, it was not until the past half century that dance was used a form of therapy. According to the American Dance Therapy Association, dance and movement therapy is always focused on the behavior of movements as it comes out in the therapeutic relationship. Communicative, expressive and adaptive behaviors are all considered part of individual or group treatments. Body movement is a core component of dance and simultaneously provides the ways of assessment and the means of intervention for movement and dance therapy. The American Dance Association is considered to be practiced in health, medical, rehabilitation, nursing homes and day care centers (Kuettel 1982, 57) One of the crucial psychotherapeutic techniques in the new field of movement and dance psychotherapy is observing the expression of the qualities of the body movement. One can focus on the importance of the body when in motion and through this, they can listen to its tune gaining much insight on how that person organizes their experience of the universe. In the beginning, this field of therapy developed from experiences of the dancers when using the power and the universality of both dance and movement to communicate. The passion and drive to know oneself and to express the deeper feelings of self through body movements has been primal among people, and this enables the mover to solve the barrier of language during communication (Seidler & Schreiber 2004, 379). Experience is another key element to the therapy technique of dance. The dance therapist helps individuals use their bodies through movement and dance to express their experience related to their surroundings. The qualities of the person’s posture in terms of movement and dance reflect the mover’s sense of self at an interpersonal level. The manner in which the mover interacts with the surrounding environment is evident in how he or she moves the body and its posture through the spatial environment (Douglas 2002, 61). During intervention, the psychotherapist examines the individual within the perspective of expression of his or her body movement in relation to interaction with other people. The dance psychotherapist looks to see how the person has integrated and coordinated all aspects of self such as sensorial, emotional, verbal and cognitive when communicating and interacting with the surrounding environment. These observations made are very crucial even when the movement pattern displayed by the person is not efficient or synergistic for that particular person’s total functioning or if the pattern is influenced by difficulties in terms of organic development. Through movement interactions, which are based on stimulating, expanding and exploring, the above observable patterns in the individuals seeking psychotherapy. This makes new experiences to become possible. The atmosphere of each of the sessions supports free expectations to the participants and encourages relatedness that is more social. As each individual begins to experience their movements, they tend to facilitate self -expression and social engagements. They also acquire knowledge on how to regulate their sensory systems through body awareness which supports development in all possible areas (Meekums 2002, 115).The knowledge obtained by a dance therapist from the understanding of the universal and expressive qualities of movement helps provide crucial access to a person’s mind and body. Through understanding of the quality of movement when integrated with other non-modern forms of treatment has been one of the greatest facilitators for change and psychotherapeutic intervention (Seidler & Schreiber 2004, 379) Developmental movement theory This theory talks about how new opportunities could be created for young children to enjoy life fully and to ensure normal life without any abnormalities. During early periods, practitioners were not well equipped to understand the concepts of physical development and the frameworks which they were using were not as helpful as required. New research activities have found out that developmental movement theory developed into two distinct ways: As a remedial program for those people who have been identified as having neuro-developmental delays which present very strong barriers to learning. For instance, dyspraxia and dyslexia As a program that supports the achievement of higher learning potentials. In the UK, the Institute of Neuro-physiological psychology (INPP) has been working very closely to this material for more than 20 years with the aim of offering individual remedial work for children and training awareness for teachers in the same field. They have also been involving themselves in researching on movement programs in schools. Developmental movement play encompasses concepts such as how we understand the world, the understanding of the links between early movements and future functioning, the development of humans as well as the theories and concepts that support children’s learning. Perception among humans is active and is often more active than imagination and people engage with it so as to constitute the meaning and shape of the universe. The sense of realities is very much significant just like other means that construct reality (Douglas 2002, 56). Sensor motor activity helps support the growth and development of functioning, which is necessary for one to be able to learn. This theory asserts that in order for the advanced levels of the brain to work, the lower levels must first sort out information accurately. Active sensory and physical exploration enables a child to become more mature in terms of efficient organization of sensory information. It is believed that there is always a parallel development of perceptual awareness, the development of early movement patterns as well as the growth of the brain of infants. All the patterns established in the first years underlie all other movements and patterns (Meekums 2002, 123). Neurophysiologic research shows that experiences change and transform both the physical structure and the functioning patterns in the human brain. It demonstrates on the importance and influence of the physical status of learning in children as well as the role of movement in helping infants and children with learning disabilities. The perception and learning abilities of a child are in most cases influenced by one another. Physical education programs have the capability to improve perceptual and motor functioning among children, to improve the readiness of learning as well as help improve self-esteem and mitigate the various barriers of learning (Kuettel 1982, 54) Reference List Berg, AL., Sandell, R. & Sandahi, C. 2009. Affect-focused Body Psychotherapy in patients with generalised anxiety disorder: Evaluation of an integrative method. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 19, 67-85. Brenner, J., Peleg, I., Shimonov, M., Shwartz, D.K., Ravinda, O., & Ben Shahar, A.R. 2010. Effectiveness of Body Mind Therapy of Cancer Patients receiving chemical treatment. International Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 14, No. 2, 49-66 Douglas R. 2002.Therapists Body Awareness and Strength of the Therapeutic Alliance. USABP Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2. pp. 52-62 Frank Röhricht 2009. Body oriented psychotherapy. The state of the art in empirical research and evidence-based practice: A clinical perspective. Journal of Body, Movement & Dance in Psychotherapy, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp 135-156 John. M 2005. The Outcome of Body Psychotherapy Research. USABP Journal Vol 4, No 2, pp 93-115 Kestenberg, Loman, Lewis &Sossin (1999) The Meaning of Movement. Gordon & Breach. Kuettel, T.J. 1982. Affective change in dance therapy. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 5, 52-64. Levy, F. J. 1995). Dance and Other Expressive Art Therapies: When Words are Not Enough Routledge. Meekums, B. 2002. Dance Movement Therapy. Sage. Payne, H. 2006. Dance Movement Therapy: Theory and Practice – 2nd edition. Routledge. Seidler, K.P. & Schreiber-Willnow, K. 2004. Concentrative movement therapy as body-oriented psychotherapy for inpatients with different body experience.Psychotherapy Research, 14, 378-387. Read More