Embodied attunement: a dance/movement therapy approach to working with couples

ABSTRACT

Attachment theory is well-recognised for understanding and treating adult love relationships. Neuroscientific research highlights the implicit process of attachment and the unconscious, nonverbal, bodily-based, and affect-regulating interactions of the right brain hemispheres in attachment development. Effective couple therapy ought to consider the implicit processes between infants and caregivers as a model to develop secure attachment in romantic partners, which makes dance/movement therapy (D/MT) a valuable treatment modality. Mirroring is a staple D/MT intervention that involves imitation of a client’s movement by the therapist to enhance attunement and empathy. In this paper, the author explores the overlap between attachment theory, neuroscience, dance/movement therapy, and couple therapy. A theoretical model is proposed for the use of mirroring with couples to foster secure attachment by means of attunement on a bodily-based level. Future research is suggested in order to measure the effectiveness of mirroring on couples’ attachment.     

The use of metaphors in dance movement therapy

This text focuses on the specific structure of metaphors in terms of movement processes. The processing of symbolic movement material through structures derived from dance as an art form is investigated. Metaphors that support nonverbal attunement between patient and therapist, and how the use of metaphors and creative processes help establish the inter-subjective relation in dance movement therapy are described.     

Somatic soulmates

The author compares and contrasts a method of body-oriented psychotherapy, the Rubenfeld Synergy® method (RSM), with a method of dance/movement therapy, Authentic Movement (AM). She examines parallels in the development of authentic movement and body psychotherapy and discusses similarities in theory and practice. She makes a case for integration of dance/movement therapy and body-psychotherapy under the umbrella of somatic therapies. She uses her personal history, Ilana Rubenfeld's history, and case examples to illustrate her points.     

Unconscious seduction: Desire and disability in dance/movement therapy

ABSTRACT

Sexuality is typically avoided in therapeutic training and studies of disability; therefore therapy with people living with disabilities is inclined to become problematic when desire emerges. What happens when the therapist unconsciously crosses the imaginary line between being a therapist and being a woman, with all the sensual and sexual implications that might bring? Through four case studies of clients with intellectual disabilities, this therapist investigates sensual touch between clients, clients touching therapists, and therapists touching clients, and contrasts therapeutic touching with sexual misconduct as an ethical concern. The varying evocations of dance, music, touch and flow are problematised in the therapeutic context of dance/movement therapy. Interrogating and theorising an instant of authentic relating in which a boundary seems to be transgressed, this article illustrates the (after)effects of an unconscious slippage of the therapeutic role.     

Orientating myself: A gay dance movement psychotherapist’s gender experience in training and practice

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a subjective account of the struggles and pleasures of being a gay dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) lecturer and therapist. The author shares stories of how this individual reality is informed by his life experience as a gay child and man. This gay intersubjective perspective of embodied therapeutic relationships posits a queer theory outlook that deviates from other DMP and embodied perspectives. The intention is to invite more critical reflection on diverse sexual and gender experience and relationships in the training and therapy space, in the hope of opening the door to more transparency with sexual orientation and gender diversity in the body, movement and dance in psychotherapy professions.     

Widening our lens: The implications of resilience for the professional identity and practice of dance movement therapists

The construct of resilience in psychology has an optimistic character that has been attracting interest due to the paradigmatic change proposed by positive psychology. On the other hand, resilience has different meanings or nuances attributed to it, mainly due to the different focus of researchers and/or their frame of reference: there are scholars who concentrate on developmental issues, others on clinical questions. It is a relatively new construct for dance movement therapists, and due to its subtleties, resilience deserves a theoretical introduction and presentation of its complexities. A discussion of the relevance of this construct for DMT follows after the theoretical outline. This section presents the taxonomy of levels of prevention that expands the possibilities of professional interventions focusing on mental health. It implies widening our lens. Finally, some interventions reported and tested by dance movement therapists will be presented and others will be suggested.     

Launch of Body,Movement & Dance in Psychotherapy

This article explores time-limited dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) with a female offender diagnosed with borderline personality disorder looking particularly at the development of the therapeutic relationship and attachment theory. DMP can help increase the ‘capacity to think’ and provide alternative approaches for managing emotions opposed to ‘acting out’ difficulties in relating. The therapeutic relationship in DMP can provide a containing, holding environment in the absence of healthy attachments, early experiences of deprivation and trauma. Laban Movement Analysis, psychodynamic and mentalisation approaches were used to underpin the assessment, formulation and therapeutic interventions.     

Dance movement therapy and developmental trauma: dissociation and enactment in a clinical case study

This article highlights how body language and non-verbal communication are key elements for the treatment of patients who have suffered from developmental traumas. Contributions from authors from a range of disciplines help the writer to compare the relationship infant-caregiver with the relationship patient-therapist, focusing on common rhythms, attunement, breathing and regulation of affects. The writer investigates how a prolonged lack of attunement from the primary caregiver can have traumatic effects for the child. A clinical case study demonstrates that, through the awarness of his/her own body as 'the instrument', the dance movement therapist can stimulate unconscious implicit body communication and create a sort of vessel where enactments that arise from the therapeutic process can find expression in creative and unexpected ways, as in dreams. This process helps the patient to reintegrate the dissociated aspects of his/herself and can generate significant changes for those involved in the therapeutic process.     

A psychoanalytic perspective of endings in therapy: A dance movement psychotherapy case study

This paper is an account of time-limited dance movement psychotherapy in an inner-city London school during my final year of training for an MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy. I describe the treatment of a traumatised 9-year-old boy using psychoanalytic theories, in particular Winnicott's ideas. This patient suffered at an early age from the drastic separation of his father and, when he was 6 years of age, various dramatic events led to the hospitalisation of his mother due to psychiatric problems. The impending ending of the therapy and the trainee's repetition of a ‘neglectful transference’ triggered powerful memories of traumatic past separations, which aroused deep-seated anxieties in the patient and trainee alike. The work towards a ‘good enough’ ending in the new therapeutic relationship was of great value to the patient's recovery. Parallels are drawn with the trainee's feelings of ending her dance movement psychotherapy course.     

Kinaesthetic narratives: Interpretations for children's dance movement therapy process

The present case study was aimed at producing research-based information on developmental dance movement therapy (DMT) in Finland. The hypothesis was that DMT enables non-verbal and verbal expression in children at risk of social displacement and long-term learning disabilities. A dance movement therapist and a preschool teacher co-led a year long, weekly DMT group for six preschool children of whom five had recently immigrated to Finland. The theory and practical methods were founded in DMT, attachment theory and solution focused therapy. The sessions used creative movement, movement observation, kinesthetic attunement and mirroring. The evaluation of the group process was based on participant observation, body memory and children's drawings. Bodily dialogue and supportive holding became integral parts of each session. The themes observed in children's drawings suggested developmental changes and externalisation of emotional experiences. The conclusion was that DMT supported the development of group dynamics and movement as a form of interaction.     

Traversing distance and proximity: the integration of psychodrama and dance movement therapy techniques in supervision

This article explores the potential for intermodal methods in person-centred supervision, focusing on the application of techniques from dance movement therapy (DMT) and psychodrama. The article proposes how specific structures combining psychodrama and DMT allow the supervisee to negotiate between proximity and distance, offering ways to hone in, step out or create alternative perspectives. Somatic congruence is introduced as a person-centred principle that enables the supervisor to understand and/or share somatic reactions in response to the supervisee’s material or the supervisor’s own personal process. Embodying roles and projective techniques are illustrated in the article through examples from the author’s supervisory DMT practice, demonstrating how these interventions may help symbolically crystallise supervisory issues. Caveats to these interventions and cautions to practitioners are presented, contributing to critical analyses of cross-disciplinary work. The article presents a constructive view towards future research and professional development on intermodal, creative supervisory practice.     

Music,movement, and emotions: an inquiry with suggestions for the practice of dance/movement therapy

ABSTRACT

Emotions play a significant role in our lives. While the literature has shed some light on how emotions are evoked, not all aspects are well understood. Music and dance or movement have been shown to stimulate an aesthetic or emotional response and seem to affect each other. However, these cross-modal influences have only been studied in individuals who are passively engaged . Missing are accounts of how music affects dancers and moving affects making music, a gap which is especially salient considering the frequent application of music during dance/movement therapy sessions. In this paper, I present a vignette from a creative arts studio class and subsequently describe the use of a heuristic arts-informed methodology as a means of gaining greater understanding about the connection between music and movement and their influences on emotions. I connect extant literature to my own findings and derive suggestions for the field of dance/movement therapy.     

Dance/movement therapy and shamanic healing ritual: natural intelligence of body and spirit

This paper offers a model for integrating a dance/movement therapy practice with some of the themes that show up in literature on shamanic healing ritual. The proposed model is based on literature on shamanism and within the field of dance/movement therapy. It is intended as a first step in an exploration between intersections of the two fields. The model proposes cultivating a sacred container as a holding environment for the therapeutic process, within which the themes of natural intelligence, surrender, and nervous system regulation will be woven together, and the potential for sequencing greater healing energy will be discussed. Applications, limitations, and suggestions for further research will also be considered.     

Healing through the martial way: Incorporating karate training into counselling and psychotherapy

This research paper describes lived experiences in dance therapeutic processes in the case of a woman called Asta. Rather than claiming results from therapeutic processes, the paper enlightens change processes through narratives about both Asta's bodily movement expressions and inner experiences. The paper focuses furthermore on illustrating the possibilities of using body language, movement and an energetic approach to therapy in Asta's case with the dance therapy form Dansergia. Asta moves through a shell of anxiety and into the dance of a gypsy, from an inner experienced black ring and hedgehog to a woman accepting difficult experiences in the past and new possibilities in the present. Asta's processes are analysed and interpreted in an energy-based theoretical framework, and are then reflected upon in terms of impact possibilities in a broader dance therapeutic and research oriented context.     

Treatment modalities and self-expectancy of therapists: Modes,self-efficacy and imagination of clients in dance movement therapy

Body movement is the primary medium in which dance/movement therapists help clients to connect with implicit experience, to tolerate and express emotion, and thereby to continuously re-work, re-weave and integrate embodied experiences of self. This article explores the role of non-verbal vocalisation within the overall movement ecology of the body, and suggests ways that it can support the aforementioned processes in clinical practice. Three existing frameworks for understanding the non-verbal voice are reviewed, from within and outside the realm of psychotherapy, as are several comprehensive theoretical studies of the ‘self’ in dance/movement therapy. The author emphasises that voice is an integral part of the body's cross-modal capacity for expressive movement, and suggests that the non-verbal voice prioritises and gives form to the emotional content of other bodily movement. This article aims to provide a theoretical starting place for integrating the non-verbal voice into dance/movement therapy scholarship and practice.     

Where one cannot speak,there one can dance: a comparative analysis of dance movement therapy and Processwork

The text aims to outline the basic comparison of the theoretical roots, concepts and frameworks, principles, attitudes, typical interventions, phases of development and scope of practical use of dance movement therapy (DMT) and process-oriented psychology (Processwork). The author proposes that mutual benefits and opportunities are at disposal for practitioners from both schools, including the primary and secondary process and ‘edge work’ in Processwork, as well as movement observing techniques, movement profile mapping and the ‘dance-not-done’ approach in DMT. The theme of communication channels and the theme of ‘essence level’ or spiritual experience as approached in both practices is discussed as well.     

Discourse: Trudi Schoop and Vaslav Nijinsky,and dance as healer

Conceived as an entrée to discourse, this paper explores the phenomenon of dance as healer, to evoke rather than to answer questions. The intention has been to examine dance in its capacity of healer, scrutinising it in the absence of a formal intermediary intervention such as dance/movement therapy or other somatic models. The early lives of two former luminaries of the dance world are profiled: the first, Trudi Schoop, famed comic mime and early pioneer in dance/movement therapy; the other, Vaslav Nijinsky, renowned dancer and choreographer in the world of ballet. Disparate heritages and life circumstances carried them along radically divergent paths, although both struggled to overcome serious psychiatric issues. Schoop overcame her difficulties vis-à-vis obsessive-compulsive behaviours; Nijinsky's accumulated problems led, ultimately, to chronic schizophrenia. They shared, in common, an overriding passion for and commitment to dance. The discourse focuses on the role of dance, as healer, in their existential journeys.