The dance/movement therapy group in a psychiatric outpatient clinic: explorations in body image and interaction

The clinical experiences gained in the practice of dance/movement therapy group at the Psychiatric Clinic of Tampere are discussed. The clinical work was built on the tradition of DMT and it has been informed by the practice of mindfulness and the recent findings in interpersonal neurobiology. The experiences of the bodily, true self are dominantly processed in right hemisphere of the brain. Neurobiology also informs us that the right hemisphere is essentially involved in emotional processes, nonverbal communications, attachment, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, in empathy, in the processing of non-conscious self images, threat detection, bodily-based stress regulation and survival. Intersubjective relationships are essentially dependent upon the information processing in the right hemisphere. The quality of interpersonal interactions and relationships is influenced by nonverbal, kinesthetic behaviour and the sensitivity to it. DMT work, promoting movement experiences, internal attunement and enhancing the body-self, allows a creative method to explore and integrate the contents of the right hemisphere.     

Dance movement psychotherapy for couples (DMP-C): systematic treatment guidelines based on a wide-ranging study

ABSTRACT

A new body of knowledge, growing out of the clinical and research fields, has been developing in recent years in the area of dance-movement psychotherapy for couples (DMP-C). Formulation of an intervention protocol based on a systematic review of theories and research is crucial to scientifically establishing the field and to implementing research findings in clinical practice. The present article reviews the results of a comprehensive qualitative research study in DMP-C, which addresses the following topics: couple intake, expectations of couples seeking therapy, a projective identification mechanism in the couple relationship, desires and expectations in the sexual relationship, synchrony in the non-verbal relationship, somatic mirroring, and kinaesthetic empathy in the couple relationship. Based on the findings of the research, a systematic intervention protocol for couples psychotherapy through movement and dance has been developed; its unique contribution will be examined alongside other interventions in couples therapy.     

Opposites attract: holistic emotional regulation using dance/movement therapy and the doshas in Ayurveda

This model presents a collaborative and holistic perspective on dance/movement therapy (D/MT) and Ayurveda. This approach suggests that the dance/movement therapist takes into account all range and manner of an individual’s movement repertoire and uses these observations to construct therapeutic interventions that build upon body types and movement preferences represented in Ayurveda. Both D/MT and Ayurveda share the value of achieving a sense of regulation through the use of opposite qualities of movement, which will be explored in depth through the lenses of Laban Movement Analysis and the Kestenberg Movement Profile. Several examples of interventions the therapist might utilise are provided. Further considerations exploring the growth of this model in the future and limitations are also included in this article.     

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.     

Japanese children's family drawings and their link to attachment

The secure base construct represents one of attachment theory’s most important contributions to our understanding of parent–child relationships and child development. The present study represents the first examination of how parents’ self-reported attachment styles relate to parental secure base provision and adolescent (mean age = 16.6 years, SE = .59) secure base use during an observed parent–adolescent interaction. Further, the present study is the first to examine how fathers’, as well as mothers’, attachment styles relate to observed behavior in a parent–child interaction. At the bivariate level, maternal avoidance, but not anxiety, was negatively associated with observed adolescent secure base use. In addition, path analysis revealed that maternal avoidance was indirectly related to less adolescent secure base use through mothers’ self-reported hostile behavior toward their adolescents and through adolescents’ less positive perceptions of their mothers. Further, paternal anxiety, but not avoidance, was indirectly related to less adolescent secure base use through fathers’ self-reported hostile behavior toward their adolescents. No significant findings emerged in relation to parental secure base provision. We discuss these results in the context of attachment theory and suggest directions for future research.     

Fathers’ and mothers’ attachment styles,couple conflict,parenting quality,and children’s behavior problems: an intervention test of mediation

ABSTRACT

A diverse sample of 239 primarily low-income couples participated in a random controlled trial of the Supporting Father Involvement couples group intervention. In this report, we examined the value of adding measures of fathers’ attachment style and parenting to mothers’ measures in order to explain variations in children’s behavior problems. We also tested the hypothesis that the link between intervention-induced reductions in couple conflict and reductions in anxious/harsh parenting can be explained by intervention effects on parents’ attachment insecurity or on anxiety and depression. Fathers’ attachment security and parenting behavior added significantly to mothers’ in accounting for children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Fathers’ anxious attachment style and anxiety/depression mediated the link between post-intervention reductions in parental conflict and anxious/harsh parenting. For mothers, only improvements in attachment security accounted for those links. The findings support the need for attachment researchers to consider the contributions of both parents to their children’s development.     

Attachment,culture, and gene-culture co-evolution: expanding the evolutionary toolbox of attachment theory

ABSTRACT

I argue that attachment relationships, and particularly secure ones, are important contexts for social learning and cultural transmission. Bowlby originally treated the attachment-behavioral system as serving only one evolutionary function: protection, via physical proximity. Yet the time is ripe to consider learning, especially social learning, as an additional functional consequence of attachment. Updated accordingly, attachment theory has the potential to serve as a much-needed developmental anchor for models of cultural evolution and gene-culture co-evolution. To support my arguments, I review progress in evolutionary science since Bowlby’s lifetime, highlighting the growing recognition of ecological flexibility and the cultural embeddedness of animal behavior. I also review research pointing to a facilitating role of secure attachment relationships for social learning from caregivers among humans. For illustrational purposes, I show how one important aspect of human culture – religion – is culturally transmitted within attachment relationships, and of how the generalization of attachment-related working models biases the cultural transmission of religion from parents to offspring. I end the paper with a call for empirical research to test the role of attachment in cultural transmission beyond religion.     

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.     

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.     

Couple Narratives and Adult Attachment – Using Conversation Analysis in Assessment

Observation of unstructured interactional dialogue in a clinical setting using the method of conversation analysis found that couples at assessment interact in ways that show close association with features determined from their adult attachment classification. Two couples were selected from a cohort of research participants seeking couple psychotherapy, both with high scores on the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979), but with different attachment status as independently assessed in individual adult attachment interviews. Each couple was videotaped, without interviewer, in 15 minute discussions of their problems. Their conversational strategies identified using Conversation Analysis showed close agreement with those associated with each participant's adult attachment status as independently derived using the Adult Attachment Interview. This study provides a first step in building an evidence base for a joint couple attachment interview, as proposed by Fisher and Crandell (2001).     

Client self rated adult attachment patterns and the therapeutic alliance: A systematic review

Attachment theory has been proposed as a suitable framework within which to understand and explore the therapeutic alliance. This review systematically explores research that has examined the relationship between clients' self reported attachment patterns and the therapeutic alliance. Methodological characteristics and study findings are reviewed and discussed with the aim of concluding whether assessing clients' attachment patterns would be beneficial to therapy. In spite of inconsistencies with regards to the measurement and conceptualisation of attachment and the alliance, the evidence suggests that clients who rate themselves as having a more secure attachment pattern are likely to rate the alliance as stronger. The implications of this for therapeutic practice are discussed.     

Truth,lies, and intimacy: An attachment perspective

This paper outlines some of the ways in which secure attachment is associated with the capacity to participate in successful intimate relationships. The paper begins with the discussion of four key abilities required for intimacy: the ability to seek care, the ability to give care, the ability to feel comfortable with an autonomous self, and the ability to negotiate. Bowlby's attachment theory (1969/1982, 1973, 1980) and related research are presented as a framework for understanding the development of these abilities. Next, attachment, intimacy,and sexuality are discussed. In the final section, attachment, intimacy,and truth are considered.     

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.     

Couple attachment and the quality of marital relationships: Method and concept in the validation of the new couple attachment interview and coding system

This study investigates links between adult attachment and marital quality in 73 married couples, using a new Couple Attachment Interview that was modeled after the Adult Attachment Interview but focuses on the relationship between the partners. A coding system (CAICS) comparing the interview protocol to prototypes for secure, dismissing, and preoccupied attachment styles yielded continuous ratings of all three styles, and categorical classifications of secure/insecure for each partner. The study found direct links between couple attachment and both self-reported and observed marital quality, with all three continuous scores contributing uniquely to the equations. In most cases, the continuous scores explained variation in marital quality after the categorical security scores were entered into the regressions, although categorical scores also contributed uniquely to the explanation of marital quality. Pairing of partners' scores explained significant variance in both self-reported and observed evaluations of the couple relationship. Security of couple attachment served as a mediator in the link between self-reported marital satisfaction and observed marital quality. The results illustrated the interconnection of methodological choices and theoretical advances in the study of attachment and couple relationship quality.     

Studying the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Discursive and Embodied Aspects

This paper presents a case study that aims to further our understanding of the relational and embodied aspects of the psychotherapy process. One psychoanalytic session is examined on multiple levels, including talk, participants’ physiological arousal and interactional attunement, ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, postural congruence and facial expression of affect. Implicit processes of non‐verbal attunement seem to play a role in resolving ruptures and in fostering exploration and the creation of new meanings. Embodied attunement was found to be at its highest at points in the session characterized by verbal disjunction and ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. The therapeutic dyad was ‘in sync’ non‐verbally until tension was resolved, at which point, synchrony was relaxed, and therapist and client were able to proceed with their respective ‘tasks’, secure in the knowledge that the other is there for them. It is argued that attempts to describe the complex and nuanced processes of psychotherapeutic change would benefit from attending to both explicit/semantic and implicit/non‐verbal domains of interaction.     

A matter of attachment? How adoptive parents foster post-institutionalized children’s social and emotional adjustment

The current study investigates the contribution of children’s age at adoption (M = 46.52 months, SD = 11.52 months) and parents’ attachment on post-institutionalized children’s attachment and social–emotional adjustment. A total of 132 subjects, 48 post-institutionalized children aged 3–5 years, and their adoptive parents, took part in the study. One year from adoption, children’s attachment distribution was as follows: 31% secure, 42% disorganized, and 27% insecure. Parents’ secure attachment increased children’s probability of presenting a secure attachment pattern; specifically, mothers’ attachment patterns were most strongly associated with those of their adopted children, with fathers’ making an additional contribution. Two years from adoption, secure children showed more adequate social competences than their insecure and disorganized peers and presented better emotional comprehension. The effect of age at adoption was delimited to a marginal association with behavioral problems. This pattern of associations suggests that attachment – both of adoptive parents and of children – substantially fosters social–emotional adjustment of post-institutionalized children who have experienced a period in emotionally neglecting environments beyond their first year of life, regardless of their age at adoption. Implications for policies and practices are discussed.     

Couple attachment and the quality of marital relationships: method and concept in the validation of the new couple attachment interview and coding system

This study investigates links between adult attachment and marital quality in 73 married couples, using a new Couple Attachment Interview that was modeled after the Adult Attachment Interview but focuses on the relationship between the partners. A coding system (CAICS) comparing the interview protocol to prototypes for secure, dismissing, and preoccupied attachment styles yielded continuous ratings of all three styles, and categorical classifications of secure/insecure for each partner. The study found direct links between couple attachment and both self-reported and observed marital quality, with all three continuous scores contributing uniquely to the equations. In most cases, the continuous scores explained variation in marital quality after the categorical security scores were entered into the regressions, although categorical scores also contributed uniquely to the explanation of marital quality. Pairing of partners' scores explained significant variance in both self-reported and observed evaluations of the couple relationship. Security of couple attachment served as a mediator in the link between self-reported marital satisfaction and observed marital quality. The results illustrated the interconnection of methodological choices and theoretical advances in the study of attachment and couple relationship quality.