Development Of Dance And Movement Therapy

By Karen Carter


The therapeutic utilization of movement and dance for the support of various functions of the body such as motor emotional, and, intellectual is what is referred to as movement/dance therapy. DMT is an abbreviation that is in common use. Australia and the United States are some of the countries where the term DMT is used. The UK and other nations use dance movement psychotherapy. The abbreviation DMP is used for this term.

DMT makes one of the many forms of expressive therapies. Identification of the relationship between motion and emotions is the main goal of this field. Movement therapy has one of the longest histories. In the ancient world, dance was used during healing rituals in fertility, sickness, birth, death and similar events. In Europe and the United States, the belief that dance was more than just one of the expressive arts came up between 1840 and 1930 and continued to develop into what it is today.

Although the use of dance to heal was in use since thousands of years ago, its actual establishment into a profession and therapy happened in the 1950s. Marian Chance, the founder of American Dance Therapy Association played a major role in the establishment of dance as a therapy. There are two waves of the history of DMT. Chance spearheaded the first wave, whereas American therapists took great interest in the second wave.

The main belief that makes the basis of the theory of DMT is that the mind and body interact. People make conscious and unconscious movement basing on the dualist premise of mind body to affect their total functioning and to reflect their personality. Thus, the relationship between the therapist and client is in part based on non-verbal cues like body language. DMT explores the unity of mind, body, and spirit to offer a sense of wholeness to every individual.

The participant needs to complete all the four stages entailed in this process. There are smaller goals entailed in each stage that need to be achieved. The smaller goals contribute to a much larger goal. Goals and stages are varied depending on the participant. The stages are progressive, moving from one to the other. However, stages may sometimes be revisited several times as the session continues.

The therapy involves four stages, which include preparation, evaluation, incubation, and illumination. The name warm-up may also be used for the preparation stage. This stage entails preparation of adequate and safe room with no distractions or obstacles. Supportive relationships with the witnesses are also formed at this point. Participants need to close their eyes and still be able to move around.

The leader prompts participants to venture into the subconscious during the incubation stage. Verbal contact is used to make the prompt. The subconscious offers a good environment to allow for the exploitation of emotions. The stage of illumination follows after incubation. Illumination stage is introduced in dialogue. The witness offers dialogue to conscious awareness to let self-reflection to begin.

Motivations hidden in the subconscious are resolved and uncovered through self-reflections. Positive as well as negative effects are associated with excess self-awareness. The session comes to a conclusion with the therapist evaluating insights gathered and discussing their significance.




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