Category Archives: Dance Movement Therapy

Stress and movement

22 Friday Aug 2025

Posted by in Dance Movement Therapy, Movement, Stress

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Stress can be indicated when a person becomes stuck/frozen or stopped in a bodily movement that can be described as either gestural, ( movements isolated to parts or part of the body) or postural ( movements carried constantly through the whole body). When there is a continuous flow of movement from gesture to posture and vice versa then the person is considered moving in balance and not not indicated to be in stress. one example of this is something that has come up in the last 20 years of leading stress reduction exercises with groups. I ask the participants how they know they are stressed out and the top answers are:

I notice I am gripping the steering wheel- I notice I am making a fist- I am clenching my teeth-I am clenching my butt.

Each one of these actions is a frozen gesture and they generally use the most “force”, muscle, blood flow of any other component of the body while they are active. Think about it, if you clench your fist the blood flow increases due to the sudden contraction of the muscles, a part of your attention is brought to the area because its being engaged, the rest of the body begins to respond to the clenched fist starting with the arm, shoulders, spine, abdominal muscles and so on ad so on. Suddenly your attention increases to the area dramatically and you realize; “oh I’m clenching my fist….”

The first step to releasing this body stress is the breath. When stressed we tend to hold our breath and/or it becomes shallow breathing. Taking a big breath in and a big breath out begins to increase the oxygen to the brain (and the rest of the body). That big breath also automatically signals to the body on a primal level that the stressor is less and the body begins to relax its muscular contractions. Also when we consciously are taking in a big breath we are exerting voluntary control over our bodies which is the opposite of the stress response which is an involuntary response. This voluntary and controlled breath also signals to the brain on a primal level that the stressor lessens, resulting in the muscles lessening their contradiction.

Of course simply breathing does not seem like much of an answer for someone who experiences chronic stress/anxiety. But it is one more tool that one can use. Like mindfulness, visualizations, and other techniques, breathing is something that needs to be practiced and the more you practice the more effective it becomes.

Movement Therapy

23 Friday May 2025

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Dance movement therapy (DMT) is a form of psychotherapy that uses movement to improve a person’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being. It’s based on the idea that there’s a connection between our bodies and our minds, and that movement can be a way to express and explore our thoughts and feelings.
DMT can be used to help people with a variety of conditions, including:
* Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD
* Physical health conditions such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke

In a DMT session, a therapist will typically use a variety of movement techniques, such as improvisation, mirroring, and guided imagery, to help the client explore their emotions and experiences. The therapist will also observe the client’s movement patterns, which can provide clues about their emotional state and coping mechanisms.
DMT can be an effective treatment for a variety of people, and it can be particularly helpful for those who find it difficult to express themselves.

I’ve been trained as a Dance Movement Therapist starting in 1981 with the Halprin Method for 15 or so years, various expressive arts workshops over the decades, and lastly a masters in counseling and dance movement therapy from one of the few universities that offer such a program in the U.S.A..

Moving together builds bonds from the time we learn to walk

09 Wednesday Apr 2025

Posted by in creative arts therapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Developmental, Movement, parenting, Research, unison

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Whether they march in unison, row in the same boat or dance to the same song, people who move in time with one another are more likely to bond and work together afterward.

It’s a principle established by previous studies, but now researchers at McMaster University have shown that moving in time with others even affects the social behavior of babies who have barely learned to walk.

“Moving in sync with others is an important part of musical activities,” says Laura Cirelli, lead author of a paper now posted online and scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Developmental Science. “These effects show that movement is a fundamental part of music that affects social behavior from a very young age.”

Cirelli and her colleagues in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior showed that 14-month-old babies were much more likely to help another person after the experience of bouncing up and down in time to music with that person.

Cirelli and fellow doctoral student Kate Einarson worked under the supervision of Professor Laurel Trainor, a specialist in child development research.

They tested 68 babies in all, to see if bouncing to music with another person makes a baby more likely to assist that person by handing back “accidentally” dropped objects.

Working in pairs, one researcher held a baby in a forward-facing carrier and stood facing the second researcher. When the music started to play, both researchers would gently bounce up and down, one bouncing the baby with them. Some babies were bounced in sync with the researcher across from them, and others were bounced at a different tempo.

When the song was over, the researcher who had been facing the baby then performed several simple tasks, including drawing a picture with a marker. While drawing the picture, she would pretend to drop the marker to see whether the infant would pick it up and hand it back to her — a classic test of altruism in babies.

The babies who had been bounced in time with the researcher were much more likely to toddle over, pick up the object and pass it back to the researcher, compared to infants who had been bounced at a different tempo than the experimenter.

While babies who had been bounced out of sync with the researcher only picked up and handed back 30 per cent of the dropped objects, in-sync babies came to the researcher’s aid 50 per cent of the time. The in-sync babies also responded more quickly.

The findings suggest that when we sing, clap, bounce or dance in time to music with our babies, these shared experiences of synchronous movement help form social bonds between us and our babies.

It’s a significant finding, Cirelli believes, because it shows that moving together to music with others encourages the development of altruistic helping behavior among those in a social group. It suggests that music is an important part of day care and kindergarten curriculums because it helps to build a co-operative social climate.

Cirelli is now researching whether the experience of synchronous movement with one person leads babies to extend their increased helpfulness to other people or whether infants reserve their altruistic behavior for their dancing partners

McMaster University. Helpful bouncing babies show that moving together builds bonds from the time we learn to walk.

Learning Empathy Through Dance

26 Wednesday Feb 2025

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“Ch-ch-tsss. Ch-ch-tsss.” On a chilly Wednesday morning, Baja Poindexter sounded out the steps of the rumba to a classroom of fifth-graders at West Athens Elementary School, located in one of Los Angeles’s most violent neighborhoods. She encouraged her class of mostly Latino students to do the same. They tenuously clasped each other’s hands in ballroom dance “frame,” or body position, and swayed to the music at “Miss Baja’s” command. “Side, together, to the lady! Side, together, to the gentleman!” she bellowed.

Toward the end of the hour, the students grew restless and squirmy, the volume of their chatter drowning out Poindexter’s voice. She paused. “You’ve got enough things against you in the outside world. When you come to school, it should be a safe space for you, but you have to make it that way by being respectful to each other.” MORE HERE

Believe in ourselves

30 Wednesday Oct 2024

Posted by in creative arts therapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Psychology, Psychotherapy

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I am a Creative Arts & Dance Movement Psychotherapist and I have worked with children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of clinical and non-clinical settings. I think that what E.E. Cummings once said sums up one of my objectives when working with patients at the hospital:

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

Dance Movement Therapy and drawing

23 Wednesday Oct 2024

Posted by in art, creative arts therapy, Dance Movement Therapy

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In Dance Movement Therapy (a Creative Arts Therapy), therapists use a variety of tools. One is the use of drawn images. When I work with clients I use art in service to therapy, allowing the client to draw before moving so the image becomes a prop, and/or a drawing after moving allowing the client to draw their experience.

In the creative arts process, symbols that are created contain valuable information which speak to the circumstances of life. The unique aspect of the creative arts is that it often taps into the subconscious using a different part of the brain to express than what is used to verbalize

When using drawings with clients I look beyond the  psychopathological perspective, and view the work for its intrinsic value as an expression. I acknowledge the universality of images and symbols with an open mind to the uniqueness and specific feeling content of the client’s creation.

 

 

A tree as metaphor

17 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in art, creative arts therapy, Dance Movement Therapy

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Before I ever got to graduate school to study dance movement therapy I practiced, studied and assisted in a movement based creative arts modality for 20 some years. This modality, called Motional Processing is based on the (Anna) Halprin Method and uses therapy techniques from movement, art, writing, drama and group. When I work with groups and individuals today these techniques are an essential part of my practice.

One of these techniques is working in the environment with metaphors. In 1991 while assisting with a Motional Processing group I had an opportunity to jump into the experience as a participant. This particular group was a ten-day residency of adults who came together to learn and expand their self understanding through a creative arts group process. On this day we went to a park and the group was instructed to find a tree that spoke to some aspect of where they were in their lives and once they found the tree they were to explore their thoughts and feelings through writing, drawing and moving.

The tree I chose was an oak that was quite massive and spoke to me of solidness and tradition with deep roots. My exploration of this tree included creative movement around the mighty oak as well as a poem and drawing.

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Blessing Tree
The words I hear come from
The voice of De Danna & the sound of
The wings of the Red Tail

In procession we walk/ side by side-proud like horses
The rows sway with each hoof beat

Together our voices raise the cry
A sweet song of ancient harmonies
Which dance on our
Lips –hands-feet-hearts

We are the tribe that carries the talking feather

Come let us bless this tree
And weave a circle round
And celebrate the birth of a new spring.

In the creative arts process the symbols that one creates in writing/drawing and movement contain valuable messages which speak to the circumstances of life. The unique aspect of the creative arts is that it often taps into the subconscious parts of ourselves and literally uses a different part of the brain to express.

This tree, for me, was a symbol of strength, endurance and family of choice: the strength of roots and the endurance to maintain under pressure, and family, as a great uncle or perhaps a grandfather.

I embrace trees in my life as symbols and more. Trees have been friends, play mates and companions in my life. They have been a place to hide, to cry, to feel comforted, and to play. Trees have provided food, shade, color and scent. They have and continue to be a blessing in my life.

Past Talking: Dance Movement Therapy

17 Wednesday Jan 2024

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Dance/movement therapy, defined by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) as the “psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of the individual,” and reflects a core social work value in its emphasis on meeting clients where they are. Everyone can meaningfully participate, regardless of his or her level of physical or cognitive functioning, and it’s not necessary for clients to be able dance to reap the benefits.

“Movement is the medium of dance/movement therapy the way water is the medium for swimming,” says Donna Newman-Bluestein, BC-DMT, adjunct instructor of dance/movement therapy at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, and official spokesperson for the ADTA. Dance/movement therapists, she says, use dance, expressive movement, and words as the means to engage, interact, and heal. This type of therapy, she says, is healing chiefly because it “engenders a feeling of connectedness to another person; call it bonding or a sense of belonging—this is essential for health and well-being.”

The arts, says Newman-Bluestein, “teach us a great deal about values, about life, about getting along, about balance, and health. The dominant culture has values that I would consider upside-down. Even though no more than 35% of what we express when we speak is verbal, the nonverbal is ignored. For people with cognitive issues, the nonverbal is of the utmost importance. The expressive arts therapies in general are something they can excel at and grow in.”

The entry-level credential, R-DMT (registered dance/movement therapist), is based on completion of a graduate-level dance therapy program approved by the ADTA and 700 hours of supervised clinical fieldwork and internships. Board certification requires an additional two years of paid clinical employment supervised by a licensed/registered mental health professional.

Scientists identify immune system link to mental illness

26 Wednesday Jul 2023

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Children with high everyday levels of a protein released into the blood in response to infection are at greater risk of developing depression and psychosis in adulthood, according to new research that suggests a role for the immune system in mental illness. The study indicates that mental illness and chronic physical illness such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes may share common biological mechanisms.

This article from Science Daily MORE HERE

Does Animal-Assisted Therapy Help Adolescents With Psychiatric Problems?

21 Wednesday Jun 2023

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Can animal-assisted therapy help adolescents who are in hospital because of an acute psychiatric crisis? A randomized controlled trial investigates.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by M.C. Stefanini of the University of Florence, randomly allocated patients to either an animal-assisted therapy intervention or no intervention. Both groups continued to receive psychiatric treatment as usual, and those treating them did not know which group they were in. The results are very promising.

The intervention group had better school attendance, higher levels of global functioning, and spent less time in the hospital compared to the control group. “One possible explanation for this success is the role of the animal as a catalyst in the therapeutic process,” the researchers write. “Animals may represent a valid help in therapeutic contexts thanks to their ability to catalyze social interactions and to create a more relaxed environment.”   MORE HERE

Kestenberg Movement Profile: Tension Flow Rhythms

16 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by in creative arts therapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Preschoolers

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KMP Movement Analysis is the comprehensive system for identifying psychological, developmental, emotional, cognitive and global health/imbalance through movement observation, notation and interpretation.
If the mind, emotions, and body are a closely integrated , mutually interacting system, then it is reasonable that we should be able to gain information about the mind by observing the body. The body and its manner of moving not only reveals aspects of current feelings and emotions, but can give us insight into an individual’s past. As Loman and Foley wrote in 1996, “…experiences get stored in the body and are reflected in body movement.” A person who feels rejected may develop a hollow, narrowed body attitude which expresses and reinforces such feelings throughout life. Because both physical and emotional experiences leave long term traces upon the way people hold themselves and move, the study of movement opens a door to the study of patterns of early development, coping strategies and personality configurations.

We walk together

02 Thursday Jun 2022

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In my work with clients/patients I sometimes use the written word to help process what they are feeling and what I am feeling about working with them.  I worked for years at a residential drug/alcohol rehab center and wrote a short poem about one experience.

1. We walk together
toe to heal
In the way we came here

Youngest to oldest – Male to female –
Opiate to alcohol – Forceps to stone

2. We all
Everyone of us
walk for a reason

3. Up the hill
breathlessly
we reach the top

4. around the pond and into the trees
A shelter – A holding
in the environment

5. Close your eyes
Notice your breath – As you inhale – as you exhale
Feel the wind – notice the smells – the scent of the earth

The sunlight and shadows sway back and forth to the rhythm of the branches moving in the wind

6. Don’t be afraid – shiver- cry out – weep – scream
We are all killers inside
We are all healers inside
Our blood runs through the veins of our ancestors
And is here to stay – an echo of times now gone

A dream of times yet to come

Interpretation

1. Today I took my clients outside to the park. We walked in a pecking order; the client with the most time were in front followed by the others in order of time, drug of choice, sex, finally by age. It was a metaphor for their life journey, of their choices and circumstances thrust on them from birth.

2. In the clients (and us all) our journey is a reflection of who and where we came from. Our personality and our history. Our wants and needs. Our understanding of these things. In this residential rehab clients have come because of an intersection of factors, both internal and external.

3. The walk with the clients took us up a sharp and steep hill, the last little leg of our walk before we reached the park and the pond. The walk of addiction is a mighty hard row to hoe in the discovery of the self

4. The clients were very happy to see the pond and dogs and people, and we headed for the trees to find some sanctuary. This little stand of trees I felt would be a good holding environment to do a movement meditation in a public space.

5. I led the group through a meditation in the environment, giving them a chance to be calm/passive and feel nature, with its enormous power. Like that higher power that 12 step teaches. Also nature has a rhythm that we, as earthlings cannot escape, it is deep inside us, with us since the womb.

6. In the mediation I encouraged the group to go to where it was safe and to go a little beyond safety, to a new place. Being different (clean/sober) in a setting (park) that is familiar is challenging. They will face that challenge when they leave the rehab. As addicts they must accept their dark side, and they must recognize their light side. This killer and healer is the story of being human, told by all cultures since we first lit a fire and huddled together. It is this story telling that teaches us to remember the mistakes so we know what to do if we make them and know how to avoid them.

catas

Transference

25 Wednesday May 2022

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In Dance Movement Therapy (D/MT) transference and counter transference play a crucial role in the therapy session. Understanding the differing theories of transference, where and how they take place, whether on an emotional, physical, cognitive, or neurological level is an important foundation for the effective treatment of a client. It is because transference is primarily an unconscious process that D/MT as an effective avenue into the subconscious can allow for transference actions to become consciously embodied. It is this embodiment of these subconscious processes that allows for the exploration and bringing to light transference and thus one part of ‘healing’ for the client.
4_lies

In D/MT client(s) move, through posture and/or gesture in ways that can be less likely to be self-censored. For instance, a therapist asks a question and the client hesitates and chooses their words and answers, censoring (either consciously or not) their response. It’s a cognitive process that we all do generally with little thinking or effort. The therapist asks the same questions and directs the client to respond with the hands in a gesture or a posture with a fuller body expression. I’ve noticed over the years that people tend to respond/react to this type of direction with the same hesitation and then begin to move in ways that express something rarely captured by words. I believe this is because people are used to censoring their words but less so with their movement/gestures/postures.

A great example of this is the Stress-less classes I have taught over the years. Participants almost always identify the body as the way they know they are really stressed out. They report grinding their teeth, clenching their fists, clenching their butt muscles, as the primary resources of how they are feeling/thinking. It’s the bodies uncensored expression of what is happening internally that they notice most. In Dance Movement therapy it is what the body says that we notice most.

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Wade on the water

04 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by in Community, Dance Movement Therapy, Ritual

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Illness that is of a chronic nature has a huge impact on individuals separately, as well as within the context of family systems. Health care systems, being “systems”, have an inability to care for patients on an individual basis. While systems managed health care, impersonal by nature is promoted as cost effective, it increases costs in the long run by not holistically treating the client. Impersonal health care adds to the disassociation waterrockspatients often experience; for the ill body/mind and subsequent new family/life dynamic, the medical profession, and the possibilities of wellness.

In 1990 I worked with Bear, a 38 year old womyn who had a late stage mastectomy. She was dealing with issues of an altered body, of thoughts of death, her children being motherless, things left undone. During a 10 day group movement based expressive arts residential retreat, she took the opportunity to explore some of these issues. One of her expressions was in the form of a healing ritual. Most of the group stood on one side of a pond, singing the gospel hymn, “Wade on the water”. On the other side, Bear was carried down to the waters edge, wrapped in a blanket, and left there, standing, still wrapped. She slowly undid the blanket and waded into the water, slowly swimming to the other side, where, like a chorus of angels we waited, still singing.

Bear engaged in a method of emotional healing that falls, far, from the “systems” method of health care. Her methodology embraced her needs, hopes and fears in a manner that can only be facilitated in an open, accepting, creative and supportive atmosphere. The waves that she stirred that day in the pond are still going, still rippling outwards, deeply and profoundly on all those who witnessed her wade in the water.