Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) is a type of therapy that uses movement to help people achieve emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration. DTM comes with both physical and mental health benefits.
Using a movement metaphor or prop can help a person physically and expressively demonstrate a therapeutic challenge or achievement. Dance therapy, as it were, is used for stress reduction, disease prevention, and mood management. DMT has become a popular and successful therapeutic approach in the modern world since it can be used with across populations and individuals, couples, families, or groups.
In general, dance therapy promotes self-awareness, self-esteem, and a safe space for the expression of feelings. Dance therapists utilize a number of different dance and movement activities and techniques in addressing client needs. It can be used in various forms as discussed below.
Mirroring: Matching and echoing movements can show empathy and validate what a person is feeling. A therapist may mirror a client’s movements, or have clients mirror for one another, allowing participants to see a reflection of themselves.
Movement Metaphors: Using a movement metaphor or prop can help a person physically and expressively demonstrate a therapeutic challenge or achievement. For example, a therapist may give a person in treatment a white flag to celebrate emotional surrender.
Jumping Rhythms: Therapists may incorporate jumping in a dance for clients experiencing depression because research shows decreased levels of vertical movement in people with depression.
Important skills can be acquired during the dance movement therapy process including learning how to develop and trust your ability to be present empathetically; being able to respond authentically and truthfully; as well as learning how to translate the nonverbal movements into insights that can be used in recovery.
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Feelings and life experiences live inside the body and can get trapped there. The body can be the key to unlocking profound levels of healing. DMT is not a dance class. It is a therapeutic exposure that can be used in conjunction with other therapies to help access genuine, long lasting change.
Depression is the largest cause of mental ill health worldwide, according to WHO. While Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) is increasingly offering treatment options, current clinical guidelines do not include these interventions.
Dance Therapy Movement can potentially bypass social or cultural barriers
In the UK, DMT is regulated by UK Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP), one of the main regulatory bodies of psychotherapists. However, unlike most prevalent forms of psychotherapy recommended for depression such as cognitive behavioural therapy, DMT does not require considerable cognitive and linguistic skills from the client/patient. Therefore, it can potentially bypass social or cultural barriers, according to an article published by Frontiers in Psychology.
DMT, alongside other arts therapies offers an attractive option for clients since it allows them to work through issues that are located at a non- and pre-verbal level. “Thus, DMT may offer a way to work through issues that are difficult to articulate or are buried in the unconscious because they are painful, frightening, or simply difficult to access and address through cognitive means,” the authors of the article say.
