Dance Therapy

What To Expect

Using your body to express thoughts and emotions, creating a great release of energy and emotion through expressive dance.

Each dance therapy experience will depend on your ailment, whether you work with a dance therapist in private practice or in the context of a treatment team, and whether you are the only patient or part of a group; and, naturally, different dance therapists have different styles. You need absolutely no previous dance training to benefit from dance therapy.

Generally speaking however, for the initial consultation, you will meet with the practitioner in a dance studio. First, the therapist will talk with you about your needs and your reasons for wanting treatment. Next, the therapist may ask you to walk around the studio in order to analyze your body shape, posture, and movements: Is your body erect or caved in? Do you reach out or hold yourself in? Do you move in a fluid or restricted way? Finally, the dance therapist will discuss your treatment goals with you, and the two of you might arrive at an agreement regarding the duration and nature of the therapy. You should review your goals with the therapist periodically to see if you are meeting them.

In your regular sessions, your dance therapist will watch you dance, encourage you to express your feelings through movement, and, at times, imitate your movements (this is called empathic mirroring) to establish rapport and make you feel accepted. The therapist may also try to help you connect your thoughts, feelings, and memories to your movements.

If you are part of a dance therapy group, the dance therapist will typically assess how the group works together–how you all interact and share emotional expression through movement–and intervene or direct the action accordingly. For example, the therapist might introduce the idea of leading and following to help draw a member of the group out of isolation or self-preoccupation. The dance therapist might also employ equipment such as beanbags, balls, and stretch cloths to explore a theme, such as trust.

The number of sessions, both for individual and group work, will vary. You might have to commit to at least six months of treatment, depending on your ailment. The sessions are usually weekly, although this can vary as well.

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Resources

American Journal of Dance Therapy
ADTA, 2000 Century Plaza Columbia, MD 21044.

Bartenieff, Irmgard, and Lewis, Dori
Body Movement – Coping with the Environment
New York, NY: Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc. 1980.

Beers, Judith and Harris, Johanna
Bibliography on Dance Therapy: Books, Articles and Films
Columbia, MD: American Dance Therapy Association. 1974.

Bernstein, Penny
Theoretical Approaches to Dance Movement Therapy
Volumes I and II, 1979, 1984.
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

Canner, Norma
And A Time to Dance
Boston, MA: Beacon Press. 1968.

Chaiklin, Sharon
Dance Therapy: Chapter 37
American Handbook of Psychiatry, Volume 5, pp. 701-720.
Edited by Silvano Arcili New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc. 1975.

Chodorow, Joan
Dance Therapy & Depth Psychology: The Moving Imagination
Routledge, 1991.

Espenak, Liljan
Dance Therapy, Theory and Application
Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thoams Publications, Inc. 1981.

Garnet, Eva Desca
Movement is Life: A Holistic Approach to Exercise for Older Adults
Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company. 1982

Kestenberg, Judith
Children and Parents – Psychoanalytic Studies in Development
1975.

Kestenberg, Judith
The Role of Movement Patterns in Development. 1967.

Kornblum, Rena
A Perceptual-Cognitive-Motor Approach to the Special Child. 1982.

Levy, Fran
Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art
Reston, VA: The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Second Edition, 1992.

Mason, Kathleen (Ed.)
Focus on Dance VII: Dance Therapy
Washington, D.C.: AAHPERD.1974.

North, Marian
Personality Assessment Through Movement
New York, NY: Dance Notation Bureau. 1971.

Payne, Helen, Editor.
Dance Movement Therapy: Theory and Practice.
Routledge, 1992.

Salkin, Jeri
Body Ego Technique: An Educational and Therapeutic Approach to Body Image and Self- Identity
Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. 1973.

Sandel, Susan and Johnson, David Read
Waiting at The Gate: Creativity and Hope in the Nursing Home
New York, NY: Haworth Press, Inc. 1987.

Sandel, Susan; Chaiklin, Sharon; and Lohn, Ann, Editors
Foundations of Dance/Movement Therapy: The Life and Work of Marian Chace. 1993.

Schoop, Trudi
Won’t You Join the Dance?
Mayfield Publishing Company. 1974.

Seigel, Elaine
Dance-Movement Therapy
New York, NY: Human Sciences Press. 1984.

Silberman, Linni (Ed.)
Dance Therapy Bibliography
Columbia, MD: American Dance Therapy Association. 1981.

Stanton-Jones, Kristina
An Introduction to Dance Movement Therapy in Psychiatry
Routledge, l992.

Valentine, Grace
Problems, Goals and Programs: Introducing Dance Therapy in a Day Treatment Facility, with Julina Johnson. American Journal of Dance Therapy, Fall/Winter, 1978.

Valentine, Grace
A Program for Ego Development: Theory and Case Studies of Dance Therapy with Emotionally Disturbed Children, Movement and Growth: Dance Therapy for the Special Child New York, 1979.

Whitehouse, Mary
The Transference and Dance Therapy
American Journal of Dance Therapy I, 3-7, 1977.

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